2 - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Why are we afraid of being kind?

Apr. 12, 2017

Though we may not openly acknowledge it, society has engrained in us that it’s “cool” to be mean. We all want to believe we are good people; we rationalize our actions to ourselves, saying that we are kind to our friends, our families and those close with us. We share sympathetic videos on social media. We spend time attending Dance Marathon and Relay for Life. We don’t go out of our way to ruin people’s lives. That — the bare minimum, it seems — is enough to justify the fact that we are good people.

OPINION | COLUMNS

When your everything isn’t enough, stand tall

Apr. 12, 2017

Seven-hundredths of a second.

UF guard Eric Hester talks with coach Mike White during Florida's 94-71 win over the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Dec. 21, 2016, in the O'Connell Center.

SPORTS | MEN'S BASKETBALL

Gators point guard Eric Hester to transfer

By Ray Boone | Apr. 12, 2017

The Florida men’s basketball team will have one less guard on its roster at the start of the 2017-18 season.

UF senior Mollie Stevens fights off a North Carolina player during Florida's 13-10 loss to the Tar Heels on Feb. 11, 2017, at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.

SPORTS | OTHER SPORTS LACROSSE

Stevens, Burgess leading UF lacrosse team's offense

By Jake Dreilinger | Apr. 11, 2017

With 10:54 remaining in Florida’s game against Stony Brook, attacker Mollie Stevens received a pass from attacker Sammi Burgess and put it in the back of the net.

UF pitcher Kelly Barnhill winds up during Florida's 5-0 win against Georgia on April 8, 2017, at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.

SPORTS | SOFTBALL

UF takes on No. 1 Seminoles tonight in Gainesville

By Cassie Amundson | Apr. 11, 2017

Few would characterize Florida’s last meeting with Florida State, a 1-0 UF win, as an offensive battle.

UF head coach Jim McElwain talks to his players after Florida's spring game on April 7, 2017, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

SPORTS | COLUMNS

Column: In defense of participation trophies

By Ethan Bauer | Apr. 11, 2017

Before you start commenting that I’m an entitled millennial sh-t for defending participation trophies, please know I recognize your concern. It’s definitely a cliché thing for a 20-year-old to do. But with the number of slam pieces written about the privileged “snowflake” generation and its sense of entitlement, I think there’s something to be said about how participation trophies can actually be a good thing.

UF gymnast Amelia Hundley performs a routine during the NCAA Gainesville Regional on April 1, 2017, in the O'Connell Center.

SPORTS | GYMNASTICS

UF gymnasts hoping for success in familiar venue

By Lauren Staff | Apr. 11, 2017

In two days, Florida will take to the mats and compete for one of six spots in the NCAA Championships on April 15.

Columbia Firefly outfielder Tim Tebow shares a smile with fans during a Class A minor league baseball game against the Augusta GreenJackets on Thursday, April 6, 2017, in Columbia, S.C. Columbia defeated Augusta 14-7. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)

SPORTS | BASEBALL

Gators in the MLB: Tebow batting .200 in low-A, O’Day struggling with ERA

By Mari Faiello | Apr. 11, 2017

Despite a rough start to the season for the UF baseball team, which holds a 22-11 record with 21 games left, former Gators are trying to make a name for themselves in the pros.

UF infielder Christian Hicks swings at a pitch during Florida's 3-2 loss in 10 innings to Tennessee on April 8, 2017, at McKethan Stadium.

SPORTS | BASEBALL

Florida sweeps season series against FSU

By Ethan Bauer | Apr. 11, 2017

After four straight games of misery against the Gators, FSU shortstop Taylor Walls tried to avoid another loss. He did so by leading off the game with a home run to right field.

NEWS | CAMPUS

Nonprofit pledges $1 million to UF Shands

By Jimena Tavel | Apr. 11, 2017

Over the next five years, UF researchers will receive $1 million to fight children’s cancer.

An osprey stands in its nest above UF’s Alfred A. McKethan Stadium with its two eggs. The future baby osprey’s parents, a male and female captured through a livestream established by the UF Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, conceived the eggs in early March.

NEWS | CAMPUS

Livestream captures sad turn in saga of UF’s ospreys

By Lauren Smith | Apr. 11, 2017

While ospreys don’t show signs of mourning, Carolyn Fulwood was concerned when she saw egg casings lying underneath a lamppost last week.

METRO | CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Grand jury indicts woman for murder in Ridge case

By Meryl Kornfield | Apr. 11, 2017

A grand jury indicted a local woman Monday for first-degree premeditated murder after police say she shot her ex-boyfriend a day before Valentine’s Day this year.

NEWS | CAMPUS STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Student Body president announces start of Uber discount

By Paige Fry | Apr. 11, 2017

UF Student Body President Susan Webster gave her last report to the Student Senate on Tuesday, where she announced the official start of UF’s Uber discounts.

NEWS | CAMPUS

Journalism department chair named UF professor of the year

By Romy Ellenbogen | Apr. 11, 2017

After serving as an editor for Men’s Health magazine and co-authoring a best-selling book with television’s Dr. Mehmet Oz, Ted Spiker can now add “UF’s top teacher” to his resume.

A look at one of the floors inside Newell Hall.

NEWS | CAMPUS

New 24/7 UF study center set to open

By Paige Fry | Apr. 11, 2017

After five years of lobbying, planning and constructing, a new 24/7 study center at UF is scheduled to open next week.

METRO

RTS to reduce, change bus routes for Summer

By Isabella Arjomand | Apr. 11, 2017

Starting May 1, bus routes across the UF campus and Gainesville will be reduced and changed due to funding and construction.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Sean Spicer needs a history lesson

Apr. 11, 2017

On the second day of Passover, the most practiced Jewish holiday in the U.S., White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer compared the Syrian government’s use of a chemical weapon to attack its own people to the Holocaust, arguing that Adolf Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons” on his people.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Popular notions of romance may be encouraging non-consensual sex

Apr. 11, 2017

There’s an ailment afflicting young people today. It’s not a disease or a behavioral epidemic, but an idea. It is an idea that affects our entire approach to intimacy. It stems from our phobia of discomfort, of appearing foolish or being declined. It is the idea that there exists such a thing as a “right moment.” Allow me to elaborate.

OPINION | COLUMNS

We get by with help from our friends: It’s important to be selfless sometimes

Apr. 11, 2017

The human race is intrinsically a selfish bunch. When we’re born, we are strictly self-serving. We exist only to keep ourselves alive and to advance ourselves to the point where we can do this without help. We communicate our needs by crying, screaming or doing whatever it takes to get our parents’ attention, and once this is complete, we just head on back to whatever we were doing before we decided we needed something.

OPINION | COLUMNS

You can’t heal your broken ego from the inside

Apr. 11, 2017

I ended last week’s column with an image of a man limping through life with a broken leg. I made the comment that this image captures the problem with our cultural dictum: “Believe in yourself.” The meaning behind my comment is twofold. First, people generally suffer from self-doubt, a certain awareness that all is not well within one’s self, or from an inability to feel affirmed, confident and whole. Second, the solution to this problem cannot be believing in one’s self because the problem lies primarily within the self. Thus, the image of a man who thinks he can mend his leg by walking on it.

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