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Michigan's First Day With New Admissions Policy
Tweet Share on Facebook January 11, 2007 CommentA federal court blocked Michigan universities' attempt to delay Proposition 2, which bans affirmative action in admission. That made yesterday the first day the University of Michigan would enact new admissions policies, after a week in which administrators froze all admissions activities so they could adapt to the new law, the Michigan Daily reports.
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Winter Break Update: Yale A Cappella Group Attacked in San Francisco; One Student Seriously Injured
Tweet Share on Facebook January 11, 2007 CommentNew Year's Eve ended with a brawl for Yale's all-male a cappella group, the Baker's Dozen, whose private San Francisco performance (their last song was "The Star-Spangled Banner") was followed by a beatdown. The attack began when two party crashers started hurling antigay slurs, then continued after midnight when two vans full of young local men attacked the singers on their way out of the party.
One student singer had to be flown to New York for emergency reconstructive surgery on his jaw, which will be wired shut for eight weeks. His father, a Manhattan banker, has fired back at San Fran on his son's behalf, making calls to the local mayor's office and the police chief and hiring a law firm to keep pressure on police to solve the puzzle, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Searching for an explanation, The Yale Daily News argues the singers' formal wear provoked the attack, as did "the fact that they are not from San Francisco." But local reports suggest a simmering rivalry between San Francisco prep schools also played a role.
An IvyGate commenter points out that, though a cappella in general isn't known for rowdiness and trouble causing, the Baker's Dozen is. Between 1998 and 2003, the group sparked 28 complaints to New Haven police for trouble caused in its off-campus house, and in 2003 neighbors got so fed up they banded together to try to get the guys evicted. "Either at home [or] on tour," the commenter writes, "I give them the greatest chance of any student group in the Ivy League of engaging in a brawl."
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Awards Update: Voting Ends January 23 at Midnight; Wesleyan Readers Love Their Blog
Tweet Share on Facebook January 11, 2007 CommentWe're glad you're logging on to save democracy. Keep spreading the word through January 23, and all the delicate tightrope walking on that thin line between modesty and uncurtailed chest-beating just might pay off ...
In the meantime, a sneak preview ranking, for Best at Walking That Line:
1. Columbia's Bwog: Headline, "Did We Mention How Good You Look Today?"
2. Harvard's Pablog: After a long post about this one time he was in a locker room, Pablog closes with an offer of--could it be?--bribery. "And vote," he writes parenthetically. "Who knows what Pablog will do if he wins ..."
3. The commenter who asked, fueling a brewing rivalry between Bwog.net, Columbia's alternative media candidate, and Wesleyan University's Wesleying blog: "Can we call 'Columbia' 'Cwumbia'? I think it would make the whole "bwog" thing easier to swallow ..."
4. Wesleying, which sources tell us created a Facebook event encouraging readers to vote for its blog.
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At SMU, Some Want Bush's Library; Some Don't
Tweet Share on Facebook January 11, 2007 CommentDebate began almost immediately after Southern Methodist University revealed it had beaten out Baylor and the University of Dallas in the race last month to hold George W. Bush's presidential library. The debate continues today on the website of SMU's Daily Campus newspaper, where hot topics include everything from Pell grants to plans to add a think tank committed to Bush's ideology to the library complex. The New York Times calls that a "public policy institute," just one of the subjects at a Tuesday faculty meeting where SMU professors voiced concerns about the library.