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.
Round-Up: You think you’re all big and bad?
Got told: The University of Wisconsin was quickly becoming the darling of the pro-piracy anti-RIAA crowd, since they were one of the few brave souls to ignore those pre-litigation letters. A U.S. district court judge decided earlier this week they must turn over the names. But because university refused to give the letters during the “pre-” part, any settlement made with the RIAA will not received the substantial discount (just the arm! you can keep the leg!) that those who got the letters on time had.
The eigth word? WQRI, the student radio station of Roger Williams University, fired two of their DJ for repeating the Offensive Phrase of 2007, “nappy-headed hos,” on the airwaves repeatedly. Dana Peloso and Jon Porter, the Imus’d DJs, are claiming their show was part of a political take-down in collaboration wit the administration. Peloso is the president of College Republicans on campus, who just happen to have Jason Mattera coming to speak. The CR at RWU have grabbed the media spotlight before with the “Whites Only” scholarship a few years back. The station’s manager, Mike Martelli, held a vote (at a staff meeting neither Peloso or Porter attended) and it was unanimously decided that the phrase would not be used multiple times on the air, thanks to the FCC license review WQRI is under. Martelli, apparently a former College Republican himself, wrote a response to the IHE story. (Scroll to the bottom. Uh, “free speach?” Dude: spellcheck.) It sounds more like a pissing match between DJs who think they’re above Martelli and a station manager who feels slighted than an actual attempt to silence speech. But I’m a little concerned that there was no dissent from the other student DJs about the phrase and this pervasive idea that radio has to be “a non-offensive product.” Just sayin’.
Where’s IvyGate when you need it? Director of the FBI Robert Mueller got heckled during his speech at Harvard last week, the Harvard Crimson dutifully reported. Also dutifully reported: two of their own editors were the hecklers. Michael A. Gould-Wartofsky and J. Claire Provost (those names exude Haaarvard) were chanting things like ?We will never forget the role of the FBI in McCarthyism!? and “Stop the unconstitutional repression of the environment!” (Most likely followed by snickering.) The term editor is misleading ? anyone from a writer to a photographer to graphics designer is an editor ? but it didn’t stop Romenesko and The New Editor working up a small lather over it.
Starting fresh: Here’s something you don’t see every 100 years: the newest university in the Georgia system started last year with 116 students and expects a whopping 3,000 to enroll this fall. Georgia Gwinnett College (”The campus of tomorrow” with a Web site from 15 years ago) expects to have 15,000 students by 2012, but for now they’re more concerned with making sure high school students in Gwinnet County even know they exist. Don’t worry, they’ve got plenty of hats, key chains and coffee mugs already made. But this is kind of a neat idea; the students get to make their own traditions, start their own student government, choose their own mascot. Hey, I hear one might be looking for a job.
Beat a dog, get google-bombed?
Disgusting news out of Cornell: Alexander H. Atkind, mugshot at right, allegedly beat his roommate’s dog Princess, poured bleach and laundry detergent into her eyes and exposed skull and burned cigarettes into her back. All of that over some chewed up speaker wire. He ended up being arrested for drug possession in a neighboring county, but he had already admitted to his roommate that he had attacked the poor pooch but claimed that Princess was fine. After watching this video, I can’t imagine how he would think that she was fine. The university is outraged but also says since the incident happened off-campus, they can’t talk about him at all.
Of course, he also was “cocky and arrogant” and said he was above the law and he’d torture the dog again ? statements he made, of course, in the presence of his lawyer. He went on about an ACD (adjournment in contemplation of dismissal ? legalspeak for I’m-important-so-I-don’t-get-in-trouble), which seems to have drew the most ire from AutoAdmit.com, a message board for law students, since everyone in those posts were sure to spell out his whole name comma dog torturer. Hooray for Googlebombs?
