Entries for September 2008

For five to 10 Michigan undergrads each year, the LSAT will no longer be necessary to earn three more years in glorious Ann Arbor. The Michigan Law School has launched its Wolverine Scholars program, which will admit a handful of Michigan undergrads who have at least a 3.8 grade-point average but have not taken the LSAT.

Admissions director Sarah Zearfoss says the program, which will start with the class entering in the fall of 2010, is an attempt to attract more students from the state. According to Inside Higher Ed, Michigan's law school student body is 22 percent in-state, compared with University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's 70 percent and UCLA's 60 percent.

The move, however, has put a small dent in the LSAT's supremacy in admissions and has ruffled the feathers of law school watchers, some of whom claim the move is a way to game the U.S. News rankings. Some law bloggers have suggested that the program may be designed to attract students with high grades but potentially low LSAT scores. Under this plan, they say, Michigan would get a boost in GPA and, without those LSAT scores reported, would also increase its LSAT average.

Zearfoss says that the number of students admitted this way (at most 10 students out of 360) couldn't make a dent on the rankings. U.S. News's rankings guy, Bob Morse, agrees. He says that if the Wolverine Scholars program enrolls only 10 students, "it will not have any meaningful impact on the U.S. News law school rankings since those students will account for such a small proportion of the first year class."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was busy this past weekend, signing state laws protecting all sorts of academic types. Animal researchers who have been under attack lately in the Golden State are somewhat safer now that the governor signed a law that strengthens protections for them, the Daily Californian reports. University of California researchers from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz have been victims of severe vandalism and fire bombings, acts that police have attributed to extreme animal rights activists.

The law makes it a misdemeanor to publish personal information about researchers or their family members if readers intend to use it to threaten or attack those researchers, and also makes it a misdemeanor for protesters to enter researchers' property to interfere with their academic practices.

The governor also signed into law a measure to protect high school and college newspaper advisers from being "dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred, or otherwise retaliated against" for solely acting to protect a pupil's speech or for refusing an administrator's order to illegally censor speech, the Student Press Law Center reports.

Schwarzenegger signed 163 bills this weekend and vetoed 226.

The Global Language Monitor tallied up how many times universities and colleges were mentioned in the print media and online (including blogs). Not surprisingly, Harvard topped the list (with this blog post only helping its cause), while Columbia and the University of Michigan rounded out the top three. Colorado College, Williams College, and the University of Richmond were tops in the liberal arts college category.

As for the backhanded compliment category, otherwise known as "Most Momentum," Vanderbilt, the University of Virginia, and Emory were the most improved universities; Hamilton, Pomona, and Skidmore colleges were best in the liberal arts group.

Chanting slogans like "Schwarzenegger, don't be cruel: We just want to go to school," nearly 2,000 people joined a protest in Sacramento Friday, encouraging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the California Dream Act, legislation that would make undocumented immigrant college students eligible for financial aid, the Daily Californian and the State Hornet report.

A federal district Judge ruled in favor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison last week, saying it had the right to both grant and deny funding to religious student organizations, the Daily Cardinal reports. The suit was originally brought by the Roman Catholic Foundation, a campus student group that was refused funding for some activities for the past two school years.

The group argued that by denying them funding derived from student fees, the university was violating its First Amendment rights. The group had sought money to pay for things like printing costs for a pamphlet on the rosary and bringing nuns from Italy to Madison.

The judge's decision is the latest, and perhaps last, phase of a two-year-long legal battle between the university and the religious organization. In March 2007, a judge ruled that the Catholic group could not receive funds because it was not sufficiently a student-run organization (three of its board members were students; the other three were church leaders). The foundation then reorganized its leadership to meet university standards and sued the university again.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the judge wrote:

The university "has not established any reason that justified" not funding the activities but at the same time had not tried specifically to suppress religious viewpoints.

"Plaintiffs have identified no topic on which the University has excluded religious viewpoints," Adelman wrote. "They have not shown, for example, that the University funds secular speech about abortion and birth control but prohibits RCF from expressing a Catholic perspective on these topics."

