Entries for April 16, 2007

At least 32 people were killed Monday on the campus of Virginia Tech. The Collegiate Times has ongoing coverage of this developing story.

If you or someone you know witnessed the events on campus, you can contact U.S. News & World Report at papertrail@usnews.com.

—Kenneth Terrell

Seven men faced off in Drake University's first male beauty pageant last week, and Joe Barlow won the tiara, er, crown, according to the Times-Delphic. Looks like other than the gender switch, male beauty pageants aren't all that different from the female kind. The "Top Dog" competition included swimsuit, eveningwear, talent, and personality/question categories. When asked the beauty pageant staple "If you had the opportunity to permanently fix one world problem, what would it be?", Barlow gave the obvious "World peace" answer--which actually, sort of doesn't make sense, but you get the idea. And he aced the talent competition, playing the ukulele while singing Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Times-Delphic website has a picture.)

Congratulations, Mr. Barlow!—Kenneth Terrell

A survey of 284 New York University students found that first-year students reported spending more time both studying and socializing than upperclassmen, who instead spend more time on internships and jobs. First-year students spent 45.5 hours per week on coursework, compared to 36 hours for upperclassmen in the Web-survey conducted in February and March by the university's Division of Student Affairs, the Washington Square News reports. The freshmen also socialized an average of more than 18 hours per week while that number for upperclassmen was just 15.4 hours.

But the upperclassmen won when it came to real-world work experience. They logged an average of 10.5 hours per week, compared with the first-year students' 6.3 hours.—Kenneth Terrell

Most of the Windy City was celebrating Saturday after Chicago was chosen over Los Angeles to be the United States' bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. But one Illinois State University columnist thinks that getting the games might not be so good for the city. Her main concern is the plan to build a new 80,000-seat arena to host some of the events. "Alright, never mind the fact that I really don't think there's any room to build an 80,000-seat coliseum without making it look like a monster spaceship took up residence in a quaint neighborhood, or the fact that that we'd be tainting historic land in our city," she writes in the Daily Vidette. "But what about after the games?"

The Chicago mayor's plan to make the stadium the home field for a new football team isn't an ideal solution, she says. "Sorry, Daley, we already have a schism the size of Canada that divides Cubs and Sox fans (not that I'm complaining--Go Cubs), and no way are the resident Bears fans going to make a divide in supporting a new Chicago football team."—Kenneth Terrell

• Some upperclassmen will be living in luxury in a new dormitory opening next fall at New Mexico State University, according to the Round Up.
• Remember Principal Belding from Saved By the Bell? Florida State University students do: He spoke there last week, the FSView reports.

—Kenneth Terrell