Let’s, just for a moment here, think about what happens to a guy like this. The story about the abuse ran in the Ithaca Journal on March 16. Cornell blogger Elliot Back picks up on the story that night and pulls up his Facebook profile (birthday: August 31, 1983), his Cornell directory information (cell phone is a 617 number), and jabs at him for:
- being disgusting and having rich doctors for parents
- being in a frat (and you know what that means)
- apparently being into ?Bondage & Discipline, Kinky Fetishes? and currently looking for sex in Ithaca (shh ? don’t tell his girlfriend!)
- getting caught with shrooms, since those are so 1974
Roundup: Operators standing by
Only 10 hours left! OWU’s publicity stunt innovative way of getting attention on the internet is still there, with 33 bids but somehow with a higher price of $18,669.99. I’m still surprised this auction lasted more than 15 minutes.
It only took 371 years: Harvard confirms unanimously the first female president, Drew Gilpin Faust. She expects to be there for the next 30 years ? but don’t call her a “woman president” (sub. required) Unrelated: kisses and champagne, everyone! T-minus 2 days until they start dissecting her clothing choices. [via the Crimson]
Golden rule: Commemorative Brands has agreed to adopt the new regulations on using properly-mined, more green-friendly gold for class rings, the first in the industry. Commemorative, based in Austin, Tex., operates the brands of Balfour, ArtCarved and Keystone and is making the changed thanks primarily to the work of OxFam’s University of Texas Chapter and their part in the No Dirty Gold campaign. Jostens is next on the hit-list. [via Daily Texan]
No silence for you
If Cornell gets its way, pleading the 5th may have no meaning for students. After re-examining the stiff rules and overly stuffy procedures ? according to the report, it’s more like court that real courtrooms are ? but some of the suggestions by former Judicial Administrator Barbara Krause change the structure to be less of a hearing and “more conversational than adversarial.” Oh, and without a right to remain silent and no right to an attorney. And being held responsible for crimes committed off-campus, on campus.
Which isn’t to say it’s not par for the course. Plenty of other schools have these binding clauses; basically you go to school here, and as the judicial process is part of the learning experience you pay for, you are compelled to comply with any questions thrown at you by the administration. Some schools even go as far to interpret silence as admitting guilt, something the Krause Report doesn’t suggest. And my own college doesn’t allow attorneys to represent accused students. As far as crimes committde during, say, an out-of-control Spring Break in Miami, we might have a certain team at Duke to blame for that. Anything that gets in the way of mission of the University is subject to punishment.
The current JA, Mary Beth Grant, said in the Cornell Daily Sun that no changes would happen without student input, but the reactions last night at an open forum were less than enthusiastic. Whether the code is adopted, things like this seem to have a chilling effect across the board.
Roundup: Less funny ha-ha
Unpunk’d: Harvard Lampoon sends out two emails to entire university claiming “once and future president” Lawrence Summers had been reinstated after a lengthy search, then outing their own hoax with another hoax. After having their phone number listed as the clearinghouse for a lottery to join a Summers forum ? a hot ticket, indeed ? the Harvard Crimson was clearly not amused. When the Crimson is funnier than the ‘Poon, something is definitely wrong. (For anyone keeping score, no candidate has been named.) Via IvyGateBlog.
Unfair termination? Spring Arbor University in Michigan fired John Nemecek ? an ordained Baptist minister ? because he is transgendered and was seen on campus wearing women’s clothes. Nemececk, who now goes by Julie Marie, had been undergoing treatment to become a woman and had been banned from teaching classes in person, but the privaate, Christian university released her because of a lack of “model Christian character” for their students. Nemececk is suing.
Unfair removal? William and Mary’s president, Gene R. Nichol, ordered the removal of an 18-inch-tall historic cross in the chapel to make the space more welcoming to all faiths. The problem: 13,000+ signatures in an online petition demanding it back, including alumni threatening to withhold donations. 1,100 signatures are supporting Nichol. The Board of Visitors is being asked to overrule Nichol, which may happen later this week.
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