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Author: Anthony Adragna

Princeton wants new students to study abroad

Princeton University unveiled a plan that would urge up to a tenth of newly admitted students to spend a year abroad doing foreign service work before they come to school as a freshman.

The University's president, Shirley M. Tilghman, said the program would allow students to mature, spend time away from academic pressures and gain an international perspective.

Princeton's program would create a new age group of students to study abroad. Those that go in high school tend to go through high school exchange programs that leave students placed with a host family. Those that go abroad in college tend to wait two years so they already have experience living independently.

A growing number of students elect to take a gap year, one without any academic study to pursue work and studies in a foreign country.

Proponents of the idea think it will allow students to mature.

"People are too young when they start college," said Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education. "This way, they would have a year to mature, and they can do something constructive."

Princeton plans to start with a small group of students and gradually expand to around 10 percent of newly admitted students.
- The New York Times


Colleges ban rumor Web site after criticism

Pepperdine University has banned a college culture Web site after threads of gossip threatened to damage classmates' reputations.

JuicyCampus.com allows students to post gossip threads about their classmate's romantic and social lives. The site launched last fall at seven college campuses, including Duke, UCLA and Loyola Marymount.

Critics feel the site allows people to post comments that are untrue which can have negative impacts on victims in the future. Some feel the comments will affect job prospects or will lead to the formation of negative reputations at school.

"People have gotten just extremely sick of hearing all this stuff," said Rachelle Palisoc, a freshman at Loyola Marymount in California.
- CNN


Survey finds Greek life students drink more

A new survey discovered that members of fraternities and sororities will drink more and use drugs more often than non-members of the system.

The survey, conducted by the State Epidemiological Outreach Workgroup (SEOW), found that Greeks on college campuses are in some instances twice as likely to drink while underage and use illegal drugs as non-Greek students.

In 2007, the study shows that 65 percent of all students and athletes used alcohol within the past 30 days, while that number is close to 90 percent for Greeks. The survey also found that Greeks tend to participate in binge drinking more often than non-Greeks.

"Its alarming to us because of the fact that they're underage," said Spartanburg Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission prevention specialist Greg McCullough, "and also with the illegal substances like cocaine and marijuana, it's just a high percentage - much higher than what you'd find in the general population."
- Spartanbarg Herald Journal