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The highs and lows of the week, curated by The Eagle
Oscar Weekend
Three weeks ‘til spring break
Two weeks until mid-terms
This is public service announcement to remind AU students that crossword puzzles are awesome. Definitely up there with kittens and snow days.
The Oscars are this weekend. Meh. Keep on surviving Tuesday AU. You can make it! AU memes have peaked. You heard it here first, folks. Norovirus! Avoid students from GWU. Well, more than usual.
OP-ED
High parking rates a problem for workers As a university committed to social responsibility and commitment to social justice, we have so many examples of unfairness on our campus. The Student Worker Alliance has been fighting to change many of them, one of the most pressing being the issue of parking on campus. All full-time workers at AU are charged the same parking fee of $1,476 per year, and, for the workers who make $24,000 a year, this is 6 percent of their salary. For struggling workers who have to pay for housing, childcare, food bills, this parking fee is unnecessarily high. The argument for high parking fees is that it will encourage people to take public transportation rather than to drive to work, but what President Neil Kerwin has ignored is that most workers do not make enough to be able to afford to live close enough to campus to take public transportation. The Student Worker Alliance has been tirelessly advocating to Kerwin and other administrators for a scaled parking permit based on how much workers make.
After repeated letters and emails to him, Kerwin sent us back a letter addressing our concern and saying he would meet with us as early as possible in the spring semester. However, last week at Kerwin’s social responsibility table talk, when our group brought up having a meeting with him, he looked completely appalled that we would ask for this and it seemed like he thought an open forum was a substitute for a constructive, personal meeting. It is essential for us to meet with him before the budget meeting this summer because we need to solidify this into next year’s budget, rather than having another year where workers are being completely overcharged for what should be a provided service. A meeting is necessary because it is more efficient that back and forth letters and emails, and, with the budget committee meeting approaching, we don’t have that kind of time. We strongly urge president Kerwin to keep his promise and meet with us in order to start forming a concrete solution to this severe problem. Then, we can truly be the socially responsible campus that he desires. Ethan Miller CAS ’13 and Katy Giguere SIS ’15 are members of the student-worker alliance. EDPAGE@THEEAGLEONLINE.COM
The flaws of expert opinion CONOR SHAPIRO | SMARTER THAN I LOOK When I was in high school I had a smooth jump shot. I put up points as if I was competing with the U.S. deficit. Packed gyms would chant my nickname, “Ball hog, ball hog!” Hell, I earned it. I passed about as much as a running back. Some folks (mainly my Pops and I) had big plans for my future. I was going to get a Division-1 scholarship, hopefully followed by a stint professionally somewhere. There was only one tiny problem (aside from the whole no passing thing). I didn’t play defense. I couldn’t guard a safe. Sure, I could score with the best of ‘em, but what good did it do me when I couldn’t contain anyone else? Eventually, some of my competitiveteam coaches stopped playing me. I sat on the bench more than a judge. They evaluated my talent and relegated me accordingly. Experts, coaches, judges and pundits are always grading us like meat in a grocery store, but how often do they make the right call? Take the recent inexplicable rise of Jeremy Lin. If you haven’t heard of “Linsanity,” “Lincredible” or “That amazing Asian dude,” let me recap: Jeremy Lin is a
professional basketball player for the New York Knicks. He’s a Harvard alumnus and finally got a chance to play some serious minutes after injuries sidelined his teammates. As soon as he was given an opportunity, he immediately transformed his team into a contender and is playing like a bona fide MVP. In barely two weeks’ time, he’s got more highlights than NSYNC’s hair. He’s also Asian-American, which adds another element to the story many writers have discussed. But the main question is, how did this happen? How is it possible that someone so obviously talented and impressive as Lin had been overlooked for so long? This is a guy who played in the minor leagues. Another team cut him from their roster. But when you watch him compete, you recognize he’s usually the best player on the court (including in a win over Kobe Bryant’s Lakers). Perhaps some of this has to do with the fact that he’s Asian-American. Maybe more than some. But if we put that aside for the moment, there’s another point that my Pops used to remind me of when I was Continued on Page 24