Big Blog on Campus

Porn v. anti-porn

2006-05-03T22:07:19Z

This is a great piece from today's Dartmouth, about two Dartmouth alums who are on opposite ends of the pornography spectrum.

Vivid Entertainment [Warning:NSFW], which is the world's largest pornography distributor and is often referred to as the Microsoft of the porn industry, has spearheaded the movement toward increasing pornography's social acceptability. With Asher at its helm, the company has required male porn stars to wear condoms, alleviating actors' concern over AIDS. It also signed the elite in female adult talent to exclusive contracts, reviving those of the Hollywood studio system, and started selling their professionally-staged films in mainstream retail outlets like Virgin Megastore and Tower Records.
"We try to get it out there so it's not just porn; it's part of a fun lifestyle. It's a fun, sexy, silly thing," Asher said. "Hopefully we've had some impact on making people more comfortable with it."

Versus:

"I'm sure Bill Asher would think there's nothing wrong with his business or values," Peters said. "In my opinion he belongs in jail. I honestly believe he does."
As the president of Morality in Media [VSFW], a national, interfaith, not-for-profit organization, Peters pushes for the enforcement of obscenity laws and for upholding standards of decency in the media.
"My goal is to reverse the flood tide of commercialized obscenity and push it as far as possible back into the gutter where it belongs," Peters said.

Commencement speaker challenge!

2006-05-02T21:55:06Z

Which Boston-area university nabbed the best commencement speaker?

Boston University: CBS head honcho (and Howard Stern nemesis) Leslie Moonves
Boston College: Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, a/k/a George Bush's BFF / bathroom supervisor
Tufts University: Cycling superhero Lance Armstrong
Berklee College of Music: Melissa Etheridge!
Harvard University: Online News Hour host Jim Lehrer
Simmons College: The woman who made vaginas famous --- Eve Ensler
MIT: Ben Bernanke, a/k/a Alan Greenspan's successor
UMass Boston: Barack Obama, a/k/a the Democratic Party's only hope
Brandeis University: His Royal Highness El Hassan bin Talal, Jordan's apparently techno-savvy prince
Northeastern University: General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt
Lesley University: Michael and Katherine Dukakis. Aw, how cute.

Around the country, some colleges scored coups, while others' choices seem puzzling. Here's a round-up of some big names (thanks in part to the Chronicle of Higher Education's commencement-speaker database):

George W. Bush will offer some Katrina mea culpas by speaking at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College at Perkinston; he'll also be at Oklahoma State University, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and the United States Military Academy. His dad will address Tulane graduates (more Katrina guilt?). Funny lady Laura Bush is scheduled to speak at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

Hillary's doing the politically savvy home-state thing at Buffalo State College, Long Island University, and Genesee Community College, while Bill was chosen by Princeton students to speak at "Class Day."

Other presidential hopefuls who will be busy in May and June: Mark Warner, who will speak at not one but three graduation ceremonies, John McCain (Liberty University and Ohio State U. at Columbus), Wesley Clark (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), John Kerry (Kenyon), Joe Biden (Widener U.), and George Allen (James Madison U.).

(Did Evan Bayh, Mitt Romney**, Rudy Giuliani, and Bill Frist not get any invites?)

Joe Torre will scowl at Rider University graduates in New Jersey, but don't worry, Shonda Schilling will represent the Sox at Merrimack College in North Andover.

UPenn students aren't thrilled with their school's selection: Jodie Foster. (Other red carpet commencement speakers include Spike Lee at Kean U. in Jersey, and Billy Joel, who will give the graduation speech at Syracuse.)

(Note: Dr. Stephen Spielberg, who's speaking at New Hampshire's Lebanon College, is not same guy who directed Jaws. Nor is John Stewart, commencement speaker at Michigan's Lake Superior State University, host of the Daily Show.)

Some schools get stuck with real duds --- we feel sorry for York College seniors, who have to listen to Kenneth Starr, and Mississippi State University graduates, who'll hear from Trent Lott.

The luckiest grads of all? We think they're at Knox College in Illinois, where Stephen Colbert will speak on June 3 --- with gravitas, with dignity, with balls.

**Turns out Mitt's speaking at Coe College, located in guess what state --- Iowa.

Condi's coming to Boston

2006-05-02T02:14:20Z

Condoleeza Rice will speak at BC's commencement on May 22.

Also:

On this "Day Without Immigrants," the Heights editorial staff encouraged BC students to boycott class in an effort to show solidarity with immigrants --- because "missing a day of class is not going to cost anyone a job or gravely hurt anyone's family."

So did the Crimson.

Harvard's 15 hottest freshman?

2006-04-28T19:41:04Z

The Crimson's magazine, FM, chose the 15 hottest Harvard freshmen (rising sophomores). Check them out.

