Paper Trail was in New York City a few weeks ago and had trouble finding any standing room, so it's kind of surprising that New York University has found 6 million square feet in the Big Apple to expand its campus.

NYU plans to build a new tower and scores of classrooms, dorms, and offices, the New York Times reports. The university also wants to build a new engineering school in Brooklyn and a satellite campus on Governors Island, just off the coast of Lower Manhattan. It would be the largest expansion in school history.

The urban school's goal is to compete with the top universities in the country for premier students, money, and prestige. The move will also accommodate a growing student body, the report says. Still, the city must approve the school's ambitious plans before any ground is broken.

"They've been deliberate and thoughtful," one city official tells the Times. "That doesn't mean it's all going to go exactly as they intended. There's lots of opportunity for discussion here."

The number of students living in NYU housing tripled from 1991 to 2001, the report says, and NYU expects to have about 46,000 students by 2031, an increase of 5,000 from its current enrollment.

"For New York to be a great city, we need NYU to be a great university," NYU President John Sexton tells the Times. "We need the space to run our academic programs: to have the faculty that teach in these programs, to have the students who attend these programs, to create not only carriers of knowledge but ambassadors of New York for the future."

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Not that Paper Trail condones it, but drinking a shot on your 21st birthday is a rite of passage for many college students. But if you go to Penn State University, don't expect a celebratory shot on your birthday in State College, Pa., anymore.

Phyrst, the last bar in State College to serve shots to customers turning 21, has changed its policy and will no longer serve straight shots of liquor to its turning-21 customers, the Daily Collegian reports. Customers will be served only beer and mixed drinks. The policy is part of a larger charge in State College to fight heavy drinking among college students, especially on their birthdays. It's become a tradition for many students to drink 21 or more shots of liquor on their 21st birthday, a dangerous amount of alcohol.

It's just the latest move by city officials and Penn State to curb excessive drinking. Earlier in March, the school tried to reach out to students before State Patty's Day weekend, a popular drinking event on Penn State's campus, in an effort to raise awareness about drinking-related problems.

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Some 50 college students in California are going to the beach for spring break. But they won't be relaxing during the day and partying hard with other college students at night. These students are on a mission.

Some 50 college students from multiple California colleges will tour the state's massive coast, clean up waste on the beaches, and promote environmental causes, the Daily Bruin reports. The students will be participating in the California Public Interest Research Group's Wave of Change Spring Break Tour, which will end with a lobbying effort in Sacramento in favor of Assembly Bill 1998, which bans the use of plastic bags in California. For the first four days, the students will be picking up Styrofoam and plastic bag waste on beaches in places like San Diego and Santa Cruz.

"You can't think of California without thinking of the beach. The ocean is so important to California's fishing industry, its beauty, and its ecology," Coreen Weintraub, a UCLA student and the chair of CALPIRG's UCLA chapter, tells the Daily Bruin.

The report says Californians use 19 million plastic bags each year, while only 1 percent of Styrofoam used is recycled. If Bill 1998 passes, California will be the first state to ban the use of both, the Daily Bruin says.

"Taking a stance on Styrofoam is really crucial," one traveler tells the Daily Bruin. "[The trip] is more to get attention to the idea that [we] as college students care for the environment. Banning plastic bags is not a big sacrifice, but it's very helpful."

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They shocked the nation and the college basketball world on Saturday, and the University of Northern Iowa Panthers had a heroes' welcome because of it when they returned home on Sunday. 

The ninth-seeded Panthers, who beat the NCAA Tournament's overall top team, the University of Kansas, in thrilling fashion on Saturday, flew back to their home state on Sunday. A crowd of more than 50 fans­—the Chicago Tribune put the number at 70—stood on the tarmac awaiting the Panthers' plane, even after several delays pushed the flight's arrival time later and later. The players and coaching staff were greeted with cheers. And they signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans as they waited for their luggage, the Des Moines Register reports. It was a well-deserved party for one of this year's biggest Cinderella stories in the NCAA Tournament. 

"We thought it might be a little too late or a little too cold," Ali Farokhmanesh, the hero for Northern Iowa who hit two critical shots this past weekend to send the Panthers to the third round of the NCAA Tournament, tells the Register. "This is awesome." 

