Hurricane Irene is over, thank God. Much of the student body is from the East Coast or has family and friends there, so knowing that the worst has passed brings a great sigh of relief to the concerned (and those who have taken in people fleeing the destruction).

For the price we pay, we expect a great deal of benefits from the University. For the most part, the school delivers. But imagine if Washington University consisted of unresponsive teachers, poor job placement, fewer services, and unnecessary departments that yielded little benefit to students. And, on top of that, they asked for a substantial tuition increase.

For a country that has always been proud of its history, America has the reputation of leaving behind one of its most important cultural artifacts. Project yourself back to the end of the 19th Century: merchandises, food, people and machines, zipping (although chugging would perhaps be a more apt term) across the Great Plains and the Manufacturing Belt.

Last year, sophomore Mamatha Challa was a new Student Union senator trying to work out a bike-sharing plan. She had to research what other universities had similar plans and where they succeeded and failed. Contact with other schools was sporadic, and the research took a long time.

Amid the tumultuous debate of the health care reform bill, an important issue fell by the wayside. Since 1965, private banks have received subsidies from the federal government in order to support lending to students for higher education.

The South 40 government is about to undergo a regime change. Approximately 700 inhabitants of the residential area voted for candidates in the 2010-2011 Congress of the South 40 (CS40) executive board elections last week. Voter turnout this year has declined compared to last year.

As of late, there have been several debates on campus concerning the topic of gun control. When approached with this topic, many stuffy professors like to drone on ad nauseam about court precedent. Others like to spew out endless series of statistics on crime rates and gun possession.

A week ago, in the opinion pages of Student Life, Daniel Fishman did what millions of Americans do every day: he completely misunderstood conservatism. I’d further postulate that he has an exceptionally dismal outlook on society as a whole. In his editorial, he put up the image of the isolationist “self-made man” as a conservative ideal that is inherently impossible.

In light of the economic downturn, family dependence on food stamps has grown significantly in Missouri from August 2008 to 2009. According to a study published by the Brookings Institution and First Focus in December, nearly 150,000 additional people relied on these Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for food purchases.

There has certainly been a lot of controversy regarding the government’s latest efforts to “reform” health care. Much of it is certainly deserved, as the American public feels that there’s been a lack of transparency regarding what exactly is in the currently proposed bill.