Universities Weblog

OMG. Talk about radical…

University Business has a post today about how the chancellor of Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities "has stepped beyond the state's new indoor smoking ban and barred students, employees and visitors from lighting up anywhere on campus-even outdoors."

Everyone in the state seems either really happy or super pissed.

An AP report says that the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees plans to fight the ban. They represent about 2,500 maintenance, dining hall, skilled labor and clerical workers.

The Chronicle of Higher Education's blog had reports on some of the rather emotional reactions to the new rule…

© Larsz

My certification as a teacher includes learning disabilities and I've written about the topic occasionally on my education blog, The Green Cup, and at Suite 101. So when I saw Aaron Smiths piece, Helpful Hints for Students with Learning Disabilities, I was interested…

Smith gives some good advice: "The biggest piece of advice that I can give an LD student is to be a strong self-advocate. Know your strengths and weaknesses and feel comfortable self-disclosing this information to an Admissions Counselor during a college interview."

You can read the whole blog post here.

© Tostie14

Okay, I don't know who the national champs will be yet. But I know who they won't be: the Ohio State Buckeyes.

If Ohio State had played a halfway competitive game and lost at USC, it might be possible to pretend that they still had a change. Now all year long we're going to hear about how weak their Big Ten schedule is and how they lost to the only real football team they played outside the Big Ten. After all, Youngstown State, Ohio, and Troy don't really count.

© ronnie44052

West Virginia Public Radio had an intreresting piece a few weeks ago on a common campus issue – texting in class.

Should you send text messages in class? Marshall University doesn't have a campus wide policy yet, but many professors say no.

"It's just one of those things where text messaging is exploding and I anticipate it being a problem this semester so I really put it on my syllabus absolutely, positively no texting in class," says journalism professor Dan Hollis. "I may kick you out of class if I see you texting, I just anticipate the problem."

The issue is a growing problem – one that is sure to get talked about on many other campuses…

© nate steiner

Hat tip to College Admission Counseling for finding the College Survival Guide and pointing it out to me.

The guide, published by PsychCentral, deals with issues that have to do with both the admissions process and college life after admission. There are a couple of dozen mental health screenings, personality tests, and similar tools available at the guide. There's also a blog and a chat room.

If you're new to college or just now filling out applications, the guide is a good resource.

More and more, the answer to that question is "yes!" University Business pointed out an article this week by the Associated Press on how many universities have started enforcing their codes of conduct off campus.

According to the AP article, "A growing number of universities are starting to take a more proactive approach to monitoring off-campus behavior and neighbors say the efforts are working."

Specifically mentioned in the article are efforts by the University of Washington, Washington State University, Seattle University, the University of Minnesota, Ohio State, the University of Colorado-Boulder, Duke, Rutgers and Penn State.

Read about those efforts here.

© phoosh

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that texas a&M University now has a larger student body than ever before in the school's history – with 47,925 students.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas A&M's freshman class totals 8,127; that's an increase of almost 1,400 over last year. It is the largest freshman class in the school's history and one of the largest in the nation.

Today was the first day of class at A&M and school officials are stressing that the numbers are preliminary and could change by a few. With an enrollment of almost 48,000 A&M looks set to at least stay the 6th largest university in the US and possible move up a spot to 5th.

© StuSeeger

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst is trying to shake its reputation as a party school, according to the Boston Globe.

According to the Globe, U Mass has "an aggressive campaign that is winning national attention" on the issue of alcohol abuse on campus. Two years ago U Mass started a "social norms" program on campus.

Two years after launching the so-called social norms campaign, health officials say they are seeing striking results, with recent student surveys indicating a sharp decline in binge drinking. The university has coupled the marketing with tighter regulations and enforcement, as well as expanded prevention services.

U Mass is "chipping away" at its own stereotype of the "zoo school."

You can read the whole Globe piece here.

The blogosphere and wire services are covered up with different reports on the three presidential debates coming up in September and October – all to be held on university campuses.

The debate schedule is as follows:

• At the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi on September 26- a debate with domestic policy focus.
• At Belmont University in Nashville, TN on October 7, 2008 – a town hall style debate.
• At Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY on October 15, 2008 – a debate on foreign policy.

There will also be a debate by the candidates for vice president on October 2, 2008- at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

You heard right. CNN is among a variety of sources reporting on the story:

College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.

Of course, MADD is ticked. They say lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes.

The argument in favor of lowering the drink age is fairly simple. College aged kids are going to drink anyway. Many of them seem to think that since drinking is illegal for them, then when they do it they're already breaking the law – so why not do even stupider stuff? Making drinking legal for 18-year-olds could bring their behavior into more controlled environments where peer pressure and adult supervision could lead to better drinking behavior.

College presidents also point out that being in a car wreck isn't the only way to die from drinking.

One argument that doesn't work (as far as I'm concerned) is the "rights' argument. i listened to someone on a news show yesterday say that at 18 you can vote, you can die for your country, and you can do (or be asked to do) almost everything else an adult can do. Why not drink? If this were about rights that might be a good argument. But it's not about rights. It's abut public health…

chrisandkim00