Maybe the biggest part of the NCAA Tournament isn't the games. Maybe it's picking your bracket. Either way, with a basketball president finally in office, we can enjoy the commander in chief's picks as much as the next person's. 

On ESPN this morning, President Obama made a few popular picks, like Kansas and Kentucky in the Final Four, with Kansas beating Kentucky in the title game. He also surprisingly chose No. 2 seeds Kansas State and Villanova to reach the coveted promised land of college hoops. In terms of upsets, the president picked Murray State, Cornell, and Siena to win in the first round. And in a nod to Washington-area teams, Obama picked Georgetown to reach the Elite 8. (He has Maryland losing in the second round to Michigan State.) 

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, University of Arkansas–Pine Bluff and Winthrop University, the NCAA Tournament starts tonight in Dayton, Ohio. 

It's called the "play-in game," even though both schools won their conference tournaments and earned automatic bids to the Big Dance. Arkansas–Pine Bluff, the Southwestern Athletic Conference champs, and Winthrop, the Big South champions, will square off in Dayton tonight for the right to play Duke in Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday. In many ways, this is both teams' national title game. 

[Check out our full March Madness coverage.] 

In their first-ever shot at the NCAA Tournament, the Arkansas—Pine Bluff Golden Lions can make $280,000 for their school if they win; that's the amount awarded to a school that wins the opening-round game. But Winthrop has nine Tournament appearances under its belt since 1999 and poses a formidable challenge to UAPB. It's not exactly David vs. Goliath, but it's close. 

It's the time of year when everyone tunes into college basketball. You know, when people like me spend hours reading statistics and reports about the seventh man on a No. 12 seed in the West Region of the NCAA Tournament, only to lose in the bracket pools to the coworker or friend who picks teams based on colors and mascots. It's the three-week period that makes you feel clueless after watching basketball every night for five months.

Yes, it's March Madness time.

And with that, we've got all kinds of goodies for you throughout the coming weeks. We broke down each conference by academic ranking, based on our America's Best Colleges rankings. We even matched up the regional brackets of the NCAA Tournament and included the rankings information for the 65 teams lucky enough to play in the best event in the world (in Paper Trail's humble opinion). If you want to see all of our content for March Madness, just check out our March Madness page, which is packed with rankings, brackets, stories, and commentary. Later this week, we'll have a podcast featuring an interview with University of Kansas star Cole Adrich. Also, we'll have some trivia about the 65 teams in the tourney.

Between your frenetic erasing of your bracket picks, peruse our stuff. It's worth your time.

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UCLA students might be getting a new school event similar to an Undie Run back on campus. The Undie Run is an exam week "tradition" that allows students to run around campus in their underwear before stopping at a meeting point and having a party. It's meant to be a stress reliever for students.

Last June, the famous (or is it infamous?) Undie Run was canceled because of the cost of repairs, safety concerns, and the presence of non-UCLA participants, the Daily Bruin says. But students had their own "underground" version of the run in the fall anyway, and they're planning to have another one on March 17.

Now, a student representative at UCLA says there's a chance students can have an official Undie Run—but only if the underground runs avoid trouble, the Daily Bruin reports. Administration officials warned that if students' actions are problematic, the university won't be interested in developing an official Undie Run—or any similar event—for the spring, the report says.

"If these underground Undie Runs continue, while good-hearted, it is never going to become what it could become if we simply work with the administration on this and make an event that makes everyone happy and keeps students safe," UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council General Representative Addison Huddy tells the Daily Bruin.

According to the Daily Bruin, Huddy and USAC Facilities Commissioner Timothy Mullins have been working with the school's events office to come up with a school-sponsored event that satisfies both students and the administration. While Huddy and Mullins wouldn't give details about the event to the Daily Bruin, they did confirm that the occasion will allow students to be in their underwear.

"I know it's frustrating that Undie Run has not returned," Mullins tells the Daily Bruin. "We understand and embrace [the students'] passion for the event, and in the end, we are working as hard as we can to bring out a happy resolution."

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They've been labeled as political. They've been labeled as necessary. Whatever you want to label them, the proposed campus newspaper budget cuts by the Kansas student government have gained some major attention. 

