Entries for January 2007

Washington University in St. Louis's student newspaper, the Student Life, disavowed a fellow student journalist today in this staff editorial, calling her reporting tactics dishonest and unprofessional. In doing so, the Student Life joins several other news outlets that already have denounced the tactics the Wash. U. senior, who was working freelance for the New York Post, used to get an exclusive interview with Michael Devlin, the man accused of kidnapping two boys in suburban St. Louis. The student got the scoop by going to the jail and identifying herself as a friend, not a reporter, making Devlin's lawyers furious, the AP reports .

Earlier this month, a local TV news channel devoted a whole segment to the student journalist, uncovering her earlier works for the campus newspaper, including two sex-themed articles (here and here. Other media reports (see a roundup here) paint the student reporter as a novice, potentially dragging the journalism profession deeper into the mud.

PHOTO: FRANKLIN COUNTY SHERIFF/AP

Some kids drink Red Bull; others sleep on public couches. It's the second group that is making the right choice, a neurologist tells the University of Massachusetts's Daily Collegian today."[The] brain has its natural ways to boost alertness," the Harvard scientist says. Napping is one of them. Guzzling energy beverages--which can lead to tolerance and then caffeine withdrawal (symptoms: "headache, fatigue, decreased energy, decreased alertness, depressed mood, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and foggy mind")--is not.

PHOTO: TOAN TRINH, MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

An Auburn University professor believes he has found a way to get a diverse student body without affirmative action: a computer program, which he shared with about 20 people at the University of Michigan yesterday, the Michigan Daily reports. The professor, who teaches computer science, insists his program--which sorts similar applications into groups and then has admissions officers pick the best from each pile--fits legal guidelines.

"It's almost like, 'Pinch me, pinch me,' " a lobbyist for the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities tells Inside Higher Ed. Her counterpart at the Association of American Universities calls it "heroic." Both are talking about the Democrats' new budget proposal, which would put $1 billion more into Pell grants, raising the maximum size of the grant by $260--"the first increase in grant size in five years," according to Inside Higher Ed. The proposal also recommends more money for science research. To figure out whether a version of that plan could actually be approved, watch to see how much the Dems' plan overlaps with President Bush's, to be released Monday.

• Students at Guilford College aren't sure how to respond to the recent controversy that has struck their school, where two Palestinian students say they were the victims of an alleged hate crime perpetrated by school football players who live in their dorm, the Daily Tarheel reports.
• Three hundred activists protested an event at the University of Michigan last night billed as a talk by "ex-terrorists"--by filling a quarter of the seats and then abruptly walking out of them, the Michigan Daily reports.
• Bill Gates has forced professors at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School to adjust their course materials. Or rather, Microsoft's new Office software package has, the Daily Pennsylvanian reports.

Yesterday, an Alameda County judge's ruling protected 26 live oak trees from removal by the University of California-Berkeley (which wants to build an athletic center in their place) until at least June, the Daily Californian reports. The removal had to be delayed, because the judge accepted a case arguing that construction of the center would violate state environmental and seismic safety laws.

Students and activists--including one the Daily Cal photographed yesterday who called herself Compost--had been sitting by the trees since early December.

So, who are these tree-sitters, really? Check out this video documentary, in which a small girl says the trees can talk and an older man admits he is reliving his Free Speech Movement glory days.

"Men are the new women," Stanford Daily columnist Darren Franich declares today in an interesting column that may mean we'll have to keep checking in with this guy in the future. Apparently his decision began with a recent gain of 15 pounds that he blames on drinking too much Dr. Pepper, which he traces back to his "bio-rhythms," for which he blames his "Fuzzy Profs." It finally all adds up to a bad case of "Manorexia." OK, so the argument is a little hard to follow. But that's his point: He's going completely insane, distrusting his natural urge to drink Dr. Pepper! Anyway, his description of pro-anorexia websites (creepy) makes Franich worth checking out.

