To The Trail, Below is the statement the MENA Student Association sent to the Office of the Dean of Students in response to our invitation to this year’s Leadership Awards Ceremony. The MENA Student Association will not be accepting the awards offered to us at this year’s Leadership Awards Ceremony. We feel that awarding the MENA Student Association these accolades allows UPS administration to paint a certain image of itself as supportive of our group’s work. This image is inconsistent with our experience, and we will not legitimize this disingenuousness...

 To The Trail,  On October 20, 2023, it was brought to my attention by another Black colleague that the second-highest ranking Black administrator (second only to the president) at the University would not be returning to her position as an associate vice president. Apparently, I had missed the announcement in a university-wide email disseminated on Monday, October 16, the Monday of Fall Break, with a very nondescript subject heading: “Division of University Relations Staffing Update.” I assumed, like many people perhaps, that the email didn’t seem like something of importance....

  By Jack Leal   This year, there have been delays in students getting their FAFSA information nationwide. Students applying for college in the next academic year have a deadline to submit an application in order to secure financial aid based on their family’s financial need. The federal government rolled out a simpler version of this form due to the Simplification Act, passed on Dec. 27, 2020, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. However, these progressive strides toward making the FAFSA process easier also led to complications....

  By Hannah Lee It has been a great honor and privilege to serve as a staff writer for The Trail for the past three years. If I could go back and tell my sophomore-year self about how they would be the public health point person on the team, I don’t think they would have believed it.   I hadn’t worked on a news team in any capacity before, and it was definitely a learning experience. Learning how to change my style to not write so academically and how to conduct effective...