Identifying Local Opportunities

Assignment 5A

I chose The Independent Florida Alligator on which I will write my five articles. 

1. “‘Privacy, not confidentiality’: reporting sexual assault at UF” http://www.alligator.org/news/article_0d7cfe9c-0267-11e8-a6a4-8372de07b499.html This story explains a situation in which a freshman at Beaty was sexually violated and unsure of how to continue forward. The student spoke to their RA, who was understandably very worried. The article goes on to discuss the options the victim can take and that these options in themselves are not mandatory to take. The problem presented is that students do not know where to go or who to contact when they have been sexually harassed and believe that they will be forced to take about their trauma. There are only three facilities on campus that deal with this kind of issue, and many students do not know these facilities are available to them.

2.  “About 24 students stained their pants with fake blood. Here’s why.” http://www.alligator.org/news/article_19de8a3e-00b9-11e8-b682-638af34b1985.html In this article, Amanda Rosa, a staff writer for The Alligator, writes about the protest that took place in Turlington Plaza to raise awareness for free, accessible menstrual products on the UF campus. This protest was in response to UF’s student government failing to pass a bill that would make menstrual products free on campus. The problem presented in the article is that feminine products are either not available in restrooms, or are not free. Although the majority of people protesting were female UF students, this problem exists for all females as any female can get their period at any time and not have access to the products they need. The following day after this article came out, The Alligator publish an article the following day stating that they have taken back their initial decision to deny funding and will supply Gator Well with free feminine care products starting in February. This is the link to this article. http://www.alligator.org/news/article_50b478b4-00cf-11e8-b8e4-5fb475f52735.html

3.   “Dinner celebrates different religions in honor of MLK Jr.” http://www.alligator.org/news/article_567300b8-0269-11e8-9ca8-63e70bb4fbee.html This story describes the multicultural lunch that occurred on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The lunch consisted of approximately 65 people of more than six different faiths talking and interacting in a peaceful way. An underlying problem that this lunch gathering is trying to solve is the disrespect that comes from not understanding other religions. In the world we live in today, everyone is so eager to jump at one another’s throats and less eager to listen to what they have to say and in what they believe. Who has the problem? I’d say everyone, for that matter. While some people are generally more willing to listen than others, we all do it at some point or another.

4.   “New SG party to be formed, campaign manager says” http://www.alligator.org/news/article_c33e8696-0263-11e8-91b4-d322710e9913.html This article explains how Janae Moodie recently formed the Challenge Party since she felt Impact was tokenizing minorities. The problem presented in the story is that blacks have been underrepresented and many feel as though they do not have intrinsic value in a social sense, but are merely recognized for the skin color. Although blacks are the ones who suffer from underrepresentation, this issue affects everyone since no one exists in a bubble but instead we exist in relation to everyone and everything else.

5.   “Birds are dying at UF. Here's why.” http://www.alligator.org/news/article_957634f8-ff1a-11e7-b59a-cfb0f863ce08.html This article describes the tragic and bizarre reoccurrence that consists of birds flying into buildings and landing dead on the sidewalk. The story mentions a student who experienced this during a class she was in and found it quite disturbing. Her peers were making insensitive and repulsive jokes to cope with the horror of the situation such as saying “accounting kills.” The problem discussed in detail is that when birds are migrating during this time of year, they head west and often mistake windows for open air to fly in. This issue affects bird lovers, animal lovers in general, and compassionate people alike as we should all care about our ecosystem and the wellbeing of different species. I do appreciate that a professor at UF has developed a mechanism to prevent these deaths from happening.