General introductory courses here at Penn can be some of the toughest in the curriculum. The “econ scream” is a testament to that. And anyone who has suffered through Chemistry, Biology or Physics 101 will tell you — it wasn’t fun.
These courses are designed to provide students with a broad foundation of knowledge. Classes are large, curves are usually prodigious, and breadth takes precedence over depth.

Some schools are trying to change this. At Cornell, for example, professors have suggested amending the biology curriculum to rid it of large introductory classes and instead offer 5-6 smaller, more specialized classes.

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The hunger strike at Columbia has gone on for a week now. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, the jist of it is that five Columbia students decided not to eat until the following demands are met:

• a more systematic response to hate crimes from Public Safety
• a more collaborative expansion effort from the administration
• a revision of the Core that encourages critical engagement with issues of racism and colonialism
• more resources and support for the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER), the Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS), and the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA).

Proving once again that they can’t make a point without being assholes, the College Republicans set up a table of donuts across from the strikers. Their president Chris Kulawik does have a point though, when he says, “A hunger strike is not a legitimate form of debate. It shelves debate.”

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I’m sure you all remember the controversy that was stirred up across the nation in response to Islamo-Fascism Awareness week, or Terrorism Awareness Week as it was politically correctly re-dubbed here at Penn.

The president of the Muslim Student’s Association had it out with Bill O’Reilly, Santorum once again humiliated himself despite repeated attempts to sound like a legitimate politician, and we all were reminded of just how myopic some people’s world views really are.

At Dartmouth, this week is “Islam-Fashion Awareness Week.” It’s hard to believe that Al-Nur, the student group sponsoring the week, claims they don’t want “the event to be seen as a response to Islamo-Fascism week.”

After the jump: Hijabs, abayas and niqabs hit the runway.

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In the Brown Daily Herald last week, columnist Renata Sago objectively and unbiasedly wrote about “hooking up,” referring to it as “trite and tasteless.” She even mentioned the incredibly high possibility of getting oral herpes from making out with a stranger. (Luckily, no one in a relationship ever has oral herpes.) Fellow sophomore Sam Loomis responded yesterday with a defense of random hookups, citing arguments by John Stuart Mill and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Only in the Ivies.

You might be unaware of this, but having done some investigatory research, I’ve discovered that Penn also has this “hookup culture”. Whether it’s making out at frat parties or the surprisingly complicated arrangement of friends with benefits, Penn students regularly show how little time and regard they have for actual “relationships.” It’s either long-term married bliss or casual, fun . . . mutual enjoyment.

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