Entries for March 2008

This year, 25,298 prospective students applied to Stanford—the most in the school's history and almost 3,000 applicants more than the 2006-07 session, the Stanford Daily reports. Also, the school admitted 2,400 students, resulting in a record-low, 9.5 percent acceptance rate. "The competition for admission to Stanford this year was unprecedented," says the dean of admission and financial aide.

Stanford's surge in popularity can be partially attributed to an extended application deadline (by two weeks) and use of the Common Application, plus a well-publicized boost in financial aid offerings for middle-class students—free tuition for families earning less than $100,000 each year and free tuition, room, board, and fees for families earning less than $60,000 each year.

Because of financial losses of up to $150,000 this year, Ohio State's Lantern student newspaper will suspend its summer printing this year. The paper's editor says only "business concerns" contributed to the decision to shut down the summer paper, while critics say the move is short-sighted. "(The Lantern's financial situation) is a bigger problem than what summer (cuts) will deal with," says a communications professor.

Even more alarming, the paper's suspension will also have a widespread effect: Paper Trail will have one fewer paper to read as the school year comes to a close. Oh, no.

Proving better late than never, more than 200 protesters tramped around Minneapolis Thursday to protest the Iraq war's fifth anniversary, the Minnesota Daily reports. This particular protest was more than a full week after people all over the country came out with their signs, masks, and chants to take a stand against the war.

Sixteen people were arrested at the Minneapolis protest, including a handful of University of Minnesota students, after they entered a National Guard recruiting office and "[took] over the second floor and hallway of the building," the police said.

Apparently not clued in to the fact that it is not OK to post scandalous photos on the Internet, two groups of students—one from the University of North Dakota and another from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania—are in trouble for shenanigans captured on camera and posted online.

Fifteen men's and women's track team members and two student trainers from Slippery Rock were suspended from competing in a Maryland meet this weekend after a teammate posted photos of a drinking party on Facebook, the Rocket reports (though there's no comment from any of the suspended students).

At North Dakota, a sorority is in trouble for pictures from a November 2007 party that show members "dressed in crude mock-ups of American Indian attire," the Dakota Student reports. A formal discrimination complaint was filed with the university, and the sorority was placed on social suspension, prohibiting its members from participating in any activities. The sorority's national headquarters says it "sincerely regrets the recently-reported actions involving chapter members at the University of North Dakota. We realize that the actions of the chapter demonstrate the need for greater chapter education about diversity and personal dignity." The sorority is still under review by school officials.

In what can be partially described as a sweet publicity stunt, the business school at Ball State University in Indiana hosts an entrepreneur contest called the Nascent 500 that pits undergraduates against one another in a battle for truly high-speed, idea-pitching supremacy. In the back of a limo that is racing around Indianapolis Motor Speedway (how apropos), 12 student teams take 500 seconds to present a winning business plan to judges for a final prize of $10,000 and a quart of milk, customary for the Indy 500 winner (the milk, not the money).

If that's not weird enough, take a sniff at Ball State's only business plan entry to make it into the semifinals: "PooYou.com" by a senior in the entrepreneurship department, the Daily News writes. The site allows customers to send worm feces to your friends (or, more likely, enemies) through the mail.

Says the Web site:

100% Organic, 100% Biodegradable 100% Poo naturally sterilized and odor free but 100% full of emotion along with a package of seeds for your recipient to bury with their Poo along with their bad behavior in hopes that doing something good will help them mend their evil ways.

Do not get on that guy's bad side.

Students at Purdue will be stripping down (sort of), donating their clothes, then running around campus Friday evening in its Nearly Naked Mile/clothing drive, the Exponent writes. "Basically any chance I can get to wear my Speedo out in public I take advantage of," said one freshman runner. "It's my main motivation for doing it."

That, and, you know, helping the needy. He added: "But I'm definitely going to bring some clothes I've previously bought from Goodwill to donate back to Goodwill."

Faculty and students from the Boston College Law School are together protesting the choice of U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey as this year's commencement speaker, the BC Heights reports. The faculty members critical of the speaker choice—who call the attorney general's views on waterboarding in "conflict with basic principles of international and domestic law, the ideals of Boston College Law School, and the Jesuit principles that underlie Boston College's educational mission"—have petitioned both the school administration and Mukasey himself to stop the event as planned.

"A commencement speaker is someone held up to the students and the world as an embodiment of the school," said a BC law professor. "It strikes me as very problematic that the school has invited a commencement speaker who refuses to acknowledge that waterboarding is a form of torture."

Nothing goes better with a welcome home rally for the school basketball team than a protest against budget cuts. At California State-Fullerton, a celebration of the team's short but admirable run in the NCAA tournament (its first in 30 years) ended in a spasm of indignation over the budget cuts.

