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University of Michigan Elects First Openly Gay Student President
Tweet Share on Facebook April 2, 2010 Comment (2)Thanks to a landslide and a sense of history, the University of Michigan's student body did something on Tuesday it had never done before—elect an openly gay student president.
LGBT Commission Chairman Chris Armstrong took over the reins of the student government, hoping that his new role meant a new time of change for the campus's LGBT community, the Michigan Daily reports. Armstrong said that his presidency shows the "spirit of Michigan," the report says.
"I think that personally, it's a big accomplishment for the LGBT community on campus," Armstrong tells the Daily. "Regardless of what community you are from, you can become a student leader that is leading 40,000 students."
But with his historical victory aside, Armstrong said he doesn't want to focus on his sexual orientation during his presidency. It'll take a back seat to what he wants done as president. Still, it's hard to ignore the obvious.
"Hopefully individuals will feel comfortable coming out at U of M and know that it's a comfortable environment despite fears and inhibitions," Armstrong says.
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Mr. Campus Freshman Contest Ruffles Feathers at Wellesley
Tweet Share on Facebook April 1, 2010 Comment (9)So, a wesbite called Her Campus, which describes itself as an "online magazine for college women," started a contest. The competition is called Mr. Campus Freshman, and its goal is to the find the "sexiest, smartest, silliest" first-year male college kid among the 20 or so colleges affiliated with Her Campus.
It's a straightforward idea. And it's angered one school's student body. Wellesley College, one of the members of Her Campus, is up in arms over the contest. With transgendered students on campus, Wellesley bristled at Her Campus's request that the Massachusetts school nominate a male from outside the school, the Boston Globe reports.
"I thought it was offensive the Wellesley community could not be represented by any of its transgender community or a woman," one Wellesley student tells the Globe. "I do find it offensive that I need to be represented by a guy. It really just doesn't make any sense. On face value, it's a ridiculous assumption."
Meanwhile, Her Campus Founder Stephanie Kaplan says the contest isn't meant to offend anyone.
''We ran this contest never intending to offend anyone,'' Kaplan tells the Globe. ''Our mission is to serve college women, we never meant to exclude or offend anyone.''
As the story says, Her Campus reopened the nomination process when it found out about Wellesley's complaints. The winner will be decided on Saturday, April 3. Crisis averted (we think).
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Column at American University Causes Controversy
Tweet Share on Facebook April 1, 2010 Comment (15)We tried to ignore this fiasco here at Paper Trail. Not because we don't find it—or the debate that has come out of it—interesting, but it seems like controversies like this arise pretty regularly on college campuses across America. It's a simple formula: Columnist pens something about drinking, sex, and rape that discusses the roles and relationships of each gender in a far too flippant way—as if columns like that are new on campuses. Then someone—or in this case, a lot of people—gets offended. Then everyone with a blog or outlet for commentary talks about it.
It stinks when it happens, and it happens a lot. But the upshot from all of these controversies is that they (in theory/hopefully) force campuses and students to deal with the serious topic of rape.
Being so close to American University, this one was hard for PT to ignore any longer. It already drew some coverage in the Washington Post, among other outlets. After coming under fire from every angle, the Eagle, American's student newspaper, wrote an apology to readers.
"The fact of the matter is that the Eagle did not approach the publication of Alex Knepper's most recent column entirely correctly. For this, we are sorry," the editorial message says. "We stand by our decision to publish controversial opinions and will continue to publish opinions that a majority or minority of the campus community find wrong and potentially offensive ... However, we should have demanded that Knepper's column be written in a tone befitting such a serious issue."
What prompted the outrage? Well, one paragraph in particular seems to be catching the most heat:
"Let's get this straight: any woman who heads to a [frat] party as an anonymous onlooker, drinks five cups of the jungle juice, and walks back to a boy's room with him is indicating that she wants sex, OK? To cry 'date rape' after you sober up the next morning and regret the incident is the equivalent of pulling a gun to someone's head and then later claiming that you didn't ever actually intend to pull the trigger."
And don't worry, the AU administration chimed in, too.
Like we said above, the good that has come from the fallout is that it looks like AU is going to deal with an important subject.
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