Contributed Photo / Fabiana Penagos
The Sputnik team in Odeon.

To close out the year, we decided to put together a list of opinions from The Sputnik’s staff team for you all to see. Opinions were collected from a spreadsheet that noted contributors had a chance to fill out. We hope you enjoy reading both our serious and comical opinions through a variety of topics. 

The following are the opinions of editor-in-chief Umaymah Suhail, news writer Piper Force, Infinitum editor Tusharika Tyagi, arts and culture editor Alexa Ford, opinion editor Mitchell Baldwin and finally, lead opinion writer Jada Phillips.  

Our first topic is university life: 

• Post-secondary schools should have enough residences for half of the student body.  
• The cost of textbooks should be included in tuition.  
• The earliest classes should be allowed to start is 10 a.m. and the latest is 4 p.m.   
• Unpaid internships should be illegal. Why should people have to work for free just to get experience?   

Then we have some on food and drinks: 

• Oreo Thins are better than Double Stuf.  
• Ketchup is overrated.   
• You shouldn’t get steak if you eat it well-done.   

With only a brief note on religion:  

• It should be mandatory for students to take at least one introductory religions course in Canadian high schools where they learn about the different religions.   

We had a lot to say about society: 

• It should be a government mandate that people work a minimum of two years in retail, so they know how to behave when shopping.  
• Corporal punishment is just lazy parenting.  
• Free speech should not extend to those spreading obviously false information.  
• Pharmaceutical companies should be charged with homicide for the drug crisis. Pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars a year from an opioid crisis they created. Instead, governments are arresting those with addictions who are victims of the drug crisis than the drug dealers just because they are a multinational corporation.   
• It is immoral for people to have more than one to two kids (unless they are adopted) due to overpopulation. Our Earth cannot support our population growth and it will lead to problems like war and famine.   
• You can’t be fiscally conservative and socially liberal. If you fail to see how the material conditions of somebody’s life can affect their quality of life, then you are missing the whole point. Conservative economic policies cut funding for the services and programs that those facing poverty rely on most, which just makes existing social problems bigger.  
• As an actor, if you put your beauty over your skills, you are not good at your job. Botox to the point where you can’t see wrinkles when you frown should be made illegal for actors who want to do their job properly.  
• People should break out into song and more often than they do now.  
• Retail workers should be able to tell off rude customers.  
• If you can’t afford to tip, then you shouldn’t go out to eat. On the other hand, tipping culture has gotten out of hand. We shouldn’t have to tip for everything just so businesses can use it as an excuse to not pay their employees properly.   

Dating is important, so we had some important thoughts:  

• Ghosting someone should be acceptable within the first month of talking.  
• Hookup culture has caused more harm to society than it has brought liberation. Hookup culture has destroyed many people’s self-worth, ruined people’s ability to develop emotional intimacy with others, allowed for people to avoid the responsibility that comes with having a sexual relationship and put people at increased risk of STDs.  
• When men get mad that women say they want their partner to be at least six feet tall, it’s them just getting mad that they are finally being held to a tiny fraction of the standards placed on women’s appearances.   

Who could forget about animals?: 

• Donkeys are better than horses and it is only pretty privilege that lets horses win over donkeys.  
• Having a reptile as a pet doesn’t make you quirky or different.  

To conclude, we have some thoughts that relate to our arts and culture section: 

• Zack Snyder movies suck.  
• Most Marvel movies sucked after Avengers: Endgame.  
• Princess Bride is one of the best movies in cinema history. 

If you have an opinion you’d like to see published or you just totally disagree with any of our opinions, consider volunteering next year. We’d love to have you.

This article was originally published in print Volume 23, Issue 8 on Thursday, April 4.