The holidays aren’t so full of cheer when, as a student, you can’t afford to give gifts. By Lauren Thurman

The post Opinion: I’ll be broke for Christmas appeared first on CU Independent.

British pop artist’s newest single “Hard Out Here” is starting all the right conversations

The post Lily Allen’s bold moves and big words appeared first on CU Independent.

Opinions herein do not necessarily reflect CU Independent or any of its sponsors.

As someone who does her fair share of both biking and walking all over campus, I often find myself in circumstances that make me want to scream. Or, at the very least, kick someone. Instead of doing either of these, I wrote two letters, one to cyclists and one to pedestrians, that I hope will elucidate some of the more basic principles of biking/walking etiquette I know we’d all like to see more of.

Dear cyclists,

We know you’re in a rush, OK? We get it. We’ve all got places to go and classes to text during. But you guys don’t have to be so scary about it. Getting bumped into and knocked over is not on my to do list on any given day, and I think I speak for most when I ask you to calm down a bit.

When you’re passing any of us lowly pedestrians, a little “Hey, comin’ by” or “On your left” will go a long way. We may, in these instances, merely move over, or we may actually turn around to see exactly where you are, and do what we can to make sure you have safe passage through the next 10 feet of campus.

If, however, you’re trying to bike through a crowd of people who are already backpack-to-backpack, you’re out of luck. Trust me when I tell you that when you try to stay on your bike when you have to travel at a walking pace, you wobble and totter, and you look ridiculous. Just give up. Dismount and walk like the rest of us. It’s actually not so bad. And – get this – it’s super easy to get right back on your bike as soon as you’re out of the throng, and you can race away into the sunset all you want.

Sincerely,
The pedestrians

P.S. Yeah, hills are fun, but so is being alive. Slow down, Speed Racer.

Dear pedestrians,

Let’s pretend, for a minute, that traffic is organized in terms of lanes. Each person agrees to travel in his or her lane in a predictable manner so that everyone may get to where they’re going without crashing. Let’s also pretend that, even when there are no lines drawn on the road, the general consensus is that people keep to the right side. You know, for tradition’s sake.

This is literally all we ask of you. That’s it. We don’t need you to signal before you turn; we don’t want you to leap out of the way upon our approach; maybe we’d like you to look out for us before you start crossing the street, but we won’t be pushy about it. If a genie sprang out of the UMC fountains and granted me one wish, and one wish only, it would be that you on-footers would all decide that the right is an okay side of the pavement to walk on.

In some places on campus, the university has been so kind as to draw lanes for you, with little symbols and arrows to help you along your way. In these parts of campus, you have no excuse. If I see you walking in a bike lane, I will run you down, and I will be happy to do it. Come on, guys, you’re in college; you should be able to read pictures by now.

Cordially,
The cyclists

P.S. Headphones? Seriously? Do you have a death wish?

Contact CU Independent Staff Qriter Lauren Thurman at Lauren.thurman@colorado.edu

Opinions do not necessarily represent the CU Independent or any of its sponsors.

After a little over a month of walking past the dust and cacophony of the Rec Center construction zone to get to my classes, I’ve lately had to remind myself that it’s for a good cause. The Buff Up the Rec initiative, a project that will substantially expand the campus recreation facilities, is alive and kicking. And boy, is it kicking.

Even though I wasn’t able to vote for the initiative, having arrived on campus a year after the fact, I have only supportive feelings towards it. The students who are going to be paying for the project in fees for the next 25 years probably won’t be able to complain either, because pictures of the rec’s projected final appearance look pretty rad.

What I wish I had been here to vote against, however, is the swanky new buffalo-shaped leisure pool that will be rolling into town with our new spin machines.

While the elimination of one swimming pool from a $63 million project would have little to no effect on my paltry $125 student fees every semester, I can’t help but feel that this pool is absurd.

The whole purpose of the Buff Up the Rec initiative was to provide health-minded Boulder students with expanded and improved recreation facilities. This was not only a desirable project, but a necessary one: recreational space per student right now is at least 30 percent below the national average, while physical activity per student is 10 percent above it. So please, by all means, pimp my gym.

The outdoor pool, meanwhile, is being described as a “leisure pool.” Call me crazy, but when I stepped outside today, getting into a swimsuit and jumping into a pool seemed like the least leisurely thing imaginable.

Outdoor pools are traditionally open in the summer months, between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Even though summer classes are a thing, CU is most populated during the fall and spring terms. This means that, in theory, the buff-shaped leisure pool would be getting the most traffic during the very time period when it would be unusable.

Since CU prides itself on its sustainability initiatives and awareness, the pool is also an uncharacteristically extravagant development where environmental awareness is concerned.

