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Stanford Admissions Sets Records
Tweet Share on Facebook March 31, 2008 CommentThis 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.
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Ohio State Student Newspaper Suspends Summer Issues
Tweet Share on Facebook March 31, 2008 CommentBecause 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.
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Minnesota Protest Results in 16 Arrests
Tweet Share on Facebook March 28, 2008 Comment (5)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.
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Note to Partiers: The Internet Is Not Your Friend
Tweet Share on Facebook March 28, 2008 Comment (6)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.
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Ball State Business Contest Is Speedy and Icky
Tweet Share on Facebook March 28, 2008 CommentIn 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.
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Purdue Runs the Nearly Naked Mile
Tweet Share on Facebook March 28, 2008 CommentStudents 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."
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Mukasey Draws Ire of Boston College Law Profs
Tweet Share on Facebook March 27, 2008 Comment (4)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."
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Rally Addresses Basketball and Budget Cuts
Tweet Share on Facebook March 27, 2008 CommentNothing 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."
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Colgate Arrests Student for Gossip Site's Shooting Scare
Tweet Share on Facebook March 27, 2008 CommentAuthorities 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.
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Ron Paul to Visit Penn State
Tweet Share on Facebook March 26, 2008 Comment (8)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."