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Arizona State Frat Houses May Get Makeover
Tweet Share on Facebook October 31, 2007 Comment (101)Officials at Arizona State University are inching toward a plan that would raze the houses of five fraternities on the school's prominent Alpha Drive and, in their place, construct a complex that includes new housing, a hotel, and a conference center, along with retail, restaurant, and entertainment venues reserved for the Greek system, the State Press reports. Proponents of the plan (mostly university administrators) like the idea of a cleaned-up and modern fraternity row—one that is also subject to school residence hall policies. But critics prefer the nostalgia of traditional frat houses. "I want my kids to come down in 20 years and live in the same house I lived in," said one brother. "What is a fraternity without a house?" And more important, how can you have a frat party without one?
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Why the Bomb Squad Hates Halloween
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2007 Comment (100)The Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Squad was deployed to a University of Southern California-owned strip mall after a suspicious object in the parking lot was reported to 911, the Daily Trojan reports. Found in the back seat of a car, the offending items—two fake clusters of dynamite—were part of a suicide bomber Halloween costume belonging to an Army recruiter working at the shopping center. You couldn't make this up if you tried.
The "bomb" was made of "two clusters of red cardboard tubes attached to hemp string and covered in black tape," while other accessories in the car included a "loose, white and purple body-length garment and a scarf-like headdress." A photo obtained by the school's newspaper shows the costumed man at a party with the dynamite strapped to his chest functioning as beer holders. "In my opinion," said an LAPD detective, "he was going a little strong with a Halloween costume that looked like a Muslim [terrorist]."
Despite the wasted time, manpower, and energy, the police were able to make good out of a bad situation. Reports the newspaper: "Officers quickly realized the situation was no longer serious and went to Starbucks for Frappuccino."
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26 Fire Alarms and Counting
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2007 Comment (1)In its continuing "boy who cried wolf" saga, an Arkansas State University residence hall just tallied its 26th fire alarm this semester, the Herald reports. "I'm so sick of it," said one annoyed freshman. "People need to grow up." The situation has gotten so obnoxious that the school is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people pulling the alarms.
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UC-Berkeley Tree-Sitter Update
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2007 Comment (102)A county judge amended his original court order and has called for the removal of all (instead of just one) protesters atop trees scheduled to be chopped down for an athletic center, the Daily Californian reports.
The judge's ruling was met with a shoulder shrug from protesters ("None of us are dismayed by any of this"), but university officials see it as another small win in their continuing legal struggles. "This latest ruling makes it seem even more difficult for reasonable people to see this as a benign protest," said a public relations official. Considering tree life has been ongoing since Dec. 2, 2006, "reasonable people" are likely few and far between.
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2007 Comment*At the University of Utah, 200 of the 1,400 red flags representing rape victims treated at the Salt Lake Rape Recovery Center were vandalized, the Daily Utah Chronicle reports.
*A nuclear reactor at Penn State University continues to leak "slightly radioactive water," but school officials assure that "it's an operational issue, but it's not a health issue," the Daily Collegian reports. Where's John Travolta and Julia Roberts when you need them?
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Brawling in Boston? Surprise: Not About the Red Sox!
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2007 CommentA step show after-party at Harvard University resulted in "something of a melee," resulting in more than 20 police cruisers being deployed, a number of party participants forcibly subdued, and two non-Harvard students taken into custody.
The Harvard Crimson reports that the ruckus began sometime after "Knuck If You Buck" was played ("a song where everybody goes wild"). "The crowd started touching each other and bumping into each other," said one witness. "Then I saw a whole bunch of people screaming, and I saw people fighting." Another witness added: "The next thing I know a chair flies by my face, literally 3 inches away."
While the DJ turned off the music and turned up the lights, the fight migrated outside the building into the courtyard. Eventually, the skirmish was brought under control, but not before the commotion could leave a lasting impression on one Cambridge police officer: "We haven't seen this many bodies since the Red Sox won the World Series the last time."