The University of Mississippi is aflutter with activity today, awaiting the start of the first presidential debate this year, the Daily Mississippian reports. Students and locals have been agonizing for most of the week over McCain's "will he or won't he" appearance status, but campus activities leading up to the event have been running as planned. All the media bigwigs are in town (such as NBC's Brian Williams), and Tom Brokaw took the stage with an Ole Miss professor Thursday to discuss both everything and nothing in front of a sellout crowd.

Now, all Oxford can do is sit and wait.

We already knew about Harvard's 8.6 percent return on investment (and 6 percent growth in its endowment) over the past year, but other schools have reported relatively sluggish numbers. Not surprisingly, most of the top schools saw decent returns (as much as anyone could hope in this economy), while less prominent schools struggled.

Stanford earned a "hard-fought" 6.2 percent on its investments, hedging against weak credit markets and bulking up on oil and gas. Its endowment stands at $20.4 billion.

A couple cases of bad food poisoning that sent a half-dozen Michigan State students to the hospital two weeks back turns out to be a statewide outbreak of E. coli. State health officials have confirmed 24 cases of E. coli poisoning in Michigan, including seven from MSU and three from the University of Michigan. The rest of the confirmed cases were spread across the state, including five in a county jail. Aside from what the health officials could verify, MSU officials suspect an additional 20 or so students had E. coli poisoning.

All 24 of the confirmed statewide cases were caused by the same sometimes-fatal 0157:H7 strain, which causes bloody diarrhea and can lead to liver and kidney damage. Researchers say the Michigan's cases are a genetic match to E. coli in New York, Oregon, Ohio, and Illinois.

Campus and state health administrators have yet to identify the source. As a precaution, MSU has removed frozen turkey and particular produce items from its cafeteria for the time being. Now that no incidents have been reported for almost a week, school officials have also begun surveying students from several dorms, asking them what they had eaten in the past three weeks. The answers could help the local and state health departments narrow their search for the source of the outbreak.

Students and campus officials at George Fox University , a small Christian college outside Portland, Ore., have strongly denounced the cardboard cutout of Sen. Barack Obama found hanged in effigy Tuesday morning, the Oregonian reports. The life-size reproduction was found hanging by wire from a tree with a sign taped to the front that read, "Act Six reject," referring to a scholarship program that caters to low-income students from Portland.

On Wednesday, school officials addressed the incident before a packed auditorium at the end of the college's regular chapel service. "It has been my dream to establish a university that more adequately represents the kingdom of God," President Robert Baker said. "This act causes some to question our commitment. What I've learned is we still have work to do."

The university and police continue to investigate who was responsible for the incident, but they aren't even clear that a crime was committed. "It doesn't fit as a hate crime, and it doesn't fit in as intimidation, necessarily," Newberg police Sgt. Tim Weaver said. "If it's not a crime, we're not going to be involved."

Minority students on campus have said that they don't necessarily fear for their safety, but they do hope to use their shock and anger to create a teachable moment.

"Immediately, it was disgust and outrage, but that has waned off to understanding," said a George Fox sophomore. "Now I see not much can be done about what happened, but we can get through it together. Now there's a lot more hope."

Michigan State University will now allow students to submit a personal video as part of their admissions application, the State News reports. Admissions officials hope the videos, which can be uploaded via YouTube or via CollegeSupplement.com, will particularly allow disadvantaged students more options for expressing themselves.

Officials say that students shouldn't expect a dramatic advantage to using video and that they are just giving applicants another way to talk about themselves. "It gives students a voice," said Jim Cotter, MSU admissions director. "Some people articulate who they are very clearly in writing, but everyone's a little different."

University of Idaho officials have scrapped its cheerleaders' skimpy outfits from the first two weeks of the season and have replaced them with slightly more modest attire since the school's September 13 game against Western Michigan, the Argonaut reports. The midriff-baring, two-piece getups of yore were replaced with a black tank top and shorts ensemble after the school received complaints from parents, alumni, and community members that the uniforms weren't appropriate, said Bruce Pitman, vice provost of student affairs.

The uniform change also contributed to the resignation of the spirit squad's coach, who cited family obligations and conflict with the school administration over the vision for the team. The axed uniforms, which cost between $4,500 and $4,600, were part of her new "bold" vision. "I push the envelope to rock the crowd," Cassie Helm said. "I guess Idaho is not ready for that."