"African-American men constitute just 8.5 percent of Maryland's college population," a University of Maryland task force wrote in a report last month. "And only one third of those enrolled will ever graduate." Explanations include peer pressure that defines education as "uncool" and feelings of isolation from campus life. But a primary hurdle is rising cost, the task force found. "In the fall of 2006, a year at [University of Maryland-College Park] will cost an in-state undergraduate one quarter of what the average African-American family earns," the report says.

Read the full report here.

Read a Diamondback article here.

A 36-year-old man accused of falsely posing as a UCLA student for two years will be tried Thursday on charges including identity fraud, the Daily Bruin reports. The Bruin story chronicles the man's successful penetration of campus life: He played rugby, lived in a frat house where he had a roommate, and was elected editor of the school's African-American newsmagazine. Sounds pretty harmless . . . until you get to the part about finding cups of urine, suspected to be his, in the Student Media Office. The Bruin could not reach the suspect for comment. A university police detective told the Bruin this is the third time the suspect has been arrested on similar charges.

• The building evacuation due to a suspicious substance at Southern Methodist University Friday turned out to be a false alarm, the Daily Campus reports. The culprit: a cooking spice, which for some reason had been packaged in an envelope.
• Angry California State University faculty and staff plan to picket this week after salary negotiations failed, the Spartan Daily reports
• FEMA is asking some Tulane students for their relief money back, the Hullabaloo reports.

Which thing do college students love more: Krispy Kreme doughnuts or antiwar protests? It was a tough call Saturday, as some students threw themselves into the Third Annual Krispy Kreme Challenge while others joined the tens of thousands on the National Mall advocating a swift U.S. pullout from Iraq. We can't find any exact figures on the number of students who protested the war, but was it more than 1,341? That's the number of participants in the Krispy Kreme Challenge, a very serious contest in which students from North Carolina State University run 2 miles, then eat a dozen doughnuts, then run 2 more miles. Proceeds from the race go to the North Carolina Children's Hospital, though why anyone would choose to endorse the inevitable upchucking is still beyond us. "I can't explain it except you're tremendously committed to doughnuts," says one man, according to a cool audio slide show on the Technician's website.

As for the roundup of college student participation in the national day of war protest:

• Penn State students dressed up in orange, donned black hoods, and chained their legs together to protest unfair detainee treatment, the Collegian reports.
• "Radical Cheerleaders" were among the American University students who traveled the (admittedly very short) distance to the Mall Saturday, the Eagle reports.
• Some George Washington University students were probably also there, according to this kind of unclear Hatchet story.
• Boston University activists were disappointed with the student turnout on their bus to D.C., the Daily Free Press reported Friday. They think winter break may have gotten in the way.
• Four Columbia University student groups organized a convoy of three buses to Washington, the Spectator reports.

Photo: Lana Limón, Columbia Daily Spectator

Cops at Arizona State University made the case for Taser guns in an interview with the State Press: "The Taser is great for our policemen to have," a university police commander says. "It helps to save the lives of both our officers and the people who get hit with it, because without the Taser, the officers may have had to use their firearms or another type of force instead."

Related: UCLA Taser protests.

A photo in the Georgetown University men's basketball season ticket package includes what looks like a gay slur. Making the matter worse is the fact that the photo in question is printed right on the ticket package's cover. Georgetown's athletic director apologized last week for the error, which he said he didn't notice until someone else pointed it out, the Georgetown Voice reports. The photo, taken during a men's basketball game last year, shows a hot-pink sign aimed at former Duke star J.J. Reddick, calling him "RIDICULOUSLY GAY JJ."

The New York Times seemed to love its discovery earlier this month of a new trend at Yale University: naked parties. Dancing around in just your underwear or less is bold, sure, but only if you've never met the Northwestern University men's track team, 16 members of which stripped and ran 5 kilometers--and all in weather 1 degree below zero with windchill. The Daily Northwestern reports that one runner briefly lost his cover and went kind-of commando in the Dare to Bare race Sunday.

"If you are psychotic," an anonymous Daily Aztec columnist advises, "there's nothing you can do to overcompensate for that." The rest of the article appears to be a series of lessons in how not to be psychotic.