The Studentry

We summarize the American college press every morning.

[thestudentry-blog]

Worthwhile, vital reading.

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Hofstra Students Cover Tonight's Debate

Two interesting local perspectives on tonight’s debate, both from Hofstra students: Hofstra Debate, a collection of miscellany about debate preparations and behind-the-scenes minutiae; and Hofstra 2012 Debate - International POV, a similar but separate distillation of topics for/from viewers overseas.

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Grading papers, writing letters of support for my students so they can get into graduate school, lesson planning, all the reading — a lot of times you do that at home. And so the public doesn’t see that work that we do.

University of Illinois graduate spokeswoman Stephanie Seawell [talks](http://www.dailyillini.com/article/2012/10/geo-hosts-public-work-in-may-strike) to the *Daily Illini* about the Graduate Employees Organization’s “work-in” at a Champaign, Ill. Panera.

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Andy Fate captures the University of Wisconsin band, in (via The Badger Herald: Play on)

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TSD: What about the criticism that humanities courses are not best fit for this platform? JM: The answers aren’t all in on that. You can ask multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank questions about history or philosophy or politics, but I think what’s missing is the idea of a creative written expression of something substantive. We don’t know really know at this point how to… understand that automatically. There can be a peer-evaluation process.

Stanford Daily | Vice Provost John Mitchell discusses online education initiatives

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The Only School at Yale That *Really* Worries About Rankings

At the *Yale Herald,* Micah Rodman pens [a history of Yale's School of Management][som], which was long resisted by Yale administrators: >According to remarks delivered by William S. Beinecke, at the first ever Yale School of Organization and Management class reunion in 1978, former Yale President Alfred Whitney Griswold, YC ’29, would periodically refer pejoratively to business schools as “‘trade schools for business.’” > >Griswold’s successor, Kingman Brewster, SY ’41, was also strongly opposed to a separate Yale business school. According to George Gaddis Smith, YC ’54 GRD ’61, Brewster wrote a letter to The Ford Foundation in 1965 in which he said that for Yale to found a business school, as its peer institutions had, it would be “very short sighted.” He pleaded with the Foundation not to endorse such a school, which he claimed would lead to Yale’s “balkinization.” The school was eventually founded in the '70s as a school of public *and* private management. It didn't start offering an MBA until 2000, and, today, administrators still seem unsure of what to do with the school.

[thestudentry-blog]

How California Views the SCOTUS’s Case on Affirmative Action

The US Supreme Court will hear opening arguments this week in [*Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin,*](http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/fisher-v-university-of-texas-at-austin/) which concerns the role race can play in university admissions. In response, the *Daily Californian* begins [a four-part series](http://www.dailycal.org/2012/10/07/affirmative-action-a-history-of-contention/) detailing the history of affirmative action at the University of California. It's [a worthwhile read](http://www.dailycal.org/2012/10/07/affirmative-action-a-history-of-contention/). How UC schools consider race is important almost *regardless* of the *Fisher* situation, as the California system constitutes the nation's best and broadest public higher education program, and also the one most affected by economic threats to the public university. But the story, by Megan Messerly, also immediately shows what an odd position the University of California's administrators are in: >The University of California entered the debate in August when UC President Mark Yudof and the chancellors of all 10 UC campuses filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the University of Texas — a move that is emblematic of a tension that has long existed in the University of California system. Though the so-called friend of the court brief establishes the UC system’s support for UT Austin and its acknowledgement of race in undergraduate admissions, the university cannot formally acknowledge race in its own admissions decisions.

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My friend Will Robin [points](https://twitter.com/seatedovation/status/254218820556845057) to a *Daily Tarheel* story, which [details](http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2012/10/in-sex-life-unc-comes-out-on-top) (in a not at *all* mysoginist way) *Playboy*'s selecting the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for its "Top University Sex Life" distinction. But far more intriguing than that is the story's attached bar graph, above, which compares universities [by condoms purchased per enrolled student.](http://media.dth.s3.amazonaws.com/14143_condom105gf.jpg) Enjoy.

