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Big House Is Another Big Headache for Michigan Football
Tweet Share on Facebook September 14, 2007 CommentThe University of Michigan's plan to revamp Michigan Stadium has been met with much opposition, most recently a petition signed by 600 faculty and staff members saying that "the renovation approval process was marked by the censorship of opposing viewpoints and that the $226 million price tag is too high," according to the Michigan Daily. The alterations to the nation's largest-capacity football stadium would add premium seating and luxury boxes atop the bowl, a change that will "damage its reputation, undermine public trust, and saddle itself with a costly stadium plan that does not reflect UM's traditional values or mission," the petition reads. And with the football team's four-game losing streak (Appalachian State is Hot! Hot! Hot!) and its recent general-studies scandal, it seems that Michigan football has a lot more problems than this can-the-coach website.
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Penn State Cries a River
Tweet Share on Facebook September 14, 2007 CommentWho knew college students could be so curmudgeonly? The Penn State student government gave its classmates a chance to make their voices heard at an "I'm Pissed About THIS..." table, the Daily Collegian writes. Among the large number of complaints:
1. The exorbitant amount of lecture notes professors request that is eating up one student's printing credits.
2. The number of scholarships the university doles out each year. "It's funny how students that have a 4.0 [grade-point average] can't get a scholarship, but someone can get a full ride for throwing a football and making the school millions of dollars in a bowl game," one student said.
3. Garbage trucks at 5 in the morning that wake everyone up.
Students seem eager to take it to the man. Said one student: "Class can wait. I'm mad."
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook September 14, 2007 Comment*A student at the University of Minnesota is starting a deaf club to help the deaf community overcome "communication challenges," the Minnesota Daily reports. As obvious as that sounds, the club's leader, a native of Ethiopia, is partially referring to the huge discrepancies between African and American sign language. Who would have thought?
*Two is indeed better than one, says the Louisiana State University's Daily Reveille, which determines that students with double majors are more marketable in the real world.
*The University of Texas is canceling its December graduation ceremony for graduate students because of renovations at the event's normal location, the Daily Texan writes.
*The University of Kentucky campus is bracing for a "freak show" when a state tattoo expo comes to town, the Kentucky Kernel writes. Highlights include a piercing artist who breathes fire and pierces himself on stage and a Japanese lion dance show.
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Drink, and Steal a Table
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2007 CommentAlcohol is the proximate cause of many a crime and physical injury—assault, vandalism, a good old-fashioned stomach pump—but the folks at Ithaca College have found a new drunken folly: table theft. A school official calls the furniture pilfering a "chronic problem" and estimates that the campus loses about 40 $190 folding tables a year.
While there is the possibility that tables are being transformed into tasteful dining room décor, officials suspect they are mostly used for weekend games of beer pong. The furnishings that the college does recover are often marred with crude sexual drawings and graffiti. Examples of the literary genius: "Drink beer" and "Cops are pigs."
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Sorority Life: Estrogen Overload and Pillow Fights
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2007 CommentOK, so the story explicitly says no pillow fights, but the Daily Aztec did confirm that sorority sisters live in "regular [houses] with a really high estrogen level" at San Diego State University. They also engage in their fair share of drama. While many pseudonymously named sisters contend that the infighting is kept at a minimum (or at least nothing out of the ordinary), soap opera-like stories abound.
"People's stuff gets stolen, including boyfriends," says one upstanding young woman. "There was an incident one year where one girl slept with another girl's boyfriend, and the girl went around the house writing so-and-so's a whore, so-and-so's a slut." Hmm. Since when did boyfriends become "stuff"?
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Like Hugs? Don't Want to Be Creepy?
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2007 CommentAs the feel-good story of the day, a Brigham Young University freshman has preliminarily broken the world record for number of hugs in an hour. Breaking the previous record of 612 made in Finland, she hugged 765 people, from 4-year-olds to grandmas to professors, the Daily Universe reports. "I had to hug some BYU professors, which was weird because I would be taking their classes soon and now I was hugging them," she said. Weird, eh? People have been arrested for less.
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2007 Comment*We'd all better upgrade our cellphone plans before November 2008. A study says students are more likely to vote when they receive a reminder text message on the eve of Election Day, the Michigan Daily reports.
*When reading between the lines of the Jambar, bananas plus condoms plus actual beer goggles equal hilarity at Youngstown State University.
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Indian Community at New Mexico Reports Attacks
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2007 CommentThe University of New Mexico India Students Association alleged that more than 20 of its male members were attacked by a single, unidentified man, the Daily Lobo reports. An official from the Albuquerque Police Department said that the force is stretched thin and that the attacks were probably not hate crimes. "I can guarantee you, you're not the only people getting hit by this guy," he said. "If he's that angry, I guarantee he's hitting other people, too."
The University of New Mexico Police Department, however, is investigating the assaults as hate crimes. According to the student group, the attacks followed a similar pattern: The perpetrator kicked an Indian man to the ground, said namaste—a traditional Indian greeting—and fled.
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Falling Excrement Prompts Court Order for Tree-Sitters
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2007 Comment (1)UC-Berkeley officials are seeking a court order to force down tree-sitters who have been protesting the removal of 26 oak trees since December, the Daily Californian reports. The university cited "fire hazards, falling containers of excrement, and the increase of structures in the trees" as reasons for demanding the tree-sitters' extraction.
According to a university spokesman, the protesters have at least two propane tanks in the trees— for cooking. Though at least one protester completely denied the use of propane in trees, another tree-sitter who goes by the name of 'Stoic' questioned the school's complaints. "We don't know what the issue with the propane is. If it's about safety, we're willing to hear it and align ourselves accordingly."
Protesters say there are nine shelters in the trees; police peg the number at 12.
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Iowa State Gun Policy: Tired of Being Canadian
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2007 Comment (1)Some schools have responded to the Virginia Tech massacre by adopting the use of text messages as an emergency alert system, but Iowa State University seems to prefer fighting fire with fire. The school's faculty senate recommended to its president and regents that university police officers should be armed, the Iowa State Daily reports. The school's police force, which includes 31 trained and certified officers, has not carried guns since 1969.
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