Thursday, Feb 12, 2026

Opinion

Transparency could help revive VCU greek life

February 11, 2026

Molly Christianson, Contributing Writer After being a hermit my first semester at VCU, I knew I wanted to join greek life. I thought it would be a great way to make friends, socialize and become more familiar with Richmond.  When looking into it online I tried to find out more information, and realized that there wasn’t much out there. The process is very mysterious.  I got a couple of questions in at the SOVO fair back in the fall, but they were pretty surface-level. Answers to more important questions about recruitment, culture and logistics were harder to find. When spring recruitment did come this year — taking place during only one weekend, which is a much shorter time frame when compared to other colleges — no schedules or information were really given out until the day before recruitment started.  Not being able to compare VCU’s recruitment timeline to other colleges left me with many questions. What will the schedule look like? What are the dress codes for each day? What is expected of us? Is it more like an interview or a hangout? What are the organization’s respective aesthetics and general vibes? Is it better to stand out or fit

LED Headlights are terrorizing our streets. Our automakers and government have no plan.

February 11, 2026

Shiny Chandravel, Assistant Opinions Editor Seatbelts fastened. Music up. Windows down. My ritual of driving at night is a sacred one. But it was on one of these night drives home from work when my life flashed before my eyes.  As I shifted into the right lane to take my exit back to VCU, something unnatural happened.  My side and rear view mirrors suddenly flooded with a glaring light. My eyes burned from the brightness of a thousand suns. I slammed on the brakes because in that moment, I knew nothing could possibly create light like this, save for the rapture itself.  But I was wrong.  This was no heavenly feat. It was the result of modern LED headlights — straight from the depths of hell.  The norm for headlights used to be halogen bulbs, emitting a warm light, easy on the eye. The bulbs emit 1,000 lumens of light, modest compared to standard 4,000-lumen LED lights. Aftermarket LED additions, often illegal, have been recorded to emit up to 12,000 lumens, destroying the line of sight for any driver caught in their vicinity.  According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s publicly available data, headlight brightness has roughly doubled since

No, fatphobic language still isn’t OK

February 11, 2026

Maya Kamat, Contributing Writer “Oh my god. You are so fat!” my friend said to her older brother as he reached for her fries.  Everyone around me, including my friend’s older brother, started laughing. I remember this distinct, numbing feeling of shock. I hadn’t heard another person call someone fat so light-heartedly, so casually or so publically since I was in elementary school. Since that day, I’ve felt like I can’t escape it.  “Time to go be fat!” a friend will exclaim with enthusiasm before dinner.  “I’m such a big-back,” someone else says as they reach for a snack after lunch.  “OK, skinny,” my coworker replies to the girl who admits to having skipped a meal.  Over time that sharp feeling of surprise has dulled around the edges, but I am no less disturbed by this cultural shift. Fatphobia has been an issue in our culture for decades, but recently it seems to have become terrifyingly normalized.  In November, when the government slashed government assistance programs as a result of the shutdown, we watched in horror as news anchors declared overweight people didn’t deserve food stamps.  Recently, it has felt like ads for GLP-1 medications like Ozempic are plastered everywhere.

The Trump admin needs to prevent snowfall from being our downfall

February 11, 2026

Katie Meeker, Opinions & Humor Editor To say Richmond was unprepared for the landscape of snow and ice that has been plaguing residents is an understatement.  Many sidewalks and backroads are still virtually unnavigable three weeks after the initial snowstorm that occurred the weekend of Jan. 24. The scourge has left many residents and VCU students unable to safely commute to work and class.  Consistent freezing temperatures made clearing the snow and ice in traditional ways via plows and salt extremely difficult, according to The Richmonder. While Mayor Danny Avula and the rest of the Public Works Department have been working around the clock to address these difficulties, it’s been a clear struggle.  “We’re absolutely doing everything we can to clear up the streets,” Avula said during a Jan. 31 news conference. “Be patient.” I suppose we should be grateful that, despite the issues the recent storm created, we didn’t have a repeat of last January’s “water crisis,” which left some residents without clean, safe water for nearly a week. While Richmond’s response to the winter weather was less than perfect, only so much blame can be placed on city officials. Richmond just isn’t really a city accustomed to snow.

