This past August, The One and Only Ivan, was released on the streaming platform, Disney Plus. An adaption of the novel by the same title, the movie follows the character of Ivan, a silverback gorilla. He lives at the Big Top Mall, where he and his friends have to perform tricks in order to make money for the ringleader, Mack. After Mack brings a baby elephant named Ruby to the mall in order to attract more people, Ivan is faced with the task of bringing Ruby and the other animals to the wild where they belong. I hadn’t seen any promotional material before seeing the movie, but having read the…
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The Road Towards Reopening NYC Public Schools
As we begin our school year, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that the city’s 1.1 million schoolchildren will now start both remote and in-person classes on Sept. 21, 10 days later than originally scheduled. The original date for public schools to open was September 10th, but the teachers’ union threatened to go on strike until they were ensured that full safety precautions would be put into place. “For the nation’s largest school system to come together in unity and say, ‘we are going to get it right, and it won’t always be easy and there’ll be tough moments along the way, but we’re going to get it right’— that’s…
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The Andrew Mellon Foundation Awards CUNY $10 Million
“The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity. We believe that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom to be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive”. This is the official mission statement of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Founded in 1969 New York, The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Foundation (MMUF) works to fund organizations rooted in higher learning, arts and culture, public knowledge, and the humanities. In August, CUNY received a $10 million gift from them to help serve 25 campuses and…
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CUNY seeks to implement invasive test proctoring software
Since the world became introduced to online education, college students all over the world quickly downloaded platforms like Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Blackboard Collaborate Ultra for their synchronous classes. Naturally, everyone became suspicious about the ulterior motives of these platforms, as it is a common belief that many of these companies secretly record meetings that take place online. Recently, new evidence has been brought to light that unfortunately proves that the wild conspiracy theory is, in fact, the truth. According to an online petition created by the Brooklyn College Student Government, The City University of New York (CUNY) was recently exposed for teaming up with McGraw Hill Publishing to implement…
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Southeast Asia Faces Severe Consequences of Climate Change
Amid the pandemic, we’ve had the opportunity to observe the beauty of nature while staying at home, going for walks and maybe spending a bit more time out in the sun for a change of scenery. Luckily, we are fortunate enough to live in a place where there is less pollution, but that is not the case for other countries. Southeast Asia is reported to be facing more severe consequences of climate change than the rest of the world, according to the business and economic research arm of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. “Asia faces climate hazards with potentially severe socioeconomic impacts and thus has a keen interest in…
