-
'Revised' Alabama Radio Station Upsets Snobs
Tweet Share on Facebook July 10, 2008 CommentUniversity of Alabama music snobs have been beside themselves ever since the school's radio station, WVUA-FM 90.7, the Capstone, shifted its airplay to top-40 modern rock, the Crimson White reports. In protest, more than 300 students have joined a Facebook group, complaining that "the new playlist does not reflect the interests of the student body and the many talented local artists." The newly named station manager, however, breathlessly defends the change: "We're still playing local music, we're still playing music people have never heard before, but we're throwing in more mainstream music. You're going to reach a broader group of people.... We're supposed to be the voice of the University of Alabama, not the voice of the core listeners of this station."
-
MIT Pays Phone Charges for Student Groups
Tweet Share on Facebook July 10, 2008 CommentThirty-eight student groups at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology collectively were charged an unexpected $27,000 in phone and network services last year—fittingly due to a massive lack of communication, the Tech reports. The charges, which were a result of modifications to the billing model that school officials informed almost no one about, will be covered by the university; plans for next year remain uncertain.
-
Study Says Computer Lab Keyboards Are Gross
Tweet Share on Facebook July 10, 2008 CommentAs if you needed another reason to get away from your computer, students at the University of Washington tested high-traffic computer lab keyboards and found "unusually high" amounts of staph and fecal coliforms, suggesting the presence of fecal matter, the Daily reports. The research team also tested for antibiotic-resistant bacteria but happily found no trace in their relatively small testing sample.
The conclusion that computer labs are very gross may interest the researchers of a survey that says cleanliness is really important when it comes to education. The report—which was cosponsored by an organization representing education facility managers and a worldwide cleaning industry association—says cleanliness is the fourth-most-important building factor that impacts personal learning—after noise, air temperature, and lighting, Brigham Young's Daily Universe writes. No idea what No. 5 and No. 6 are. (Paint color? Desk height?)
Sounding the bell of paranoia, the survey's press release says:
"In this day and age when services are cut in order to save dollars, this study shows that cutting cleaning services could have a detrimental impact on our primary customers, the students. Recruitment and retention are the lifeblood of institutions of higher learning. If we do not provide environments our students feel comfortable in, they may go elsewhere."
-
157 College-Age Alcohol Deaths from '99-'05
Tweet Share on Facebook July 10, 2008 Comment (7)An Associated Press analysis of federal records shows that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 to 2005; the number per year from 1999 to 2005 also jumped, from 18 to 35, although the number fluctuated year to year in between.
A separate and utterly unsurprising analysis found that men and freshmen were most likely to die of alcohol poisoning, and incidents were most likely to happen on the weekends and in December at the end of finals.
Following is a state-by-state breakdown of the number of deaths between 1999-2004. No geographical data was available for 2005; states not listed had no reported deaths.
-
Iowa Flood Damage Toll Hits $231 Million
Tweet Share on Facebook July 9, 2008 Comment (5)The University of Iowa now estimates flood damage will cost the school $231.75 million, significantly more than the preliminary number of $75 million, the Daily Iowan reports. "To say the least, it takes your breath away," said regent Robert Downer. "I guess I had assumed, without a particular justification for it, that when the $75 million number came out, that it probably represented more than half of the damage instead of less than one third.... I wasn't prepared for a number this large."
The estimate, which was submitted to FEMA last week, includes $136 million in building damages, $56 million in damage to the buildings' contents (such as lab technology and musical instruments), and $20 million in debris-removal costs, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. University officials expect the actual cost to rise even more because the recent estimate does not include damage to water-logged utility tunnels—some of which have not been inspected at all—and expenses associated with the week the school was closed.
With the fall semester just two months away, 18 of the 20 flooded buildings remain closed; Iowa is also rushing to clean up Mayflower Hall, the largest dorm on campus, for the beginning of move-in on August 23.
-
Deer Crashes Into Central Michigan Classroom
Tweet Share on Facebook July 9, 2008 CommentA la the flick Tommy Boy, a deer crashed through a window and into a Central Michigan University first-floor classroom last Thursday, sending glass everywhere and prompting students to lunge for cover and jump out the window to safety, the CM-Life reports. One student was injured after climbing out of the window.
