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Harvard's Domino Effect: Still Waiting
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2006 CommentHarvard got rid of early admissions because it wanted other schools to get rid of early admissions. No dominoes have fallen yet, but people are definitely talking. Princeton's dean of admission seemed excited, telling the Daily Princetonian, "The choices are expanded for us now." The Duke Chronicle reports Duke is "re-evaluating" its policy. Meanwhile, officials at Yale and Penn told the Yale Daily News and the Daily Pennsylvanian they like their policies and plan to stick with them.
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UCLA Reconsiders Its Admissions Policy, Too
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2006 CommentHoping to admit more minority students, a UCLA committee voted last week to move to a "holistic" admissions system, the Daily Bruin reported. African Americans' presence has fallen at UCLA since 1996, when Californians voted to ban affirmative action in admissions. A "holistic" approach would try to reverse that dip--without making race an explicit factor. That worked at UC-Berkeley, which regularly admits more minority students than its L.A. counterpart. UCLA's "Academic Senate" still needs to approve the change, but if it does, the new system could be in place as early as this fall.
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Students and Campus Police Face Off at Brown
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2006 CommentA Brown student's allegation that university police brutally assaulted him last week has sparked a campuswide debate about race, the Daily Herald reports. Organizers estimated 200 students--most of them "students of color"--attended a protest march yesterday, and university police dedicated most of a regular community meeting to discussing the event. A student speaker suggested her classmate was targeted because of his race. "They claim they don't know what a Brown student looks like--let's show them what a Brown student looks like," she said. Then she led her peers in a chant: "Brown is brown."
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Who Says You Can't Stay in College Forever?
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2006 CommentThe second stop of the newly minted American Beerpong Association of America's National Tour is scheduled for today, at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the Daily Tarheel reports. A 2006 Duke graduate and a 2006 Vanderbilt graduate founded the group this summer. Their tour plans to hit 60 cities via a 1992 Jamboree RV "with turquoise accents," North Carolina State's Technician reported last week, when the ABAA men made Raleigh their first stop. The Technician also recorded this explanation for the association's titular redundancy: "America is for beerpong and beerpong is for America," said co-founder Kyle Lininger, "and that is why we emphasize America for emphasis."
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2006 Comment- Miss a communications lecture at North Carolina State and you'll have to pay. For $2.50, students in Robert Schrag's classes can now watch videos of his lectures online, the Technician reports. "Your tuition buys you access to the lectures in the classroom," Schrag told the Technician. "If you want to hear one again, you can buy it."
- At George Washington University, the College Democrats--long the largest student group at the politically active school--have a new rival, the Daily Colonial reports.
- A controversial new student government body at Penn State has been rejected by the Big Ten schools, the Daily Collegian reports.
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No More Early Action at Harvard: But Just Because Harvard Jumps off a Cliff ...
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2006 CommentEarly bird, regular bird, late bird--makes no difference at Harvard starting next year, the Crimson reports. Allowing students to apply on two schedules gives rich applicants an edge and makes overachievers even more crazy, Harvard officials say. So they won't do it anymore, and they hope that other schools will follow.
Will they? Inside Higher Ed points out that when the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill did the same thing in 2002, almost no one followed. But Harvard, after all, is Harvard. "If anybody is going to step up and take the lead to try to get rid of something which is really doing more harm than good in high schools across the country," says interim Harvard President Derek Bok, "it's us."
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Because There Isn't Enough Controversy in Politics Already
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2006 Comment"Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day" and "Fun With Guns" are among the get-out-the-youth-vote plans of one University of Michigan-based Republican National Committee organizer, the Michigan Daily reports. In the first event, students would try to hunt down a volunteer dressed as an illegal immigrant, and the first to find him would win a prize. In the second, they could shoot cardboard cut-outs of leaders like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry with BB guns.
Michigan's College Democrats have no nationally provided intern, but they do have tough-talking student chair Jamie Ruth. "We're going to walk, we're going to talk, we're going to knock our way to victory on Election Day in November," Ruth says.
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Al Qaeda University-Lincoln, Nebraska?
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2006 CommentAt the University of Nebraska, a chemistry professor is now in jail after handing out homemade explosives to his students, the Daily Nebraskan reports. The professor gave them out Friday, the same day John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, spoke at the university--"only a coincidence," the Nebraskan concludes.
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But Is Football Really Conservative?
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2006 CommentThe University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill took money from a conservative foundation dedicated to conservative-ing up college campuses--but it will not let the money touch curriculum development. Instead, the John William Pope Foundation's gift will be split between the football team and a new fellowship for students studying "Western cultures." The compromise ends a two-year controversy, the Daily Tarheel reports.
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2006 Comment- The Daily Kansan on new Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally's college days: "We knew when he graduated he would be very successful," said one University of Kansas professor. "I expected him to be the president of Boeing," said another. Hindsight is always 20/20!
- The University of Minnesota introduced a new "sustainability" minor last week, the Minnesota Daily reports. Given that the degree requires students to measure their own waste, interest in the program could prove difficult to ... sustain.
- At Emory, the Wheel reports, a student government-funded bus now shuttles students between their dorms and the bars. Innovative way to combat underage drinking, or innovative way to get student government reps out of designated-driver duty? The jury, says the Wheel, is still out.