Upfront

The question remains: who is really running this massive, confusing circus that is our mid-sized liberal-arts college? Is it Rochon? Is it the Board of Trustees? Or is it the students and teaching staff? Do we have a ringleader who is managing the show behind the curtains?

The air smelled like burning plastic when Alexa Dragoumis stepped out of a bar in Boston on April 15. She was less than a mile away from the finish line, hoping to see her friend’s family finish running the 2013 Boston Marathon.

Sustainability is the goal of today. Achieving it, means addressing it in all parts of our lives: our everyday behaviors, how much materials we demand, how many things we have and how we make those things from.

Under the big top lions are tamed and gravity is defied. The circus holds the wonders of the world, big and small. From elephants to…

From a very young age, people in the United States are subject to the pressures of an unattainable goal: perfection. Athletes are challenged more than most to improve their bodies and their physical performances.

In the modern age media permeates every aspect of people’s daily lives: delivering instructions on what to wear, how to think, what is important and what is not — and everything in between. As is often the case, however, in the mad dash of progress toward a centralized, business-driven and essentially corporatized media network, some things have gotten lost in the shuffle. This seems to include journalistic integrity and legitimate investigational reporting.

I went to the circus every year with my family until I was 12. I don’t remember it being a particularly enjoyable experience, but I also don’t remember it being a torturous, avoid-at-all-costs family bonding extravaganza. Up until last week, I was pretty neutral on the circus.

The wind tugged at my hair as I swished through the air on the Cloud Swing, a high-flying circus act. I pushed my toes upwards, visualizing kicking straight through the roof of the big top.

Only six years ago, 87 percent of the United States student population aged five to 17 attended public school. And in the six years since that 2007 measurement, that percentage has dropped each year as students move to private or charter schools, even homeschooling. Many parents are seeking non-public education options for their children at a younger age before transferring into public schools — if at all.

It’s a fierce competition; there are more students applying to colleges than ever before. According to a study from the National Center for Education Sciences, 21.6 million students were expected to attend American universities in fall 2012, an increase of 6.2 million since fall 2000. Not only is the competition growing to get into these schools, but also there are more students to compete against. Those numbers are steadily increasing. NCES said in a study that there is an expected increase of 11 percent for students enrolling in colleges between 2010 and 2020.