I have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Foursquare, Google+, Spotify, Turntable.fm, Bonfyre and Pinterest accounts. Although I’ll be the first to admit that my online social life may be slightly excessive, I doubt my experience is uncommon.

The Sumarins are a Palestinian family living in the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem, the part of Jerusalem that is in the West Bank. East Jerusalem is the location of many familiar religious sites, such as the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock. The Sumarins have spent the past 30 years fighting to remain in their home; this fight has recently intensified.

“Why should I care?” It is a very valid question and one that resonates throughout our campus. Whether the context is the HIV epidemic, the state of American public schools or the gross financial inequality in our country, our campus has come up with increasingly eloquent ways to ask this question.

Around the time when the mainstream media began to cover Occupy Wall Street, one of my responsibilities at my internship included interviewing Marva, a 65-year-old African American woman living on a fixed income in Ballwin, Mo. who had been fighting the foreclosure of her home for more than two years.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to get out of Washington and talk with folks across the country about how we can create jobs and get our economy growing faster. This is a tough time for a lot of Americans—especially young people. You’ve come of age at a time of profound change.

Look, let’s be honest. The Senate elections are a farce. How could they be described as anything but a farce, if year after year, elections in most of the University’s schools are either uncompetitive or uncontested? How can the organization purport to be the voice of the student body if anyone can just sign up to be put on the ballot and win?

Last weekend, I logged onto Facebook to see what was going on. As I studied my newsfeed (which has changed 15 times in two years), some pretty striking statuses came to my attention. They spoke of ignorance and racism, specifically targeting some freshman girl, Claire Ferguson. I saw several different statuses as I scrolled down, and wondered what was going on.

Last Friday, I attended an Occupy St. Louis march that included a protest outside of Bank of America’s St. Louis headquarters. Participants included people of different ages, races, socioeconomic backgrounds and political beliefs. There were students, veterans, union members, toddlers, adults who reminded me of my parents, members of the St.

On Oct. 6, a column was published in Student Life called “Racism and Affirmative Action.” Its central point is that “[a]ffirmative action is a fundamentally racist concept, and its implementation goes against racial equality.” The author argues for a “racially-blind, economically oriented alternative” to replace current affirmative action policies.

With the worldwide media’s attention captivated by tyrannical governments in Syria and Bahrain, tumultuous reconstructions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and fledgling democracies in Libya and Egypt, Iran involuntarily retreated, this summer, from the global stage.