Opinions

By Nicholas Smit There’s a food fight on campus between the Diner staff and an onslaught of vegan, vegetarian and food-allergy students—and all sides are actually winning. On-campus students must buy a meal plan. Students then get a sizeable discount on food bought at Diversions, Oppenheimer, the Cellar, and the Diner—the Diner being the primary food hub with a huge menu of options. Clearly, if students are forced to dish out money on a meal plan, the Diner should serve enough different foods so that all can eat. It’s basic...

By Nicholas Schmidt  “This place is expensive,” wrote one student anonymously, “and in my experience a lot of us are entitled brats (including myself), so people from the lower class probably will never think or want to come here.” As it turns out, the student population is not as rich as it seems: Puget Sound hosts a silent majority of middle- and low-income individuals. Information on students’ incomes is mostly publicly available, the problem is finding it. By law, the University must publish a wealth of data to the National...

Social media is often synonymous with screen-obsessed millennials and Generation Z kids, so it may come as a surprise to most to see that so many are unplugging and deactivating from their online presence. Though Generation X and the baby boomer’s growing—yet delayed—presence on social media may explain the increased demands for privacy, “going off the grid” is a decidedly millennial trademark characterized by an aversion to artificial gestures of approval like reblogs, favorites and, well, likes. Living in real life (IRL) has obvious positives; people might actually look up...

In 1987, American author Bret Easton Ellis published his second novel The Rules of Attraction. The novel recounts the debauchery of bratty, sophomoric and elite students at a small liberal arts college on the east coast. The backdrop of the novel, showing the fictional Camden College, bears a striking aesthetic resemblance to University of Puget Sound in size and general disposition of the students. The connection between Ellis’s second novel and the debate on whether or not Puget Sound should continue to issue merit aid may seem nebulous at first;...

The rise of discourse surrounding gender and sexuality has reached unprecedented heights over the last generation. While a measure of progress is hard to determine, the strides that have been made for such marginalized individuals is still worth celebrating. Connecting with this is the concept of “coming out,” celebrated by National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11. Individuals of non-normative sexuality and gender are commended and, to a degree, encouraged to come out of the closet and express themselves openly. As the discourse extends, so does the holiday. As the...

By Jack Kelly The world was a drastically different place when Lena Dunham’s HBO show “Girls” premiered in April of 2012. Many Americans still believed the U.S. was in the midst of a deep and cutting recession. The cost of a Brooklyn studio was under $2,000 a month. The Black Keys even headlined at Coachella. Amid all of this confusing, early decade malaise, men were growing beards. In the few years since Dunham’s character first graced our screens, male facial hair has become the ultimate millennial symbol. It’s now universal...

The last couple of decades have seen an incredible increase in gender diversity in the world of gaming. Video games, tabletop games and other forms have created an entertainment subculture with few, if any, barriers to entry for any interested party. Yet, one of the major issues in gaming has stuck around for almost as long as gaming has been in our world: misogyny and gender bias. Male-dominated spaces and the mythical “gamer girl” pervade even in an era where one might be forgiven for thinking that gaming is an...

The University of Puget Sound recently received a $250,000 three-year grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation emphasizing experiential learning.The University proposes allocating these funds toward e-portfolios and symposiums to foster greater experiential learning and interdisciplinary collaboration and competition among students. Creating an online, browsable database for students to articulate their passions and interests while seeking out others’ portfolios would cultivate connections across majors. Students have a lot to learn and gain from each other. Establishing a platform which allows students to easily collaborate has the potential to aid in continued...