RAPE ON CAMPUS
For Elizabeth Honneyman of Half Moon Bay, Calif., the grandmother of a female high school sophomore, Eliza Gray’s widely discussed May 26 cover story was “both chilling and informative.” Vice President Joe Biden tweeted a link to his companion statement, in which he warned colleges, “You don’t want to be a school that mishandles rape. Step up. It’s time.” But some readers, like William Slavick of Portland, Maine, thought combatting the crime was beyond the scope of universities. He wrote, “Victims should go to the police, not deans who have a conflict of interest.” Meanwhile, high school junior Alexis Garcia felt the “excellent” piece should have noted that “men and transgender students can be (and are) victims of sexual assault too.”
BOTCHED EXECUTIONS
Josh Sanburn’s piece on the problems with lethal injection troubled readers like Kathleen Kyle, whose friends were victims of violent crime. “I tried to keep an open mind while reading it, but I failed,” she wrote. High school freshman George Thomson of Hackensack, N.J., called the story “superb, reliable, well-researched and informative” but thought it “should have highlighted the reasoning behind capital punishment to a greater extent.” The Verge and Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick, meanwhile, pointed followers to Sanburn’s interview with Dr. Jay Chapman, creator of lethal injection, who told TIME that when it’s used properly, “I don’t see anything more humane.”
COMMENCEMENT-SPEECH DROPOUTS
A TIME.com piece by Charlotte Alter criticizing Smith College’s protests against its scheduled graduation speaker, IMF chief Christine Lagarde, as “faux activism” sparked its own protests. “I was in total agreement,” said sevensisters, “until the author belittled women’s colleges. Rather than throwing ‘tantrums,’ I’d like to think we’re fostering the next generation of female leaders.”
BEHIND THE STORY
When photographer Jamie Chung shot Emalyn Randolph on March 31 for our feature on preemies (page 24), Emalyn–born 10 days earlier with twin brother Owen–had just reached 3 lb. On May 19, Becky Osterbeck, a nurse at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, took this photo of Emalyn with her mom Alexandra Sparling; she weighed 6 lb. 6 oz. “We feel very lucky they are both doing so well,” says Sparling. “Emalyn will be going home as soon as she starts drinking a bit more from a bottle.” Owen went home the day this photo was taken and since then seems to cry for his sister. “He was much quieter in the hospital,” says Sparling. “I think he’ll be really excited once she is home.”
NOW ON TIME.COM
Which country is your spirits animal? Find out with our new interactive, which uses data from the World Health Organization to compare your drinking habits with myriad national averages. Try it at time.com/cheers.
NOW ON LIGHTBOX
Our Instagram User of the Week, photographer Tierney Gearon, talks about her friends- and family-filled feed, which is “much more intimate and instant than sending out a portfolio.”
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