Growing up, we are told to eat our vegetables so we can become healthy and strong. We groan and complain, but eventually accept that our parents have our best interests in mind; so, we begrudgingly take a few bites of the green stuff we detest. We may have even secretly liked that green stuf…

A Virginia Tech junior walks into the house and puts her bags down. She starts unpacking and quickly realizes she left her laptop charger at home. “Crap.” She quickly checks her laptop to see that it is at 5% battery; she has an assignment due at midnight. For the rest of the day, she goes t…

Virginia Tech’s central method of gathering student feedback on teaching is falling short. The university must change the composition of the SPOT survey if it wishes to value student feedback. 

Freshman year of college is filled with a lot of firsts. It may be the first time a student is away from home, the first time they are living on their own and the first time they are completely in charge of themselves. With these firsts also come new eating habits, which can contribute to wh…

Post-quarantine freedom and newly stuffed residence halls can only be expected to breed a little chaos on the weekends, but party culture is taking it too far this time. With the lack of parties to attend and no more Center Street game days, there’s been a rise in vandalism — willful or mali…

For the average reader, the most infamous line of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” may be “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” But instead, I’ve found myself repeating the question, “What's in a name?” over and over again in my head.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were a watershed moment in contemporary history. I was too young to remember the day itself. My parents and older siblings have in some ways described the fear and anxiety of that day and the inescapable feeling that everything was shattering. I do, howe…

As election season winds down, it’s important to recognize how vital it is for us as Americans to take advantage of the rights we’ve been given, voting being one of the most important of all. And while it is good to pay attention to presidential elections, it is also pertinent that people pa…

Coming back to campus for the semester of fall 2020, many things have changed. One of those changes is the new procedures put in place to ensure everyone’s safety at McComas Gym. Students are asked to wear masks while walking between equipment and are supposed to sign up for a time slot to w…

If you ask Hokies why they chose Virginia Tech, chances are one of them will reference the food. Over the past few years, Virginia Tech has consistently been ranked among the best college campuses for food and dining. From all-you-can-eat dining at D2 to grab-and-go items for busy students, …

Another year is upon us and, barring the major health crisis that is ravaging the country, university administrators are trying to proceed with the retention of as much normalcy as possible.

At the brink of an election, the United States faced another tragedy in 2020 with the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As an icon to many, everything from her infamous dissents to her years of servitude to our country will not be forgotten. At Virginia Tech, we know the …

The 2020 presidential election is creeping closer and closer, and during this time of political extremities and heated debates, we need to ask ourselves how we got to this point. How did our two most prominent political parties become so polarized? Liberals are labeled as snowflakes and cons…

When society refers to the STEM field, the same names appear. Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin; the list goes on and on. However, one group always seems to be missing from this endless list of influential thinkers: women. When society thinks of famous scientists, they immediat…

Social media is taking over our lives: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and now, TikTok. These social media platforms have transformed from a way to stay connected to an industry where even kids can make money off their posts. While this may seem like another opportunistic innovation, it’s reall…

Before the pandemic, I genuinely liked school. There were many times I sat in a classroom, entirely engaged and left feeling buoyant with intellectual curiosity. Now that everything is online, classes are mundane, unstimulating and unorganized. I weighed my options this summer and decided th…

Mental health has been a stigmatized conversation since its conception. It has been widely considered better to shut up and smile than to be true with others and ourselves on how we’re feeling, inside and out. In recent years, talks of mental health have increased considerably, but in a time…

Since the term was first coined in 1931, the mass majority of Americans have bought into the notion of the “American Dream,” where anyone, regardless of background or class standing, can work hard enough to progress in the world and become “successful” in life. This success is often associat…

During this unprecedented time, many things have changed, both small and big, from having to wear a mask to the grocery store to not being able to visit family and friends. Of course, Virginia Tech has not been excluded from these changes. The majority of classes are online. Club and organiz…

I remember the first true hike I ever went on. It was a hot day last summer when my friends and I got the idea late one afternoon to hike Old Rag. We left around 1 p.m. and reached the trailhead around 4 p.m. From there, we began the hike. Pushing through hundreds of feet of elevation gain, …