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Spring Protests Galore: Hunger Strikes, Naked Bodies, and Street Sleeping
Tweet Share on Facebook May 9, 2007 CommentOn top of the recent football ticket uproar at Penn State and the antinuclear-research protest at UC-Santa Barbara, it has been an eventful week for student demonstrations nationwide.
At Harvard, one of 11 students on a hunger strike was sent to the hospital with dangerously low sodium and electrolyte levels after a week of fasting, the Crimson reports. The protesters are demanding that the school intervene in a wage dispute involving security guards who work on campus. "It's exciting that the administration is responding," says senior Jamila R. Martin. It only took a week of not eating to get there.
Meanwhile, down south, another 11 undergraduates at Princeton pretended to be pieces of packaged meat in a demonstration co-organized by the Princeton Animal Welfare Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Daily Princetonian reports. The students stripped down to their underwear, covered themselves in fake blood, and wrapped themselves in plastic. While the protest did persuade one student passerby to get a slice of pizza (presumably not Meat Lover's) instead of a hamburger, another was more skeptical. "It's absurd. You just see people spooning each other under a plastic bag," sophomore Justin Karfo said.
Finally, at Northwestern University, a lone demonstrator is sleeping outside until June 9 to replicate the experience of being homeless and raise other students' awareness, according to the Daily Northwestern. Perhaps not coincidentally, Nicky Smith–the protester–was recently fired from his job at a residential college and was forced to move out. "I got kicked out of the dorm, so I might as well sleep outside," he said. –Alison Go
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Careful With That Tortilla: You Could Take Someone's Eye Out
Tweet Share on Facebook May 9, 2007 CommentAt this year's University of Arizona commencement ceremony, McKale Center officials will be checking bags for all the usual suspects: weapons, outside food and drink–and tortillas, the Arizona Daily Wildcat reports.
The graduation tradition of tossing tortillas in the air instead of caps (how pass�!) has drawn ire from critics who say the ritual is insensitive, if not racist, against Mexican-American and American Indian culture. In December 2005, the school canceled commencement because of the controversy, but it has since reinstated the event.
Cultural sensitivity was not the only concern on school officials' minds. "If tortillas dry out, they can harden and become dangerous," warned one administrator. –A.G.
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Tax Break = More Ramen Noodles
Tweet Share on Facebook May 9, 2007 CommentIn a classic case of "well, the sentiment is nice," University of Texas students are one step closer to getting a tax break on textbooks, the Daily Texan reports. The state Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would set aside two 10-day periods before the start of the fall and spring semesters when students could buy books tax free. The legislation now heads to the House.–A.G.
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook May 9, 2007 Comment- In its oxymoronic quest to figure out whether the vitamin-fortified Diet Coke Plus is a "healthy soda," the Daily Northwestern reports that "adding a few supplements to something that is not healthy does not magically make it healthy."
- UCLA may soon begin construction for an on-campus pub, according to the Daily Bruin.
- The Poly Post at Cal Poly-Pomona reports the most profitable majors are business, engineering, marketing, accounting, and information technology. Liberal arts students are left to wonder how many ways you can combine "bottom dweller" and "English major" in a sentence.
- According to the Daily Nexus, a two-hour blackout forced UC-Santa Barbara students to leave class early, hang out outside, use the stairs, delay dinner, and forgo Facebook. The horrors. –A.G.