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A FLEX van. Photo courtesy of CDTA.
For two months, FLEX has been the primary form of transportation for Skidmore College to Saratoga Springs. FLEX, a swipe-to-pay minibus that accepts Skidmore ID cards in lieu of payment, charges the standard bus fare of $1.50. Despite the CDTA’s optimism that FLEX would reduce waiting times and increase ridership, the implementation of the new system has resulted in several accessibility concerns and safety risks.
Read moreRidley Scott’s Napoleon (2023) shows occasional glimpses of potential but falls under its own weight, failing to tell a compelling story about one of the most compelling men in world history, ultimately winding up nothing more than a cinematic farce.
Read moreThe United States has long had a paradoxical interest in freedom. While touting herself as the land of the free and home of the brave, she maintains massive mills of oppression, at home and abroad.
Read moreThis June, after over a year of research and development, Skidmore released their Campus Master Plan, an assessment of current facilities and a guide to the next decade of campus development. It’s ambitious and accessible, full of great ideas and long overdue admissions of substandard facilities. However, one thing that was conspicuously absent was any meaningful mention of Skidmore’s art department. All that it said on this topic was that, in 10+ years, there would be some sort of “condition focused renovation.” In speaking with other students, though, it’s been hard to ignore the general sentiment that changes in the art department are long overdue.
Read moreA few months ago, Akhil Reed Omar, a professor at Yale University, came to Skidmore. He was giving a talk about the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the future of the Supreme Court - both topics I am interested in. But that is not why I attended this lecture. I attended this lecture because I wanted to ask him a specific question.
Read moreThere is a temptation in the U.S. to compare international events to current events domestically, and the recent Iranian protests are no exception. Protests against the oppressive laws that women have endured for over forty years in Iran have happened only months after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, throwing many U.S. states back into 20th-century policies. The comparisons are easy to make, but before we compare, it is important to better understand the context behind Iran and why these protests are unprecedented.
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Photo by Bella Hynes
Conservative-driven book banning has seen a resurgence these past three months with new censorship debates popping up in schools, courts, and homes across the country. Book banning is not a new phenomenon nor is it a practice isolated to a single political party or ideology. This wave of censorship, however, has been particularly far-reaching in terms of its geographically expansive nature, the quantity of books banned, and the broader implications it has when it comes to banning books in 2022.
On Tuesday, March 8, a bill titled Parental Rights in Education passed the Florida Senate. Then, on March 28, Governor DeSantis signed it into law. While the name sounds fairly innocuous, this bill became known in public discourse as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, for its true agenda.
Read moreThere seems to be a good-as-unanimous consensus that football—and by extension, the National Football League (NFL)—serves as a fundamental, thoroughly red-white-and-blue emblem of American culture, along with grill-branded burgers, guns, and violently orange-colored cheddar cheese. A zoom into the sports world reveals that the NFL has dominated attendance, television ratings, merchandise, and revenue for years now compared to other American sports, and thus is comfortably situated on its very own throne.
Read moreThere’s been a tension building in Skidmore recently. Time and again these past few semesters, the administration and the wider community have found themselves in conflict. With the school’s operation mostly halted by the COVID pandemic, and the transition to a new president looming, now is a good time to consider what has been going wrong, and how things might improve.
Read moreThe southern border is home to many unique and endangered species that know no borders. Their ecosystem and habitat spans from Mexico, across the Rio Grande, and into the US. A border wall would cut their habitat and have negative impacts on their survival rate. A binational park would create a sense of community and cooperation between the US and Mexico, which would hopefully continue South.
Read moreIn the past few weeks, I took note of a particular trend in news stories about celebrities in legal trouble—one of the media’s favorite topics to cover—that highlights one of the many egregious flaws in the criminal justice system
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