Sports
Goodbye Column: Basketball reporter says so long
By Here comes the Boone Ray Boone | Apr. 20, 2017Here comes the Boone
Opinion
Sports
Goodbye Column: Make the most of your college experience
By Patrick Pinak | Apr. 19, 2017I still remember my first semester at UF in 2012.
Opinion
Good Writers and Good People
Apr. 19, 2017The hallways of The Carolina Inn on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are filled with photographs and paintings of people who made a difference in the university’s 228-year history. After staying in the inn for three nights last month, I felt like I had a sense of how UNC was influenced by the two centuries of faculty, staff and alumni whose likenesses lined the halls.
Opinion
Before I go: a message from your editor-in-chief
Apr. 18, 2017My faded black Jimi Hendrix T-shirt was drenched in sweat as I walked across UF’s campus on a blistering August day.
Opinion
We’re all just looking for the damn light switch
Apr. 18, 2017With graduation nearing, you might be feeling a bit stressed.
Opinion
We have the right to speak and the duty to listen
Apr. 18, 2017As the limbo of Summer semester comes round, I’m going to follow my predecessor in removing the opinions editor mask and speaking directly as myself. The opinions and experiences expressed here will be my own, and not those of the Alligator editorial board. I want to take the chance, as the end of the semester approaches and friends graduate, travel abroad, tackle internships and sit on their couches all summer, to reflect on the past semester.
Opinion
Signposts on the path to utopia
Apr. 18, 2017I love science fiction. My favorite works come from the ‘60s and ‘70s, when novels like “Childhood’s End” and “Stranger in a Strange Land” crystallized the genre, pioneered by writers like Isaac Asimov, of utopian speculative fiction. Don’t get me wrong, “Alien” and “Blade Runner” hold a special place in my heart, but there was an optimism in “Star Trek” that seems to have been fading since writers like William Gibson and Philip K. Dick popularized stories of a grim, dystopian future.
Opinion
My contradictory life: Balancing nutrition, health with death-defying stunts
Apr. 17, 2017Due to the increasing pervasiveness and equal awareness of obesity as a health problem, especially in the U.S., it has become a truism today to inform the public about caring for themselves and their bodies. I’m quite aware of this beneficial trend in fitness, and I’m a firm believer in the idea that “your body’s a temple, and you should worship it.” However, in a quasi-paradoxical fashion, I also believe you should go out into the great unknown and destroy yourself if you must.
Opinion
Condemning hate isn’t enough
Apr. 17, 2017We’re not going to wait until the end of this editorial to cut to the chase, so here it is: UF needs to do more than just condemn hate after the fact.
Opinion
A thank you letter from one nostalgic graduate
Apr. 17, 2017Nearly two years ago, I received a text from the newly appointed Alligator opinions editor while on a Greyhound bus full of potential sorority girls barreling down Museum Road toward Pi Beta Phi. It read, “Hey. Do you want to have a column in the Alligator?” Immediately, I thought to myself, “Hell no.” Yet for some unbeknownst reason, I texted back, “Sure, when do I start?”
Opinion
Foreign relations aren’t black and white
Apr. 16, 2017On Saturday, North Korea launched a missile. The attempt failed, exploding moments after launch, but nevertheless the missile firing shows that North Korea’s military technology is advancing, whether we like it or not. Even if they do not yet have the technical prowess, they are pouring an incredible amount of resources and funding into this program.
Opinion
Here are ways to actually help Syrian refugees
Apr. 16, 2017I have seen many of the photographs. I have read the news. I have cringed as I read through tweets about the crisis in Syria, where more than 80 people, including children, died in a chemical gas attack on April 4, and then hated myself for cringing when I should be translating that sorrow and disgust into action. So today, I provide you — by way of researching this myself — ways we can support Syrian refugees.
Sports
Column: Despite missing playoffs, Heat’s season still one to be proud of
By Ray Boone | Apr. 13, 2017The Miami Heat’s 2016-17 season came to an abrupt end on Wednesday night.
Opinion
Jared Kushner: the president’s puppet master
Apr. 13, 2017His name is Jared Kushner, and you probably have never heard of him. If you have, then it is only for being the husband of one of the most influential women in the world at the moment: Ivanka Trump. But what many do not know about Jared Kushner is just how significant a role he currently has in the White House, and as he is a man of very few words, this has been a cause of concern. Since long before Election Day, Kushner could be found lurking in the shadows of President Donald Trump as he made his cantankerous, political-landscape-altering, scorched-earth trek through America. The Trump campaign might have had a revolving door of campaign managers and aides, but it was the reserved Mr. Kushner who, as we are now learning, led Trump to the presidency.
Opinion
Darts & Laurels - April 14, 2017
Apr. 13, 2017The world swarms around us, and yet we tightly clutch our Study Edge packets and scrounge for seats in Library West, focused on the finish line that we see so clearly. For some of us, this is the final countdown — just a few more days until we must face the real world and all it holds, good and bad. For others, this is just another push to the finish line before we start the next lap. Either way, this is the hardest part of the race. It’s bittersweet, though, as we present to you this semester’s final…
Opinion
Letter to the Editor: Advice from a former Alligator reader
Apr. 13, 2017Who reads the editorials in The Alligator? I do. Or, at least, I did. A free campus newspaper has a unique opportunity not available to major outlets. The writers of the Alligator are (or should be) beholden to no one, except their audience. The Alligator is funded in part, I assume, by subsidies from UF or associated student organizations. Yes, there are ads in every paper, but few are from major corporations. So there should be little worry over losing advertisers. Yet, the editorials are often bland, middle-of-the-road noise. If you want life advice, then read Dear Abby. More importantly, if you want to give life advice, then provide reasons why your advice is valid. Editorial pieces should not be so agreeable. In fact, I suggest that op-eds be divisive. The Alligator had an editorial writer about a year ago named Michael Beato who wrote largely on matters of interest to conservative students. I abhorred 99 percent of Beato’s writings, but my roommates and I read his editorial each week to a discuss the reasons for our beliefs. I am not suggesting that the Alligator needs more diverse viewpoints; I am saying that the writers need to take a firm stand on issues more often. Writing should evoke a response other than “Mhm.” Not a shock response, but one that contributes to the moral, philosophical, educational, and, yes, even political discourse that should be taking place on this campus. Write something worth discussing in a classroom.
Opinion
I'm disappointed with (some) of the passive forms of new-age feminism
Apr. 13, 2017The U.S. has seen a boom in feminism lately, something that I, a long-time nasty woman, should be elated about. However, and much to my own dismay, I’ve come to realize this new wave of feminism is nothing to be exciting about.
Opinion
Why are we afraid of being kind?
Apr. 12, 2017Though 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.
Sports
Column: In defense of participation trophies
By Ethan Bauer | Apr. 11, 2017Before 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.
