-
Montana Provost Shares Home With Students
Tweet Share on Facebook September 9, 2008 CommentThe University of Montana's housing crunch prompted the school's associate provost, Arlene Walker-Andrews, to offer two rooms in her off-campus home to students, the Kaimin reports. Perhaps because she lives 8 miles from campus, no one has taken her up on her offer, although I suppose it's the thought that counts.
-
Iowa Reinstates Corn-Eating Contest
Tweet Share on Facebook September 9, 2008 CommentThe University of Iowa has reinstated its beloved corn-eating contest, but only after applying a health-conscious spin to the competition. The university banned the contest last year, saying that with obesity levels at historic highs, the school should not be promoting gluttony and excess. But with complaints rolling in ("Why do you have something against corn?"), officials brought the contest back—only now students must eat one ear of corn fastest, as opposed to the all-you-can eat extravaganzas of yore.
-
Enter U.S. News’s YouTube Contest!
Tweet Share on Facebook September 9, 2008 Comment (1)Brief programming note:
U.S. News has discovered YouTube and is hosting a contest (with a sweet prize!) for college students to tell us, in all of your video artistry glory, "Why My School Rocks."
Channel your inner Spielberg, show some school pride, and post your video response on our YouTube contest page.
You have until the end of October to submit videos and you might just get a free spring break vacation for two for your troubles. For more details and legal mumbo jumbo, check out the official rules.
Be creative, and remember folks, keep it clean.
-
Sarah Palin's Extensive College Career
Tweet Share on Facebook September 5, 2008 Comment (574)Sarah Palin cares about education—which makes total sense since she went to at least four different colleges over the course of six years before getting a degree from the University of Idaho in 1987, the Associated Press reports.
Palin's collegiate career began in the one state younger than Alaska, where she attended Hawaii Pacific University in the business administration program. She started in the fall of 1982. Next she headed to North Idaho College, a two-year institution, where she was a general studies major for two more semesters, spring and fall of 1983. Although she never received a degree there, she received the school's Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award this past June.
-
Religious Texts Taken Down After Complaints
Tweet Share on Facebook September 5, 2008 Comment (13)Muslim students are crying foul after the University of Southern California's provost took down historical documents that call for Muslims to kill Jewish people from a student group's site, the Daily Trojan reports. The documents come from a collection of scriptures known as hadiths, the words of Muhammad not included in the Quran. These hadiths, which include thousands of noninflammatory principles, were posted in their entirety on the school's server as part of the defunct Muslim Student Association's website.
The provost said that "the passage cited is truly despicable.... We did some investigations and have ordered the passage to be removed." But the Muslim Student Union, the dominant Muslim student group at USC, accused the university of censorship, calling the take-down "unprecedented and unconscionable."
"We are outraged at the censorship of a complete religious and classic text without consulting us or any religious authority first," the group said in the statement. "The 'compendium' is now incomplete. There are verses in many religious texts (be it the Torah or the New Testament) that when taken out of context can be taken as offensive."
Supporters of the move defend the provost's actions. "It may be part of the religious canon, but that doesn't make them less hateful," said David Horowitz, who has lobbied a number of schools to remove the "hadiths of hate," as he calls them, from their websites. Horowitz says this is the first he's heard of a university taking down documents after community members complained.
-
North Carolina Schools Brace for Hanna
Tweet Share on Facebook September 5, 2008 CommentWhile everyone worried what Hurricane Gustav would do to New Orleans, it was Baton Rouge, home of Louisiana State University and Southern University, that bore the brunt of the destructive storm. At LSU, wind speeds of 92 mph and a tornado on campus destroyed roofs, downed trees, and caused electricity to go out for the entire campus, prompting officials to cancel class until Monday. A football game against Troy University scheduled for Saturday was postponed until November 15. The University of Arkansas was hit by relentless rain.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Seaboard prepares for Tropical Storm Hanna, which is expected to make landfall in North Carolina late Friday night or early Saturday. Duke, North Carolina State, and the University of North Carolina are taking precautions for the weekend, and the governor declared a state of emergency in anticipation of Hanna and its likely successor, Ike. N.C. State may have to cancel its game against William & Mary, while Duke students worry that their precious tailgate may be disrupted by the storm.
-
Some at UNC Object to Antiabortion Display
Tweet Share on Facebook September 5, 2008 CommentThe University of North Carolina student government is under fire for funding a large photo display of aborted fetuses, the Daily Tar Heel reports. The student government has allotted $5,000 for the Carolina Students for Life event. That amount puts the event in the same financial category as large concerts and speakers of national profile.
"I mean, it's probably on the higher end, but it's not uncommon," a former representative said. "Last year, I think we spent $20,000 on Boyz II Men, which hadn't had a hit since before I hit puberty." Other events the student government has funded include last year's homecoming concert featuring Augustana and former Attorney General John Ashcroft's 2006 speech. Each of those events got $10,000 from the student government.
-
John Edwards Cancels Speaking Events
Tweet Share on Facebook September 5, 2008 Comment (4)John Edwards is laying low until after the November election and apparently is canceling all his collegiate speaking events until then. That includes his scheduled appearance at Hofstra University this Monday—his first scheduled event since he admitted to an extramarital affair—and engagements at the University of Buffalo on September 26 and the University of Illinois on October 14. Edwards's $65,000 speaking fee at Illinois had not yet been paid.
"I don't want my appearance at these events to be a distraction from the important issues of the election, or from the important purpose of these meetings," the Democratic senator and former presidential candidate said.
-
RNC Student Arrest Roundup
Tweet Share on Facebook September 5, 2008 Comment (3)About 280 people were detained after protests outside the Republican National Convention on Monday turned to rioting:
Along with two University of Kentucky student photographers and a Kentucky Kernel photo adviser who were arrested and charged with rioting, police also arrested and charged with felony rioting a University of Iowa teaching assistant and the president of the University of Central Florida's CodePink—an activist group for women who oppose the Iraq war. All students and advisers listed were later released.
Police also gave about 500 people citations for failing to leave an unlawful protest. Among them were photographers from the University of Wisconsin and Iowa.
-
Colorado State Gets Electric Scooters
Tweet Share on Facebook September 4, 2008 Comment (1)As part of its green campaign, the Colorado State University police have bought four new $9,000 electrical scooters, the Rocky Mountain Collegian reports. They are far more efficient than the classic squad car (if these battery-operated three-wheelers used gas, they'd get 500 miles per gallon) and make officers more approachable to students. Lastly, the police are calling their new rides "electrical chariots," which is pretty awesome.