“Embarking on multiple majors may defeat its own purpose”
by Eitan Arom

Challenging oneself is generally a good thing. But by loading up on majors and minors, college students may be making things difficult just for the sake of making things difficult.
Those who embark on multiple majors to look more attractive to employers may be defeating their own purpose by forgoing other educational opportunities, both inside and outside the classroom. …

Many majors outside the physical sciences require few enough classes that students in those majors have the time and available units to customize their education. By sticking to one major, students have the chance to take courses that actually interest them, alien as that idea may sound to overly ambitious UCLA students slogging their way through multiple major requirements. …

This type of a la carte education has more tangible benefits as well. Taking classes off the beaten path of one particular degree can generate career skills and resume items that are more useful to employers than a second major in political science.

The Daily Bruin
University of California, Los Angeles

“‘The Wolf of Wall Street:’ An ugly reflection of us”
by Alexander Elder

Just a couple weeks ago, Christina McDowell – one of the many victims of [Jordan] Belfort’s financial scams – wrote a scathing letter to the film’s director Martin Scorsese and main star Leonardo DiCaprio, decrying the pair as “dangerous” for making a movie about a person like Belfort. … Although I sympathize with McDowell’s sentiments, she and many others have deeply misunderstood the filmmaker’s intention, as well as the important obligation film has to hold a mirror up to society and allow an audience to make its own conclusions regarding the reflection on the screen. …

The audience, upon seeing how morally repugnant these people are, wants desperately to distance itself from them. Scorsese wisely decides not to grant this wish. He instead imbues these characters, as monstrous as they are, with a sense of humanity. … Some people are drawn by the edgy content of a film, which they deem as “cool.” Consequently, they seldom think about the moral implications of this content. I would contend that it’s precisely when people embrace these films for the wrong reasons that a problematic element of our culture is accentuated.

The State Press
Arizona State University

“Off the beat: The ‘feminist’ sellouts”
by Alex Berryhill

2013 was the year being a feminist became cool. From Beyonce to Miley Cyrus to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, A-listers moved the gender equality movement from radical fringes to mainstream culture. … I’m skeptical, however, of the round of applause these A-listers are receiving for their “contributions” to the movement. Has 2013 really been a step forward for feminists? … I don’t think these celebrities are “icons” of the feminist movement because I don’t consider celebrities who perpetuate the very images that continue to marginalize women as leaders in the fight for women’s rights – even if such images are perpetuated by choice. Doing whatever one wants might be a way of defining women’s enhanced freedom, but it doesn’t define, defend or determine the equality feminists have strived for throughout the past century. …

I do think that such a wide breadth of identification with feminism makes an already commonly misunderstood movement even more complicated, misunderstood and ineffective.

The Daily Californian
University of California, Berkeley