What we lack
Andrew Breland and Jacob Martin
April 16, 2015
In March, University of Oklahoma President David Boren summarily expelled two members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity for a racist chant. Similarly, last month, Bucknell University President John Bravman expelled three students for allegedly making racist comments during a radio broadcast. At the...
What it means to investigate
Andrew Breland
April 9, 2015
Last November Rolling Stone magazine published a 9,000-word piece detailing a brutal gang rape at the University of Virginia and the presumed-incompetent investigation the school conducted into the incident. The story set the world on fire. Colleges, administrators and student leaders all, in their capacities,...
A third alternative
Andrew Breland
March 26, 2015
The title of this column, for the last three years, has been “The elephant in the room.” As it pertains to campus, this title has always signaled that I write about topics seen and unseen that affect much of what happens on campus. To varying degrees, this is true. However an alternate meaning for...
When we’re too afraid to fight back
Andrew Breland
February 27, 2015
Our university does a lot wrong. Everyone who has read any number of my columns in this space knows that this is my normal mentality. Generally, the mistakes are defensible. They are, at worst, reversible. This week though, it may have gotten worse. Earlier this week, The Daily informed the campus...
A way we “need” to think?
Andrew Breland
February 13, 2015
This week on Tuesday, I was browsing through Facebook statuses when I came across one about an ethnic studies class. A student in the class, who identified himself as Asian, was lamenting that the class focused entirely on African American history. The course was taught by an African American professor....
About the street where we live
Andrew Breland
February 5, 2015
Every time a Healthline bus passes by on Euclid, look, and you will not miss the words “University Circle” written on its side. Among the other “Cleveland neighborhoods,” including Midtown, Downtown and East Cleveland, University Circle reminds us of the small area we call home. But what is University...
The language of anxiety
Andrew Breland
January 23, 2015
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” The weather is cold and dreary. Nightly snowfalls cover the streets, as students begrudgingly muddle their way to class, hoping for some godsend of a last-minute “Class Canceled” email. While some students would...
A note on beginnings
Andrew Breland
January 16, 2015
During the 2012 presidential election, an early criticism of Republican candidate Mitt Romney was “Government is not a business.” Romney, who for years had been a stellar businessman and investor, would treat the government as a profit-making business instead of the service-providing “government”...
Thinking about giving back
Andrew Breland
December 5, 2014
In 2012, a group led by the 92nd Street Y in New York City, including the United Nations Foundation, began promoting “Giving Tuesday” in response to the increased commercialization of the post-Thanksgiving holidays—Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. The organizations wanted...
What I learned from an NBC sitcom
Andrew Breland
November 21, 2014
Like, seemingly most college students, I own a subscription to Netflix. The other night, utilizing my $8 privileges as much as possible, I found myself watching a recent episode of “Parks and Recreation.” In this episode, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and the arch-libertarian Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman),...
