By Gus Hoffmann During the college application process, prospective students travel the country and visit universities. Oftentimes, a key component of the college tour is showing the dining halls, explaining the meal plan, and highlighting every single college’s amazing cuisine. I remember zoning out as the tour guide explained the college’s food plan. Generally, prospective…
Do Relationships Still Make Great Colleges?
By Paul A. Djupe [Image credit: Logan Mallory] While the backbone of a Denison education is what happens in coursework, relationships formed in and out of the classroom are what make it great. In conversation and through working together on common projects, students learn how to translate their coursework into active citizenship and all the…
Free Speech in the Bubble
By Zach Broeren [Photo Credit: Minh Tran ‘24] Free speech has become one of the most hot button topics on college campuses in recent years. Popular internet personalities will stick themselves on campuses to ask questions on free speech, op-eds will be written on media platforms from Fox News to MSNBC, and many other people…
Advice that Strikes a Chord
By Shayne Silver-Riskin Each semester begins at a point of harmony where you and your work seem to flow at the same steady beat. You find a rhythm – you receive assignments; you complete assignments; and you turn them in on time. But just as you approach the bridge between a semester’s beginning and its…
The Denison Difference might be hurting women’s political ambition
By Maddy Murphy [Photo from the Women in Leadership Brunch, Fall 2021] I am the first female speaker of the Denison Campus Government Association in at least 6 years. I am not saying this to toot my own horn. I want to point out that while the nation might be advancing in political gender parity…
Are Better Students Grittier?
By Paul A. Djupe, Data for Political Research As I roll around the lab helping people add parentheses to their code, one thing I’m blown away by is the number of notifications of various kinds they are getting. Phone notifications, desktop notifications, notifications everywhere. That can’t possibly help get work done. We don’t have data…
It’s Been Four Years Already?
By Gus Hoffmann Pictured above, is my Dad and I the night before Aug-O. We had just completed a 14-hour drive from Massachusetts to our end destination: the Granville Inn. When I think back on Freshman-year-Gus I am envious – he had everything figured out! As I enter my last semester at Denison, it is…
Do Discerning Moral Agents Vouch for Friends?
By Zach Broeren What does it mean to be a discerning moral agent? Does it mean living a life full of integrity and service to others? Does it mean not pocketing the milky way in Slayter to avoid paying for it? Everyone will have a different definition of discerning moral agency, regardless, many of us…
Will there be another Madam Speaker? Trends in political ambition among women at Denison
By Madeleine Murphy [Photo from the Women in Leadership Brunch, Fall 2021] We are living in the heyday of women in politics. We have a female Vice President, a female Speaker, and a record number of women in this 117th congress (27%). This is not a small accomplishment. It has been 100 years since women…
Denison and the Climate Crisis: Are We Prepared to Make a Better Future?
By Daniel Gunther Climate change is one of the most pertinent issues facing the world. Food shortages attributable to soil erosion, water deficits and changes in weather are the root cause of many conflicts around the world and will continue to be a primary source of discord and unrest. The question becomes, then, at a…
Republicanism Hits New Low
By Paul A. Djupe The 2016 election was the first in which a majority of educated voters chose the Democratic candidate for President. And many of the educated Republicans I know have expressed frustration with the direction of the party that observers are openly calling authoritarian. The rejection of science, the support for the January…
The State of Frats
By Zach Broeren Following the COVID year of uncertainty, most institutions on Denison’s campus returned to normal, or at least a predictable version, with one notable exception: Fraternity party spaces. Even though Fraternities were allowed to host parties last year, this year brought major changes as fraternities were barred from hosting parties in their spaces…
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