The basketball rally was planned to coincide with the end of a budget cut meeting to maximize student attendance, the Daily Titan reports. The throng of students—protesters and revelers alike—marched around campus, held up signs, and shouted slogans, all to the beat of a Balinese drum. The protesters/revelers even posed for an aerial photo taken to "show all the faces the budget cut would be affecting."

"This kind of stuff works," said a young student protester. "Just look at Vietnam." Added another student: "With a big outcry such as this, it has to make a statement."

The campus march, however, didn't hold the attention of a majority of students, petering out into a group of about a dozen students who concluded the rally with "a rising clap and shouts of "student power."

So much for the "big outcry."

Authorities have apprehended a Colgate University student they believe is responsible for a shooting scare perpetuated on the gossip site JuicyCampus.com, the Colgate Maroon-News reports. About two weeks ago, a possible threat on JuicyCampus was reported to Colgate officials, who subsequently sent an E-mail to students warning them of the threat.

The original post reads:

"I wonder if i could shut down the school...By saying I'm going to shoot as many people as i can in my second class tomorrow, I hope I get more than 50........... For liability reasons and ip tracking I won't leave it at that. But seriously, this site is rediculous, if it got big, and someone put the effort into writing a big long serious suicide note informing all readers that he would kill over 100 kids, they could shut down the school."

Law enforcement officials obtained the IP address of the poster from the "anonymous" website (with the help of a state subpoena) and apprehended the student this week.

All eyes now return to the JuicyCampus site itself, which has come under fire for basically bringing out the worst in human nature. The site says it is merely "enabling online anonymous free speech on college campuses." The anger has been mirrored throughout the country and has inspired some attempted bans and boycotts at Colgate and a host of other schools.

Responding to "more [demand] than we can keep track of," Ron Paul and his campaign will rumble into Penn State April 11 for a speech by the Republican presidential candidate, the Daily Collegian reports. He will address "freedom and the Constitution" in his visit—one long anticipated by his supporters in Penn State's College Libertarians group.

Students all over the political spectrum are eager to see the Texas congressman in person—out of either curiosity or admiration—and his supporters continue their optimism over his long-shot candidacy. "Even though a lot of people like to ignore it and think that John McCain is a shoe-in, a lot of things could happen between now and November," said the vice president of the College Libertarians. "Presidential candidates have dropped out of the race for all sorts of reasons."

A glass-abundant expansion at the University of Arizona architecture school has been victim to repeated window-damaging vandalism the past two years, the Arizona Daily Wildcat reports. Earlier this month, four windows were broken by someone using a semiautomatic BB gun, according to the police report, ending a three-month period of relative calm.

In the past 20 months, 41 panes of glass have been damaged; each window costs around $3,000 to replace. No one has been hurt yet, but the incidents sure have "scared the heck out of people," said the architecture dean, who keeps a cup of broken glass in his office. The school has enlisted students—who will presumably partially bear the financial brunt of the repairs—to keep an eye out for the vandals. "The students are really mad," said the dean. "The students are more determined than anyone. They're not going to stand for it."

It's getting warm out, which can mean only one thing: College strike season is here! At the University of Michigan, graduate student instructors began a two-day walkout Tuesday, after negotiations over a 9 percent salary hike fell apart, the Michigan Daily reports. The two sides had made progress over other issues regarding part-time instructors earlier.

The union that represents these instructors has told members to picket in front of major university buildings, cancel classes, and cease any communications with their students. Not only will students not hear from instructors via E-mail and office hours, but they won't be harassed by them from the picket line, the union president assures. "Our picket is not meant to be a confrontational thing at all."

At the University of Louisville, students plan to walk out of class at 1:11 p.m. Wednesday in protest of tuition increases, the Louisville Cardinal reports. The school's student government did not endorse the walkout, which will be followed by a rally, but organizers still expect at least 100 students to join—optimistically hoping for at least 700 to show. "The best thing that could happen with the walkout is for the administration to realize the power of the students."

Joe Paterno is such the towering figure at Penn State that the communications department has cooked up an entire course dedicated to the famed longtime football coach, the Daily Collegian reports. The class, "Joe Paterno, Communications & the Media," will address the 81-year-old coach's growing distrust of the fast-evolving sports media.

"[Joe Pa] is a great benchmark for the growth and development in sports media in the last six decades," said the lecturer who created the class. Six decades!? [Insert JoePa age joke here.]

In an effort to combat dorm overcrowding, Harvard won't be accepting any more transfer applications for the next two years, the Harvard Crimson reports. According to the university, every housing facility is already above capacity, while last month, the admissions dean said the school would be accepting fewer freshmen next year and wait-listing more.

UCLA's sometimes contentious Undie Run was mostly uneventful this year, the Daily Bruin reports, marred only by an orange traffic cone thrown through a library window and a small spike in alcohol poisonings. "It encapsulates the beauty of UCLA," said one runner. "Not only is it a social experience but an expression of our happiness as a rigorous quarter comes to an end."