D.C. bursts into pink clouds of petals once a year, thanks to Japan’s gift of 3,000 trees in 1912.
“Cherry blossoms are the symbol of Japan, so seeing them in full bloom in front of the Japanese embassy and downtown makes me feel incredibly proud,” said Japanese-American Ellie Yanagisawa, a sophomore at AU.
Two starkly different religious perspectives will congregate in DC this weekend, as the Rally for Religious Freedom and the Reason Rally will set up shop on Friday and Saturday afternoon, respectively.
More than 600 colleges in the United States ban smokers from lighting up on university grounds — and some administrators and members of the student body think AU should become a smoke-free campus as well.
The thorny issue of students smoking on campus is not unfamiliar territory for the administration. The school banned lighting up in the Tavern way back in 1998 (wait, you mean people used to smoke inside?) and stomped out smoking in and around residence halls back in 2003. The prospect of a campus sans cigarettes has faded in and out of debate since 2007.
AU came close to a smoking ban in 2008, when a bill to enact new guidelines on limiting smoking on campus made its way before Student Government; the bill passed the senate despite a veto from SG President Joe Vidulich. At the same time as the kerfuffle over smoking shuffled through SG, the University President’s council began investigating the feasibility of a campus smoking ban.
Instead of supporting an unsustainable system in which the average meal travels over 1,500 miles from farm to factory to plate, students can elect to back a regionally minded system of producer-consumer interaction.
Whether it’s composting with worms or taking care of AU’s beehive (yes, we have bees!), International Development Professor Eve Bratman is always looking for ways to live more sustainability.
Accommodating an octopus in a standard 12 by 15 foot dorm room, while also living with a roommate and maintaining a social life, might seem farfetched, if not impossible.
The Democratic Party is to American University as alcohol is to Jersey Shore; everybody partakes in it, and often there is so much it can get out of hand.
