Student Union
Have Metro, Will Travel: A Student's Guide to DC Part 2
Meridian Hill Park
Called Malcolm X park by locals, Meridian Hill Park houses a memorial to President James Buchanan (1857-1861), as well as statues of Dante and Joan of Arc. The statue of Joan of Arc (left) is remarkable because it is the only statue of a woman and her horse among the 24 or so equestrian statues with men in Washington. My favorite part of my visit to the park was a drum circle of musicians who congregated around this statue around 3 p.m. on the Sunday I attended. Little did I know that this was a tradition that the Washington Post says, "Is said to have officially started the week of the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965."
Cost: Free
Closest Metro Station: U St/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo on the Yellow or Green line.
Nationals Park
Cost: Varies depending on seat, I was able to go to games this year for less than $30 with tickets from Stubhub.
Closest Metro Station: Navy Yard-Ballpark on the Green line.
Eastern Market & Capitol Hill Books
Eastern Market is an outdoor market in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Here you can find fresh fruit, handmade jewelry, and vintage advertising for sale. Capitol Hill Books -- a little house (left) crammed full of books -- is also in this neighborhood. Books in the closet, basement, bathroom, and on the sink. Books stacked three and four deep, with witty notes stuck into some by the bookstore owner. It's a book lover's dream.
Cost: Free to look, but there are some neat knickknacks for sale.
Closest Metro Station: Eastern Market on the Silver, Orange or Blue lines.
Acorn Park
I didn't originally go to Silver Spring to find this park (I went because my family instilled a love for classic rock in me), but Acorn Park was an exciting find. Not only is there a giant acorn gazebo, but in this park resides the last part of the estate of Francis Preston Blair. According to Silver Spring Downtown, Blair's estate was the original Silver Spring, named after his 1840 discovery of a nearby mica-speckled -- silver -- spring.
Cost: Free
Closest Metro Station: Silver Spring on the Red line.
A small park in Capitol Hill, Stanton Park's main feature is a statue of Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene. There is also a play area for children. However, the best part is how beautiful the park and the surrounding Capitol Hill area is. If you are on the Mall and need a break from the amount of people, Stanton Park is just a few blocks away. It's a lovely place to spend a day, whether reading or spending time with your family.
Cost: Free
Closest Metro Station: Union Station on the Red line.
George Washington National Masonic Memorial
On my way to King Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia (shopping, great restaurants, riverside events, history), I decided I had to check out this memorial. It's hard to miss this imposing, hilltop tower over Alexandria. It was "conceived, funded, built, and maintained by the Freemasons of the United States as a testimony of their admiration of George Washington," who himself was a Mason, according to their official website. There is also a great view of Alexandria from the space in front of the memorial entrance.
Cost: Free to look at, $15 to enter.
Closest Metro Station: King Street-Old Town on the Yellow or Blue lines.
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See all News Updates of the Day
With federal student aid delays, students aren’t sure what college will cost
The U.S. Department of Education’s federal student aid form (FAFSA) experienced serious glitches and delays this year.
Now, many students have been admitted to college, but don’t know how much money they’ll need to attend.
Read the story from Susan Svrluga and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel for The Washington Post. (March 2024)
Senator draws attention to universities that haven’t returned remains
More than 70 U.S. universities continue to hold human remains taken from Native American burial sites, although those remains were supposed to be returned 30 years ago.
Jennifer Bendery writes in Huffington Post that one senator has been using his position in an attempt to shame universities into returning remains and artifacts. (April 2024)
COVID forced one international student to go hungry
When Samantha (not her real name) enrolled in community college in the U.S., her family at home in South Africa scrimped and saved to support her.
But the COVID-19 pandemic hurt the family’s finances, and at one point Samantha had four on-campus jobs just to make ends meet. Many in the U.S. believe international students are wealthy sources of funding for universities, but stories like Samantha’s suggest otherwise.
Andrea Gutierrez reports for The World. (March 2024)
Tips for paying for a STEM degree as an international student
For US News & World Report, Melanie Lockert describes how to calculate the cost of a STEM degree, and where to find funding. (March 2024)
NAIA all but bans its transgender college athletes from women's sports
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the governing body for mostly small colleges, announced a policy Monday that all but bans transgender athletes from competing in women's sports.
The NAIA's Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote. The NAIA, which oversees some 83,000 athletes at schools across the country, is believed to be the first college sports organization to take such a step.
According to the transgender participation policy, all athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports but only athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth is female and have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed to participate in women's sports.
A student who has begun hormone therapy may participate in activities such as workouts, practices and team activities, but not in interscholastic competition.
"With the exception of competitive cheer and competitive dance, the NAIA created separate categories for male and female participants," the NAIA said. "Each NAIA sport includes some combination of strength, speed and stamina, providing competitive advantages for male student-athletes. As a result, the NAIA policy for transgender student-athletes applies to all sports except for competitive cheer and competitive dance, which are open to all students."
There is no known number of transgender athletes at the high school and college levels, though it is believed to be small. The topic has become a hot-button issue for those for and against transgender athletes competing on girls' and women's sports teams.
At least 24 states have laws barring transgender women and girls from competing in certain women's or girls sports competitions. Last month, more than a dozen current and former college athletes filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA, accusing the sports governing body for more than 500,000 athletes of violating their rights by allowing transgender women to compete in women's sports.
The Biden administration originally planned to release a new federal Title IX rule — the law forbids discrimination based on sex in education — addressing both campus sexual assault and transgender athletes. But earlier this year, the department decided to split them into separate rules, and the athletics rule now remains in limbo even as the sexual assault policy moves forward.
Hours after the NAIA announcement, the NCAA released a statement: "College sports are the premier stage for women's sports in America and the NCAA will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women's sports and ensure fair competition for all student-athletes in all NCAA championships."
The NCAA has had a policy for transgender athlete participation in place since 2010, which called for one year of testosterone suppression treatment and documented testosterone levels submitted before championship competitions. In 2022, the NCAA revised its policies on transgender athlete participation in an attempt to align with national sport governing bodies, following the lead of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
The three-phase implementation of the policy included a continuation of the 2010 policy, requiring transgender women to be on hormone replacement therapy for at least one year, plus the submission of a hormone-level test before the start of both the regular season and championship events.
The third phase adds national and international sport governing body standards to the NCAA's policy and is scheduled to be implemented for the 2024-25 school year on August 1.
There are some 15.3 million public high school students in the United States and a 2019 study by the CDC estimated 1.8% of them — about 275,000 — are transgender. The number of athletes within that group is much smaller; a 2017 survey by Human Rights Campaign suggested fewer than 15% of all transgender boys and transgender girls play sports.
The number of NAIA transgender athletes would be far smaller.
