Roundup: More Old News

RIAA at it again: This was officially reported on last week, but I thought I’d mention anyway. Via Slashdot, Billboard reported that “early settlement” letters were sent to 22 colleges, including our neighbor at Cornell. They deliberately aren’t targeting Harvard because the RIAA might not have a case (gasp!), so the question to students and campuses alike is this: Why aren’t you talking to Harvard to get these jerks off your back? I guess the other question is: Would you please stop stealing music already?

The Emergency Text Messaging System: Colleges are starting to use text messaging systems ? and Facebook! ? to get in contact with students. It’d be used in cases like VT or this week’s incident at St. John’s University (did you know he went to Cornell?). You pretty much can search anywhere for text alerts and higher ed is all the rage about these. Here at Ithaca, college administrators are jumping up and down to get people signed up for our emergency alert system. There’s a report somewhere on the tubes about the speed of these systems refuting their speed claims, but I can’t seem to find it.

College students drink? An article in Sunday’s New York Times discussed the Rider drinking incident and what colleges are doing to address this issue. Some interesting quotes and it’s certainly worth the read ? best line from a smart freshman, who call out college administrations on the CYA I referred to earlier.

To her, [freshman Ashley Reimer] said, it felt as if administrators were trying to protect themselves for liability reasons.

?Honestly, I think students are going to do what they want to do,? she said.

We should find more rich people: The L.A. Times is reporting today that Claremont McKenna College is getting $200 million to start a graduate program at the institution. It’s being called the single largest donation to an American liberal arts institution, which I guess makes sense because most campaigns ? save the Ivys’ multi-billion dollar campaigns ? have a goal in that dollar range (by the by, ours is $115 millon ? pitch in won’t you?) . It’s almost as impressive as a $128 million donation made a couple of weeks ago ? to a high school.

Speaking of money… turns out Bush did sign that bill to help increase Pell grant awards we reported on today. Won’t help me, but it’s nice to see some increases in student aid. I imagine Peggy must be happy about this.

Tase this: Foolish editor

In case you haven’t heard it yet, the Rocky Mountain Collegian’s editor is in hot water for a four-word editorial written supposedly in response to the UF Taser incident that happened last week. You can click through for the words from the Colorado State University newspaper; there’s no way I’m printing that here. I’m a little behind on blogging this one admittedly, but mostly because I was waiting to see what’s come out of this.

J. David McSwane, the editor of the Collegian ? also the mind behind a 2005 expos? of Army recruiters ? is standing by his decision to print the editorial, which split the editorial board before its publication. The Collegian lost $30K in ad revenue for the editorial which led to a drop in student salaries.

The newspaper stands by its “F-Bush” editorial as a freedom of speech issue.

Several places are calling for McSwane to step down, including The Tribune of northern Colorado. The College Republicans are standing up against this too, collecting signatures and calling themselves “the voice of CSU,” ? which is ridiculous, but another matter entirely.

At the Collegian, there’s a column regarding the preversion of free speech with Andrew Meyer at UF and how McSwane is using it as an opportunity to step in the spotlight. He calls McSwane out as expecting immunity, but I think the columnist could have gone further ? call McSwane immature.

The editorial was terrible. Even if its point was to raise the issue of free speech, its unnecessarily inflammatory remarks made it worthless. Did McSwane and the Collegian’s editorial board truly believed the president had a hand in removing Meyer from the auditorium? Clearly that’s not true. This editorial did neither an effective critique of how the Tasing situation was handled, nor of how the Bush administration has performed lately.

A column in Editor & Publisher says that McSwane should not be fired because he’s just a college student. That’s ridiculous. He should take responsibility for his words. The good news: He is, sort of.

There’s a hearing tonight by the CSU Board of Student Communications to decide what will happen to McSwane. I don’t care if he stays, but if his freedom of speech argument is upheld, I’ll be appalled. I’ll be back with an update as soon as this board meeting is done.

Update:That meeting didn’t seem to do a whole lot, at least not yet. The board came to no conclusion tonight, and will have a discussion this (Thursday) morning about how to proceed in the next three to five days. There are two ways this can go ? either an informal hearing for a lesser punishment, or a formal hearing that could include dismissal.

The whole meeting was covered pretty thoroughly by the Collegian, which isn’t surprising but must have been pretty difficult for those writers. I certainly can’t imagine covering The Ithacan like that. I’ll be tracking this story to try to get the conclusion and you’ll see it here when it’s all over.

“The End of Pussy Journalism”

To the many digital journalism scholars, students of new media, and all those thousands of online news associations, blogs and news web sites: hold onto your butts, throw in the towel, give up, admit defeat, etc. You’re finished.

