DISCUSSION sections are odd. After days of class and lecture, discussions fill a strange niche in the academic schedule at the University.
IN 2001, physics professor Louis Bloomfield put the University's acclaimed community of trust to the test.
IN LAST week's column I advocated making study abroad a requirement for all undergraduates. I wrote that the University should set the goal that by 2010, 100 percent of incoming students go on at least one study abroad experience during their four years on Grounds.
LAST WEEK I argued that secret society tags should be removed from Grounds, but did not really address the argument that I most frequently hear on their behalf, which is summed up by the word "tradition." The tags have always been there; they were good enough for our predecessors; therefore, they are good enough for today's University. I realize my argument faces an uphill battle because tradition is an incredibly powerful force.
?THE CITY of Portland, Maine is allowing King Middle School to make available to its students a full range of birth control products, including birth control pills and patches, a decision which is both staggering and exceedingly reprehensible.
LAST YEAR a student group on Grounds, Green Dining, attempted to start a trend where once every week students would eat in the dining hall without trays.
THE TIMES, they are not a-changin'. They've ground to a halt. A few weeks ago, undergraduates flocked to the John Paul Jones Arena to listen to Bob Dylan, the hero of those who wouldn't trust anyone over 30 -- now a senior citizen.
"INTERNATIONAL education, research and service at home and abroad" -- that was the fuzzy phrase darkened in bold ink that summarized the second priority of the Commission for the Future of the University.
AS YOU search through the Course Offering Directory for an interesting elective, you will probably encounter the following message, "No Course description is available for this course in the record." The COD arrived this past Friday and, like every year, left much to be desired.
WE'VE ALL read the e-mails. "Student robbed on 14th Street...Be alert, trust your instincts, walk in groups and keep to lighted pathways." "Student assaulted on Wertland...Be alert, trust your instincts, walk in groups and keep to lighted pathways." The reports in this newspaper aren't much different.
ASSOCIATE DEAN Richard Handler opened the Curriculum Internationalization presentation in the Rotunda last week by saying that the "curriculum of the modern university is itself a cultural artifact." In other words, the curriculum was not handed down from Mount Sinai as an immutable, perfect concept.
ON FRIDAY, October 12, 2007, I bought two black women at auction. Well, that's one way to look at it.
Walking around Grounds from day to day there are an infinite number of things you do not know about the students who surround you.
STUDENT activism sometimes confirms the worst stereotypes of college naivete. Most University students can remember quixotic activists that falsely believed that a reproachful demonstration by a few dozen students could affect the actions of a distant head of state or a jet-setting CEO.
LAST WEEK, Turkey announced that it could soon launch military incursions into Northern Iraq to attack Kurdish fighters operating in the region and across the Turkish border.
"IT WAS obvious from day one that he was troubled," Michael Grassie told Newsweek. A teacher at a highly praised magnet school in Cleveland, Ohio, Grassie was recently shot by his student, Asa Coon, in his world history class.
IN THE last two weeks, three students were robbed at gunpoint, one was stabbed and another was sexually assaulted in off-Grounds areas where many students live.
I HAVE some surprising news, dear readers. Recently, I went on safari throughout northern Africa, a journey that took me past the pyramids, down the Nile and into the seedy nightlife of Cairo.
THE UNIVERSITY'S two most important administration initiatives for the twenty-first century include the goal that in the future, 80 percent of undergraduate students study abroad.
STEPHEN COLBERT is running for president. In South Carolina. Maybe. Anything the ironic pundit says should of course be taken with a grain of salt, but according to a New York Times article yesterday, Colbert has talked to party leaders in the state and it seems -- at least for now -- he seriously intends to get his name on the ballot.
