What started out as a simple law lecture turned into a media frenzy on Thursday at Georgetown University.

Professor Peter W. Tague started his criminal law course in the morning by telling students that the Supreme Court’s chief justice, John G. Roberts, would announce his retirement soon due to health reasons. He then asked students not to spread the word but to keep the information within the class.

After learning the news, however, at least one student texted the information to his or her friends. Within 20 minutes, Radar Online, a gossip site that is the sibling to the National Enquirer, officially reported the rumor, which soon spread to other Web sites.

About halfway through the lecture, which was on the credibility of informants, the professor explained that the information about Roberts was made up to show the class that even people who may be considered reliable sources can give inaccurate information.

—The Chronicle of Higher Education

Tufts University allows applicant YouTube vids

For the first time ever, Tufts University allowed its prospective students to turn in a short YouTube video of themselves as a supplement to their application. Of the 15,000 applicants who applied, about 1,000 submitted videos.

Tufts University is known for the unique aspects of its application. It often gives students a variety of optional essays to answer, which include questions such as “Are we alone?,” one of this year’s topics.

In the videos, some prospective students merely chose to talk into the camera, while others submitted more elaborate projects, showing off their water cameras or animation skills. Elephants were a common theme among many videos, as the university’s mascot is Jumbo the Elephant.

About 60 percent of the videos came from women, with two-thirds sent in by financial aid applicants. Some of the videos have developed a following. One of the favorites so far has had more than 6,000 hits.

Lee Coffin, dean of undergraduate admissions, said the videos gave the admissions staff an opportunity to get a better understanding of the applicants beyond their application.

—The New York Times

Californian students protect budget cuts

Students in California staged dozens of protests in major cities against state budget cuts to public universities last Thursday. More than 1,000 students gathered at the Berkeley, Los Angeles, Davis and Riverside campuses of the University of California. A larger group went to Sacramento, calling on lawmakers to restore funds.

The protests started out peacefully, with protestors making a point to avoid taking aggressive action. However, groups in Oakland and Davis eventually decided to storm the freeways, stopping traffic until the police turned them back or arrested them.

This movement was part of a larger “national day of action” in which students and faculty in 30 states united to protest the budget cuts. California has been deeply affected by its $20 billion budget deficit.

—The Chronicle of Higher Education

Details continue to surface in the case of the recent shootings of biology professors at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Authorities arrested Biology professor Amy Bishop after her shooting spree at a biology department meeting on Feb. 12 left three faculty members dead and three more in critical condition.
Bishop’s motive for the shooting was likely because the university had recently turned down her appeal for tenure. Acquaintances say Bishop told them that she blamed specific faculty members for blocking the tenure that she believed she deserved. Bishop was an accomplished Harvard-educated biologist, and gained prominence for having invented an innovative portable cell growth incubator with her husband.

But authorities have recently uncovered another side of Bishop’s history — she shot her 18-year-old brother in 1986, but was never charged because she claimed that it had been an accident. The murders have left students and faculty alike in a state of shock and sent the close-knit science community of Huntsville reeling.

— The New York Times

Boulder tops Sierra Club list for “Cool Schools”

The University of Colorado at Boulder topped the Sierra Club’s third annual list of “Cool Schools,” which ranks universities according to their degree of “eco-enlightenment.” College admissions experts say that rankings like these are becoming ever more important as students increasingly evaluate schools based not only on academics, location, and social life, but also on their degree of social and environmental consciousness.
“Ten years ago, I don’t remember any students asking me about green campuses,” said Steven Roy Goodman, a college admissions strategist. “Now, it’s quite common for students to be keenly interested in how environmentally responsible colleges are.”
Middlebury tied with the University of Washington in Seattle for the number- two slot on the list, scoring 98 points to The University of Colorado at Boulder’s 100.

— www.sierraclub.org

Ohio schools integrate digital technology

The Five Colleges of Ohio consortium — which consists of Denison University, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University and the College of Wooster — has received a two-year, $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in order to integrate digital technology into their libraries and curriculum.
“The grant will provide free and open access to digital documents that were once only available on our individual campuses, sometimes to a very limited number of people,” said Mark Christel, project director and director of libraries at the College of Wooster.
In addition, the grant will help faculty integrate digital collections into their courses by working with librarians, create professional development in library technology for library staff, and help develop a portal through which students and faculty can access digital collections.