[thestudentry-blog]

When I wake up in John Jay for my 9 a.m. class, there begins the daily struggle to forget. Waking up in shelters for the homeless, at some distant family member’s house, or not knowing where I’m waking up at all have left scars on me over the years, as they would anyone. Sure, I fought my way out and earned the right to pursue a degree here at Columbia, but happy endings don’t erase the past. Sometimes as I sit in JJ’s Place, watching “Criminal Minds” or whatever other drama my crazy friends put on the television, there will be a scene that resembles a moment in my family’s journey through homelessness—and I’ll have to hide the tears from the memory that creeps up behind me and tackles me.

A Columbia University freshman, Eboni Boykin, [describes](http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/10/03/moving) the dissonance of studying at Columbia while having been homeless.

[thestudentry-blog]

Homecoming in Happy Valley

Penn State's celebrates Homecoming this weekend. It will be the school's first since the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal was publicized last November. At the school's *Daily Collegian,* Kelly Gibson writes [a bountifully sourced piece](http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2012/10/05/Homecoming_centerpiece.aspx) on the intent and atmosphere of this weekend's celebrations -- and the difficulty of celebrating anything at all. I was struck by this quote from an alumnus: >“The scandal forced all of us to stop and re-evaluate what it means to be a Penn Stater,” Penn State alumnus Kevin Jansma, Class of 1988, said. “Homecoming creates the opportunity for us to come together and to support the victims, and the school and the need to collectively determine our vision for the future of Penn State." And also this quote from PSU senior Bridgette Carrier, the Executive Director of proceedings: >“Our community is specifically spending a lot of time looking to learn more about our history. It’s all about celebrating traditions as well as our history. …Everything that has happened shows that maybe we didn’t know as much as we did, and we are looking forward to showing what we have learned." (I rarely mention actual games here, but I’d be remiss not to mention the PSU Homecoming match itself, in which the Nittany Lions will host my undefeated Northwestern Wildcats. The *Daily Northwestern* interviewed a *Daily Collegian* writer, and [a great primer ensues](http://dailynorthwestern.com/2012/10/05/sports/daily-collegian-writer-penn-state-staying-behind-football-program/). Go 'Cats!)

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Stanford will soon lack a classroom large enough for its introductory computer science class, the school's *Daily* [supplies](http://www.stanforddaily.com/2012/10/04/cs106a-enrollment-reaches-record-high/): >“Back in the 2007-2008 school year, the enrollment for the class in fall quarter was around 300 students,” said Mehran Sahami B.S. ’92 M.S. ’93 Ph.D. ’99, associate professor of computer science and fall CS106A instructor. “Then it went from 300 to 400 to 500 to 650, and this quarter we broke 700. The school's Engineering department, which now houses five percent more of the school's undergraduates than it did two years ago, is also[ planning to hire faculty](http://www.stanforddaily.com/2012/10/04/1071420/).

[thestudentry-blog]

Across the Country, Political (Watch) Parties at Colleges

At [Northwestern](http://dailynorthwestern.com/2012/10/04/campus/students-gather-in-crc-to-watch-discuss-presidential-debate/) and [South Carolina](http://www.dailygamecock.com/index.php/component/k2/item/5005-presidential-debate-watch-draws-150), [Princeton](http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2012/10/04/31384/) and [Penn](http://www.thedp.com/article/2012/10/reporters-notebook-watching-the-presidential-debate-with-factcheck), [Michigan](http://www.michigandaily.com/news/debate-story) and [Michigan State](http://statenews.com/article/2012/10/debate-focuses-on-economy-education), college students watched the first general Presidential debate. Faculty seemed pleased with the turn-out just about everywhere. "It's not just for your parents; it’s for you. I’m very pleased with the students who came out," [said](http://www.dailygamecock.com/index.php/component/k2/item/5005-presidential-debate-watch-draws-150) the Dean of College of Mass Communications at South Carolina. Students agreed. "I think that it’s really important now that we are old enough to vote, that we are educated about who we are voting for and who is going to lead the country," [said](http://www.thebatt.com/political-party-1.2919217) a Texas A&M freshman. He added: "“I think that with the elections coming up, people want to be better informed. I know that I do.”" A Princeton freshman, meanwhile, [told](http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2012/10/04/31384/) the school's *Prince*, "This debate will decide if I come out to vote or not."

