Recently, I read an article that centered on a Harvard professor’s anger after a recent grad whom he taught (Jared Kushner, the son of a realllly powerful real estate developer) went out and bought the New York Observer — and then slashed the paychecks of the Observer’s freelancers, one of whom was the Harvard professor himself. The professor was pissed that Kushner, who most likely gave him attitude in the classroom, had the money and the audacity to do something that monumental, while the professor was making around $15,500 a year.
“When intellectuals act as clerks and students act as clients, how do college teachers differ from corporate accountants?” the professor angrily writes. “…the sedulous banality of the rich degrades teaching into a service-class preoccupation whose chief duty is preparing clients for monied careers.” Read More »
One day during her freshman year, Yesenia Arellano walked into her dorm room to find her roommate with a guy, just about to have sex.
“He was lying on the bed and she was doing something with her shirt, taking it off or something. I told her, ‘Let me know when you’re done,’ and left,” said Arellano, a second-year biochemistry student.
But this wasn’t anything new for her. In fact, she regularly became a victim of “sexiling,” a casual term that describes kicking a roommate out of the room in order to hook up. [The Daily Bruin]
Rowling Charges Grads to Accept Failure, Cultivate Imagination
One could forgive J.K. Rowling for mistaking Thursday’s afternoon exercises for a Gryffindor reunion.
Despite a persistent drizzle, a lively audience—including more than its typical share of youngsters—gathered under an assortment of University shields, in Tercentenary Theater, to hear the author of the acclaimed “Harry Potter” series deliver the Commencement address. [Harvard Crimson]
Havard Law to Help Legalize Weed
When most people get caught smoking bud (marijuana) they usually follow a set step procedure:
1. They get angry because the cops just took away their weed.
2. They’re angrier because they realize that they’re going to have to pay a huge fine.
3. And they get even more angry because they can’t understand why smoking responsibly should be illegal.
Then they bite their lip, and pay the fines.
After getting busted with possession by an undercover police officer Richard Cusick and R. Keith Stroup followed the first three steps, but refused to lay down to the law. They have now turned to Harvard Law School professor, Charles R Nesson, for guidance. And they will make the argument that the outlawing of marijuana has no “rational basis.” [CollegeOTR]
For every one opening at Harvard’s undergraduate college, there were 14 hopeful high school applicants. Despite the daunting odds, there’s good reason to try to win one of those coveted acceptance letters.
Harvard is consistently ranked as one of the top schools in the country. Its $35 billion endowment makes it the best-funded college in the United States. Oh, and there’s this: Harvard students are more likely to become billionaires than graduates of any other college.
Of the 469 Americans on Forbes’ most recent list of the world’s billionaires, 50 received at least one degree from Harvard. [Forbes]
U of Wisconsin To Cut Down On Football Tailgate Drinking
UW-Madison’s dean of students office plans to continue a pilot program intended to curb students’ excessive drinking at Badger football games during the upcoming 2008-’09 football season.
“Show and Blow,” which launched in fall 2007, requires students with a previous ejection or citation at a home football game to blow into a portable Breathalyzer test before a game to prove their sobriety. [The Daily Cardinal]
Four members of Harvard’s “Right to Serve” tour were arrested this morning at a military recruiting station in Portland, Maine on the charge of criminal trespassing.
The arrested members were Samantha G.M. Barnard ’09, Robert J. Ross ’09, Amary K. Wiggin ’09, and Jacob P. Reitan, a Harvard Divinity School student who first conceived of the tour.
Twenty Harvard students have been traveling since Saturday on a week-long trip up and down the east coast to protest the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy barring openly homosexual or bisexual recruits from enlisting in the armed services. [Harvard Crimson]
Miami Lands #1 Seed For NCAA Baseball Championship
After hearing the good news that they would be hosting the Coral Gables Regional as the No. 1 national seed of 64 teams for the 2008 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, Miami players and coaches watching the selection show in the clubhouse were thrown an unexpected curveball.
No. 2 seed Missouri (38-19), No. 3 Mississippi (37-24) and No. 4 Bethune-Cookman (36-20) are set to come to town this weekend in a surprise bracket that left some wondering how the top seed didn’t get matched up with the likes of Mt. St. Mary’s (21-32) or Texas Southern (16-32) in its regional instead of lower No. 1 seeds such as North Carolina or LSU.
Miami will take on Bethune-Cookman in the second game Friday at 4 p.m., following the match-up between Missouri and Mississippi. All games will air on ESPNU, with games at both 12 and 4 p.m. through Sunday, and the final game on Monday if necessary. [The Miami Hurricane]
Anyone who has attempted to spend a night sharing another person’s bed at Harvard has encountered one major obstacle. No, it’s not Harvard’s famed lack of a vibrant social scene or a dearth of viable partners—not only these, anyway—but rather a lack of space in the beds themselves. <The Crimson>
U of Wisconsin Adopts a New Text Message Alert System
An emergency alert e-mail takes almost 20 minutes to reach the thousands of UW-Madison students and faculty. A text message could shorten that to a few. Factor in police investigation and the decision-making process to employ a mass alert, and it could be nearing a half hour before students know about a gunshot or toxic gas leak, according to Police Chief Susan Riseling. <The Cardinal>
Google Puts Chapel Hill Streets on View
Jennifer Anderson didn’t expect to see her home pictured online. But with the Google’s expansion of Street View to Chapel Hill, Anderson’s home and car now can be viewed by anyone.
It’s kind of creepy,” Anderson said. “I saw my car outside my condo, and I didn’t like it.” <The Daily Tarheel>
State Patty’s Causes Rise in Crime at PSU
Although its student organizers stressed a day of responsible drinking, the second incarnation of State Patty’s Day saw about 45 arrests by State College police between 8 a.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. yesterday. The arrests included five for DUI, six for disorderly conduct, seven for public drunkenness and 17 for underage drinking, police said. There were also several calls for assaults, fights and snowball throwing. <The Daily Collegian>
U Penn Junior Pleads Guilty in Hacking Scheme
In Federal Court Friday Engineering Junior Ryan Goldstein pleaded guilty to helping a hacker crash the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s server in February 2006.
Goldstein pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting another person to gain unauthorized access to a protected computer, a federal misdemeanor. Goldstein was arrested last November, after a grand jury indicted him for conspiracy to commit computer fraud, a more severe offense than the charge to which Goldstein pleaded. <Daily Pennsylvanian>
Chances are you or someone you know has studied, or plans to study abroad. It’s a great opportunity to experience a new culture, learn a language, and travel to places you’ve never been before. But according to New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo (he’s the head of all law enforcement for the state), your choice of programs may have more to do with benefits for your study abroad office members than for you and your friends.
Remember that financial aide scandal last year? Large universities usually hire external companies to deal with student loans, and it turned out that several of these companies were bribing colleges with gifts and rewards in return for directing students to them. They got busted for it, and schools were forced to give back the cash they received. Read More »
I attended an elite boarding school in Massachusetts (via scholarship, thank you very much) for the sole purpose of attending Harvard. I loved Boston, and I had dreams of going to a place where my intelligence would be respected, not mocked.
When I started applying to schools in the fall, my GPA was high and I had a ton of extracurriculars. Things looked good, but my parents, who had just moved to Michigan for work, insisted I plan out some alternatives. Of course. Thankfully, they had moved to a place with a great in-state school; even when I applied to U of M, I didn’t dread the idea of going. It just wasn’t in my top five. Read More »