Chicago

OPINION: Power and femininity are not mutually exclusive

During my senior year of high school, I was required to write a research paper on the topic of my choice. I chose a subject regarding the expression of feminism in America. I focused on situations in which women took over a more masculine role than was traditional, such as in the popular musical “Chicago,” where the women murder their significant others. As I reflect on that paper, I realize that I do not agree with my previous viewpoint on what constituted feminism. Being a feminist is not synonymous with acting like a man.

OPINION: Business interests, academia and the fiscal realities of contemporary education

Academia and business, those star-crossed lovers, locked horns in two major educational crises this past year. First, the University of Virginia was thrown into turmoil when their Board of Visitors suddenly and brazenly fired and subsequently rehired the university president who, up to that point, had served less than two years. The second catastrophe came this past week in Chicago when negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and the mayor dissolved into a full-on strike by the teachers, leaving nearly 400,000 students out of school.