Opinion: Editorials - The Independent Florida Alligator

Opinion

To the perfectionists: it’s okay to take a break

Mar. 21, 2017

It’s that time of the semester that makes or breaks us. Final projects are piling up, midterm grades are in — final exams around the corner. It’s that lull before the storm; just a few weeks from finals, just a few weeks from the ultimate deadlines, just a few weeks before we can’t drop a class, just a few weeks before we register for classes. We were pulled into a sense of false security over Spring Break, but now it’s time to kick ourselves into action.

Opinion

Spend less on walls, more on education

Mar. 20, 2017

The proposed Trump budget is not new news anymore, it’s been out for about a week now. There’s been plenty of debate — backlash, support, a satire column that was accidentally retweeted by White House Officials. Now, it comes as no surprise that we’re not exactly fans of this budget, but we’re going to address a common criticism that those who do support the budget cuts often bring up: How is the government going to get all this money to support all these programs that were cut?

Opinion

Keep PBS funding for the kids

Mar. 19, 2017

If you grew up with the basic cable package while the rest of your kindergarten classmates were watching “SpongeBob SquarePants,” you tuned into shows like “Arthur,” “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” on your local PBS station. This was before the days of Netflix and Amazon Prime, and if your parents didn’t have one of those fancy satellite dishes, then you were limited to just a handful of basic channels, and your days of television included Barney the dinosaur and “Dragon Tales.” If you’re one of those people, we hope you’re smiling fondly. Even if you were fortunate to have Playhouse Disney or Nickelodeon, you’ve probably at least seen some of the old PBS Kids shows.

Opinion

A message to the Student Body

Mar. 15, 2017

We’ve received some complaints saying we as a newspaper opinions section have been too ambivalent. This was in regards to Wednesday’s editorial, which was intended to view the Smith Meyers situation at a macro-scale. We wanted to highlight the domination

Opinion

A campus divided over a sloppy night

Mar. 14, 2017

If there’s anything we have learned from the past few days, it’s that when there’s a hot-button issue on campus, boy oh boy do people get contentious about it. But what’s funny is what we consider a hot-button issue. Nazi on campus? Racial slurs and vandalism of UF buildings? A one-party monopolization of Student Government elections? The occasional defensive comments on a column or editorial, one or two letters to the editor, but nothing close to what we’ve been seeing.

Opinion

Don’t let the White House control the narrative

Mar. 13, 2017

In case you haven’t heard, there might be cameras in your microwave detecting your every move. That’s a claim made by good old Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, now infamous for using the term “alternative facts” to describe lies. So really, we shouldn’t be that surprised that her most recent stint involves a technology that doesn’t exist to defend a claim that has no basis.

Opinion

Smith Meyers needs to be held accountable

Mar. 12, 2017

UF student made national news over Spring Break.

Opinion

Trump’s address to Congress: Are we being cautiously optimistic or too lenient?

Mar. 1, 2017

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump gave his first address to Congress. For one of the first times, our president sounded presidential. Reports from all across the media say this was the calmest and most professional our president has been since his inauguration. Some people are praising him for this.

Opinion

Should we be concerned with cloud computing?

Feb. 28, 2017

On Tuesday afternoon, Canvas was down. We realized this quickly, frantically taking to Facebook to make sure our computers weren’t just acting up and asking others about assignment information. This problem was not localized to e-learning, however, nor was UF’s spotty Wi-Fi to blame. This stemmed from something much more widespread, with websites all over the internet losing functionality, ranging from small features not working to the whole site or app being down.

Opinion

The purpose of art

Feb. 27, 2017

We will take a bit of an esoteric approach today, instead of launching into a commentary on the Oscar picks. We’re sure the events of the Oscars are plastered all across social media. There’s a lot we could talk about: the political overtones of the night, the

Opinion

We must continue to fight hate crimes

Feb. 26, 2017

Last week in Kansas, three men were shot — one killed — by a shooter who was tossing ethnic slurs at two of the men, who were from India (the third had jumped in to help). Last Friday, near the Tampa area, a prayer-hall in the Islamic Society of New Tampa was intentionally set on fire. That’s just in the last week.