More on Opal and Kaavya

2006-04-28T18:41:39Z

Here are six interesting and vastly different takes, from six Harvard Crimson editors, on the Opal Mehta brouhaha. They address everything from envy, to xenophobia, to the perils of pressure at Ivy League universities, to plagarizing professors who get slaps on the wrist.

MTV goes up against global warming

2006-04-25T20:01:01Z

In their fight against global warming, MassPIRG's student chapters just brought the ultimate competitor into their corner --- MTV. For one moment, MTV execs wrestled themselves away from weighty concerns such as Date My Mom, Parental Control, and Yo Momma, to launch the "Break the Addiction" campaign on their Web site last Sunday. With features such as a daily carbon calculator, and "Are You a Global Warming Superstar?" mixed in with less-dumbed-down commentary and interviews from Grist.org (a great site for all things environmental), it might just get a few more people on board.

The fight to make campus-crime records public

2006-04-25T01:17:30Z

Last year, Security on Campus, Inc. (a national organization), and the Cambridge-based Student-Alumni Committee on Institutional Security Policy (a/k/a StalCommPol) joined forces to promote legislation that would require private universities (like Harvard, or MIT) to provide access to detailed and complete crime incident reports.

Right now, private universities just have to provide the bare minimum when it comes to these records. They claim this helps protect student privacy. But members of the student advocacy group Safe Campus Initiative, along with Security on Campus, StalCommPol, and the student press, say that important information is being kept from the campus communities that need it most. (Earlier this year, the Harvard Crimson lost its legal bid to make the HUPD turn over detailed incident reports.)

The Campus Police Records bills --- sponsored in the state senate by Jarrett Barrios, and by Alice Wolf in the house --- are idling at the State house. But maybe not for too much longer. It appears that the forces behind this legislation have retained the services of a downtown consulting firm, amping up their sophistication in an effort to move things along. (Though it's unclear who's actually paying for this --- and Safe Campus Initiative is the only group mentioned --- it certainly seems as though StalCommPol, which is able to pay its student "research associates" $14/hr., has money to spare for these types of expenses.)

Anyway, regardless of who's footing the bill, Charles Group Consulting sent out a press release today that specifically criticizes state senator Brian Lees, who they say "has delayed action on the legislation for several months, and he has not honored requests by students to speak with him about this bill." Will this do the trick?

Gross

2006-04-24T21:48:35Z

"The virus that causes mumps appears to have found its perfect home in the college scene — with multiple kids lolling on beds in great heaving groups, swigging drinks in common, kissing and cruising the bars even when they're sick, and — oh, yes — attending classes en masse."

Speaking of activism...

2006-04-24T19:32:24Z

Here's a press release from Operation: Over, about that organization's brief occupation last week of BU president Robert Brown's office:

At approximately 10:00am this morning, protestors were escorted out of Brown’s office after an entourage of police intimidated and threatened them into leaving. "There’s been enormous opposition to this lab for three years, and today we made our voices heard by bypassing all the bureaucracy of BU and going straight to the President. We laid out our demands for BU to drop the BSL4, and Brown agreed to meet with us in the future – so it is viewed as a success," said Micah Lee, one of the protestors.

This morning, seven individuals began an occupation of Boston University President Robert Brown’s office in protest of the proposed BioSafety Level 4 (BSL4) Laboratory. The lab will conduct research on the world’s deadliest pathogens, such as Ebola, Anthrax, genetically modified Small Pox and Tularemia, and the Plague. It will be built in the South End / Roxbury, a densely populated, low-income community. BU will be receiving $128 million from the Department of Homeland Security via National Emerging Infectious Diseases (NEID), while contributing $42.3 million of its own money.

The protesters are urging both city and state officials to fulfill their roles as public servants, to ban the BSL4 component of the lab, and to uphold existing Public Health law regarding recombinant DNA research to protect the people of Boston. The protesters commenced this occupation during Brown’s formal inauguration as BU’s 10th president. They want to stress that Brown is ultimately accountable for the decision to build this lab, and he also has the power and clout to keep the lab a BSL3.

There is a growing movement amongst students at BU and community members to stop the construction of this Biolab, and today’s demonstration was not the end of the story. This action is part of Operation: Over, a nonviolent direct action campaign against the militarization of Boston.

Student activism -- "Dare to struggle, dare to win"

2006-04-24T19:28:39Z

Here's a sampling of the issues tackled at Sunday's regional conference of the newly revitalized Students for a Democratic Society, according to coverage in the Brown Daily Herald:

War in Iraq
Business interests connected with the war in Iraq
Poverty
Immigrant rights
Rising higher-ed tuition
Student surveillance
Student organizing
French student protests

"Brian Kelly and Lauren Giaccone, two students from Pace University, spoke out against universities that repress political student groups such as SDS. Giaccone gave the example of Central Connecticut State University, which she said denied SDS a university chapter and banned the organization's use of university space for meetings.
"Today's radical students continue to face repression," she said, adding that the CCSU students have continued to hold meetings despite the bans and have since been interrogated by the Secret Service. Kelly said without free expression, education cannot exist."