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Massachusetts Can't Get Enough Weird Bomb Scares
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2007 Comment (100)Between the Aqua Teen Hunger Force fiasco and the MIT student arrested for wearing an electronically-enhanced shirt that Logan International Airport security thought was an explosive, Massachusetts has had its fair share of bizarre bomb scares. Now, there's an empty Keystone Light box at the University of Massachusetts to add to the insanity.
The Daily Collegian reports that last week a custodian discovered a box with a battery attached to the front and a note reading, "If this is moved it will explode." The school immediately evacuated several buildings and sent the bomb squad to investigate.
Turns out the gussied-up beer box was part of a class presentation about the book Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill. The prop was used to show "how easy it was to build a bomb with directions he found on the Internet." Turns out it's also pretty easy to cause small-scale campus chaos.
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Homecoming Floats Have Never Been This Contentious
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2007 Comment (101)The unofficial, unsanctioned return of Chief Illiniwek passed under the politically correct radar this weekend at the University of Illinois homecoming parade, the New York Times reports. Chief Illiniwek and other Native American imagery have been officially "retired" by the Illinois Athletic Department, but the school's chancellor lifted an Illiniwek ban on parade floats by invoking the First Amendment. According to the Daily Illini, the school's statement said, "The University values free speech and free expression and considers Homecoming floats, decorations, costumes and related signage all representations of such personal expression." More than a thousand spectators were still sporting Chief Illiniwek gear at the parade, and no protesters showed up to challenge the ban's reversal. So much for moral outrage.
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2007 Comment*Several female students at St. Louis University have received anonymous E-mails attacking their modesty, the University News reports. The seven identical messages have been sent over the course of seven years, but officials have not been able to determine the identity of the sender because the messages do not originate from a school account.
*In an attempt to stave off "reverse culture shock," one Brigham Young University professor wants to help returning missionaries adjust to regular life as typical lazy, time-wasting Americans, the Daily Universe writes.
*A brewery at Indiana University coordinated the launch of its new black beer with a fundraiser for the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, the Indiana Daily Student reports. Now if only someone could rescue the growling and clawing 2-year-old caged black panther that was the "guest star" at the event.
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Trick or Treat. Please Don't Arrest Me
Tweet Share on Facebook October 26, 2007 Comment (107)At the University of Wisconsin's Freakfest, an organized event that features live DJs and bands, 300 law enforcement officials will flood the streets of Madison to try to control the estimated 50,000 homecoming revelers, according to the Badger Herald. With memories still fresh from 2002's riots, which left State Street stores looted, burned, and vandalized, police hope the recent years of costumed peace will continue, the Daily Cardinal writes.
The city of Athens—home of Ohio University—has put its own method to the madness, with concerts plus a massive costume contest, according to the Post. The raucous party is a huge draw for non-OU students all over Ohio. Less than half of the revelers arrested last year were even college students, and not all of those students were from OU. The voices of reason have offered the Post's readers some easier-said-than-done advice to stay out of trouble: "Use common sense with drinking, and know your limits."
Down south, the Reveille reports that Louisiana State University is bracing for "its own little parade of freak shows" at its annual State Street block party, and on the West Coast, UC-Santa Barbara police officers are cracking down on every law imaginable: "We have a zero-tolerance enforcement posture for all crimes alcohol-related, party-related—anything that you can think of," a sheriff's department sergeant told the Bruin. "Drunk in public, open containers, minors in possession of alcohol, indecent exposure, and loud music ordinances [are] all zero tolerance." Isla Vista residents must also obtain Halloween parking permits to park their cars near campus, and perhaps most drastically, police have asked UCSB students to not invite their outsider friends. The nearby wildfires have already strained the resources of Santa Barbara, and the arms of the campus have become metaphorically more closed. A letter from UCSB's chancellor to neighboring schools' newspapers reads, "We hope that your students will consider the risks and possible penalties of coming to Isla Vista this year and decide to stay away for their own safety and protection." It's all fun and games until those handcuffs chafe against that bright-blue Superman spandex.