We are declaring Wednesday, October 12, to be a Day of Gratitude. On that day, we are acknowledging and thanking every UF student, faculty and staff member for their work in overcoming the challenges of the pandemic.
The less students vote, the less accurate image SG members have of student opinion on campus, and the less students will be satisfied with election results. It’s a lose-lose situation.
No university has ever broken into that top-five ranking and stayed there for two consecutive years, until last month, when UF was ranked among the top five for the second year in a row. Berkeley and UCLA are tied for first, Michigan and Virginia tied for third, and UF and UNC are tied for fifth.
Florida’s current abortion ban only prohibits abortions after 15 weeks, but make no mistake, the Florida Republican Party will work for a complete ban. They’re hoping you won’t pay attention. They’re counting on you doubting that the worst can happen. But pay attention, because it very well might. If Florida Republicans win big in November, they will double down on denying your right of bodily autonomy the first chance they get.
Recently, UF has been celebrating the renewal of its top-five public university ranking. But last month, U.S. Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, called college rankings “a joke.” He pointed out they encourage colleges to compete for prestige when they should be working toward equity.
Our Student Government and our elections are supposed to reflect the interests of the entire UF student body, no matter who you are. Unfortunately, there has been persistent misallocation of student funding, prioritizing a slim number of interests. The inequitable distribution of our student budget was most recently manifested in the recruitment of Accent speaker Josh Richards for $60,000.
Gator Party is proud to have led Student Government for the last two years. It has been an honor to generate long-lasting impacts for the Gator community through the executive and legislative branches.
Our university and our democracy is under attack. On a broad scale, assaults on our academic freedom by Tallahassee have gone unchecked by the UF Board of Trustees, creating an atmosphere of fear and censorship.
Earning the title of a top-five public university last year, UF has become a space for some of the nation’s most gifted individuals — something that often prompts students to go the extra mile when doubting their own skills. Questions of academic ability often become questions of belonging, with a single less-than-superior grade housing the potential to make students worry about whether they deserve to have a spot here.
The first year of my Ph.D. program in psychology had taken a toll on my finances. I had moved from a job that paid me just enough to get by, determined to make UF’s much lower stipend work. Unfortunately, determination wasn’t enough to make that stipend stretch to cover the cost of living.
To just say Richardson delivered would almost be disrespectful. He had a career night. The redshirt sophomore totaled 274 yards through the air and ground and recorded a career high of three rushing touchdowns. Every play was a highlight waiting to happen.
Many Florida fans became wary of new head coach Billy Napier after what appeared to be a slow start to the recruiting process. However, Napier has since proven patience is a virtue many need to learn.
Despite their unpopularity, communal residential halls offer benefits that complete the freshman experience here at UF.
A shout-out of gratitude and admiration to all the staff and students who this past week welcomed our new students into residence and dining halls with cheerfulness and effectiveness, even in the heat and rain of August in Gainesville.
The newsroom’s soda-spotted carpets, crumb-ridden couch and nerd-infested nooks somehow kept my eyes bright as the rest of the city dimmed.
Pressure strips you down until there’s nothing left but who you are, deepest inside, and shoves a mirror in your eyes. Somewhere in all the split-second decisions and time on the clock, that mirror made its way to me.
The last time UF brought a new football and men’s basketball coach in the same year, neither lived up to expectations. As the Fall semester looms, Gator nation finds itself at a similar watershed.
Over my time at The Alligator, I’ve learned to cherish every moment. However, to me, it isn’t only about appreciating time. It is learning to accept, revere and grow from the hardest.
The Alligator newsroom is lined with its history. The best issues, framed, hang over editors’ desks. The sagging couch where I nestled for the past 16 print nights seems pulled out of an estate sale, or an abandoned frat house. Closets contain stacks of our recent issues and proud collections of novels written by Alligator alum.
I’ve been obsessed with words for as long as I can remember. The way they can make you feel, what art you can create or how they shape you. And I love words, for I grew up having trouble arranging them in my speech the way I could on paper. So I gobbled them when I could, whether that was reading or writing elementary books before I understood what world I lived in.
Solutions by The State News
