StudentNation | The Nation

This post was originally published at the independent student site NYU Local, and is republished here with permission.

Underneath the cavernous arches of Cooper Union’s Great Hall last night, 550 plush red seats were filled with 550 people, all eyes fixed on a gold-tasseled podium behind which a tall, graying man stood. Between massive white pillars, the audience looked up at a stage once graced by Presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt—a stage whose inauguration speech was given by Mark Twain himself. The speaker, environmental activist, author, and journalist Bill McKibben started out the night by describing himself as a “professional bummer-out-er,” because of his dire climate change predictions. But by the end of the night, the crowd was so animated and vivacious, you’d never think they’d been discussing the end of the world as we know it for the past two hours—especially in the aftermath of a weather event that only solidified McKibben’s ominous forecast.

“During Sandy, to watch the water pour in…was to understand the fragility of our civilization in a new way,” he said to an audience of students, activists, and organizations. “The boundaries that we had set up, that we though were permanent—they were not.” McKibben, who has been described by Time as “the world’s best green journalist,” represented his grassroots climate organization 350.org, a movement geared at raising awareness of man-made climate change through international community organizing and activism. But for NYU and other schools in New York City, the night took on a special meeting—as McKibben discussed the importance of university divestment in fossil fuel company holdings, NYU Divest, a student and faculty-led group, was pinpointed as a growing force in the crusade.

A SWAT team at Habans Elementary School, New Orleans. (Flickr/Bart Everson)

This article was originally published by AlterNet and is reposted here with the permission of the author. 

In this week's selection, you'll find not only intelligent commentary on the topics of the day (gun control, immigration, Mali), but also some stories that would make for great trivia questions or discussion starters. Read on to find out how poetry helps guide immigrants across the US-Mexico border, how PTSD can be contagious, how 90 percent of Canadians now have a female premier and how one family in Siberia didn't see another human for forty years.

Alleen Brown focuses on education.

This piece was originally published by NYU Local, the independent campus blog of NYU, and is republished here with permission.

It’s a five-minute walk for Dana Salah to reach The Bean coffee shop on 12th Street and Broadway on a rainy Sunday afternoon. The 22 -year-old young woman is cozily bundled up in a maroon sweater, thick scarf, and hijab against the dreary December weather. In Dana’s hometown, the village of Bethlehem in the West Bank of Palestine, it’s a balmy 73°. But the weather isn’t the biggest difference that Dana notices—it’s that five-minute walk.

“In my country I get up two hours before the university because there are checkpoints. It makes life difficult,” Dana says. “The life here is totally different than Palestine. Totally free.”