Students’ Views

One of the many benefits of Southwestern is being able to get to know your professors outside of a classroom setting. This past Friday, Southwestern hosted the annual Luce Lecture Series, where a speaker comes to talk about East Asian Studies hosted by the Political Science department. This year, the speaker was Prof. David Leheny from the East Asian Studies department at Princeton University and author of ‘Think Global, Fear Local: Sex, Violence, and Anxiety in Contemporary Japan’. The book examines how the ruling political party in Japan used two different international norms involving security and policing in order to expand state authority. The book follows laws involving counterterrorism and the practice of ‘compensated dating’ to engage in debates related to Japanese morality, family values, and political discussion. The lecture was engaging with Leheny using personal stories to tell of his experience researching these policies in Japan. I was fortunate enough to have Prof. Leheny come speak to my Japanese Politics class after the main lecture over sushi where we continued to ask him questions related to his book. Later that evening, I was also able to attend dinner with Prof. Leheny with two other students and my Political Science professor. This gave me the chance to ask questions related to getting into graduate school, how to properly research a topic, and to continue to ask about Prof. Leheny’s book.

The Political Science department also hosted a ‘Super Tuesday’ watching party for the election returns. I also went to a watching party at the Korouva Milkbar where both students and professors discussed the upcoming election and the aspects of each candidate. I was surprised to see so many people at the watching party – maybe it was the brownies, several students attended and the discussion was lively.

Outside of the goings-on of the Political Science department, I mentioned last time about planning a mental health awareness event on campus. The date is set for February 21 for the ‘dinner and dialogue’ event for rape, depression, and suicide awareness. The presentation is called ‘Kristin’s Story’. It is a speech given by the mother of a girl who was raped and later committed suicide. Each year, the Alpha Chi Omega Foundation and the Tri Delta Foundation awards twenty grants for Andrea Cooper, Kristin’s mother, to come speak to the campus community about awareness of these issues for college students. For me personally, I’ve been looking for a way to bring mental health awareness to the campus that is affective in reaching many students. The issue of suicide has greatly affected me with the death of a good friend, and a year later, I’m glad to see that Southwestern is becoming more open and talking about these problems that plague college students nation-wide.

Also, this weekend is the Kappa Sigma/EBONY ‘Cupid Shuffle’ dance where students can pay $5 to get into the party, and the money will be donated to help fight AIDS in Lesotho.

Colleges Against Cancer is another organization working hard on campus to bring awareness about their cause. ‘Kiss Away Cancer’ is on Valentine’s Day, and carnations are being sold to raise money for Cancer treatment.

In my own life, I’m excited to be getting a ‘Little Sister’ for my sorority this week, and I am also planning on going to see my friend’s band, The Frontier Brothers, play in Austin at Mohawk for Valentine’s Day. Check out their website for music and upcoming shows around Texas. I’m also starting to work on my project for Sustainability class. We decided to divide up into groups - bikes, recycling, gardening, and food to tackle different problems on campus and in Georgetown.

That’s what’s going on this week as far as the activism on campus… Georgetown is good, but I am missing Europe a little bit.