Though the Iraq war started almost four years ago, undergraduate students across the nation have drawn criticism that they are not doing enough to voice their opinion on the situation abroad. With the fourth anniversary of the initial invasion into Iraq fast approaching at the end of the month, many student organizations are trying to counter that image and prove that their generation is not indifferent toward the war.

Yesterday in Anabel Taylor Hall, Alan Collinge, founder of Student Loan Justice, spoke about massive problems he has seen arise from student loans. Though approximately 50 percent of Cornell students receive financial aid, according to Collinge, only two out of 10 know where their loan is coming from.

Do you know where your Cornell sweatshirt came from? That is the fundamental question student-activist groups Cornell Organization for Labor Action and the Cornell chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops are asking as they attempt to hold the University accountable for where they license out their apparel. Cornell signed on more than a year ago to the Designated Suppliers Program, an agreement designed to hold factories accountable for the working conditions of laborers, but the University has yet to implement the elements of that program.

Most women know the power of a looking great — especially Rachel Doyle ’05, president of Glamour Gals Foundation, a non-profit organization that aims to create “smiles that span all generations” by making over the elderly living in nursing homes.

“We cannot be bought.” This short, but powerful message uttered by Ithaca High School students was echoed throughout Cornell Co-op Extension at a press conference held by Reality Check, an anti-tobacco industry organization, on Feb. 1. In the first of many planned listening sessions over 2007, Reality Check sought to highlight the growing issue of tobacco abuse in Tompkins County high schools and middle schools. Together with a group middle school and high school students, Common Council member Gayraud Townsend ’05 (D-4th Ward) emphasized the need for tobacco education in the school system.

The Early Childhood Center, located in the College of Human Ecology, will close next semester despite the concerns of some parents that the center to be built in its place will not live up to the standards of the current facility.

With course selection for next semester well underway, many students remain confused about how to make Schedulizer and CoursEnroll, Cornell’s enrollment system, work for them. While Schedulizer enables students to input their class selections and see various scheduling options, some students feel that there could be improvements to make the software more user-friendly especially as it aims to expand to other schools.

With news of North Korea’s nuclear test so prominent in the media, this past weekend several organizations on campus sought to show another side of North Korea through a series of discussions called “NK Focus: Do you know North Korea?”

Almost 16 years after Cornell “police” officers changed their name from “peace” officers, the controversy over this name change continues to be a problem. CUPD believes that despite the official change in name, they do not garner the same respect as municipal police officers, which could prove detrimental for campus safety and crime prevention.

With the sound of African drums reverberating in the background and former Secretary of the State Madeline Albright on stage, the recent mid-September rallies staged across the United States to bring growing awareness of Darfur seemed like a significant step to increase humanitarian aid in an area stricken with poverty and violence.