Collegiate Press Roundup

We present our regular review of selected student journalists and editors. Today, they offer thoughts on the recent federal budget compromise, how to revise history textbooks, the legality of military intervention in Libya and the bounds of gender stereotyping.

1. An opinions columnist for the Daily Illini argues that higher taxes for the wealthy are politically tempting, but economically bereft. If we want to reduce the deficit, we need to cut spending.
2. Such thinking is all wrong in the view of a colleague at the Middlebury Campus, who sees a new breed of robber barons taking control in Washington.
3. If anti-abortion groups want to make a convincing case, an op-ed writer for the Kentucky Kernal suggests that they tone it down and emulate the calm, reasoned approach taken by Planned Parenthood.
4. Despite the Republicans’ seismic electoral victory last Fall, a political analyst in the Washington University, St. Louis Student Life finds big talk but no leadership in Congress on the budget crisis.
5. An op ed page regular for the Smith College Sophian finds a lot to like in proposed history textbook revisions presently being considered in California.
6. A freshman communications major at U of M doesn’t object to the idea of a well-rounded undergraduate education, but tells readers of the Michigan Daily that she can’t see where a natural science requirement fits in.
7. Although it was a close call, the Obama administration and the Congressional Republicans managed to cut a budget deal that avoided shutting down the federal government. A columnist for the Amherst Student ponders the process that led to it, and offers some thoughts for the future.
8. Recent political controversy in Wisconsin has convinced the editors of the Minnesota Daily that the election of judges is a very bad idea.
9. For a colleague at the Dakota Student, there are far more ominous forces at work: no less than a “war” against organized labor, he thinks.
10. A writer for South Carolina’s Daily Gamecock argues that the use of nail polish need not be restricted by quaint notions of gender stereotyping.
11. As the Obama administration’s military action in Libya continues, an opinion columnist for the University of Washington’s Daily examines the question of its legality.
12. Some thoughts on the changing male/female dynamic in marriage and the economy by a columnist for U of Virginia’s Cavalier Daily stir up a furious reader response.