The Seahawk

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.

OPINION: Reboots are fine, but they need to advance the story in a new way and have a bit of originality

Boyce Rucker, Staff Writer • January 27, 2022

Reboots can be tiresome, especially as we approach the second Batman recasting over the past decade, but they can also lead to the most invigorating visions. It is true that movie studios and screenwriters should focus on more original ideas, but movie reboots are not something that should be dismissed immediately. Reboots such as “Batman Begins,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” show us that reboots can be the best thing for a franchise when done correctly. Instead of viewing each reboot with dismay once they come to our attention, we can view it with curiosity. If we ever find ourselves disappointed or unimpressed by a reboot, then we can always go back to the original.

OP-ED: “Be Gay, Do Crime,” and other shit you can say without the university censoring you

Robby Fensom, SGA President • January 27, 2022

Over the past several weeks, Davis, the vice chancellor for student affairs and censor in the making, has called for the repainting of the rocks whenever students voice beliefs that run afoul to his definition of the First Amendment. In a meeting with me and three other students, Davis shared that he has overseen the removal of such statements as “Be Gay, Do Crime” and “No More Masks” from the university spirit rocks because he does not think they deserve the protection of the First Amendment.

OPINION: The residential parking situation is inconvenient and unfair to on-campus students

Abigail Celoria, Contributing Writer • October 14, 2021

With the start of a new semester, both new and returning on-campus students moved into their new housing assignments excited for an in-person experience, the first for some since the pandemic’s initial outbreak. The delta variant continues to threaten that hope, but campus life has persisted in spite of it, allowing a sense of normalcy to return to the college environment. However, an unexpected beast arose in this perfect storm of returners—namely, the wildly oversaturated parking situation on campus.

OPINION: Society should implement social programs that encourage interactions between individuals with and without disabilities

Michael Friant, Contributing Writer • October 6, 2021

If we were to normalize social interactions between neurotypical children and children with disabilities, these types of interactions would be few and far between rather than the norm. This is because the neurotypical kids will have had experience in interacting with someone with disabilities. This prior experience will undoubtedly play a positive role in the individual’s interactions with the person with the disability.

Letter from the Editor: The mistakes we make as student journalists

Brenna Flanagan, Editor-in-Chief • September 25, 2021

The Seahawk is committed to doing better. We are reviewing the editing process above and will reduce the instances of single-person publishing. Sensitive stories will be reviewed by a committee made up of editorial staff and general body members to review language, construction and content that could injure underrepresented groups on campus. We will also strengthen our efforts to connect with diverse campus voices and organizations, including through a specific contact on our editorial board.

OPINION: It is not too late for UNCW to require COVID-19 vaccinations

Michael Friant, Contributing Writer • August 21, 2021

UNCW already mandates certain immunizations against certain diseases such as mumps and measles. This is done to protect the greater student body from a massive outbreak. So, mandating the COVID-19 vaccine for all students would provide a layer of protection to the student body against a massive delta variant outbreak, and a subsequent reversal to an online class setting.

OPINION: New mask mandate returns us to an unnecessarily restricted existence

Jacob Sawyer, Staff Writer • August 3, 2021

Even as data show the pandemic to be largely over for the fully vaccinated, the fear-mongering ultimately won the war. On July 27, the CDC recommended that fully vaccinated Americans in roughly two-thirds of U.S. counties should return to covering their faces indoors. At this time, only public places are included, and private gatherings remain unaffected. This does not sound too bad, but the move is based on circumstantial evidence that ignores the overall big picture.

OPINION: In honor of Pride Month, schools should create mandatory classes on LGBTQ issues

Michael Friant, Contributing Writer • June 28, 2021

This synopsis of my story is not the exception for many queer students, who are often leaving home for the very first time. With this being the case, UNCW should incorporate mandatory training for incoming and current students to both try to educate them on how to interact with and around LGBTQ people and alert them to be conscious of their fellow peers whom they do not necessarily know all that well.

OPINION: The government and mainstream media prevented us from addressing the lab-leak theory. There should be consequences.

Jacob Sawyer, Staff Writer • June 25, 2021

The leakage of COVID-19 from Wuhan’ institute has not yet been officially confirmed. It might never be, especially as the lab’s top officials, as well as their ultimate superiors in the Chinese Communist Party, continue to suppress the truth. But numerous signs, relating to both the virus itself and the suspicious politics surrounding it, have emerged in favor of the lab-leak hypothesis.

OPINION: DA must explain and reduce charges on Wilmington protesters

Michael Friant, Contributing Writer • June 18, 2021

Although the DA’s office mysteriously dropped the charges, psychologically they won their case. This is because they made him an example of what they could do to future protesters. Any protesters familiar with his case will have second thoughts about whether to protest due to the simple fact that they might end up having to deal with legal consequences. Unfortunately, in many cases, these protesters will probably not protest in the future, which means David effectively silenced future demonstrations.

OPINION: Stop raising parking fees at Wrightsville Beach

Elizabeth Fowler, Contributing Writer • June 5, 2021

Visitors have to pay $5 an hour to park just to shop, dine and enjoy the sun. Is that fee really worth it? The jump in parking costs from 2018, when it was half this amount at $2.50 an hour, is classist and exclusionary. The costs have been rising annually and reached a new high for the summer season of 2021. This needs to be reevaluated and changed for all beachgoers to enjoy this public area.