— collegenews.org

On April 16, popular ’90s band Third Eye Blind will play at St. Michael’s College in Burlington.

A survey released last year showed that the campus preferred a spring concert that featured a rock band.

“The top genre was rock, overwhelmingly rock,” said secretary of programming Claire McQuillen. “So then we highlighted all the popular [bands] and made a list of about 15 or 20. We then gave it to our Student Association representatives and asked them who they think would draw in bigger crowds.”

Other possibilities considered were the Dropkick Murphys and MGMT. Trey Anastasio of Phish wanted to play at St. Michael’s this year, but he was too pricey for the college.

The decision has sparked an array of Facebook groups, including “Say No to Third Eye Blind,” “Say Yes to Third Eye Blind” and “Say No To People Who Say No To Third Eye Blind.”

“Every year there are people who oppose it,” McQuillen said. “But I think we’re seeing it a lot more this year than last.”

She added that some of the choices of the student body were a little too ambitious.

“Students were asking for headliners like Lady Gaga,” McQuillen said. “But the problem is we have a school of 2,000 people, only so much money, we’re confined to certain dates and the availability of the band, not to mention they must be approved by the administration for appropriateness.”

— The Defender

Dartmouth announces numerous staff cuts

Dartmouth announced on Feb. 15 that they would lay off 38 non-teaching staff members this week, as well as reintroducing student loans next year.

These significant changes are being made in an attempt to close a projected recurring annual budget gap of $100 million. Dartmouth plans to lay off a “similar number” in April, and 33 additional employees will be asked to work reduced hours.

Starting with the Class of 2014, financial-aid recipients from families with incomes above $75,000 to take out loans of $2,500 to $5,500. Williams College also ended their no-loan plan recently.

The Board of Trustees also approved a 4.6 percent increase in undergraduate fees for next year, to $52,275.

— The New York Times

Pipe bomb found on Pierce College campus

A man located a pipe bomb at a small pond located on the Pierce College campus, Feb. 15.

He brought the bomb into the Pierce College sheriff’s station and told deputies he found it by a pond on the campus.

Though the campus was already closed for the President’s Day holiday, detectives cleared the area as they searched the it for additional devices. None were located.

While the device was live, it did not appear to be connected to any specific threat against the school.

No students or faculty members were in the area when the bomb was located because of the holiday.

— The Los Angeles Times

The Optimist, the student newspaper of Abilene Christian University, is getting big press for being the first collegiate publication to debut on Apple’s iPad. Student and faculty researchers from many departments are working on the project, which should make the Optimist iPad-ready by March. The newspaper is already available in print, online and on the iPhone.
“This is yet another opportunity for our students to make use of a cutting-edge delivery system — the third version of mobile media delivery we have pioneered,” said Cheryl Bacon, chair of Abilene Christian’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.
“We pay close attention to the way young people consume news,” Kenneth Pybus, faculty adviser of the Optimist, said. “They tend to use all the tools at their disposal to get information. With the iPad, we foresee the potential for an explosion in news consumption.”

— The Optimist, U.S. News and World

Former Justice to give speech at Harvard

Former Supreme Court justice David H. Souter will deliver the commencement speech at Harvard University this year. Souter, who graduated from Harvard in 1961, was replaced this year by Sonia Sotomayor.
“The dedication, humility and commitment to learning with which he has pursued his calling should be an inspiration to any young man or woman contemplating a career in public service,” said University President Drew G. Faust.
Many other colleges have announced their commencement speakers. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, is speaking at the University of Delaware; journalist Gwen Ifill is speaking at St. Norbert College; actress Marcia Gay Harden is speaking at the University of Texas at Austin and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is speaking at Mills College.