Transparency could help revive VCU greek life

February 11, 2026

Molly Christianson, Contributing Writer After being a hermit my first semester at VCU, I knew I wanted to join greek life. I thought it would be a great way to make friends, socialize and become more familiar with Richmond.  When looking into it online I tried to find out more information, and realized that there wasn’t much out there. The process is very mysterious.  I got a couple of questions in at the SOVO fair back in the fall, but they were pretty surface-level. Answers to more important questions about recruitment, culture and logistics were harder to find. When spring recruitment did come this year — taking place during only one weekend, which is a much shorter time frame when compared to other colleges — no schedules or information were really given out until the day before recruitment started.  Not being able to compare VCU’s recruitment timeline to other colleges left me with many questions. What will the schedule look like? What are the dress codes for each day? What is expected of us? Is it more like an interview or a hangout? What are the organization’s respective aesthetics and general vibes? Is it better to stand out or fit in?  My difficulty in finding those answers left me puzzled. Why was finding information about VCU greek life culture so difficult? Greek life is much less prominent at VCU than it is at most other Virginia universities. Many first-year students may be unaware of a big reason why that is.    VCU student Adam Oakes died in a severe hazing incident in the Delta Chi fraternity five years ago. Adam was told to drink copious amounts of alcohol in order to “pledge,” or join the fraternity. Despite having clear signs of alcohol poisoning and obviously needing help, he received none. Adam died in the Delta Chi house on Feb. 27, 2021.  Adam’s death deeply affected VCU greek life, and that effect is still being felt nearly five years later. It’s important that we acknowledge his impact, not only to honor his life, but to make sure that the mistakes and problems within greek life culture that led to his death are not repeated.  I had no idea who Adam was until I became interested in recruitment — I don’t think I should have learned about him due to hazing prevention training. Adam’s name should be spoken by fraternity and sorority members

LED Headlights are terrorizing our streets. Our automakers and government have no plan.

February 11, 2026

Shiny Chandravel, Assistant Opinions Editor Seatbelts fastened. Music up. Windows down. My ritual of driving at night is a sacred one. But it was on one of these night drives home from work when my life flashed before my eyes.  As I shifted into the right lane to take my exit back to VCU, something unnatural happened.  My side and rear view mirrors suddenly flooded with a glaring light. My eyes burned from the brightness of a thousand suns. I slammed on the brakes because in that moment, I knew nothing could possibly create light like this, save for the rapture itself.  But I was wrong.  This was no heavenly feat. It was the result of modern LED headlights — straight from the depths of hell.  The norm for headlights used to be halogen bulbs, emitting a warm light, easy on the eye. The bulbs emit 1,000 lumens of light, modest compared to standard 4,000-lumen LED lights. Aftermarket LED additions, often illegal, have been recorded to emit up to 12,000 lumens, destroying the line of sight for any driver caught in their vicinity.  According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s publicly available data, headlight brightness has roughly doubled since

No, fatphobic language still isn’t OK

February 11, 2026

Maya Kamat, Contributing Writer “Oh my god. You are so fat!” my friend said to her older brother as he reached for her fries.  Everyone around me, including my friend’s older brother, started laughing. I remember this distinct, numbing feeling of shock. I hadn’t heard another person call someone fat so light-heartedly, so casually or so publically since I was in elementary school. Since that day, I’ve felt like I can’t escape it.  “Time to go be fat!” a friend will exclaim with enthusiasm before dinner.  “I’m such a big-back,” someone else says as they reach for a snack after lunch.  “OK, skinny,” my coworker replies to the girl who admits to having skipped a meal.  Over time that sharp feeling of surprise has dulled around the edges, but I am no less disturbed by this cultural shift. Fatphobia has been an issue in our culture for decades, but recently it seems to have become terrifyingly normalized.  In November, when the government slashed government assistance programs as a result of the shutdown, we watched in horror as news anchors declared overweight people didn’t deserve food stamps.  Recently, it has felt like ads for GLP-1 medications like Ozempic are plastered everywhere.

