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OMG. NCAA sez we cant txt nemore!
Tweet Share on Facebook April 30, 2007 CommentSaving the thumbs of hundreds of top high school athletes last Thursday, the NCAA banned coaches from text-messaging recruits, the Minnesota Daily reports. While the old guidelines limited phone calls, E-mail, and personal visits, the new rules also address and eliminate communication through texts, along with video phones, video conferencing, and social-networking sites like Facebook.
Backers of the ban saw texting as a loophole around recruitment rules, while others were concerned that it was too intrusive and costly for some student athletes, who can receive up to 100 text messages a day, sometimes at 15 cents a pop.--Alison Go
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Maryland Offers Minor for Jack Bauer Wannabes
Tweet Share on Facebook April 30, 2007 CommentThe University of Maryland will offer a terrorism minor this fall, the Diamondback reports, which will be the first of its kind open to civilians.
The minor will likely attract a variety of students, such as freshman criminology major Brandon Patrick, who, the newspaper notes, is a fan of TV shows such as 24, Numb3rs, and Navy NCIS. "I'm really gung-ho, conservative, 'Yay America,' " Patrick said. "I'd be happy with a job at any of the [federal] agencies." Kiefer Sutherland has not been scheduled as a visiting professor. Yet. --Alison Go
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Duped Bikers Incensed Over Fake Enforcement Notices
Tweet Share on Facebook April 30, 2007 Comment (1)Outraged cyclists at Stanford University mobilized in response to fliers threatening more strict regulation of bicycle travel on campus, the Stanford Daily reports. The bike aficionados deluged the school's Department of Public Safety with complaints. But it turns out the fliers are a prank: DPS denies distributing any of the notices, which read, "Out of concern for public saftey [sic] the Stanford police will be less tolerant towards bicyclists in violation of traffic laws." DPS notes many of the notice's claims, such as that helmets must be worn at all times, did not reflect current biking laws. --Alison Go
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook April 30, 2007 Comment- A lewd surprise was waiting for those opening a 1957 time capsule for the University of Washington's communications department on Saturday, the Daily reports. Alongside 1950s memorabilia were Hustler and Playboy magazines from the 1980s and a pair of dirty underwear. Also you can watch newspaper editors from the 1980s try to explain the mysterious additions.
- In news that's not really news at all, the Red & Black reports "math anxiety can cause students of all levels to perform poorly in math." University of Georgia clinical psychology doctoral candidate Megan Benoit Ratcliff advises students to tackle the problem head-on. "Put in more effort, and treat math like a foreign language," she says. Ay, caramba, we say.
- Apple has cornered more of the college market by partnering with Texas Tech, the Daily Toreador reports. The school launched its iTunes U, where students can post video and podcasts, while teachers can upload their own work or lectures. UC-Berkeley and Duke are among the schools that already have partnerships with Apple. --Alison Go
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MIT Admissions Dean Falsified Her Résumé
Tweet Share on Facebook April 27, 2007 CommentThe admissions dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology resigned this week after revealing that she falsified her résumé when she applied to the university more than two decades ago, the Tech reports. An investigation prompted by an anonymous phone call found that Marilee Joneswho started working for MIT in 1979 in an admissions office secretarial positionhad not earned degrees from Union College, Albany Medical College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as previous sources listed. "She has been the person to yank letters of admission," Chancellor Phillip Clay told the Tech. "We had no choice but to make the separation quickly."
Jones, who became dean in 1998, has issued a brief statement about her resignation. "I misrepresented my academic degrees when I first applied to MIT 28 years ago and did not have the courage to correct my résumé when I applied for my current job or at any time since," she said. "I am deeply sorry for this and for disappointing so many in the MIT community."
The resignation is the big news today at many campuses with highly competitive admissions. According to this Harvard Crimson article, Jones's "profile surged last year with the publication of Less Stress, More Success, which she wrote with pediatrician Kenneth R. Ginsburg. Among other pieces of advice in the book, Jones warned students against 'making up information to present yourself as something you are not.' She wrote, 'You must always be completely honest about who you are.'" Kenneth Terrell
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A New MVP at Gonzaga
Tweet Share on Facebook April 27, 2007 CommentFunded by an impressive $200,000 grant from the Justice Department, the Men's Violence Prevention group will work to curb domestic violence against women. "As much as we would like to deny it, violence toward women happens on the Gonzaga campus, and it is time for the men in the community to take a stance to stop it," one of the students who started the group tells the Bulletin. MVP's first activities include an awareness rally on campus next week and a "Walk a Mile in her Shoes" event, for which group members will race a mile in high-heel shoes!K.T.
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook April 27, 2007 Comment- A Southern Illinois University art student has won $20,000 in a competition for glass-blowing art, the Daily Egyptian reports.
- St. Bonaventure University plans to make wireless Internet access available pretty much everywhere on campus over the next year, according to the Bona Venture.K.T.
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SUNY–Geneseo Police Start Carrying Guns
Tweet Share on Facebook April 26, 2007 CommentResponding to the violence at Virginia Tech this month, the State University of New YorkGeneseo has decided that its campus police officers will carry guns at all times, the Lamron reports. Before the decision, announced April 20, officers in emergency situations had to retrieve their firearms from locked boxes in their offices and vehicles. According to University President Christopher Dahl, the change "could make the difference between life and death for the officer or a student."
In the Lamron's online poll of nearly 700 people, 58 percent supported the decision, while 34 percent were opposed. "I agree with [the decision] because if a situation like what occurred at Virginia Tech should happen, [the police] need to be armed and ready," one first-year student tells the paper. But a sophomore disagrees: "They shouldn't change the logistics just because of one event and assume we have the same risk."Kenneth Terrell
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Words of Wisdom From a Graduating Senior
Tweet Share on Facebook April 26, 2007 Comment (1)For her final column for the East Tennessee State University newspaper, Summer Carr offers three nuggets of wisdom she has gleaned from her college days.
1.Don't make excuses: "If your homework is late, just own up to it," she writes in the East Tennessean. "Tell your professor that you made a mistake and then remedy the situation immediately. And then never do it again." Her exceptions include "missing a test because you got a traffic ticket on the way to school or suffering serious bodily injury that requires hospitalization."
2. If you're a woman, don't pay on the first date: "If you pay for the entire bill, you will find that you assume the traditional role of the male in the relationship, and your boyfriend will expect you to pay for every dinner from that day forward," Carr writes. "Remember, women: What we want is equality, not to switch traditional roles."
3. Work hard, but have fun, too: "Sure, you don't want to wake up one day in 30 years and realize you never got to do the things you wanted to do because of inadequate preparation, but you also don't want to wake up on that morning and realize that your only memories of your teens and early twenties are of long nights spent studying alone."K.T.
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook April 26, 2007 Comment- The Kentucky Kernel takes a look at the emerging trend of coed dorm rooms. It's an option intended to help transgender students feel more comfortable on campus.
- A University of Southern California Trojan photographer caught a great picture of a student flipping for parkour, the extreme sport of urban gymnastics.
- The Daily Illini takes a look at technology recycling on campus, with a slide show featuring piles of computers.K.T.