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Bike Use at Virginia Tech Is Up
Tweet Share on Facebook October 21, 2008 CommentAnecdotally, bike use at Virginia Tech is up. Bike repairmen are seeing an uptick in old two-wheelers needing some TLC, and police report that there is a "marked increase" in bike registrations, the Collegiate Times reports. Perhaps not coincidentally, police have also noticed a 45 percent increase in bike thefts on campus. From January 1 to October 9 last year, there were 29 thefts on campus. This year, there were 42 in the same period, most of which were of unsecured bikes. "People get tired of walking," said a police official. "They see an unsecured bike, and they ride it and ditch it when they're done."
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Nebraska Cancels William Ayers Event
Tweet Share on Facebook October 20, 2008 Comment (111)Late last week, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln canceled a November speech that would have featured William Ayers, the Journal Star reports. According to Chancellor Harvey Perlman, the decision was made after a "threat assessment team" decided Ayers's speech would present a "substantial security threat."
Ayers, a University of Illinois-Chicago education professor, was selected in February by a faculty committee as an education conference keynote speaker—well before the Weather Underground founder re-emerged as a national story in recent weeks. But when news of his appearance hit the mainstream media Thursday, the university was inundated with angry phone calls and E-mails.
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Brigham Young Rescinds Diploma of Excommunicated Alum
Tweet Share on Facebook October 20, 2008 Comment (9)Brigham Young University has revoked the diploma of Chad Hardy, a 31-year-old alum who was excommunicated in July by the Mormon church for, among other reasons, producing a 2008 "Men on a Mission" calendar that featured shirtless Mormon missionaries, the Associated Press reports.
Hardy attended BYU graduation services in August, after his excommunication, but on September 30 received a letter from a top school official saying that a nonacademic hold had been placed on his record. "If in the future you are reinstated as a member of the church in good standing, you are invited to contact my office regarding your possible eligibility for the awarding of a degree," the letter read.
Hardy told the AP he intends to fight the decision "tooth and nail."
His calendar has sold nearly 11,000 copies, with sales seeing a particular boost after news of his excommunication broke.
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Former Penn State Mascots Reminisce
Tweet Share on Facebook October 20, 2008 Comment (2)Last weekend was Penn State's homecoming—the perfect time for former Nittany Lion mascots to get together and share stories and historical tidbits, the Daily Collegian writes.
For one, before the advent of synthetic fibers, the costume used to be made of rabbit and deer fur, which sounds pretty gross. "Now, the suit looks really good," comments a 1950s mascot.
A more recent mascot recalls his brush with death in a cannonball contest.
"I got up to the diving board, and felt like I could do it. I did a one-and-a-half flip into the pool. You should know, though, that when the suit is dry it weighs about 8 pounds—when it is wet it weighs about 800. I started to sink to the bottom, and I thought I was dead." Luckily, lifeguards pulled him out of the pool. "It's just a part of being the Lion."
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Kent State Hopes to Reform Sextoberfest
Tweet Share on Facebook October 20, 2008 Comment (1)Kent State's Sextoberfest, whose stated purpose is to further sex education, has apparently devolved into a free-condom one-trick pony, and organizers are trying to help it shed its reputation as "the place where you get free condoms and a T-shirt," the Daily Kent Stater reports. First, they've expanded the one-day "celebration" into a weeklong safe-sex-education extravaganza, while requiring all main-event games to be educational in some way. "Playing a game where you throw a ring around a sex toy might be a lot of fun," said one student officer, "but students can't really take anything from that."
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Baylor Halts Incentives to Retake SATs
Tweet Share on Facebook October 17, 2008 Comment (1)Baylor University announced it would no longer pay enrolled freshmen to retake the SAT, the Associated Press reports. The program, which began this summer, gave a $300 bookstore credit to entering freshmen who retook the tests; if students improved their score by 50 points, they would also receive $1,000 scholarships or could take advantage of merit scholarships if their new test scores let them qualify. The practice was highly criticized, and the school was accused of trying to improperly boost its SAT average and, by extension, its ranking.
