Entries for December 2006

U.S. News and high school boys are not the only ones who like to rank stuff. The Weblog Awards this week announced its 2006 winners, including Penn State Prof. Michael Bérubé, whose self-titled blog beat out competitors IvyGate and SpunkyHomeSchool with 38.62 percent of the vote.

Is this a defeat for the Ivy League at the mighty hands of public universities (on the rise, according to the New York Times )? A blow to poor defenseless students at the hands of one of America's 101 Most Dangerous Academics (thank you, David Horowitz)? Take heart, at least, from this: according to the New York Observer, Bérubé "seems to be one of those strange academics who actually enjoys the undergraduates."

Undergraduates and–according to a quick perusal of his blog– 2001: A Space Odyssey ("not a political film"), Justin Timberlake ("reasonably talented" but "not particularly attractive"), and something called the "We Are All a Giant Fireball Now" party (uh…looks like some kind of …political thing).

Paper Trail's Best College Newspapers Guide of 2006 is still accepting nominations via E-mail at papertrail@usnews.com. Click here for a reminder of the categories.

Don't be afraid to nominate your friends, your enemies, or yourself for Paper Trail's first ever Guide to the Best College Newspapers. Unlike the other U.S. News Best Colleges guide, this edition will not actually rank anything; we're just going to name a winner. We also will not follow any kind of "methodology" or use "science." We're just going to have you vote. After all, according to one newsweekly magazine, it is your year. Even Google agrees.

The anti-affirmative action proposition passed by Michigan voters November 7 will not take effect until July–and they mean it for real this time. The Michigan Daily reports that the district judge who needed to give final approval to an agreement reached late last week has given it. So admissions considerations really will go on undisturbed through this season. See you next year, Michigan university dailies! It's been a fun ride.

A Boise State University student who police say admitted he made up a report of a violent antigay hate crime against himself—but not until after the report inspired hundreds to march in two campus vigils—could now face court action. In November, the student had said a white male used antigay expletives and knocked him unconscious; he had cuts and bruises to prove it. Then, after police initiated an investigation, the student confessed he had never been attacked and had actually used "a stick and his fists to self-inflict his injuries," police told the Boise State Arbiter. Now, police have summoned the student to court on charges of resisting and obstructing officers. Last month, police told the Arbiter that filing a false police report can yield penalties of up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Like any good college student, Paper Trail is spending this holiday season paying respect to its roots. Yup, we're gonna start ranking! But this is not your parents' Best Colleges Guide. This is the Guide to the Best College Newspapers of 2006, and, unlike that other guide, we do not actually rank, and we do give points for style—and for how funny your university president looks on camera. The first annual awards will fall into five categories, listed below. Send nominations for each to papertrail@usnews.com. And keep checking the site! We'll announce finalists before the end of the year. In the new year, we'll announce the winners.

After greeting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with chants of "death to the dictator" when he visited Tehran University last week, at least three students have gone into hiding. They fear that they might face deathly retribution for their protests, which came, the Guardian reports, "in a startling contrast to the acclaim Mr. Ahmadinejad has received in numerous recent appearances around Iran." Their fears follow a new "star-rating system" that brands students with between one and three stars; the more dissident, the more stars, and the more stars, the higher the chance of punishment–like being banned from classes altogether, says Gulfnews.

The state's attorney general and three Michigan universities have reached an agreement that, if approved by a U.S. district attorney, could delay implementation of a voter-approved affirmative action ban until July. That would postpone the ban until the next cycle of college admissions, the Associated Press reports.

Outsiders will not take positions on Oxford University's governing board, the school's vice chancellor announced yesterday, admitting defeat of a plan he hoped would help modernize the ancient university. The vice chancellor's plan would have handed over control of the university's finances to outsiders. But members of the university's Congregation, a 4,000-member parliament, voted against the plan, the BBC reports.

Why go on a college visit when you can watch YouTube videos instead? This is the premise of theU, which just posted its guided video tours of more than 30 college campuses for free online viewing. All you need is an E-mail address to watch girls dancing on tables, guys taking vodka shots, and University of Pennsylvania fraternity brothers saying things like this: "I don't remember spring fling. I've been told I had a really good time. I had relations with a tree. It might have been an elm, might have been a cedar. I don't really know."

The college students who troll IvyGate's comments board say the videos play to stereotypes. Did your school get fair treatment? Send us an E-mail at papertrail@usnews.com.

• Two college presidents support the idea of a college football playoff, Bloomberg reports.
• A Christian college in Pittsburgh has filed a lawsuit demanding the right to use religion as a criterion for hiring faculty and staff, the Beaver County Times reports.
• Baylor University graduated a 100-year-old man, the school's oldest graduate ever, the Tribune-Herald reports.

Or at least, Christmas trees. The Brandon Show, which covers SUNY Potsdam, points out that four local college-age men have been charged with cutting a spruce tree right out of a nearby resident's yard; two other trees are missing. According to News 10 Now, the man planted the trees "as a buffer between SUNY Potsdam and his home."

News that the case's alleged victim is pregnant could be the final plot twist in the Duke lacrosse scandal. Defense attorneys say they could be one motion away from erasing all charges against their clients, three former members of the university's lacrosse team charged with raping an exotic dancer they hired to perform at a party, the Chronicle reports. That would be the end to what one defendant's father calls a "nightmare."

When University of Oregon football players go to Las Vegas this week, they could be wearing new lime green helmets with silver flames. New uniforms are expected to match. Players who spoke to the Register-Guard made a valiant effort to be positive. "It's something we have to get used to," said one. "I'm speechless," said another. "I guess if a duck was yellow, that's what I'd envision it to look like," said another. Deadspin put it less diplomatically: "It Might Save Oregon Some Money," the site posited, "to just give everyone in the crowd LSD."

–Students at Yale Law sued the Department of Homeland Security last week, charging racial discrimination against local Hispanic residents. It was the second time in the last month the law school has taken on the department, the Yale Daily News reports.

–College students are getting either lamer or smarter, at least in London. Undergrads at the city's Central St. Martin College successfully persuaded administrators to cancel a show by rock group Clinic this weekend, Aversion reports. The problem: The concert would conflict with their studies.

–The University of Massachusetts–Amherst plans to "take swift disciplinary action" after a riot broke out on campus following the football team's Division I-AA championship game loss Friday night, the school said in a statement.