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Florida Proposal Would Ban Drinking Games
Tweet Share on Facebook August 8, 2008 CommentQuick on the heels of its "honor" as Princeton Review's top party school, the University of Florida announced a proposal to revamp the university's alcohol and drug policies, the Independent Florida Alligator reported. The student code of conduct may be amended to ban the possession of "common source containers" such as kegs, minikegs, and beer balls. The proposal also would prohibit "any extreme alcohol consumption activity that constitutes, facilitates, or encourages competitive, rapid, or excessive consumption of alcohol." That includes drinking games, keg tipping, and alcohol luges (aka. ice luges, which are best served with peppermint schnapps). Inside Higher Ed adds that "keg standing" would be prohibited, which is interesting only because I've never seen "keg stand" used as a verb before.
All these regulations would apply to off-campus housing, although school officials say they do not intend to go after off-campus kegs unless the students were part of a UF group, sorority, or fraternity, or if a serious incident occurred.
The university's Board of Trustees will consider the proposal in September.
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Anthrax Suspect May Have Had Sorority Obsession
Tweet Share on Facebook August 8, 2008 Comment (4)The Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at Princeton University might be the key to explaining why letters from the 2001 anthrax case were sent from Princeton, N.J., almost 200 miles from the lab from which officials believe the anthrax was smuggled, the Associated Press reports. Bruce Ivins, a former Army biowarfare scientist who killed himself last week as the Justice Department prepared to indict him on capital murder charges for the deaths of five people in the anthrax attacks, allegedly had a long-standing obsession with the sorority, federal officials say.
According to documents released Wednesday, the FBI documented through E-mails, chat-room postings, and interviews a decadeslong fascination. The FBI says it may have dated to Ivins's college days at the University of Cincinnati, where he may have been rejected by a sorority member in the 1960s, and may have continued through his post-doc years at the University of North Carolina.
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Indiana Uses Dorm Lounges to House Freshmen
Tweet Share on Facebook August 7, 2008 CommentFor the third time in the past nine years, Indiana University is bracing for a freshman housing overload, preparing dorm lounges to hold an expected 100 students this fall, the Indiana Daily Student reports. There will be four students to a lounge room, with individual square footage roughly equal to those living in doubles. The lounges will serve as temporary housing as officials sort out fluctuating cancellations and room requests in the weeks before and after the start of class. IU has made room for up to 250 students.
In previous years, IU has cordoned off lounge space in 2006 and 2001—for 70 and 100 students, respectively—but were eventually able to get all those freshmen into regular rooms within a month. Officials partially blame the school's highest enrollment numbers on record for the overflow.
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Cal State Says Feral Cats Can Stay
Tweet Share on Facebook August 7, 2008 CommentThe 150 or so feral cats that roam the streets of Cal State Long Beach are now safe, at least from the university, the Daily 49er reports. The school has revoked its proposal to remove the cats, and instead plans to work with local cat caretakers to keep the cats and community safe. The removal plan was put forward because school officials believed the felines were attracting coyotes, but investigators from the California Department of Fish and Game determined it was likely the cats' food and water that were luring predators—not the cats themselves.
University officials and the local animal assistance program are now working to formalize a policy for the long-standing cat population, which includes adoption processes and maintenance of feeding stations.
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Authorities Offer $50,000 Reward in Firebomb Attacks
Tweet Share on Facebook August 6, 2008 CommentUC-Santa Cruz, city police, and the FBI are offering a $50,000 reward to anyone who can provide information to arrest and convict perpetrators of the weekend firebomb attacks of two university scientists, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports.
Police have also confirmed that a third researcher received a threatening phone message around the same time as the attacks. The woman who received the call is a research aide to a UC-Santa Cruz faculty member who was assaulted back in February at her home. That February incident is what triggered the involvement of the FBI, which believes the acts were committed by extreme animal-rights activists.
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China Revokes Visa of Olympic Gold Medalist
Tweet Share on Facebook August 6, 2008 Comment (1)The Chinese government revoked yesterday the visa of Joey Cheek, an Olympic gold-medal speed skater and Princeton student, the Princetonian reports. Cheek believes he was targeted because he founded Team Darfur, an organization made up of Olympic athletes trying to draw attention to violence in Sudan, a major supplier of oil to the Chinese.