— The Harvard Crimson, Inside Higher Ed

Students in garbage bags protest tuition hikes

Around 500 garbage bag-clad students protested double digit tuition hikes in professional programs at the University of Calgary last week.
Tuition rates are rising by as much 47 percent for some courses, which has left some students, like business major Jacqui Lathrop, angry.
“I am sure there is room to cut at the top, or somewhere else on campus, but it seems it’s easier to use students because they think we won’t do anything about it,” said Lathrop.
“This is supposed to be a public institution. It won’t feel public when students can’t attend because they can’t afford it,” she said.
The garbage bags the protesters wore were supposed to show the students were too poor to afford clothes, let alone higher prices in education.
The plan to increase tuition prices in medicine, law, business, education and engineering programs has not been approved, but would include a $4,000 increase in medicine courses and a $247 increase — $516 to $763 — for business.

— The Vancouver Sun

A recent study found that students who drop out of college do so because they feel pressure to work.

The survey, conducted by Public Agenda, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research firm with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, determined that 71 percent of students who leave school do so at least partially because of work. Of those, half cited pressure to work as a major reason for dropping out.

Thirty-five percent of the dropouts attempted to balance work and school, but left their studies because they found the combination of the two too stressful. The survey interviewed 614 adults, aged 22 to 30 with at least some postsecondary education.

Results from the survey support the national trend in thinking, which suggests that part-time students, who account for 40 percent of undergraduates nationally, fare worse than their full-time counterparts.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education

Animal rights groups protest pig burials

Constant protests from animal rights activists forced Austrian and Italian scientists to cancel a controversial experiment that involved burying pigs alive in snow to monitor their deaths.

The study, conducted by Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine in Bolzano, Italy, and the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, attempted to determine what factors would increase the odds of survival in an avalanche.

Following the administration of an anesthetic and a sedative, the pigs would be buried in the snow and the scientists would monitor deaths. A total of 29 pigs had already participated in tests.

Animal rights activists claimed the experiments served no useful purpose for humans and forced the pigs to suffer horrible deaths.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that these highly sensitive, helpless animals are killed for such an unnecessary test,” said Johanna Stadler, head of the group Four Paws.

— Associated Press

NYU mourns professor’s sudden death

Popular New York University (NYU) computer scientist Sam Roweis jumped to his death from a 16th-floor balcony, Jan. 13.

Roweis worked in NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. His wife had recently given birth to premature twins and an argument about caring for them preceded his death.

Roweis earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto and earned his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology in 1999. He did postdoctoral work at the Gatsby Unit in London. He was at the University of Toronto from 2001 to 2009, and arrived at NYU in October.

On his Web site, he described his interests as machine learning, data mining and statistical signal processing.

Roweis garnered several accolades, including the University of Ottawa’s Premier’s Research Excellence Award.

“It’s a matter of great sorrow to us to lose one of our faculty members so abruptly,” said university spokesman John Beckman. “Our hearts go out to his family.”

— New York Post

Members of the University of Pennsylvania police force reported a spike in violent crimes over a three day period in late December.

Two robberies, an assault and a purse snatching occurred between December 15-17. In each of the instances, the victim was walking alone, late at night, on campus.

The police believe the perpetrators were different in each of the cases, but see similarities.

“Even though they’re different criminals, their M.O.s are the same,” said Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush.

Students were urged to remain vigilant while walking late at night and to refrain from talking on the phone or listening to music late in the evening.

— The Daily Pennsylvanian

Offensive dorm graffiti inspires campus action

Students and other members of the Williams College community occupied a building on campus to draw attention to homophobic graffiti found in another dormitory.

In response to a November 30 incident, in which an offensive word and drawings on penises were found written in paint on the wall of a common room, students organized an open sit-in of Hardy Hall.

Students hope to help create the college’s goal of an open and supportive community. They feel that homosexual issues are not often discussed and students cannot currently find the support structures they need.

The efforts have already seen substantial effects.

“Not only does this building feel like a home now more than it ever has, but I feel more at home on this campus than I ever have before,” said Chelsea Luttrell ’11

— The Williams Record

MIT ponders 7 percent enrollment increase

Administrators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are considering whether to return the student body to its 1980s and 1990s size by increasing student enrollment by up to 7 percent.

The decision hinges largely on whether the school could find enough student housing to accommodate the increase. There is currently a dormitory under renovation that could provide the necessary space.

Dean of Admission Stuart Schmill said the move was not motivated by financial needs at the University.

“It’s not driven by the revenue piece,” Mr. Schmill said. “It’s really bringing us back to an undergraduate enrollment we had.”