The University of Iowa president fired two high-ranking officials yesterday over the handling of an alleged rape from last October involving two football players, the Daily Iowan reports. Phillip Jones, vice president for student services, and Marcus Mills, vice president for legal affairs and general counsel, were asked to resign and, when they declined, were fired.

The firings come a week after a report commissioned by the Iowa regents condemned the university's follow-up to allegations by a student athlete that she had been raped by two football players in an empty dorm room. The report concluded the response "simply was not adequate" but did not add up to a coverup, which had been alleged by the victim's mother.

The report cited Mills's conflict of interest as both UI general counsel and overseer of the investigation and also said Jones and other officials were "ineffectual" when shielding the alleged victim from those she accused, as well as fellow student athletes, who she says harassed her after she came forward.

The two accused players have both pleaded not guilty to the charges; their trial is set to begin November 3.

To say the least, Princeton's mostly satirical marching band was not well received at the Citadel this past weekend. The culture clash led to several confrontations, a heartily booed football halftime show, and plenty of hard feelings.

The problems started as the band marched to the game. The Princeton musicians accidentally "scrambled" onto revered Citadel land (the "Avenue of Remembrance," a campus street that honors the college's war dead) and, coupled with "humor" of questionable taste and quality, managed to seriously provoke the Charleston cadets.

According to the Princeton band, the cadets attempted to intimidate the band—before, during, and after the game—by making homophobic and derogatory remarks, stealing musicians' hats, breaking a clarinet, and roughing up and spitting on band members. Later, the band was booed into oblivion at its halftime show. Check out all the angry YouTube glory here. After the game, the harassment reduced some of the band members to tears, ending only when police intervened.

Citadel officials would not confirm or deny any of the band's claims, saying it would rather move forward. The college's president, Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa, offered a mild apology. "If we are dedicated to the values of the Citadel, we must hold cadets to a higher standard," he said in a statement. "We will use this episode as a learning experience to reinforce with cadets that they are representatives of the Citadel, and that their behavior redounds to the reputation of the college."

The Princeton band points out that its entire show, which its president says is the tamest of his four years, was approved by Citadel officials. But the president also admits "members did not in all cases respond to the provocations as well as we would hope."

Meanwhile, at least one local, a columnist with the Charleston Post and Courier newspaper, agreed that the band members took their irreverence too far.

Such a show of contempt deserved to be booed even by an objective audience. Their show, which included band members humping each other on the field, crossed several lines of respect and decency.

...

The entire Corps of Cadets should be given a medal for standing up for their school.

The Princeton Band, meanwhile, should be ashamed. All those pseudo-intellectuals and not a single brain among them.

Police at the University of Notre Dame broke up a house party and arrested 37 students early Sunday morning, the Observer reports. Most arrests were for underage drinking, and 17 of those apprehended were student-athletes. Authorities also raided three South Bend, Ind., bars.

A police news release outlined the circumstance of the arrests, which included students allegedly scattering into and away from the house and some found "hiding under beds, in closets, the attic, and in the basement."

The charges included consumption of alcohol by minors, possession of false ID, false informing, maintaining a common nuisance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and resisting arrest.

At Vanderbilt University, 51 students were arrested at a Sigma Chi fraternity event to celebrate the football team's victory over Mississippi, the Vanderbilt Hustler reports. The students were arrested at an off-campus campground after firecrackers were lit at the site. The charges included disorderly conduct and underage consumption, and all the students were released on $1,500 bond each.

A cryptic memo from the administration at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut that informed students of two "deplorable acts of hatred" has frustrated students interested in more information, the Quad News reports. According to an official, the acts were related to religion and sexual orientation, and the secrecy is at the request of the victims. The News also found out that one of the incidents involved an anti-Semitic slur written in a dorm.

A number of students wonder what they're supposed to do with just a smidge of information. "If they told us the facts up front, maybe we could work toward improving awareness on this campus," said one junior. "Instead, we are left in the dark, and these things just keep on happening." Another student adds: "How do we know what to prevent if we don't know the exact action?"