The SpartanEdge is here, and this college news site is declaring that “the future of online campus news is now,” and “the end of pussy journalism” is nigh. Or at least that’s what their tagline declares, which is a pretty balls-y move, to continue in the tradition of describe their brand of reporting with a crude sexual reference.

really? it is?

The people behind this valiant attempt to put an end to all “vagina” journalism is a mass media class at Michigan State University. Besides just promising to fulfill the mission of their blatantly offensive slogan, the site also declares that it will “push the envelope of online journalism as far as it will go.” Hoo-aa! Just don’t push it off the table, guys.

So what kind of non-pussy journalism are they practicing? Well, the writers are reporting on parties they go to (and leave alone, I might add); writing investigative pieces on beer pong, the “Drinking Game of the Week” at MSU; and blogging about sleepovers they’ve had.

The sleepover blog is so artfully written that I’m quoting the better parts: please don’t break down in tears when you read this.

?I mean, if he?s not interested in me romantically, then whatever. I don?t want to be friends. I have enough friends,? is what I explained to Ryan last night while we were having our now very common sleepovers at my house. (Clearly platonic sleepovers, we?ve already crossed that bridge and I burnt it down.)

Ryan, who everyone (sic) once in a while really surprises me by thinking with his brain instead of another organ, replied, ?If you don?t see any qualities in him you look for in friends, then why would you want to be romantically involved??

Well done, SpartanEdge, well done. You have truly ended “pussy journalism.” To all the writers and designers of this illustrious site: don’t forget to never mention this on your resume.

Insidehighered.com mentions SpartanEdge in an article about student media, saying it is “embracing multi- and new media” but conveniently fails to mention any of the site’s plans to end “pussy” journalistic endeavours.

Keep up the great work, guys.

Ahmadinejad visits Columbia, debates in front of sold out crowd of people who hate him

Evil dictator, or just a man in desperate need of a shave?Ahmadinejad live @ Columbia: Yesterday Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the sixth president of Iran and a man noted for his government’s frequent human rights abuses, visited Columbia University’s campus for a debate. Just outside, behind barricades, a huge crowd protested his visit on the grounds that leaders who execute minors and don’t think the Holocaust happened shouldn’t be allowed to speak. (Some people were also just putting up absurd posters.)

Watch President Lee Bollinger’s vicious introduction to Ahmadinejad’s speech here. Money quote: ?Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.?

Mahmoud’s response: ?In Iran, tradition requires when you invite a person to be a speaker, we actually respect our students enough to allow them to make their own judgment.” BAM!

In general, people were undecided on whether or not Bollinger’s introduction was too harsh for a terrorism-sponsoring dictator.

Here’s a reaction piece (via IvyGate) from a student at Columbia that pretty well lays bare the absurdity of the situation. A full transcript of the debate is available here at the Columbia Spectator’s Ahmadineblog.

Airport security to MIT student: Are you f*****g serious?

Add this to your list of Things To Not Wear Into An Airport:

“a glowing device with wires coming out of it.”

starBut that was exactly what Star Simpson, an electrical engineering student at MIT, went ahead and did on Friday, getting herself arrested and causing a bomb scare in the process. She walked straight into Logan International Airport (some context: several of the hijackers on 9/11 also boarded their flights at Logan) at 8 a.m. wearing said “glowing” device, which she called a “piece of art,” according to the Boston Globe.

After not responding to questions from an airport employee, Simpson attempted to leave the terminal. Several employees fled the building when they saw her doing this. She was quickly surrounded by cops with machine guns, who almost killed her, according to Major Scott Pare of the state police.

“Thankfully, because she followed our instructions, she ended up in our cell instead of a morgue.”

The DA prosecuting the case didn’t have any sympathy for her either; she said Simpson totally disregarded the situation she would create with the device “in an airport, post-9/11.” Which, I believe, makes sense.

And she’s not done making mistakes yet: here’s the kicker. She was also found with 6 ounces of Play-Doh, which many of us may recall fondly from our childhoods. But in an airport, Play-Doh is no longer a fun, moldable putty that smells weird. It could potentially be plastic explosives, especially to high-strung airport security guards.

The Smoking Gun is reporting that she describes herself as someone who loves “crazy ideas.” Yup, that sounds about right.

But while the mainstream press seems to have condemned her for her admittedly poorly-thought-out actions, MIT’s campus newspaper, The Tech, is more on her side. (She was a Tech staff photographer for awhile, however.) Their article described the device as only a collection of green LEDs in the shape of a star (awww) attached to a battery. It doesn’t sound nearly as bad when you know that it was a happy shape.

