The news site of UNC Wilmington

The Seahawk

The news site of UNC Wilmington

The Seahawk

The news site of UNC Wilmington

The Seahawk

The automatic door button outside of The Shore Dining Hall. (Michael Friant/The Seahawk)
OPINION: A follow up on UNCW's accessibility for neurodivergent students
Michael Friant, Staff Writer • April 22, 2023
Accessibility should be a priority on UNCW's campus because of its status as a public institution. However, the more I move around the campus, the more apparent it becomes that the University is more concerned with aesthetics and saving money than accessibility. Before getting into the logistics of what I’ve been seeing recently, I want to address a meeting I had in lieu of the article I published last fall on accessibility design flaws on campus.
Misrepresentation of the disabled community in popular media and culture shapes a one-sided view of romance. (Shutterstock)
OPINION: Guess what? Your friends with disabilities want to get laid too!
Michael Friant, Staff Writer • March 2, 2023

Exchanging glances, names, social media handles and numbers are just a few of the ways that our generation shows romantic interest. However,...

Kenan House is the Historic Kenan House, home of UNCWs chancellor, is a 7,500-square-foot Neoclassical Revival dwelling constructed in 1911 and deeded to the university by the Kenan family in 1968. It stands on Market Street beside the Wise Alumni House.
OPINION: The hidden racist history of the Kenan House
Sophia Culler, Staff Writer • March 1, 2023
Students are not expected to know the story behind every building owned by UNCW, but they should know the origins of the home where their Chancellor resides. The Chancellor’s home, also known as the Kenan House, has a history that is especially vital to learn during Black History Month. For the students and faculty who don’t know it, it’s time to go to school.
Of all the countries in the world, TikTok has proven to be most popular in the U.S., with a staggering 113.25 million users.
OPINION: TikTok takes a toll on self esteem
Peyton Dickerson, Staff Writer • February 27, 2023
The idea of seeing this many people in one lifetime is still novel. It's important to remember that everyone is worthy of love and a good life no matter their appearance. Beauty is superficial—and fades—so character always stays most important.
Kanye West.
OPINION: Ye: The Anti-Semite of the Year
Hannah Markov, Editor-in-Chief • December 21, 2022
If you support anti-Semitism, you support white supremacy. If you support Ye’s comments on Nazism and the Jewish people, you, by relation, support Nazism. If you support anti-Jewish rhetoric, you support the very same issue that has plagued this and most other countries for hundreds of years: racism.
Society has made Christmas into an extremely glamorized event that is easily capitalized off of.
Christmas advertisements fail to reflect holiday realities
Michael Friant, Staff Writer • December 19, 2022
Holiday marketing should include everyone’s reality rather than just scanty picturesque moments. While advertisements and movies can continue promoting joyous holiday moments, they should also incorporate the less fortunate aspects of the holidays. Due to the lack of the former in media, many are unfortunately instilled with a sense of shame and guilt if their situations do not fit the Hollywood mold.
Rodney Burford as Tony Hughes in Dahmer, Episode 6: Silenced.
OPINION: Tony Hughes' story in Netflix's 'Dahmer' illustrates a tragic lack of connectivity for neurodivergents
Michael Friant, Contributing Writer • November 15, 2022
People who are neurodivergent often discover that finding connectivity is almost impossible due to the ingrained ableism within our society. As a result, we tend to accept human connections wherever we can find them, and this unfortunately sets us up to be taken advantage of physically, mentally, emotionally or even psychologically. A perfect, yet tragic, example of this is the depiction of Tony Hughes’ encounter with Jeffery Dahmer in the popular Netflix series, Dahmer.
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
OPINION: The sexist views of the public on the Royal Family
Emmy Berger, Staff Writer • October 15, 2022
When it comes to the royal family, the public has a long history of holding the wrong people accountable, primarily women. The only way this will be solved is by learning to change the narrative that men can break rules while women cannot.
This sign greets the able-bodied individuals when entering the school bookstore. The bookstore lacked in providing accessible access to necessary information.
OPINION: UNCW's campus should be convenient for neurodivergent students
Michael Friant, Contributing Writer • October 6, 2022
Whether or not we are neurotypical, we each have an inherent desire for convenience. However, UNCW’s campus is fundamentally designed for the convenience of specifically neurotypical students. As a result, neurodivergent students deal with a number of challenges on campus. As a person with cerebral palsy, there are many inconveniences that I have struggled with, and continue to struggle with, while navigating around UNCW’s campus.
