Two days ago, we received some exciting news on Bryn Mawr's campus: Bryn Mawr has updated their admissions policy to explicitly be inclusive of "transwomen and of intersex individuals who live and identify as women at the time of application," as well as "intersex individuals who do not identify as male." However, the statement also said that "those assigned female at birth who have taken medical or legal steps to identify as male are not eligible for admission." Having been a part of the movement for an inclusive admissions policy, this is, of course, incredibly exciting news and a wonderful first step in the right direction for Bryn Mawr.

"often it is the needs of students and the inability of schools to meet those needs that cause them to be disciplined" (Noguera, 113)

"Throughout the United States, schools most frequently punish the students who have the greatest academic, social, and emotional needs." (112)

There has been much discussion in the past few days about Beyoncé's loss and Beck's win at the 2015 Grammys, which occurred this past Sunday. The award "Album of the Year" was forecasted by many critics and music fans to be won by Beyoncé, who dropped a surprise digital album (simply titled "Beyoncé") complete with music videos for each track in Winter 2013. Her influence on music this past year because of her album drop has been monumental -- as she states in a recent song with Nicki Minaj, " changed the game with that digital drop, know where you was when that digital popped I stopped the world; male or female it make no difference I stop the world" (Feeling Myself, 2014).

            Earlier this week some of my friends and I discussed “the talk” we got from our parents about how to respond to police officers. Our discussion was prompted by the killing of Akai Gurley by NYPD officer Peter Liang and ensuing indictment as well as the centuries long tradition of systemic racism in America.

I was speaking to a friend just yesterday about the missions of BSL and how they relate to commenting for a College Newspaper article about Haverford’s decision to change the name of Black History Month Dinner to Soul Food Dinner. Questions about whether or not to give a comment as the person doing the article was again going to misrepresent BSL and the opinion they held was a topic we covered in depth but this wasn’t what brought up questions for me and it’s not what I will be writing about. At a point in the conversation we began speaking about where inequities come from and how it has adversely affected people of color but people still miss the point just like the College Newspaper missed the point of the Blackout Board.

"As many as one-third of all black men spend time in the criminal justice system. Upon reentering society, many discover that, among other things, imprisonment has robbed them of their voting rights. Only four states...allow inmates to vote. In fourteen states, a felony conviction equals lifetime disenfranchisement" (City Kids, City Schools, 302).

Jamie Lew's article comparing Korean Americans in two different classes and her push at the end that "researchers may benefit by examining race relations beyond a black and white discourse, and how students' racial and ethnic identities intersect with culture, class, race, and school context" (Lew) talks about how different socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic identities shouldn’t be seen in binary. I think that it could benefit everyone, not just "researchers," to consider different outlooks. For example, in another class, we were discussion studies in which women in STEM fields felt that the identity of being a woman and being in the STEM field conflicted which could lead to poorer performance and social interaction.

Recently my university’s dinning center decided to change the name of the ‘Black History Month’ dinner to ‘Soul Food’ dinner. Upon the unveiling of this change the editor-in-chief of the university’s paper contacted the Black Students League (BSL) for a response to the name change. As a co-head, myself, along with the rest of the executive board, were unsure how to address this situation.