The Trump admin needs to prevent snowfall from being our downfall

February 11, 2026

Katie Meeker, Opinions & Humor Editor To say Richmond was unprepared for the landscape of snow and ice that has been plaguing residents is an understatement.  Many sidewalks and backroads are still virtually unnavigable three weeks after the initial snowstorm that occurred the weekend of Jan. 24. The scourge has left many residents and VCU students unable to safely commute to work and class.  Consistent freezing temperatures made clearing the snow and ice in traditional ways via plows and salt extremely difficult, according to The Richmonder. While Mayor Danny Avula and the rest of the Public Works Department have been working around the clock to address these difficulties, it’s been a clear struggle.  “We’re absolutely doing everything we can to clear up the streets,” Avula said during a Jan. 31 news conference. “Be patient.” I suppose we should be grateful that, despite the issues the recent storm created, we didn’t have a repeat of last January’s “water crisis,” which left some residents without clean, safe water for nearly a week. While Richmond’s response to the winter weather was less than perfect, only so much blame can be placed on city officials. Richmond just isn’t really a city accustomed to snow.

Gen Z is not the ‘sober generation’

February 4, 2026

Molly Christianson, Contributing Writer There have been many posts about how Generation Z is the “sober curious” generation popping up on my social media feeds recently. People are misunderstanding the label. Being “sober curious” does not actually equate to sobriety.  Ruby Warrington wrote a book in 2018 titled “Sober Curious,” in which she defined sober curiosity as “questioning every instinct, every invitation and every expectation to drink versus going along with the dominant drinking culture.”  In the past few years Gen Z has been statistically proven to be consuming less alcohol than previous generations; drinking culture has less of a hold over our social lives.  What people seem to be forgetting is that sobriety goes beyond abstinence from alcohol, but also other substances such as Gen Z’s drug of choice — marijuana. Gen Z is the first generation to exist in a world where marijuana is widely legalized. Virginia legalized recreational marijuana use in 2021 for individuals over 21, along with 23 other states and the District of Columbia.  Marijuana’s widespread legality naturally means that people are going to be consuming it more freely. Data by a marijuana research firm found 69% of people aged 18-24 prefer marijuana to alcohol.

Don’t let people say they ‘didn’t know’ about ICE — they’re in our backyard

February 4, 2026

Shiny Chandravel, Assistant Opinions Editor The most prominently displayed poem at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the famous “First They Came” by Martin Niemöller. The poem is a recollection of events in which a powerful government comes again and again for different groups of people. As several groups are taken, the poet stood silently — until the Nazi regime finally came for him.                                            Only then did the poet become appalled, realizing no one was left to help him. William Vermie, an Army veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart, was tackled to the ground and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for eight hours with no attorney.  A city plow worker with legal authorization to work in the United States was detained in an El Paso, Texas Detention Center. His wife has been desperately trying to get him his medication.  Off-duty police officers had guns drawn on them by ICE agents, demanding to see their paperwork.  Native American tribe members have reported numerous attacks on Indigenous people by ICE agents, with some of them being detained

AI use is destroying your creativity

February 4, 2026

Kylie Grunsfeld, Contributing Writer If you’re an English student like I am, or taking any class where writing is involved, you have probably listened to your professors talk about AI.  Most have a zero-tolerance policy for AI use in the classroom and on assignments.  It seems plain as day to me — using AI to help you with your written work is cheating. It may not be as severe as completely copying the work of someone else, but the act is not innocent.  Whether you use it to generate ideas or have it write the words in a style that feels “human,” you are reaping the negative effects of having something speak for you. The morally questionable use of AI isn’t just limited to the classroom; last year’s novel “Shy Girl” by Mia Ballard is an excellent example of what happens when people suspect your writing is not entirely your own.  Ballard’s book has been alleged to be at least partially written by AI. There is no definitive proof to the allegations, but many sentences in her book bare a striking resemblance to the way a bot like ChatGPT tends to write.  If it is true, it’s not only lazy

