C2M Columnist Alexis Lahr
OPINION: Universities should explore the possibility of requiring community service hours
|As a kid growing up in the suburbs of Maryland, one thing constantly loomed over me—Student Service Learning, or time spent volunteering in the community. We were required to complete at least 75 hours to graduate high school. I remember wondering how I could ever accomplish 75 whole hours of volunteer work. In the pursuit of SSL hours, I trained to work at a therapeutic horseback riding center for a summer.
OPINION: General education is vital to the ultimate success of university students
|As a freshman, my courses this year are varied; many of them are not particularly relevant to my major—this being a product of the dreaded general education requirements at Mason, or “gen eds.” Overall, many students feel that gen eds are an unnecessary waste of time. I, quite honestly, beg to differ.
OPINION: Mason's diverse population prevents hateful ignorance
|I consider Mason’s diversity an asset, and I also believe exposure to culture’s outside one’s own is an integral part of the college experience. Thus, I was shocked to hear about the recent string of hate crimes at Oberlin College in Ohio. In the past month, students’ inboxes have been brimming with emails from administration in response to acts of racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism on the same campus that prides itself on being the first college to regularly admit female and African American students.