Collegian Columnists Archives - Page 26 of 107 - The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Burke: Olympics history is clouded with poor location choices, waste

Callum Burke, Collegian Columnist • March 3, 2022

As you know, the Winter Olympic games are an event where the world’s top winter sport athletes compete for the gold medal in their desired event. Every four years the National Olympic Committee decides which country and cities will host the Olympic games. The issue is that, time and time again, the countries and cities chosen to host the Winter Olympic games have brought with them countless issues. Even as recent as this year in Beijing, the city presented quite a few problems of their own. While diving into all these pitfalls lightly, we are going to look at a few other bizarre Olympic location fails in history.

Tusinski: Not even Wordle is safe from mobile industry monopolization

Dylan Tusinski, Collegian Columnist • March 3, 2022

Since lockdowns started nearly two years ago, there has been a myriad of pandemic-induced internet obsessions. "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness," do it yourself sourdough starters and puzzles were some of the first ones to captivate the quarantined masses, but even as restrictions lift and life slowly creeps back to normal, there's a new addition to tack onto the list: Wordle. For the uninitiated, Wordle is pretty simple. It's a game in which you try to guess a five-letter word in only six guesses. It was developed by a lone software developer named Josh Wardle and was meant to be a fun daily game for his family and friends.

Stella: Denver should consider hosting the 2034 Olympic Games

Michael Stella, Collegian Columnist • March 2, 2022

After the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where artificial snow was used for every event that requires snow, the winter games need to be hosted in a true winter destination that is renowned for their winter sports. Thus, Denver, "Ski Country USA," should host the 2034 Winter Olympics. Denver was awarded the Winter Olympic Games, to happen in 1976, but a ballot initiative by voters struck it down due to the high price tag associated with hosting the games. The Olympics have faced criticism for these extreme costs, and the games often leave behind infrastructure that does not get used again once the less than three-week event is over.

Henry: CSU could lift mask mandate if students accept possible reversal

Brendan Henry, Collegian Columnist • March 1, 2022

At the beginning of last year, COVID-19 vaccines were released with the intent that the world would soon return to normalcy after a year of enduring the pandemic. A year has passed and little has changed by means of mask mandates and restrictions, yet many people in Larimer County are vaccinated and have a much lower infection rate than folks that are not. With students at Colorado State University being required to have both the vaccination and a booster, it should be just fine to no longer have to wear a mask.

Lopez: More can be done in fight for diversity, representation at CSU

Dominique Lopez, Collegian Columnist • March 1, 2022

College diversity statistics often play an important role in how students decide where they want to spend the next chapter of their life, as well as where they feel the most comfortable. As a student of color, this is something I searched for when it came to finding a college to attend. Colorado State University doesn’t have a very high racial diversity rate, with only 30% of the University's population reported as nonwhite; however, I still chose the school, feeling that I had found a place where I belonged.

Eckburg: The Olympics needs to do better by young athletes

Bella Eckburg, Opinion Director • February 28, 2022

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China, brought us an array of events full of exemplary athletic prowess. As millions of people tuned in to watch, a clear shift emerged in how we all consume Olympic content — with TV ratings at an all-time low and significantly more people watching on different streaming services and devices. If you were active on social media, you would have seen the surplus of commentary and reactions to the events, but one group of athletes took center stage — unfortunately, it had little to do with their incredible athleticism.

Stella: Spirit, Frontier merger is concerning for workers, consumers

Michael Stella, Collegian Columnist • February 24, 2022

Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines announced Feb. 7 that they will be merging to form the fifth-largest airline. Frontier and Spirit are both low-fare airlines, and part of their plan to merge was so they could offer even better fare rates for their customers. It is hard to trust the word of major corporations, especially when they merge and eliminate competition — a contributing force of lower prices. Having one less airline to employ workers means that there are fewer competing airlines to provide the best wages and benefits to attract workers to their companies.

Henry: Putin’s bully politics won’t work — U.S. should get involved

Brendan Henry, Collegian Columnist • February 23, 2022

All right Vladimir Putin, how about we cool it for a bit? This whole invading and annexing sovereign nations thing is a little outdated. Do you really want your future war crimes to be livestreamed to the entire world? The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed at the end of 1991, resulting in the USSR losing its economically important satellite nations and the gained independence of Ukraine, among others. Now the only thing exported by Russia on a major scale is oil and petrol, and this, coupled with the desire to regain previously held land, seems to lead their president, Putin, to want to annex Ukraine.

Meltzner: America desperately needs to fix its education system

JD Meltzner, Opinion Editor • February 22, 2022

When the world began to reopen following the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2020, there was a need in many industries and sectors for support systems — both in the aspects of finance and general operations — to help these industries reemerge from the worldwide closures amid the pandemic. Many industries, like business, entertainment and service, received ample support plans from the government and other industry-specific associations to help jump-start their individual economies. However, one industry in America has been woefully under-supported during the past two years of restimulation: the education sector.

Gross: We’re passing the tipping point of caring about climate change

Dillon Gross, Collegian Columnist • February 22, 2022

When it comes to the climate, there are numerous tipping points that human society is nearing or even already passed. A tipping point is defined as a threshold that, when passed, results in irreversible changes. When applying this concept to the environment, it's easy to see why understanding the impact of these climate tipping points and how we can avoid passing them is of utmost importance because, after all, this is irreversible damage we are now dealing with.

Meltzner: Tom Brady finally retired — athlete worship should do the same

JD Meltzner, Opinion Editor • February 16, 2022

Those of us who are familiar with the sporting world are also familiar with the immense impact of the recent retirement of Tom Brady from the NFL. Even those who are unfamiliar with the sporting world are likely familiar with the weight he carried in the sporting community. You do not have to love sports to know Brady's name, and this is because the culture surrounding athletes encourages hero worship on a level that goes beyond the world of sports to permeate the entire sphere of popular culture.

Lopez: With rent prices increasing, it’s clearly time for U+2 to go

Dominique Lopez, Collegian Columnist • February 15, 2022

The pandemic affects everyone. Many people have lost their jobs and have had to depend on unemployment checks to ensure they can continue to buy food and pay rent. However, earlier in the pandemic, rent prices were relatively low, and there was more leeway for those who needed to pay rent — everyone was struggling. However, now that fear of the pandemic is lessening and vaccine rollout is in full swing, the leeway that renters experienced over the past two years is gone. Rent has been continuously increasing, and as a result, people are beginning to lose their homes or are forced to downsize in order to continue to afford their necessities.