University of Kansas Student Body President Mason Heilman wants the student government to stop allocating funds to the Kansan, the Kansan reports. Heilman also wants to slash the campus media fee by $1.70. The current $4 fee helps fund all of Kansas's campus media outlets, including television, film, and radio organizations. The proposal would cost the Kansan about $83,000 a year. Heilman tells the Kansan that he is "dissatisfied" with the relationship between the Student Senate and the newspaper. 

If the whole freedom/not being a criminal thing weren't a factor, dormitory rooms would regularly be compared to prison cells. The carpet, if there is one, is gross. The walls are just plain boring. The beds are uncomfortable. And the chairs are rigid. A Syracuse University student came up with a remedy for at least one part of the uncomfortable digs. 

Ryan Dickerson created the Rylaxer, a bolster—not a pillow—that shapes to your body and maximizes comfort, the Daily Orange reports. The story says the Rylaxer can turn your bed into a couch and support your back, which was a main reason Dickerson thought of the product. 

Northwestern University students know how to raise some serious cash for good causes. In both 2008 and 2009, Northwestern's Dance Marathon raised more than $900,000 for Bear Necessities and Project Kindle, respectively. (Bear Necessities is a pediatric cancer foundation; Project Kindle focuses on improving the quality of life for kids and young adults infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.) 

This year, the Dance Marathon raked in $854,396 after 30 hours of dancing, the Daily Northwestern reports. The main beneficiary of the cash will be StandUp for Kids, an organization that helps homeless youth. 

It's unclear how we missed this great story last week. It comes from Harvard University, land of 10,000 libraries. 

Timothy Kim, a Harvard student, was studying late at night back on February 28 in the Harvard Law School Library. As the Crimson's FlyByBlog reports, Kim packed up his things and prepared to leave the library at 12:30 a.m., only to find the doors locked. He tested the library's alarm system by trying to force his way out—but decided against that option after hearing a blaring, distressing alarm sound—before trying exits on five different floors. He even contemplated just sleeping on the beanbag chairs on the fourth floor of the library. 

"I thought, 'If I have to spend the night here, that's what will happen,' " Kim tells the FlyByBlog. 

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has a fight on his hands, and it's one he had to know was coming. The recently elected Cuccinelli wants Virginia public universities to abandon policies designed to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation. It's a controversial stance, and students are fighting back. 

College students at Virginia's public universities are furious with Cuccinelli, the Washington Post reports. Even with many schools on spring break this week, thousands of students—from Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, and the College of William and Mary to Virginia Commonwealth University and Christopher Newport University—have started Facebook groups and planned rallies against Cuccinelli's requests. 

Her matriculation to Brown University drew headlines and media coverage. And it was for good reason: She's one of three young stars of the immensely popular Harry Potter movies and among the brightest young stars in Hollywood.

It was only a matter of time before Emma Watson took to the stage at her Ivy League school.

Watson, a freshman, will perform in a student-run production of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, the Huffington Post reports. There will be six performances of the century-old play, which will run from March 11 through March 15, according to the play's Facebook page.

Admission is free. The performances will be hosted by the Production Workshop.

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You knew it was unavoidable: Colleges claiming Oscar winners the day after the glamorous event. And who can blame them? Why else would they have a "Famous Alumni" section on Wikipedia?

Columbia University feels like a proud parent today after alum Kathryn Bigelow basically dominated the Academy Awards last night. The 1981 graduate of the Columbia School of the Arts took home Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture for her work directing The Hurt Locker, a riveting war film chronicling the fictional tale of a bomb squad in Iraq.

"There's no other way to describe it. It's the moment of a lifetime," Bigelow said after getting her award for Best Director.

In case you were wondering—and we know you were—here's a list of the other colleges represented by the major players at last night's film bonanza, based on my brief Wikipedia research. East Carolina University got some love—Sandra Bullock won Best Actress. Best Supporting Actress winner Mo'Nique went to Morgan State University. Cohost Alec Baldwin attended George Washington before finishing his bachelor's degree at New York University. Cohost Steve Martin studied at both Cal State–Long Beach (more affectionately known as Long Beach State) and UCLA but never finished his degree.

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