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No Love for Alberto Gonzales
Tweet Share on Facebook December 6, 2007 Comment (2)Few of us will ever know what we're worth, but former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has an idea of his value. According to the people at Pomona College, Gonzales's $35,000 price tag (plus expenses) was quite the overestimation, and a school committee took a speaking invitation for the ex-top lawyer off the table, the Student Life reports. As one professor put it, "Call me old-fashioned, but I think there's something really gross about a celebrity lecture circuit that rewards people for misconduct, scandal, and even felony crimes." Not that she's biased or anything.
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Seriously? It's Only Student Government...
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2007 Comment (1)In our continuing coverage of the staggering dysfunction in the University of Michigan student government, the Michigan Daily reports that the current president and a representative have resigned after the existence of a questionably named Facebook group was revealed to the public. The group, formed by the president and joined by the representative (who pretty much shot himself in the foot by revealing the group in the first place), mocks another member's Asperger syndrome in its description: "I'll give that kid a [expletive] disability he can write home about if he keeps sending these code amendments to everyone."
Shortly following the revelation of the group, the president offered a formal apology and a more spontaneous mea culpa. "I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. I'm an a—." But to no avail: The government head resigned last night, a scene that left several members of the assembly sobbing.
And now I must interrupt the melodrama with a flashback. Let's not forget this is the same organization that saw two people arrested in connection with student government election fraud and forced out another representative for sending offensive E-mails to a student and parent in 2006.
The concerned mother's e-mail asked about the availability of activities on campus for students who don't drink or go to parties. [The representative] responded to the parent by suggesting that students who don't enjoy going to parties often join the Board Game Club or "masturbate in the stacks of the Shapiro Undergraduate Library."
[He] then E-mailed the student, writing: "I thought I'd let you know that your mom is destroying your life. Enjoy!"
It's true. Power corrupts.
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Trail Mix: The Student Government Shenanigans Edition
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2007 Comment*The West Virginia University student government president resigned this week after being arrested over the weekend for driving under the influence, the Daily Athenaeum reports.
*The graduate senate president at the University of Southern California who allegedly used his organization's gift certificates to buy himself a $560 laptop will remain in office, the Daily Trojan writes.
*And lastly, an update on the Princeton presidential candidate who has come under fire for his blackface-like Halloween costume: With the endorsement of the Black Student Union, he won the election by a landslide, the Princetonian reports. "There are some people who seek to use race as a weapon to divide us," he said. "[By] coming together...we will continue to overcome racism on campus."
I just love happy endings.
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The Caucus Is Coming, and So Are the Loonies
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2007 CommentJohn Edwards is trying to distance himself from handwritten fliers posted on the Iowa State University campus that read, "Vote for the White Man," and also used racist and sexist terms to refer to other candidates (presumably Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton), the Iowa State Daily reports.
Meanwhile, Obama has been entreating out-of-state University of Iowa students to return to Hawkeye-land to participate in the caucus, which happens to fall during the winter break, the Daily Iowan reports. As a baffled Obama deflects criticism from the other candidates for his call to action, the university isn't doing much to help the Illinois senator's cause: Most dorms will remain closed to students hoping to return to caucus.
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Let It Snow, and Let the Insults Fly
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2007 CommentAs the Observer notes, the first snowfall begets the first big snowball fight, which inevitably produces classic one-liners. Notre Dame freshmen from meteorologically benign regions revel at their first encounter with the fluffy stuff ("I did not think it would be this cold"), while the more aggressive combatants make decidedly un-PC characterizations of their classmates. "You can't sit back," says one. "Just like you've got to take it to the terrorists, you've got to take it to the South Quad people."
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Staged Kidnappings More Obnoxious Than 'Men in Black II'
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2007 CommentChanneling their inner alien snatchers, men dressed in dark suits and sunglasses abducted Harvard students in protest of the policy that denies "enemy combatants" habeas corpus rights, the Harvard Crimson writes. One protester took to the megaphone and displayed her confusion on the nature of noise: "If you are in a cell and there is no judge to hear you when you scream, do you make a sound?" Uh, yes?
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Trail Mix
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2007 Comment*Not sure when bomb threats became trendy, but University of Minnesota officials reported their third of the semester this week—with one official calling it a "banner year" for the false alarms, the Minnesota Daily reports.
*From the Ball State Daily News: Happy Prohibition Repeal Day!
*File another one in the "Awesome Use of Tuition Money" bin: Take the Samba Drum and Dance class at the University of Utah.
*Having trouble finding housing in South Bend, Ind., on Craigslist? Maybe you should be buying a Notre Dame club/bar instead.
*Rather than rely on altruism, the University of Texas is expanding its Hungry for Justice program, which rewards crook catchers with pizza, the Daily Texan reports.
*A 19th-century musket may not be able to shoot anything anymore, but it can sure cause panic at Colorado State University, the Rocky Mountain Collegian reports.
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Clinton Beats Rove in Popularity Contest
Tweet Share on Facebook December 4, 2007 Comment (4)If you needed more proof that universities are bastions of bleeding-heart, crunchy-granola liberalism, let's go to Duke and Brandeis.
Much like the raving protesters at John Ashcroft's speech at Cornell University (not Ithaca, mea culpa), activists at a Karl Rove event at Duke were equally cordial. A question-and-answer session incited comments such as "You're a murderer" and "9/11 was an inside job," while impromptu thespians outside greeted speechgoers with waterboarding torture re-enactments, the Chronicle reports.
Meanwhile, Bill Clinton was at Brandeis promoting the Clinton Global Initiative. The scene, as described in this four-page story in the Justice, is revealing:
As snow began to fall outside, the Branches Pan Groove steel orchestra warmed up the audience, which enthusiastically awaited the President's arrival. Clinton was received by and left the stage with a standing ovation, and was accepted with warm applause throughout his speech. He exited to upbeat music and a thumbs up to the crowd.
Does Karl Rove even know how to give a thumbs up?
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Sometimes Halloween Costumes Aren't Funny; They're Racially Insensitive
Tweet Share on Facebook December 4, 2007 Comment (3)While black students at the University of Louisville debate the underappreciated African-American legacy, Princeton University's student government has been dealing with its own racial sensitivity snafu, ever since pictures of a presidential candidate in what appeared to be blackface during Halloween surfaced, the Princetonian reports. According to captions on the photos, the costume of the candidate in question was supposedly "a shadow/rick james," while his friends went as Malcolm X, Nat Turner, and Rosa Parks. Because the group was unable to purchase blue paint, they instead "donned the black face paint to become the black man group, as a tribute to the lost blue man group idea."
Yet after an open forum and profuse apologies for the poor taste, insensitivity, and sad attempt at humor, the tearful candidate earned the endorsement of the Black Student Union anyway.
Lessons to be learned: All's well that ends well, apologies work, and to be safe, just buy the stupid pink paint.
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Cold? No One Forced You to Camp Out for Rose Bowl Tickets
Tweet Share on Facebook December 4, 2007 CommentThere's got to be a better way for University of Illinois students to get Rose Bowl tickets than camping out in 9-degree wind-chill weather, wearing multiple pairs of long johns and drinking hot cocoa and alcohol.
Oh wait, the Daily Illini knows one. It's called the Internet.