Students can still retake the SAT but won't be given any financial incentives for doing so. "Was the financial incentive, at a minimum, did it have the appearance of impropriety, and was it going to raise unnecessary questions? Yeah, I think we goofed on that," said the school's spokesman.
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Illinois Offers Intramural Wii Leagues
Tweet Share on Facebook October 17, 2008 Comment (4)It had to happen sooner or later. The University of Illinois campus recreation organization is now offering intramural Nintendo Wii leagues, the Daily Illini reports. So far, Wii bowling and tennis are the only sports available. And for traditionalists who scoff at the thought, at least Wii is slightly more active than the organization's other video game "sport": college football on PlayStation 2.
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Quinnipiac Bans Eating Contests
Tweet Share on Facebook October 16, 2008 CommentCiting safety concerns, Quinnipiac University has banned eating competitions from campus, the Chronicle reports. One official cited news of a student at some university dying while participating in a contest (although a LexisNexis search turned up no such news story), and the head of security backed up the ban, saying, "an event that created a risk of injury that required an ambulance and crew to be summoned was not a good idea."
Quinnipiac currently only has one long-standing eating competition, but inquiry from university housing and the Greek community to hold a wing-eating event prompted officials to ban the practice entirely. "I'm not trying to sabotage events," said the student center director. "I'm just trying to look at things from a safety and liability standpoint."
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Former Student Sues Texas Christian Over Alleged Rape
Tweet Share on Facebook October 16, 2008 CommentA former Texas Christian University student who accused three student athletes of sexually assaulting her in 2006 is suing the school, alleging officials did not protect her from the assault, did not provide adequate support afterward, and also tried to cover up the incident, the Daily Skiff reports.
The former student, identified only as K.S., 18 at the time, said in her court petition that a university official "urged her not to report the drugging and gang-rape" and accused the school of "knowingly and/or negligently recruiting athletes with known histories of sexual misconduct and criminal misbehavior." It has been previously reported that one of the accused athletes had previously pleaded guilty to an earlier assault charge.
The university declined to directly comment on the suit to the Skiff, but E-mailed this statement:
"The university provided emotional support and assistance to the student through its Victim's Advocate program, and took prompt disciplinary action by removing and ultimately permanently separating from TCU the students accused of the alleged assault."
The list of defendants includes the school's chancellor, provost, sexual harassment officer, and head football and basketball coaches, as well as the three student athletes. The three had been arrested in relation to the alleged incident, but prosecutors later dropped the charges, citing insufficient evidence.
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Baylor Pays Freshmen to Retake SAT
Tweet Share on Facebook October 15, 2008 Comment (1)
Baylor University has been vilified by the admissions world after its student newspaper reported that the school was providing incentives for incoming freshmen to retake the SAT, the Lariat reported last week.
The school offered members of the current freshman class a $300 bookstore credit if they retook the SAT in June, after already being accepted and enrolled. Those who boosted their score at least 50 points would receive an extra $1,000 a year in their scholarship package. And if a student's new score qualified them for merit-based scholarship, he or she would be able to receive that instead of the $1,000. The school said 861 students took the test again, and 151 improved their scores by at least 50 points and received the $1,000 scholarships.
School officials defended the move, explaining that Baylor had a surplus in its merit aid budget and was trying to give its students another opportunity to earn scholarship money.
But Baylor has been lambasted, accused of abusing the SAT and trying to game college rankings like U.S. News's. One watchdog group accused Baylor of "essentially bribing students to take the SAT again." The school's Faculty Senate overwhelmingly condemned the practice, and the Lariat wrote in an editorial that it was one of the university's "cheap ploys to try to better its rankings."
Cartoon courtesy of Claire Taylor/Baylor Lariat.
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