In a statement, MIT called her actions “reckless” and something that could “understandably create alarm.” Although to be fair, she is an electrical engineering student. They could have helped her out and told the police it was a class project or something. Show a little solidarity, MIT.

The moral of this story: MIT students + wearable, bomb-like art + airports = very bad idea.

Roundup: Carnegie Mellon in Space

An inside track to the moon: The TG Daily is reporting that Carnegie Mellon has the first official entry to Google’s Lunar X-Prize. CMU researcher William Whittaker is assembling a group to compete from the university’s Robotics Institute. Even though it’s only the first entry, Whittaker has a leg up on the competition ? he’s already built a next-gen lunar rover. [Via Slashdot]

Shooting at Delaware State: Various news sources are reporting two students have been shot at Delaware State University. In response to the shooting, DWU cancelled classes today and put the campus under lockdown. It seems like a pretty good response, and everybody of course is making parallels to Virginia Tech. This is just the latest tragedy for Delaware State ? last month four DSU students were shot execution style in New Jersey.

Don’t Tase me, remixed: The Florida Tasing incident, which continues to blow up across the web, is looking to be the next great meme. Search on YouTube for remixes of all sorts, and even t-shirts and apparently he’s getting thrown a wicked kegger. I can has Tazekegger?

Have a good weekend, and root for Ithaca. They’re going to need some help.

Week In Review: Best (first) week ever.

In case you missed it, we’ve been blogging furiously all week to let you ungrateful bastards know what’s important in the world of higher education. **Mild, apathetic applause.**WIR

Anyways, here’s the first of our Week in Review posts that will hopefully make it easier for all of you in fickle, lazy Generation Screwed to read.

So, what exactly did we pollute the Internet with this week?

Enjoy the weekend. I know I will.

British universities to Israeli universities: drop dead

advertisementIt may seem pretty absurd to boycott all the universities in a country, but that’s exactly what the University and College Union (UCU), a 116,000-member organization of British academics, is proposing. Arguing that ?Israel?s 40-year occupation has seriously damaged the fabric of Palestinian society? through discrimination and oppression, they feel that by cutting off all ties with Israeli thinkers, they’ll somehow be making a point.

How ridiculous.

Now Columbia University’s president Lee Bollinger is waging an anti-UCU campaign, which culminated in an August 8 full page New York Times ad co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, signed by more than 300 U.S. college and university presidents, which essentially said, So you’re gonna boycott Israelis? Well then, boycott us too! All of us. You big jerks.

Here at Ithaca College, our president, Peggy Williams, stayed strangely neutral on the issue. Peggy’s take: she’s “strongly concerned” by the course of events, and called members of the UCU to encourage them to “debate” the issue. Way to take a firm stand on that on, Boss Woman. But hey, at least she’s not just following the crowd.

Predictably, she’s been taking lots of heat for that decision. C’mon, we go to a liberal college, folks. And it’s hot, impotent fury - my favorite kind. Kenneth Stern, director on anti-Semitism and extremism for the AJC, said she was indirectly promoting bigotry by not signing the letter. Mark Weiss, a member of the AJC, called her opinion “pretty lame.” And Ithaca College’s Jewish chaplain, Michael Faber, even invoked the Holocaust when condemning her suggestion for further debate. You know it’s serious when someone goes ahead and does that. Here’s what he said:

?I don?t think this is a debatable issue,? he said. ?I think it?s an absurd thing to debate. Just as absurd as debating if the Holocaust existed.?

Eeek.

Now, I think that debating the Israel-Palestine conflict is a great way to waste a lot of time and potentially lose friends, especially Jewish and/or Arab friends, depending on which side you’re arguing. You should see my Palestinian friend Fares and my Israeli friend Yael “debate” the issue. Sparks flying is an understatement. Both sides have done really bad things, but does that mean we should boycott their institutions of higher learning? Probably not.

I mean, let’s be honest, Palestinians may be the oppressed people, but Hamas and Fatah and loads of other Palestinian organizations have killed their fair share of Israelis in acts of terrorism. Does that mean we should boycott all their universities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank? Why isn’t that an option on the table?

The UCU will decide whether or not to boycott Israeli schools - and by proxy, loads of American schools - in November. It shouldn’t boycott Israeli universities, because that would be a stupid, ignorant move. What it should do is work with them to try to solve the problems that have plagued the Middle East for so long. Is that so hard? Well, apparently.

The whole world’s going down the tubes, and it’s starting with academia. Predictable.

A shock at Florida

Updated 9:25 p.m.: Duped? Maybe. There’s now a police report (PDF) obtained by CNN that gives some more detail about what happened before the cameras started rolling for the questions to Kerry. According to the report, Meyer was handing out business cards and disrupted Kerry’s speech before he got to the mic. The report makes it sound a lot more like Meyer knew what he was doing and was confrontational from the start.