This disparity, as well as a comparison to the functional developments taking place inside the Rec Center, the buff-shaped leisure pool begins to look like less of a fun commodity and more like large, chlorine-filled pit of uselessness.

The only thing this pool seems to do (if indeed it does anything at all) is undermine the validity of the otherwise admirable Buff Up the Rec project.

We set out to ensure that students today and in years to come were provided with the resources they needed to look after their health and fitness, not to give campus a makeover.

Contact CU Independent writer Lauren Thurman at Lauren.thurman@Colorado.edu

Opinions do not necessarily represent the CU Independent or any of its sponsors.

October is easily the worst month ever. It doesn’t matter how much you like pumpkin spice lattes: The weather gets cold, school gets hard, the nights get long. There are no academic breaks (at least not at CU), and there are no secular holidays until literally the last day of October. At night.

Given these conditions, it can be really easy to get a big case of the sads. And since, according to a 2011 American Public Health Association study, suicide is the leading cause of death in college students, the sads are actually a very big deal.

If you’re like me, and your happiness depends mostly on exposure to the sun, you might need a little help to fight and defeat the sads. Here are just a few things that students have found work for them.

1. Exercise. You probably get told this all the time — that doesn’t make it any less important, but I won’t dwell too long on the subject. Just remember the eternal wisdom of Elle Woods: “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy.” Forget the part about killing husbands; it probably doesn’t apply.
2. Stay busy. Sometimes, it’s best simply to fill up your schedule so that you don’t have time to catch the sads. Sophomore political science and communication major Colin Wichman, 19, has this approach down. “I’m really involved in student government and various honor societies and student groups. Not to mention school and work as well,” Wichman said. Keeping your mind occupied, and your days packed will help distract you from the horribleness that is October.
3. Treat yourself. Don’t hesitate to indulge in little things that might help push the sads away. “I buy pretty cold-weather clothes that I will feel good wearing,” said Dina Liptsen, 19, a sophomore film studies major.  Being in constant learn-and-study mode makes it easy to forget about the little, good things of life. These are important; prioritize them. If you think buying that scarf or reading that book will make you happy, do it.
4. Find something you love, and do a lot of it. Junior English major Emilie Colby, 22,  loves hockey. A lot. “I even got a chance to kiss the Stanley Cup in the summer,”she said. To stave off the sads in the fall and winter, she said she spends her time “watching hockey, reading about hockey, studying hockey stats… did I mention hockey?” Whether it’s hockey or yoga or photography or old Bob Ross episodes, having something to fall back to is crucial for minimizing bad days.
5. Know yourself. Not every person needs the same things to be happy. “I force myself to stay active because I know it will make me happier, but I also acknowledge the value of Netflix and hot chocolate,” Ellyse Dick, 20-year-old sophomore international affairs major, said. What we want and need changes all the time, and we all benefit from checking in on ourselves once in a while to see what that is.

Above all, if the sads are getting to you so much that you think you can’t handle them, remember that there are always people to talk to. Go to your friends and mentors, or check out the several resources the university offers.

Be strong, Buffs. Winter is coming, but it doesn’t have to suck too much.

Contact CU Independent staff writer Lauren Thurman at Lauren.Thurman@Colorado.edu.

Opinions do not represent CU Independent or any sponsors.

Next week, the CU Board of Regents will hear a proposal aiming to include political affiliation in the university’s nondiscrimination policy. Several members of the Board have expressed concern that there is a “pervasive liberal bias” on the Boulder campus.

Wait, what? There are liberals in Boulder?

According to the Boulder County Clerk’s Office, 42 percent of active voters in the city are registered as Democrats, while only 19 percent are registered as Republicans. It stands to reason that these percentages hold true on campus, perhaps with an even greater difference between party numbers, what with college being so full of youths.

There has apparently been concern among CU’s faculty and regents for some time as to whether this epidemic of liberalism has any serious side effects. The regents even approved a $100,000 climate survey on the issue in June, scheduled to take place during the upcoming school year. (So if someone approaches you this semester and asks you about your politics, you can calm down — the presidential election campaigners didn’t come early; you’re safe.)

All this hubbub has me wondering what the big deal is. Traditionally, nondiscrimination policies are set up to benefit oppressed or underrepresented persons, such as people with disabilities, members of the LGBT community or any number of individuals who still somehow don’t have the full run of our Constitution.

Conservatives, meanwhile, seem to be doing just fine. Republicans carry the House, conservative news outlets are thriving and recent events suggest even our president might harbor some right-wing tendencies. Why the need to explicitly ensure fair treatment of conservatives on campus?

