Commentary

  • Internet Access: Half the World Is Muted

    Internet Access: Half the World Is Muted

    Eliana Fram is a MA in International Development and Policy Candidate at Harris School of Public Policy. The teacher points to the blackboard and asks emphatically, “What is an email?” She is asking not because her students do not know the answer, but because she wants them to answer using…

  • Human Behavior: The Missing Element of the Biden Cybersecurity Executive Order

    Human Behavior: The Missing Element of the Biden Cybersecurity Executive Order

    On May 12th, in the aftermath of the SolarWinds cyber-attack, President Biden signed an Executive Order (EO) to strengthen the United States’ cybersecurity infrastructure and practices. The order covered a broad list of topics, including new policies, processes, and technologies to strengthen the security of Federal and private assets. However,…

  • Black Maternal Mortality Rates in Chicago: Why the Recently Passed IL 1115 Waiver Is Not Enough

    Black Maternal Mortality Rates in Chicago: Why the Recently Passed IL 1115 Waiver Is Not Enough

    Sara Bovat ‘21 graduated with a MA in Social Work, Social Policy, and Social Administration at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice and the Graduate Program in Health Administration and Policy . She can be reached via LinkedIn. Severe maternal morbidity is not…

  • GDP has Immense Consequences for Health Equity: Why Doctors Should Care

    GDP has Immense Consequences for Health Equity: Why Doctors Should Care

    Natalia Khosla ‘22 is a MS 4 at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]. During one of my medical rotations, my team and I were taking care of a patient stuck in a vicious cycle: a 68-year-old with heart failure,…

  • Gender Based Violence — Can Self-Help Groups be Effective?

    Gender Based Violence — Can Self-Help Groups be Effective?

    Vivek Kumar is a 2021 Graduate student from the Harris School of Public Policy. His policy interests lie around gender based empowerment in South Asia. “Even if I work outside as a laborer and bring home 200 rupees every day, I will still get a beating from my husband in…

  • Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI): Let’s Move from Pamphlet to Practice

    Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI): Let’s Move from Pamphlet to Practice

    Kristen Mathias is an Internal Medicine Resident at the University of Chicago. She can be reached at [email protected]. Daniel Cabrera is a faculty member in the University of Washington Department of Medicine and contributed to this article. The medical field has an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) problem that is…

  • Juneteenth & Transitional Justice: A National Reckoning

    Juneteenth & Transitional Justice: A National Reckoning

    David Alan Johnson is a second-year MPP student and Pearson Fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy and Research Assistant at the Transitional Justice and Democratic Stability Lab at the University of Chicago. As the United States celebrates Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating enslaved African-Americans learning of their freedom from…

  • Inaugural University of Chicago Juneteenth Commemoration

    Inaugural University of Chicago Juneteenth Commemoration

    The inaugural UC Juneteenth 2021 initiative comes in the wake of a global pandemic that exposed widespread health inequities in marginalized communities, political tumult, demand for an end to police brutality, and an overall resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement. It is thus fitting that this political celebration of…

  • No Amount of Training Can Prevent Police Brutality

    No Amount of Training Can Prevent Police Brutality

    Marvin Slaughter contributed to this piece. The killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by officers of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has led to renewed calls for improved police training. But no amount of training can fix the institution of policing; we need an entirely new system and organization to build…

  • Yellow Phone Booth

    Yellow Phone Booth

    With promising advances in the COVID-19 vaccination effort and a new administration in the White House, 2021 has felt hopeful for many reasons. For me, an Iranian-American immigrant who has maintained an emotionally split home for the past eighteen years, the new administration’s approach to foreign policy is particularly exciting…

  • The Student Debt Crisis

    The Student Debt Crisis

    The time to pass universal student loan forgiveness is now. To date, more than 45 million current and former students are burdened with student debt, with collective debt exceeding $1.6 trillion. The current global pandemic has only exacerbated this crisis, and Black and brown students bear the brunt of this…