I'm torn here. Conference participants, quoted in the Daily Herald, seemed to really enjoy themselves. Plus, 91 SDS chapters nationwide make it clear that SDS values and energy are resonating with student activists (who are, and have been, experiencing something of a crisis of the soul; check out this article, also from today's Daily Herald). And if your goal is a "democratic society," you obviously need to address a wide range of issues, not just one in particular. I just hope that one SDS goal is reaching out to non-activist students, who aren't necessarily "radical," but whose voices need to be heard.

"Dreadlocks Man"

2006-04-21T23:15:35Z

From today's papers:

Dreadlocked hippie apprehended at Harvard.

GLBT tolerance proceeding slowly at BC. (Mike Miliard wrote about this issue for the Phoenix last year [and won an award for his coverage, to boot]. For some reason I can't get the page to load for a link. Sorry.)

The Northeastern Patriot is getting its fair share of publicity press.

Best headline:

"Female orgasm event returns to university."

Niagra Prince

2006-04-20T20:58:04Z

Why not keep it for use as a cruise ship?

Students and affordable housing

2006-04-19T21:11:38Z

I'm not sure how many students in Boston will be affected by new federal regulations that "prohibit Section 8 assistance to any student who is under the age of 24, unmarried, without a dependent child, not a veteran, and not income-eligible," according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Students' parents' income will be considered. This sounds fair, right off the bat, but I'm going to try to find out what's behind it.

Campaigning with condoms --- smart or tacky?

2006-04-18T18:59:09Z

There's only one candidate in the running to be the next president of BU's Student Union (a loud-and-clear statement about how little the student body cares about its government, which has been wracked by impotence and in-fighting for years). But even when nobody runs, scandal still rears its head.

Last week, the Free Press reported that the candidate, 20-year-old Brooke Feldman, was caught posing with alcohol in Facebook photos:

Feldman, who turned 20 in March, denied that the bottles in question were open before saying the whole thing was a joke and that no alcohol was actually consumed.
"In any pictures that might or might not have been on Facebook, nothing was opened, nothing was being consumed, so it's all speculation," the School of Education sophomore said. "But I'm a regular student. I'm a college student who has made mistakes."
One photo in the album shows Feldman posing with a friend, each holding two clear bottles. Two of the four bottles show red labels that say "Marty's Vodka." Two of the bottles are turned away from the camera, however, the four bottles in the picture are all translucent and appear to be the same size. One of the bottles Feldman is holding, labeled "Marty's Vodka," does not have a cap on it and is not entirely full.

(Here's an idea of how much BU students care about those allegations: "I was appalled to read that Student Union presidential candidate Brooke Feldman was allegedly drinking Marty's Vodka. Students here at Boston University need a president who has cultivated a taste for finer alcoholic beverages. George W. Bush never drank Marty's -- he was a Grey Goose man until he found Jesus. I plan on celebrating my upcoming graduation with Johnny Walker Blue, the world's finest blended scotch. People who drink things like Marty's Vodka, Cossack Vodka or Orloff Vodka do it only to get drunk. It shows recklessness and a lack of culture. We need our elected officials to drink fine liquors, not the dregs of an Allston dive's rail." --- James Downing, CAS '06, in an April 18 letter to the editor)

But here's where things have really gotten out of hand. Now, Feldman and her vice-presidential "running mate" are being attacked by a fellow student for distributing condoms as a campaign gimmick:

Kosh said the condom distribution violated several aspects of the sexual harassment policy.
   "Without me being there to give my consent," he continued, "they placed a sexual object on my door. A condom clearly comments on an individual's body and sexual activity."
   Kosh said the phrasing on the condom also alluded to his "sexual experiences."
   "As well as inquiries into my 'sexual experiences,'" he said, "as the wording on the condom says 'make the safe choice,' as if implying that I, if I do have sex, which according to the condom must be the case, I don't have 'safe' sex."

Forgive me for thinking that any student who raises questions about this publicity stunt is making a mountain out of a molehill.

Med students need PDAs

2006-04-18T18:00:07Z

I think this is interesting:

"Brown recently joined a growing number of medical and nursing schools — including the University of Michigan, University of Texas and the UCLA School of Medicine — that require students to buy and use PDAs. Faculty and students say the technology saves time and helps them provide better care, in addition to reducing medical errors. Drug references and diagnostic programs can be stored on them, giving physicians information at their fingertips.

Twenty-eight percent of medical schools require students to have PDAs, according to the most recent survey by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the schools' accrediting organization. Many more students use them voluntarily, according to Epocrates' research."