Every professor has their own policy on whether electronics —like tablets or laptops— are allowed in their classrooms. Some classes allow students unrestricted access to their devices, while others have an “off and away” policy and will call you out if they see them. Students may have their own preferences, but which one is ultimately better for student learning?

As an English Literature major, I am not required to take a senior seminar to fulfill my graduation credits. But there are so many things that I would love to research on my own time at some point in my academic career. Here are a few topics that I would love to write a lengthy essay on.

Recently, there has been a conversation among college executive board (e-board) club members that interest, attendance, and participation in clubs have been low over the past few semesters. Is this actually the case, though? Are there specific kinds of clubs that have been hit harder by this? And, how might the culture around club involvement have changed over time, inspiring this trend?

It’s hard for me to keep my articles on just one topic. I just can’t. Two weeks ago, I published an article regarding the Canadian rapper, Drake. Well, I’ve come forward as a hypocrite: “MEET YOUR PADRE” has held me hostage and spoon-fed me Coca-Cola.

SUNY Geneseo has two active research labs on campus that utilize rodent animal models. I entered one of them in the spring of my freshman year. 

Video games and movies are popular forms of media entertainment, but the same can't always be said when the two are combined. Critics and casual audiences have a history of disliking video game movies. Either they missed key reasons why fans loved the games or tried shoving too many plot elements from a video game (which benefits from the long run time) into a two-hour film.

As a music enjoyer, nothing is more difficult for me than adequately ranking albums and songs my favorite artists have released. So, I have decided to take on the impossible task of ranking the five albums released by my favorite band, Waterparks. 

When the winter season approaches Geneseo, it is met with both joy and melancholy as students and faculty members alike fight cold winds, black ice on elevated hills, and mounds of snow on their way to campus. 

I have noticed a growing trend on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, where people like to flex about not liking certain female pop artists currently in the music industry. Specifically artists such as Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, and Charli XCX. You are not being cool and different for posting hate on these girls; you are just being mean.

Comparisons, jealousy, arbitrary expectations, toxicity— the internet does a truly wonderful job of promoting each one. When applied to romantic relationships, this can have a less-than-welcoming effect on your interactions with and perception of your partner. It can make its way into your relationship if you let it— so how can we prevent that when we enter a relationship? What should we look out for?

Dearest Victor E. Knight,

I miss you most when I listen to Drake, which led me to wonder… is Loverboy truly dead?

Ever since I was a kid, I have been invested in the music industry, becoming Elvis’s most enthusiastic fan by the time I was nine-years-old. It’s no secret that music is critical in human development as we use music to soundtrack the experiences of our lives. Music streaming is at an all-time high; Spotify reported “640 million monthly active users.” Music impacts millions of people every day. As much as I loved music, I did not fully understand the impact musicians can have on their listeners until I was introduced to Harry Styles.

Since election day, there has been much anxiety regarding Trump signing another executive order that may directly affect the future of myself and my peers at Geneseo. The last four months have been incredibly tiresome. Every morning, I open my phone to see more political nonsense that immediately puts me in a sour mood. Being in a sour mood so early in the morning does not help with the weight of my coursework and classes. I can only juggle so many issues before they eventually fall to the ground. With that being said, here is my advice for how to better care for yourself in these trying times.

As I am sure many others did, I began to imagine my future in detail from a very young age. This included my career, my partner’s career, and the number and names of my future children. Since the day this careful planning began, my mother has always stressed one message: don’t have an only child. 

Curating the most optimal array of songs to fit the attitudes of the time is not a new phenomenon. Since people have been able to choose listening habits, music devotees have worked to create the perfect array of pop ballads, crowd-pleasers, and slow jams. Burning CDs and winding mixtapes (not sure if that is the right verb to use— I apologize to the music curators who came before me), however, have become a tradition of the past, now helpful for letting us know that a character in a movie is cooler than everybody else (or a hipster, but I might argue that they are kind of the same thing). Playlist curation is now the avenue through which this happens. 

Despite best efforts to convince you otherwise, true democracy does not exist on college campuses. Even with seemingly democratic institutions on campus, such as the concept and practice of shared governance, the existence of the Student Association and College Senate, etc., the administration does not have a culture or respect for an honest, representative democracy. The Student Association can only suggest, not implement, policies that directly govern students' rights and responsibilities. 

When Kim Kardashian lost a noticeable amount of weight, people online immediately jumped to proclaim that skinny was ‘in’ again. The expectations of women’s bodies shifted— now we were no longer expected to have that excellent hip-to-waist ratio (that many seemed to turn to surgical procedures to obtain). Instead, we had to lose that weight and change our shapes to fit an ever-changing body standard. 

As it is Valentine’s season, I have been partaking in an inordinate amount of television, movies, music, and literature focused on the topic of love. From Taylor Swift’s quintessential slow jam “cowboy like me” to Olivia Gatwood’s unflinching poem  “Aileen Wuornos Takes a Lover Home,” there is so much stellar media on the topic that it can be hard to know what is the best or which piece should take up our time during this season. 

Dear Geneseo, 

I lost my virginity to a Geneseo man. Am I cooked?

Last February, The Lamron discussed why Black History Month was February, the shortest month of the year. This year, I wanted to change the topic and focus on less well-known historical Black figures.