The cast of Dont Worry Darling on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival.
OPINION: Olivia Wilde stirs controversy throughout 'Don’t Worry Darling' premiere
Annamarie Geosits, Photography Editor • September 24, 2022
As Olivia Wilde prepares for her sophomore feature film directorial debut with “Don’t Worry Darling,” she aspires to match, or even surpass, the extremely positive audience reaction from her first feature, “Booksmart.” However, despite Wilde’s artistic credibility, the discourse following the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival, both public and critical, primarily concerns the drama between the main cast and director rather than the content of the film. Although there is no specific person to blame for the complete mess that was this film’s premiere, the different scandals all lead back to one common factor: Olivia Wilde herself. Although she could be to blame for the spectacle, one can't help but wonder if it would all be as big of a deal if the director was a man.
The Oscars celebraes celebrities and their accomplishments in the music industry and on the screen.
OPINION: That moment at the Oscars shows us why we should stop idolizing celebrities
Boyce Rucker, Staff Writer • April 18, 2022
Celebrities are successful people due to their talents, but that shouldn’t exempt them from legal penalties or a lack of healthy coping methods. Not many of us can account for what the entertainment industry is like on the inside, but we can see how much it factors into a person’s image. This year’s Oscars only remind us of why putting celebrities on a pedestal does no more good than bad. In acting this way, we are disregarding the fact that celebrities are normal people, just like us. We can still admire and appreciate their talent, but we should never forget that they’re humans, with personal struggles, who have the capacity to act in both good and bad manners. Smith’s assault on Rock is as much a cautionary event as it is a controversial one.
A Decorated Dorm Room in Pelican Hall
OPINION: The ethicality of making students live in dorms
Emma Geiszler, Staff Writer • April 3, 2022
UNCW has the ability to consistently improve, and the main place to start should be creating the best possible environment for students by getting to the root of their everyday lives. At it’s heart, this environment relies on finances, a good home environment and healthy living. This should be the area of focus for improving students' well-being.
The Dont Say Gay Bill was passed through Florida legislature which limits teachers abilities to talk about sexual orientation and identity in their classrooms.
OPINION: The harmful and hypocritical aspects of Florida’s 'Don’t Say Gay' bill
Michael Friant, Contributing Writer • March 31, 2022
At one point or another in our lives, we have all felt discarded or misunderstood. This might be due to the part of the country that we were raised in, our parents’ backgrounds, the viewpoints that we were raised by or the public school system. Such is the case with the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida. This article will discuss why the bill is both harmful to the closeted gay kids in Florida and why it hypocritical to even have such a bill in the first place.
OPINION: CP Awareness Day and the need for social consistency
OPINION: CP Awareness Day and the need for social consistency
Michael Friant, Contributing Writer • March 25, 2022
Imagine not seeing your friends who live in the same city for weeks, months, or sometimes even longer. You would feel like they didn’t care about you, as if you had done something that offended them or outgrown the friendship with the person. Now imagine these friends were the only ones who connect with you on a deeper than surface level. If this was your reality, you would feel really apprehensive and uncertain about your friendships. In honor of today being National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day, I am going to try to show how this is my reality in a constructive manner, so as not to offend any of my friends who might be reading this, but to also make the case as to why I need consistency in my social life.
Questions from “199 Questions to Ask Strangers”—or yourself.
OP-ED: I was an Evangelical Christian. Here’s why I’m no longer religious.
Katharine Chapin, Student Body Member • February 11, 2022
I was a shy freshman eager to build a sense of community. During high school, I attended church on both Wednesdays and Sundays, occasionally leading lessons for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes club in my high school gymnasium. I talked about how I coped with anxiety and learned to become more comfortable in my own body—practical sentiments that helped me trudge through the living hell that is high school itself. But the type of Christianity that I would soon encounter in Wilmington was a bit more intense. In the fall of 2019, I joined an organization that would change the course of my life entirely—one that furthered the doubts about my Christian faith that I had been suppressing for quite some time, far longer than I ever wanted to admit.

Activate Search
Opinion