The doe, which school officials suspect was startled by construction nearby, leapt through the window and "was running around like it really wanted to kill somebody," said a CMU senior, who added this wasn't his first deer-in-school encounter (hint: time to move out of Michigan). Eventually, the professor was able to open the classroom door and lead the beast into the hallway, where it was ushered outside.
The window has now been boarded up and a projector screen, which the deer hid behind for some time, will be replaced because "there was a big spot of blood running down it." CMU police have stopped looking for the deer since "the evidence at the scene suggested only minor injuries."
And can't you just hear Chris Farley in your head? "I swear, I've seen a lot of stuff in my life, but that...was...awesome."
-
Student Paper Budget Cuts Lead to Lawsuit
Tweet Share on Facebook July 9, 2008 CommentStudent editors at the Inkwell, the newspaper at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Ga., are suing the university and its student government, saying the school cut the paper's budget after it published several articles critical of the administration, the Student Press Law Center reports.
"The budget reduction imposed on the Inkwell was greatly disproportionate, both in dollar and in percentage terms, to the reduction imposed on any other student organization," reads the lawsuit. "Almost all other organizations funded through the SGA other than the Inkwell received either an increase or flat-level budget for 2008-09."
The group's budget was cut almost $15,000, a 27 percent reduction from last year—a move that the plaintiffs say stifles students' free speech rights.
Among the list of unflattering articles: an interview with a student activities assistant director who was not "approved" beforehand and a story about the school's problems reporting crimes to federal authorities. According to the suit, the student police officer who was interviewed for the latter story also sat on the student government committee that determined the paper's budget the next day, and at that meeting, committee members discussed their grievances of the paper's content, then voted to limit its budget for the following year.
The university declined to comment to the SPLC about the lawsuit.
-
Washington State U. Police Can't Patrol Dorms
Tweet Share on Facebook July 9, 2008 CommentThe state Court of Appeals in Washington ruled last month that Washington State University police officers have no legal authority to patrol dorm hallways, the Spokesman-Review reports. The three-person panel noted that students on a dorm floor share bathroom facilities and other common areas and do, in fact, have an expectation of privacy. "Because of the intimate nature of activities in the hallway—most remarkably, towel-clad residents navigating the hallways to and from the shared shower facilities—it is reasonable to hold that this area is protected," the court said.
The ruling relates to a 2006 case in which a campus police officer—who was investigating a burglary and heard music and voices while patrolling the dorm—tried a "ruse" to draw suspects into the hall, "covering the peephole, knocking, and saying, 'Let me in, this is Matt.' " The officer eventually identified himself, was let in, and found stolen property—a laptop and guitar—in the room. One student was charged with burglary but the charges were dismissed after a judge determined the arresting officer had overstepped his authority by eavesdropping at residents' doors.
In response to the 2006 dismissal, Washington State amended its regulations, explicitly giving its police officers authority to roam the hallways; now, the school and its public university brethren—who all have conducted such dorm patrols—are determining their next move.
-
For Texas, $300 million in Drilling Profits
Tweet Share on Facebook July 8, 2008 CommentHigher oil prices may not be such a bad thing for higher education in Texas: Profits from the 2.1 million acres the UT system owns in west Texas oil country are up 80 percent from the same time last year, the Daily Texan reports. Royalties from use of the land have added up to more than $300 million in the current fiscal year (with two months left to go). The land, donated to the schools by the state in 1876, has generated $4.4 billion for the UT and Texas A&M systems since the drilling program began.
How quickly that money gets funneled back into students' pockets (or diplomas) is a different matter. The profits are reinvested before they make way their way into the universities' general available funds, a practice those fearless accountants refer to as a "smoothing effect." There's also the fact that the UT system's expenses are up because of—you guessed it—rising utility costs.
-
Nader to Visit Hawaii Campus
Tweet Share on Facebook July 3, 2008 Comment (1)Ralph Nader will be at the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus today, promoting his run for the presidency as an independent, the Ka Leo reports. Although Barack Obama has a strong grip in the polls on Hawaii, where he was born and partially raised, Nader continues to entreat voters to not be so quick to decide. "I think in Hawaii, if people realize that it's a slam-dunk Democratic state, they may want to send the Democrats a message: Don't define yourself principally be how bad the Republicans are."