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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook October 4, 2007 Comment• A recent spate of sexual assaults on and near the University of Iowa campus has prompted two sororities to hire security guards, the Daily Iowan reports.
• Elizabeth Edwards's speech concluded American University's third annual breast cancer awareness event, "Breastival," which raised $2,000 for research, the Eagle writes. Good cause. Horrible name.
• Speaking of terrible titles, what about the "extremely important" houseboys who assist sororities at schools like the University of Oklahoma? They couldn't think of anything less embarrassing/more modern?
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Death Threats (and Little Info) Unsettle Yale Campus
Tweet Share on Facebook October 3, 2007 CommentUneasiness has troubled the Yale University campus as word has spread about one freshman's run-in with death threats and vandalism in his dorm room, the Yale Daily News writes. The student's room was ransacked, and he received several messages threatening his life, according to reports. Although the university and police have offered little comment on the incident and subsequent investigation, there has been a continuous police presence around that particular dorm, according to the Daily News. In the latest development, the victim's roommate has withdrawn from Yale for medical reasons.
Meanwhile, the rest of the student body has expressed anxiety over both the vandalism and the lack of information. Some of the dorm's residents have slept in other rooms. The newspaper's rough survey of student opinion only proved the lack of concrete fact to go around. "On Tuesday, a reporter roamed Old Campus asking students what they knew of the incident; their responses varied widely. One suggested it was the result of who was tapped for one acappella group versus another. Others have speculated that it was because the victim landed roles in two prominent campus theatrical productions. Another thought it was random. Others were just confused."
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For Impostor Students, Old Habits Die Hard
Tweet Share on Facebook October 3, 2007 CommentRemember Azia Kim? The fake Stanford student who fooled dorm residents, teachers, and even the ROTC into thinking she was an enrolled member of the university community? Well, in all that hubbub, Paper Trail failed to report on Elizabeth Okazaki, who spent a good four years at Stanford attending graduate physics seminars, using offices reserved for doctoral and postdoctoral physics students, living in the lab—all with "no real reason to be there," according to the Stanford Daily.
After being banned from the Palo Alto campus, Okazaki apparently returned to doing what she does best. But it took UCLA only four months to realize that the woman who was able to receive affiliate status with the philosophy department was in fact the same person who deceived Stanford officials for so long, the Daily Bruin writes.
Okazaki's ruse was discovered after she "began exhibiting strange behavior," such as sleeping in classrooms and bringing her sick cat to the buildings, asking staff members for help in administering medication to the feline, which eventually died in a classroom.
The odd behavior, coupled with one staffer's accidental exposure to Stanford Daily articles, meant game over for the woman with the incredible "ability to so perfectly blend in," as the UCLA whistle-blower put it. "She seemed out of it but not completely abnormal."
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Rodeo Team Members Brawl. But Hey! We Won
Tweet Share on Facebook October 3, 2007 CommentA scuffle between two members of the New Mexico State University rodeo team led to their ejection from a competition and a suspension, the Round Up reports. While the dispute may have involved a stabbing and could lead to academic suspension, scholarship reduction, or termination from the team, there is good news to report: "Despite the altercation between two of its athletes, the NMSU rodeo team had a very successful outing. 'Little picture, two of our athletes got in a fight. Big picture, our team did really well,' said [the coach]. The men's team took first overall in the event and the women's team took second overall."
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Mental Health Campaign Depresses Environmentalists
Tweet Share on Facebook October 3, 2007 CommentThe counseling center at the University of Utah has inundated the campus with thousands of handwritten notes in an effort to raise awareness about mental health problems, the Daily Utah Chronicle reports. Not exactly an uplifting exercise in campus litter: One letter reads, "I can't believe life is so hard. I've tried and tried and tried, but no matter what I do, I feel so overwhelmed by the little things, sometimes the big things. The weight is crushing me." The epistolary publicity stunt has roused the sympathy of at least one student, who tells the Chronicle, "I just feel bad for whoever had to write out 8,000 of them."
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Your Life Flashes in Front of You. It Looks Like a SIM Card
Tweet Share on Facebook October 2, 2007 CommentSo you're being robbed at gunpoint. What's the first thing that goes through your mind? For a Tufts University junior, it was the hassle of re-amassing his friends' phone numbers. "I don't know why—they have a gun pointed to me—[but] I'm like, 'Oh, I don't want to start one of these Facebook groups' " he told the Tufts Daily.
According to the potential victim's account, the robbers obliged our plucky hero when he asked them to let him keep his phone's SIM card, the chip that stores all of that vital personal data. After a mad scramble with his phone, a little white lie, and hiding in bushes, he managed to keep his wallet to boot, he told the Daily. There truly is a fine line between bravery and stupidity.
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook October 2, 2007 Comment*Queen Amidala (aka Natalie Portman) uses her fame and fortune for the forces of good and draws hundreds to a UC-Berkeley event promoting the virtues of microfinance, the Daily Californian writes.
*Path to riches, according to the Observer: Read books (Harry Potter series), make website (Mugglenet.com), chat with arguably the most famous author in the world (J. K. Rowling), write bestselling book (What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love, and How Will the Adventure Finally End), earn six figures a year (and invest in "global energy project involving solar power"), all before graduating from college (University of Notre Dame).
*MIT's most recent geek speaks to the Tech about the warm fuzzies he feels for his 15 minutes of fame on the CW's Beauty and the Geek. He also has high praise for his school: "I think that the majority of MIT students could make it to the show if they wanted to."
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The End of a Wawa Era
Tweet Share on Facebook October 1, 2007 CommentThe College Park Wawa closed its doors for the last time Sunday as a mob of University of Maryland students mourned the loss of a campus landmark, the Diamondback writes. "Herds gathered in the back aisles, screaming and reminiscing. Students ran through the now empty shelves and ravaged the last doughnuts, muffins, and slushies."
The looters swigged frozen drinks from coffee pots and tore wooden signs and clocks from the walls. One student even marked his last hurrah with a lap around the store while protesting "Save Wawa," according to the Diamondback. The store's shuttering (a victim of corporate reorganization) awakened the spirits of customers "loyal to a point that I didn't understand," as one employee described. But a 2,000-student Facebook group and the threat of a sit-in did little to prevent the inevitable. The school's newspaper laments: "A little piece of us all will die the day Wawa officially closes its doors for good."
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook October 1, 2007 Comment* Talk about a bad day. A University of Georgia student who was struck by a bus and hospitalized for three days was also served with a citation for walking into the path of a vehicle, the Red and Black reports.
* Students in an environmental science course have detected high levels of lead in water from several Brown University buildings, stirring mild outrage directed toward the school, the Brown Daily Herald reports.
* Tee time is approximately one month away, when the University of Michigan plans to install student-designed miniature golf courses in university buildings, the Michigan Daily reports.
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