Collegiate Press Roundup 10-14-10

We present our regular review of selected student journalists and editors. This week, they complain about bad manners at the cafeteria, how to dress for Halloween and why you need to support your school's diversity initiatives.

1. What’s the difference between Mel Gibson and Tea Partier Carl Paladino? They’re both intolerant psychos, says a columnist for the BU Daily Free Press; but Gibson inhabits the fantasyland of Hollywood, and Paladino is running for governor of New York. Pretty scary, she thinks.
2. A writer at the Daily Kansan urges the ladies to enjoy Halloween by dressing up – literally, that is.
3. The editors of the Johns Hopkins News-Letter think it’s too bad that a very popular campus fall event was spoiled by students’ bad manners.
4. At CSU/Chico, the editors of The Orion are gung-ho for their school’s diversity initiatives, but at the same time think that a lot more enthusiasm from students is needed to make it work.
5. Social media can indeed be useful in facilitating social change, says an essayist in The Cornell Daily Sun, but they’ve unfortunately bred a lot of pseudo-activists as well.
6. An op ed writer in the Duke Chronicle wants to know why a recent alumna’s sensational publication of her undergraduate sexual exploits are being cast as a reflection on the university. Isn’t it her responsibility alone?
7. Evangelical Christianity certainly has a presence on the U of P campus, says an editorialist for the Daily Pennsylvanian, but it’s unfortunately lost its missionary fire in stretching to gain acceptance within Penn’s multicultural community.
8. At the University of West Virginia, the Confederate flag has been appearing with increasing frequency on campus. A columnist for The Daily Athenaeum thinks that it’s a divisive, poisonous symbol that should be flat-out banned.
9. As student tuition rises and most university employees face uncertain job security, UT/Austin’s tenured professors enjoy high salaries and guaranteed lifetime employment. That system, says a writer for the Daily Texan, is no longer justifiable and should be scrapped.
10. The opinion editor at Purdue’s Exponent sizes up new initiatives by campus Republicans, and warns Democrats of the potential costs of complacency.
11. Seton Hall University is indeed a Catholic institution, but that shouldn’t stand in the way of granting equal time to a spectrum of views on LGBTQ issues, says a writer for The Setonian.
12. A faculty guest columnist in the Utah Statesman argues that national homophobia has reached the crisis point.