It’s that time of year again: classrooms fill with coughs. Professors receive apologetic emails about rising temperatures, flu symptoms and fever. The weather begins to turn colder, and many students fall ill.  As of Fall 2023, 33.7% of college students had been diagnosed with the common cold during their tenure on campuses in the U.S., and the second most common illness was the flu virus. 

While as of Fall 2024 the college employs more women than men, there are still gains to be made in representation and support of Black, Latino, Asian and Indigenous faculty members. 

The internet is rife with distractions: from advertisements to the endless scroll of the explore page, there is no escape from the barrage of things to click, watch or buy. Smartphones, computers and game consoles have noticeably shrunk our attention spans. There are so many options for things to do digitally that it seems obvious why no one can focus; we're drowning in entertainment.

As an international student, I came to this country with a strong belief in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — the one that protects the right to free speech, expression and peaceful assembly for social, political, economic and religious purposes. Because of this, I cannot ignore how Cornell University's recent actions against doctoral student Momodou Taal starkly contradict this core American value. 

These responses were selected through brief, impromptu interviews with campus community members.

As the 2024 election rapidly approaches, both parties dove headfirst into existential rhetoric. “This will be the most important election of our lives,” said 75% of Americans according to PBS. This was supposed to be the case in 2020 and 2016. Come to think of it, why would any party tell you otherwise? Isn’t the goal to motivate the most people to go vote? Americans are increasingly frustrated with the state of politics. No matter who has power, things are incredibly expensive, our global reputation continues to plummet and we are faced with ongoing fascism. We must have a candid conversation and ask ourselves: “What did we get out of our vote?

As restrictions increase nationwide, Prop 1 places rights and access in the hands of voters rather than politicians. With an uncertain political climate, it is up to voters to cement equal rights for historically marginalized groups in New York.

Ithaca College is well-known as a liberal leaning space — it was ranked as #22 in Princeton Review’s list of “Most Liberal Leaning Students.” This does not mean that we should discourage academic discourse that includes conservative voices. In fact, the opposite is necessary. When students are constantly hearing the same ideas or talking points, this means that they are existing in an echo chamber that narrows their viewpoint of the world. 

There are no classes offered at Ithaca College within Native American and Indigenous studies other than the introduction course. Only one-fifth of the necessary credits for the Indigenous studies minor is explicitly an Indigenous studies course. For most people, hearing there is only one class dedicated to a minor that shares the same name would be shocking.