Victoria Jennings

President Obama did not attend Justice Scalia's funeral earlier this year and now is missing Former First Lady Nancy Reagans funeral to attend SXSW. Is it fair to hold him to a higher standard of polite behavior? Should he have to attend the funerals of conservatives or are we being too demanding?

India's efforts to push green energy have been stalled by the World Trade Organization, sparking a conflict between global trade and environmental sustainability.

Culling of the Yellowstone bison population is considered an essential tool in managing herd health, but it attracts outrage from environmentalists. Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

Universities are arguing that sexual consent education must begin before college: could earlier exposure potentially prevent future sexual assault?

A proposed ban on smoking in public housing in NYC brings about a lot of concerns. Do implementation and cost weigh more than lives?

Increasingly, struggling school districts are weighing the effectiveness of granting students cash rewards for academic performance. But does paying kids for grades take away from the intrinsic value of learning?

The past thirty years have seen a rise in “fast fashion” – a system of mass production that “refers to cheap, trendy, and popular clothing chains which rapidly change their inventory and styles.” This system is what allows us to walk into Forever 21 or H&M and purchase a whole outfit for less than $50. … Continue reading "The Cost of Fast Fashion"

Zunera Ishaq, a Muslim Pakistani immigrant, was deined Canadian citizenship because she wore her veil to the ceremony. What does this say about nationalism versus individual freedoms?

Early school hours deprive developing minds of much needed sleep. Should we be concerned?

Dissecting the controversy around CRISPR, a genetic editing process that has sparked both alarm and acclaim.

Kim Davis, county clerk from Morehead, Kentucky, was put in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses on religious grounds. Was her decision justified?

Guam recently passed legislation allowing for chemical castration, without consent, of sex criminals. Is such a punishment justified?

There are certain things about boys in relation to girls that I always assumed to be true. Boys eat more. Boys get into more fights. Boys drive more recklessly. And boys don’t do as well in school. While the first three of these claims can probably be validated by your own personal experience, the last … Continue reading "Failures in our Education System"

The rampant use of study drugs on college campuses has been the cause of extensive debate for some time now. It has become increasingly easy to acquire a prescription, and to then sell it cheaply to other students. Study drugs such as Adderall and Vyvanse have become hard to regulate and as a result, the … Continue reading "Are Legal Study Drugs still an Ethical Issue?"

Cultural appropriation is when a dominant group adapts the customs of a minority group and tries to trademark them as their own in an effort to be edgy and/or to use them to propagate stereotypes about that minority group. A popular example of this is Miley Cyrus’s infamous use of the dance style “twerking”, which … Continue reading "Cultural Appropriation in Entertainment"

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as “fracking,” is a method of extracting natural gas by drilling wells and then shooting liquids at high pressures down the well in order to fracture the shale surrounding natural gas reservoirs. It is currently one of the cheapest and most lucrative methods of extraction, and is sustainable in the sense … Continue reading "Do the Economic Benefits of Fracking Outweigh the Risk of Pollution and Depletion of Natural Resources?"