If accepted, the school would look to boost admission through increased first-year admittances and a higher rate of transfer student admissions.

— The New York Times

The number one bestselling book on college campuses this year is “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown, according to a list compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Other bestselling books include “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak, “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, “The Wild Things” by Dave Eggers and “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters” by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters. The list was compiled from information from 37 college campuses across the country.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education

Advocacy groups push for free speech at college

Academic and free-speech groups are calling on college campuses “to exercise moral and intellectual leadership” and stand up for free expression following Yale University Press decision to remove all pictures of Mohammed from a scholarly book because of fears the images would inspire violence.

A statement from the groups named the decision as one of many recent incidents that “suggest that our longstanding commitment to the free exchange of ideas is in peril of falling victim to a spreading fear of violence.”

The statement also expresses a wish that higher education institutions “stand up for certain basic principles: that the free exchange of ideas is essential to liberal democracy; that each person is entitled to hold and express his or her own views without fear of bodily harm; and that the suppression of ideas is a form of repression used by authoritarian regimes around the world to control and dehumanize their citizens and squelch opposition.”

Another incident that inspired the organizations to act was the cancellation of a lecture by Ward Churchill at Hamilton College in response to several threats, and the closure of a controversial video exhibition at San Francisco Art Institute last year because of similar threats.

— The Chronicle of Higher Ed.

California raises tuition by 32 percent for 2010

The University of California Regents Board agreed to a 32 percent increase in tuition rates last week, inspiring many students to vocally protest the decision.

Fourteen demonstrators were arrested at U.C.L.A. following the decision, 12 of whom were students.

The student argued that the steep rise in the price tag of state schools would be detrimental to the diversity of the student body.

Maria Isabel Rocha, one of the protesters, said she already juggled two jobs, and that she “might have to take a quarter off to make money to afford tuition.”

University President Mark Yudof said that his biggest fear was that the decision would lead to “an exodus of faculty,” but that the tuition increase was necessary because the university system received half as much per student in revenue as it did in 1990.

— The New York Times

St. Mary’s College cut its carbon dioxide outputs by 80 percent last year thanks to a series of student initiatives.  Students purchased Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to offset 100 percent of their carbon footprint due to electricity use.
Several new buildings on campus introduced geothermal HVAC systems which will cut emissions by several hundred tons.  Other buildings have increased the efficiency of windows to both save money and reduce the College’s carbon footprint.
Members of the community believe the changes made at St. Mary’s should inspire members of the community.  To solve climate change requires that everyone make sacrifices and look at their own habits, according to David Kung, associate professor of mathematics.
“The students at the college are part of a nationwide movement that is redefining the way society views environmentalism,” said Emily Saari ’12, co-president of the college’s Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC).

—The Baynet

Haverford College to add Enviornmental Studies

After years of discussion and a grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Haverford College will add an environmental studies program.
Members of a faculty committee submitted their application to the foundation and received a $1.5 million grant to start the program.  The College will attempt to raise three times that amount through fundraising in the coming three years.
The new program will combine elements of a science and humanities education.  A faculty committee will determine what courses will form the program and how many faculty members to hire.
Discussions about adding a similar program have been ongoing for years.  The College hired its first professor for the program recently. “I think that a liberal arts college is the perfect place for this sort of thing. My kind of research fits really well into interdisciplinary, small liberal arts college environment,” Professor Helen White said.
“We are still in the data-gathering mode, trying to hear from students, alumni in environmental careers,” Professor Robert Scarrow said. “We are asking faculty which of the courses they already teach have environmental implications, because, although we are bringing in new faculty members, we think the program needs more than three faculty members

—The Bi-College News

Williams students fast for climate change

Environmental student leaders at Williams College will fast through upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen to promote immediate action to stem the effects of climate change.
The students joined with other environmental leaders throughout the world in the Climate Justice Fast following the conclusion of the Nov. 6 climate conference in Barcelona.
The group will organize a relay of fasting so that students do not have to continually fast for the duration of the event.  Organizers predict the fast will last 42 days at the very least.
Members of the Thursday Night Group, the Williams environmental club, will wear t-shirts to show their support for the effort.

—The Hamilton Spectator