According to Cheek, at least a half-dozen other Team Darfur members who planned to travel to the Olympics also have been targeted by the government for their activism. The White House has taken notice, and spokeswoman Dana Perino said to reporters on Air Force One today:
We were disturbed to learn that the Chinese had refused his visa. We are taking the matter very seriously. We have sent in our embassy in Beijing to démarche the Chinese. That is where we go in and we say we are concerned about this, and we want you to reconsider your actions. So we would hope that they would change their mind.
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Houston Cancels Classes for Tropical Storm Edouard
Tweet Share on Facebook August 5, 2008 CommentThe University of Houston has closed campus for the day for Tropical Storm Edouard, the Daily Cougar reports. The school has been closed since 5 p.m. Monday and will remain shut until 5 p.m. today. Officials do not expect heavy damage, but the possibility of flooding was enough to cancel classes.
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Two UC-Santa Cruz Researchers Victims of Firebombing
Tweet Share on Facebook August 4, 2008 Comment (4)Two UC-Santa Cruz researchers were victims of separate firebombings this past weekend, allegedly targeted by animal rights activists, the Daily Bruin reports. Shortly before 6 a.m. on Saturday, the home of a molecular biologist was hit by a firebomb, which damaged the front porch and door and filled the house with smoke. The scientist and his family, which includes two small children, escaped by ladder from the second floor. One family member was briefly hospitalized. In another incident that occurred around the same time, a second researcher's car was firebombed and destroyed. The car was parked outside the scientist's house on campus.
The two attacks happened a day after a threatening flier was posted at a Santa Cruz coffee shop, the Chronicle of Higher Ed reports. The flier listed the names of 13 university employees who work with animals—along with their addresses and other personal information—and read: "Animal abusers everywhere beware; we know where you live; we know where you work; we will never back down until you end your abuse." The employee whose house was attacked was on the list; the one whose car was hit was not.
Saturday's incidents are not the first that have targeted University of California scientists who work with animals. A number of researchers at UCLA have been attacked and/or harassed since 2006, leading to a lawsuit and a restraining order, and in late February, a family member of a UC-Santa Cruz scientist was assaulted. Authorities have pointed to animal rights extremists for all the acts.
The university is calling the most recent attacks "criminal acts of antiscience violence," and Santa Cruz police are calling the house fire an act of domestic terrorism and are treating it as an attempted homicide, according to the Chronicle.
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Brownsville and DHS Agree on Border Fence
Tweet Share on Facebook August 1, 2008 Comment (1)An agreement that was reached Thursday between the Department of Homeland Security and the University of Texas-Brownsville will halt construction of a border fence that cuts the school's golf course off from the rest of the campus, the Daily Texan reports. The agreement, which was reached in federal court and ends a nearly yearlong dispute, stipulates the university will pay for enhancements such as raising an existing fence from its current 6- to 8-foot height to a standard of 10 feet, while DHS will fund security cameras and other technology. The cost to the school will be less than $1 million, an official estimates.
As part of the deal, the university will open a center to study border issues. The center, to be funded by external grants, will discuss alternatives to fences and bring in experts from the field.
The road to the agreement was hardly smooth and began when the UT-Brownsville president denied DHS access to survey campus grounds, citing concerns over the environment, the school's educational mission, and its cross-cultural relations with Mexico. DHS brought a federal lawsuit against the university. In March, a judge ordered the two sides to meet for a joint assessment of barrier alternatives.
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Berkeley Football Coach Was UC's Top Earner
Tweet Share on Facebook August 1, 2008 Comment (4)University of California-Berkeley's football coach, Jeff Tedford, was the highest-paid employee of the UC system last year, raking in $2.8 million, the Daily Californian reports. That places Tedford easily in the top 10 highest-paid coaches, although still behind college football's top earners, Les Miles from LSU and Nick Saban from Alabama, who both make about $4 million. Unfortunately for Cal, Tedford's team ended up seventh in the Pac-10 with a record of 7-6, making each victory worth $400,000. Bears: Think you got your money's worth?
The rest of the UC system's top 10 is filled with athletic coaches and health officials from UC-Berkeley, UCLA, and UC-San Francisco. The new Berkeley chancellor, Robert Birgenau, made $430,116—not enough to put him in the top 10.