Opinion

Student Government has only itself to blame

Feb. 22, 2017

It’s fair to say that the outcome of the Student Government Spring elections were known well before it was announced.

Opinion

We need to bridge the divides between generations

Feb. 21, 2017

In addition to the divides of political affiliation, race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality and religion that are rampant across our nation, there is also a generational divide. Baby boomers and millennials especially seem to have it out for each other. Baby boomers call millennials entitled, lazy and selfish. Millennials call baby boomers out-of-touch, hypocritical and unconcerned with the world beyond themselves. (Somewhere, Generation X — saddled between the two — poke their heads out, wondering when people are going to start talking about them.) There are hosts of facts to support arguments for and against millennials and baby boomers, depending on where you’re getting your sources. It’s clear, however, that this divide is vicious.

Opinion

The Alligator’s Amendment Recommendations

Feb. 20, 2017

We’ve done the hard part for you. With Student Government elections taking place today and Wednesday, here’s how we think you should vote on the amendments listed on the ballot and why.

Opinion

Our Endorsement: The amendments deserve your vote

Feb. 20, 2017

It has been a hectic two years in Student Government. Minority parties surface every few semesters, almost like clockwork, running on promises of being a voice for students outside of the majority party. Access Party was no exception. Despite being among the few minority parties to win the executive ticket, the fall of Access has come and gone, leaving only one executive ticket on today’s and Wednesday’s ballot: Impact Party.

Opinion

Survey Design 101

Feb. 19, 2017

Everyone at UF is familiar with the time of semester (actually right around the corner) when the students taking Introduction to Statistics 2 hit the Facebook group pages and post survey links, urging fellow students to click on the link and fill out the questions so they can properly study t-tests. These survey questions are pretty simple, and the surveys themselves are short: “Year? Gender? How many alcoholic beverages do you consume per week?”

Opinion

The curse of living in ‘interesting times’

Feb. 15, 2017

There’s an old quote — attributed to Chinese philosophers for some reason, even though the exact origins are dubious — that wishes to the listener, “May you live in interesting times.” This wish is called the “Chinese curse.” Now, at first that might seem a little odd. Don’t we want to live in interesting times? But it doesn’t take much reflection to get what the quote actually implies.

Opinion

Get in touch with your emotions: Let yourself feel

Feb. 14, 2017

It feels like modern society idolizes logical thinking over emotional thinking. Bring feelings into an argument and you get labeled overemotional and hysterical. Gush about how much you love something and you’re given a side-eye for being too enthusiastic. Vent about how much you hate something and you’re told you’re being too passionate. It’s not clear when this preference for subdued emotions became the norm. It’s not even that society prefers totally logical thinking to the emotional way — we’re expected to have emotions, of course, but we need to keep them in check.

Opinion

Tell someone you love them today

Feb. 13, 2017

Valentine’s Day gets a lot of backlash nowadays. And you know, some of it is warranted. Why are we reducing love to pink hearts, stuffed bears, dozens of roses and expensive restaurants? Why do we compare what we give our signicant others to what our friends give theirs and vice versa? Somehow, Valentine’s Day has ingrained itself in our culture; it was a day for class parties in elementary school, awkward dances in middle school, embarrassing singing telegrams in high school, television specials, dinner deals, sales on candy, and so on. It’s as if we try to cram all this obsession with romance into one day.

Opinion

Don’t let celebrity opinions distract from real issues

Feb. 12, 2017

Nowadays it’s increasingly common for celebrities and entertainers to take a public stance on politics. With the ability to air their thoughts and opinions on social media with a few clicks, everyone is mostly aware of what celebrities have to say. It’s an interesting phenomenon.