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Should Faculty Undergo Background Checks?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 5, 2007 CommentMandatory background checks could become a part of the University of Pennsylvania's regular hiring process, but not if the American Association of University Professors has anything to say about it. Looking at criminal records would be unfair, as they are often inaccurate and lack context--such as whether an arrest happened during a Vietnam War protest, an association rep tells The Daily Pennsylvanian. The university announced it was considering background checks following news that two convicted sex offenders had been working for the university. They're no longer employees, the DP reports.
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook March 5, 2007 Comment- A fire at an off-campus house near Longwood University killed two people early Saturday. That's the eighteenth college-related fire death this academic year, compared with just 11 last year, Inside Higher Ed reports, citing Campus Firewatch, an electronic newsletter.
- The University of Florida's African-American studies department is upset about budget cuts this year that at one point forced the department to cut even ink cartridges out of its budget, the Alligator reports.
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New Town-Gown Cure: Waterfalls
Tweet Share on Facebook March 2, 2007 CommentA resident of the District of Columbia neighborhood of Georgetown--not to be confused with the university Georgetown, which shares the same locale--has found a way to block out the noise of the parties raging around him. He bought a white-noise machine that plays "the crashing sounds of Yosemite Falls," reports the Georgetown Voice. It's "just about perfect . . . [for] blocking low-level party sounds," the resident says. A good present for the local irritated neighbor near you . . . .
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Sleep Through a Fire Alarm, Pay the Price
Tweet Share on Facebook March 2, 2007 CommentThat's $150, not death--at least at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, N.C. Two students had to pay the fine recently just for sleeping through one. At American University, the Eagle reports, you won't get fined, but you will have to stand before a judicial affairs panel.
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Brown to Review Curriculum
Tweet Share on Facebook March 2, 2007 CommentBrown University is reviewing its undergraduate curriculum, reports the Brown Daily Herald, in a story that raises many questions, most importantly: Brown has a curriculum?
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Playboy College Edition Coming Up
Tweet Share on Facebook March 2, 2007 CommentStill looking for a post-college job? Turns out many students featured in Playboy's college edition go on to become actual playmates, the University of Arkansas's Traveler reports. Also important: This biannual issue will feature students from the SEC conference for the first time in six years.
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook March 2, 2007 Comment- Clemson students seem to be gaining ground in their fight to abolish Saturday exams, the Tiger reports.
- Officials at Colby have discovered a homophobic message on the white board of a dorm, the Echo reports.
- A dean at Boston University this week introduced a more liberal guest policy, which he says puts more responsibility on students, the Daily Free Press reports.
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Breaking Up on YouTube: The Last Moral Straw?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 1, 2007 CommentBreaking up with your girlfriend on Valentine's Day is bad enough. But one University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill student decided he was feeling very bad: He broke up with his girlfriend on Valentine's Day, via an a cappella group (singing the Dixie Chicks' "I'm Not Ready to Make Nice"), in front of hundreds of people, and then posted a video of the event on YouTube.
The whole thing turns out to have been a hoax. But why is publicly humiliating a woman funny--even if it is fake? Why did a big crowd chant demeaning slurs at her so happily? And, as one letter writer asked in the Daily Tar Heel, "What does it say about our level of activism when roughly 800 more people showed up at the breakup than at the community-wide protest in January of the Iraq war escalation?".
The Tar Heel chose not to cover the story at all. "Regardless of whether the breakup was real or staged . . . it makes UNC students and the press look childish, the former for showing up in droves and the latter for covering the incident so thoroughly," the editorial board wrote.
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Who's More Pretentious, Princeton or NYU?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 1, 2007 CommentResponding to a New York Observer story uncovering elitism and shameless networking at Princeton's eating clubs, a New York University columnist first makes fun of Princeton. But then he seems to suggest that maybe NYU students can be just as elitist. "OK, so maybe we don't go so far as to cattle-brand our students on campus," he writes. "But watch out, Princeton. We've turned exclusion into an art--which is much more pretentious than a tradition." One of his examples: the "Find the Illegal Immigrant" search thrown by the College Republicans last week.
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The Beginnings of a Greek Identity Crisis?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 1, 2007 CommentThe Delta Zeta sorority's radical attempt at an image change at DePauw University shows the meanness of girls. But it might also reflect another trend: a Greek identity crisis. Greek groups' bad press this school year began with, but was not limited to, those South Carolina frat boys who made racist comments in Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat, then filed a lawsuit alleging they were manipulated. It continued with incidents like the "Halloween in the Hood" party thrown by Johns Hopkins's Sigma Chi chapter, which sparked interest from the NAACP.
The response: While national groups like Delta Zeta try to reinvent their image, students at Johns Hopkins are turning away from Greek groups, the Newsletter reports. Greeks have also come under attack at Duke, where a report on campus culture released Tuesday includes recommendations to end "selective housing," a move Greek groups call unfair, the Chronicle reports.
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