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel traveled downstate to Urbana-Champaign Monday, to encourage University of Illinois students to come to Chicago and found start-ups. The *Daily Illini* [was there](http://www.dailyillini.com/article/2012/10/chicago-mayor-and-entrepreneurs-encourage-students-to-start-companies-in-chicago): >“There are the entrepreneurs, money, culture and the quality of life that is ready to happen (in Chicago),” he said. “We have to collectively close the 140-mile distance between us, and we have to be next-door neighbors.”

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Weather, Doofuses Continue to Behave as Weather, Doofuses

The *Purdue Exponent* has [the best headline of the day](http://www.purdueexponent.org/campus/article_a706680e-88bb-5622-9238-4b7dbd258cca.html). And Dartmouth continues to be, er, [*Dartmouthy*](http://thedartmouth.com/2012/10/03/news/lohse): >Not long ago, I was a coke-addled elitist Dartmouth College fratboy watching my life slip away from me on a tide of cheap beer, vomit, and Jim Beam. I got so impossibly far from my humble, conservative middle-class suburban upbringing that a nihilistic alter-ego seemingly overtook who I had been before. I could not stop my identity's disintegration — instead, I saw its dissolution as a parable of my generation nearing the end of the world.

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It appears that the full names, student ID numbers, email addresses and phone numbers of students, faculty, and alumni at Penn, Harvard, Cambridge, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins -- among many other universities -- have been posted on Pastebin by the "hacktivist" group Team GhostShell. The [*Daily Pennsylvanian*](http://www.thedp.com/article/2012/10/hackers-leak-personal-info-of-students-admins-and-alums) and [*Michigan Daily*](https://www.michigandaily.com/blog/hacktivists-leak-university-information) report, but at Michigan at least, [University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald sounds nonchalant](https://www.michigandaily.com/blog/hacktivists-leak-university-information): >Fitzgerald emphasized that the breach did not indicate any weaknesses in the University's system. > >"I think (the hack) shows the opposite, because there was no sensitive information accessed," Fitzgerald said. "It shows how seriously that the University takes the security of its online data."

[thestudentry-blog]

Governor Vetoes Grad Student Bargaining

A few days old, but important enough to deserve the first slot. Over the weekend, in [a flurry of decisions on education-related legislation](http://www.dailycal.org/2012/09/30/governor-makes-decisions-on-higher-education-bills/), California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill, SB 259, that would have allowed graduate students collective bargaining rights. Gladys Rosario, at Berkeley's *Daily Californian,* [explains his reasoning](http://www.dailycal.org/2012/10/01/governor-jerry-brown-vetoes-sb-259/): >California State Senate Bill 259 would have extended a 1979 act that gave university employees the right to collectively bargain to apply to graduate student researchers. It would have affected more than 14,000 graduate student researchers at the University of California. > >“Collaboration between faculty and research assistants is an integral part of their training and education,” Brown’s Sept. 30 veto message reads. “It is rare that this relationship is subject to collective bargaining at other universities.” In [a January letter](http://www.ucop.edu/state/legislation/read_doc.php?id=1512), the University requested a veto on the grounds that "SB 259 would fundamentally change the relationship between faculty and [graduate student researchers] from academic mentor-mentee to one of employer-employee." Never mind that graduate student researchers are *already* employers of the University, or that collective bargaining would actually remove the issue of pay from individual relationships: just to *recognize* a reality that exists would be a fundamental change.