If you read the report, officer Jeffery Lamb probably makes the most coherent piece of the report,clearly differentiating between before Meyer started asking his question:

He also excitedly stated as Ofc. W. Wise #501 and Ofc. N. Mallo #48 approached him, before making contact or exchanging words, that they were going “to arrest me for trying to ask my question”. I also approached Meyer from my posted location to possibly assist Mallo and Wise if Meyer behavior escalated any further.

Meyer was told that he would be granted the opportunity to speak by Senator Kerry after he finished answering the question that Meyer interrupted. Before I returned to my post I observed Meyer hand a digital hand-held camera to white female he was present with, and it appeared that he instructed her to film his interaction. When Kerry permitted Meyer to speak, he began ranting without asking a specific question to Senator Kebook with Kerry and congratulated Kerry for winning the 2004 election.

Thanks to faithful reader (and College Ave. alum) Matt for the tip on the PDF.

* * *
A story about a student at the University of Florida who was Tasered by campus police is making some noise. The student, 21-year-old Andrew Meyer, was asking questions during a forum with U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) The topics ranged from the 2004 election to the Skull and Bones society at Yale to thoughts about impeaching President Bush.

There are several videos on YouTube and also a CNN I-Report video, but probably the best comes from WTVJ ? watch that one. Some detailed coverage from conservative blogger Michelle Malkin said he asked his question after the final question was called, which looks to be true. However, Kerry clearly allowed Meyer to ask his questions, and even after Meyer was pulled away, Kerry agreed to answer them.

Meyer was arrested for inciting a riot and resisting arrest, and spent Monday night in jail before his release Tuesday morning. The University of Florida released a statement where President J. Bernard Machen said there would be a formal, independent investigation and that two of the officers have been placed on administrative leave. At a news conference today the college also said they will form a panel to review safety protocol, and conduct an internal investigation. No word if the State will pursue charges against Meyer.

The Independent Florida Alligator has an editorial saying the UPD went overboard in response to Mayer’s actions. Despite Meyer’s clear resistance in the video, I think that’s a good call. There’s also a column that’s less friendly to Meyer, but it too agrees with the fact that the police used excessive force.

The editorial also brings up that this isn’t the first time a student has been Tasered in recent memory. In November 2006, a UCLA student was Tasered after refusing to show his ID in a school library.

Another note: Meyer has written columns and also has a website with some video sketches. On Malkin’s blog, one writer claims he’s just another attention-seeking brat. It could be true, but that’s no reason to get Tasered. Clearly there’s a lot going on here, but hopefully we’ll get some more answers and reaction from eyewitnesses and the college in the coming days.

Roundup: PrincessGate coming to a close

His day in court: Former Cornell University student Alex Atkind ?06 pled guilty yesterday to charges of animal abuse. See former College Ave. action here, here, and here. He won’t be actually sentenced until Oct. 15, but the D.A. suggested six months behind bars. Look at that Ithaca Journal story for some vicious comments (INCLUDING SOME IN ALL CAPS THNX), and some editorializing from the Tough Pups Gazette. As always, we’ll keep you updated ? I imagine some will be looking for Atkind to get the full two-year maximum sentence.

Ivory Tower coming down: The New York Times is ending its 2-year-old TimesSelect experiment. In a letter to its readers, the Times said it’s finally wised up and unleashed its columnists serving the best interests of its readers. Of course, access for those in higher-education had been free since early this year, so I won’t notice much difference. Then again, a full archive to 1987 (or two weeks ago) without tracking what articles I’ve read will be pretty awesome.

Numbers, numbers: U.S.News & World Report, known best for its college rankings, is looking to make an increase in how many rankings it reports. According to The Wall Street Journal’s The Numbers Guy, they’re planning on adding lists for historically black colleges and ranking schools that are easy to get into ? and they’d do more if they could. “If we can do 16 [in a year], we?d do 16,” magazine editor Brian Kelly said to the blogger. Not exactly surprising ? U.S. News has consistently been #3 on the newsweekies, and this doesn’t look to be any improvement. [Via Chronicle]

Clinton fundraising return redux: If you didn’t see it last week, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is returning $850,000 to donors in connection with Norman Hsu, a top fundraiser being investigated for his fundraising practices. But the campaign isn’t the only place with the Clintons’ name on it who’s returning Hsu’s money.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 15 that the Clinton School of Public Service is returning $75,000 to Hsu. The money came in two parts, the first in October of last year and the other four months ago, but the bad press attached to Hsu’s name convinced the school to turn it back. [Also via Chronicle]

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