An education is a long and strenuous process, made harder by the numerous prerequisites students must take in order to graduate. At the University of Puget Sound, the first core class students must take is the freshman seminar. Known as a “Seminar in Scholarly Inquiry” (SSI), this requirement entails two semester-long classes on a wide range of subjects. Courses offered this semester include “Suburbia: Dream or Nightmare?,” “Communicating Forgiveness and Revenge” and the best title of them all, “Dogs.” Over the course of the year, many seminars ask students to...

You might notice that you see about a hundred stickers around campus that say “Loggers Live Green.” These stickers are on everything including water bottles, binders and walls. But how much truth is there to what these stickers say? Puget Sound talks a lot about sustainability, and to some degree, they follow up on those initiatives with actions that prove their commitment to sustainability. There are a great number of practices on this campus, however, that are less than environmentally friendly. There is more that everyone can do to live...

A new version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) came out this March, containing almost a quarter of a million words. Avid dictionary readers may notice a few unusual entries. According to the OED’s website, the words “bestie” (noun), “wackadoodle” (noun or adjective) and “badassery” (noun) all joined the esteemed ranks of the dictionary this year. They owe their recognition as legitimate words in the English language to the explosion of Internet lingo. There are those, however, who believe that modern slang is ruining the English language. These people could...

The first lovely days of spring have arrived, and campus is abuzz with the sound of vitamin D-starved college students shedding their heavy winter coats for slightly lighter coats. The air is fresh and clean. But then you smell it: a cigarette permeating the crisp air. Smoking is a fairly common habit on the Puget Sound campus, given that according to the National Institutes of Health, 33 percent of all college students in the United States smoke. Smoking is a personal choice, and whether you do it or not is...

For some students, the most effective learning can only happen in a class where they are allowed to interact directly with the professor and other students. Rather than the anonymity of a 400-person lecture hall where every student is just one of many, these students prefer the chance to make themselves heard. Students want to engage in discussions that engage their affinity for academic conversation. Luckily for those students, Puget Sound only has around 2,500 undergraduates, a student-faculty ratio of 11:1 and many classes that are capped at 35 students...

At 7 a.m. every weekday morning, an hour before the first classes of the day begin, a gloom descends over campus. Hundreds of students awake to a brutal alarm clock they may have set only a few hours before and drag themselves out of bed, barely conscious, in need of coffee, hoping to regain sentience in time for the lecture. Thompson and Wyatt echo with the sounds of tired people dragging their feet up interminable flights of stairs. “Not sleeping gives me migraines in the morning, and then I get...

There is nothing more practical (or classier), than being able to speak more than one language. Bi- or multi-lingualism gives graduates more opportunities than monolingual students. And they will sound sophisticated while opening those doors. To graduate, Puget Sound requires students to take at least two semesters of foreign language at the 100 level, or one semester at the 200 level. Alternately, those who score a four or five on an Advanced Placement exam or a passing grade on a proficiency test can bypass the requirement entirely. Realistically, what can...

Two pieces in an issue of Puget Sound’s Wetlands magazine caused controversy earlier this year: “Greek Life and Straight Supremacy” by C.J. Queirolo and “An Open Letter to Greek Life” by Philip Brenfleck. Both heavily criticized the Puget Sound Greek system based on the opinion that Greek life is a heteronormative, non-inclusive space inaccessible to those that do not conform. Many participants in Greek life, however—and some unaffiliated members of the campus community—would beg to differ. The Greek system at Puget Sound, which gave bids to new members on Jan....

  In May, Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Krusinki, the U.S. Air Force’s head sexual assault prevention officer, was himself arrested for sexual assault. Drunk and stumbling across a parking lot, Krusinki grabbed a woman standing outside of a bar from behind. She confronted him  and punched him several times in the face. His crime is a shocking reminder of an issue that has been dismissed for too long. According to the Department of Defense’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, there were 3,374 reported sexual assaults in 2012, about a six...

Military Benefits for Same-Sex Couples One of the many returns for serving in the United States military is the ability to share certain benefits with a spouse. These spousal benefits include everything from all-access passes to recreational facilities and exclusive base camp shopping to health care and housing allowances. The problem, however, is that six states (Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia) are currently refusing to give these benefits to same-sex couples. These benefits, which also include childcare, legal aid, financial aid, and medical care, can be obtained...

Healthcare is supposed to improve the populace’s general well-being, but one area of healthcare coverage is consistently ignored in current debate: mental illnesses. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 26 percent of the population, or about one in four adults, currently meets the criteria for a diagnosable mental illness; one in 17 adults, or six percent, suffer from severely debilitating disorders. Mental illnesses are far more common than you might think—and yet despite making up such a sizable percentage of medical diagnoses each year, they receive abysmal...