Renee Good shouldn’t have been the tipping point

January 28, 2026

Maritza Baptiste, Contributing Writer Every time the state kills someone, our reaction is tainted by racial bias — whether we realize it or not.  We watched as President Donald Trump increased the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in cities across the country. We watched as people were dragged out of their homes and thrown into detention camps. We watched as at least 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025.  The deaths of these individuals — most of whom were people of color —  passed through the news cycle with little to no coverage. Now the city of Minneapolis is in unrest over the killing of Renee Good, a white woman, at the hands of an ICE officer.  There were general protests against ICE across the country, but not like what we are seeing in Minneapolis. The cause has garnered national attention and outrage online. Politicians are rushing to either defend ICE or condemn “violent” protests.  The unrest has only been exacerbated further by the ruthless killing of Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE officers this past Saturday. We are witnessing the appointment of a new martyr in a cause that fights against authoritarian practices that

The Democratic Party is ruining its reputation with the trans community

January 21, 2026

Laurel Bowen, Contributing Writer The transgender community is under threat from both Republicans and Democrats — yet it hasn’t been painted as such. It is often the opinion of Democratic editorialists, voters and cisgender allies that transgender people simply must vote for the Democrats and they will be safe.  It is preached that if we don’t vote for them, the Republicans will annihilate us — they will rip away every right we have won. The truth of the matter, unfortunately, is not so. Even during Democratic presidencies such as the Biden administration, the Republican Party continued to attack us. In the midst of those attacks, the Democratic Party only became a bastion of indifference and hostility — both with the wholesale abandonment of efforts to protect transgender people and with some politicians even actively working against us. For example, Rep. Thomas Souzzi, D-New York, stated, “I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.”  The use of “biological boys” itself is an act of de-legitimization of trans women who do participate in these sports. It also erases the existence of transgender men by not acknowledging them. The transgender community does

An open letter to Senator John Kerry

November 2, 2006

Wow, dude, just wow.

I’m not sure, sir, whether it was a verbal gaffe on a pre-written speech or an off-the-cuff remark that you fumbled, but no matter what, you made an idiot out of yourself. You said this to a crowd while campaigning for gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well.

Congress, where ya at?

November 2, 2006

Hey Congress, where ya at?

The current presidential administration bears much of the blame that circulates regarding the Iraq War. The executive branch of the government must shoulder the responsibility of a wartime United States; our president is the country’s commander in chief.

Your Turn Letters to the Editor

October 30, 2006

God’s laws over man’s laws

I am writing in response to the article “A moral imperative: A Christian perspective on same-sex marriage rights” (Oct. 23). I believe that there is a much deeper understanding of the scriptures that can be shed on this matter. If I have read the article as the author has intended, then one would conclude that as a Christian because “I am to love my neighbor as I love myself” or because “I do unto others as I would have them do unto me,” that I in some way should allow for a public policy to be put into place that condones sinful acts.

Opinion in Brief

October 30, 2006

In a short time, the citizens of Richmond will once again have the opportunity to vote for their public representatives in the upcoming election. Both city residents and VCU voters who are temporarily living in the city need to exercise their voting power more than ever to keep the members of Richmond’s City Council mindful of their commitments to the public.

Define ‘discrimination’

October 30, 2006

Didn’t I do this last year? Well it’s obvious that the definition is necessary again for the people in the back of the room who didn’t get it the first time:

dis-crim-i-na-tion [di-skrim-uh-ney-shuh n.]

an act or instance of discriminating.

treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit: racial and religious intolerance and discrimination.

From the president

October 30, 2006

As the second half of the fall semester kicks into gear, the SGA remains deeply involved in the issues that matter to you.

Free Music for Students: At the Senate meeting Monday, Oct. 23, Project RUCKUS gave an illuminating presentation on their proposal to give free media downloading to all students.