William O’Bryan, a sophomore classics major and current secretary for the College Republicans, said that the left-wing atmosphere contributes to “a view of conservatives as people to be casually mocked.” This view, it seems, is prevalent among staff as well as students. “Professors and other students… make jokes about Republicans and conservatives without realizing that I or others might not like that.”

Aslinn Scott, a senior communications major, said that the problem goes beyond playful classroom banter. “I feel that my academic reputation has been at risk because I have been open [about my political beliefs] in the classroom and with some of my teachers,” Scott said.

Scott, 22, is the Chair of the Colorado Federation of College Republicans. During a presidential visit last fall, she organized a group of students to protest the Obama administration’s economic policies.

“I was told to ‘go to hell,’ among other things,” Scott said.

While all these examples give me a healthy dose of shame in my fellow Buffs, they nevertheless seem like symptoms of campus culture, not policy.

Boulder has been the Mecca of liberal hotspots for some time now. It can be easy for those of us living in our granola-sprinkled paradise to forget to treat people with different views respectfully — or that other views exist at all. It’s important to be aware that even pacifists and hippies are susceptible to mob psychology.

However, to assert that conservatives at CU are systematically oppressed might be a little far-fetched. And to assume that a policy change will improve the existing judgment and animosity is, at best, optimistic.

Political attitudes are shaped by deep-seated, fundamental, often very personal beliefs. How else could political discussions around the globe be so reliably accompanied by misunderstanding and vitriol? While I don’t believe we’re too far gone to integrate a little courtesy into our daily discourse, I do believe it will take time and a lot of work.

Political discrimination is a worthy opponent to tear down, but the work has to come from the people. If it is the students and staff making our fellow Buffs feel uncomfortable, even unwelcome, then it is the students and staff who will have to get over themselves and address the issue.

A few extra words the Board of Regents puts into the nondiscrimination policy will be about as effective as our drugs and alcohol policy.

Contact CU Inependent staff writer Lauren Thurman at Lauren.Thurman@Colorado.edu.

Opinions do not represent CU Independent or any sponsors.

Exploring life outside the dress code norms with your dignity intact can be a cocktail of double standards, but CU’s general lack of regulations on clothing doesn’t give anyone the right to judge based on appearances.

Picture this: A shy and sheltered girl is looking for Hellems amidst a sea of sweaty young bodies. She is witness to several bandeaus, a few see-through dresses and at least a dozen gratuitous booty shorts. Unsure of how to deal with the scenery, she stares at her campus map in the hope that it will lead her away from this village of sin (or at least to her next class).

That’s me, circa my first week of college.

The transition from high school to college is jarring — both intellectually and socially — but a changing element that ought to receive more attention is the Magical Disappearing Dress Code.

Whether you went to public or private school, in Colorado or far away from it, you were probably oppressed by a list of rules determining how you could dress. If you’re a guy, the dress code was relatively short and might have kept you from wearing your favorite Bob Marley shirt. If you’re a girl, however, that list was longer than any skirt you’d be able to walk in: straps must be this width, shorts must be this length, navels are a no-no, shoulders are shrouded, etc. If you identify outside the gender binary, high school was probably not your jam in the first place. Welcome to college: It gets better.

More so than to stave promiscuity, dress codes are borne of the age-old tradition of vilifying and suppressing female sexuality. Many codes perpetuate the mentality that racer-back tops are the cause of impure thoughts.

Institutionalized, sexist policies are on their way to becoming ubiquitous. If you went to a public school, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics says there is a 57 percent chance you’ve been subject to dress code regulations–and that number has increased 10 percent in the last 10 years.

Fortunately, you’re now a student on a campus so populous that it can seem like an entire city. No one gets to tell you what to wear on Boulder’s freethinking campus.

Academic institutions have never been brought down by skimpy clothing. When have we seen a dramatic increase in male test performance as soon as sweater weather came around?

Spring finals and the return of the sundress don’t usually cancel each other out in a paradoxical explosion.

That being said, it’s also true that people, women included, get dressed based on what fulfills them, not on what appeals to others’ sexual appetites.

We shouldn’t assume that the girl whose bum is peeking out of her skirt is a floozy. She probably just really likes that skirt, or maybe it’s just hot as hell outside. (Friendly reminder: Temperatures in Boulder are expected to reach up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit through the end of the week.)

If we’re judgmental of our fellow students and their garments, we’re only giving new life to archaic concepts of propriety.

So, fellow Buffs, take these last days of summer to evaluate your ideals, discard your prejudices and maybe even expand your minds. I’ve heard that sometimes happens in college.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Lauren Thurman at Lauren.thurman@colorado.edu.