Collegiate Press Roundup

We present our weekly review of selected student editors and news analysts. For today’s edition, they reflect on the significance of Thanksgiving, the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act now in Congress, what it means to be a “diverse” college and the impact of social media on political campaigns.

1. While the origins of Thanksgiving may be problematical, a writer for the Iowa State Daily thinks the holiday is much more about family than it is history.
2. Is the world overpopulated? It depends on how you look at it, in the view of a Harvard Crimson staffer. The arguments of population control advocates seem like more than a stretch to him.
3. Gendered and gender-neutral terms can impact the way we think, although the regular gender/sexuality columnist for the UNC/Chapel Hill Daily Tar Heel notes that it isn’t easy to parse.
4. The Stop Online Piracy Act, currently under scrutiny in the House Judiciary Committee, will stop a lot more than piracy, as the editors of the Oklahoma Daily see it. If the bill becomes law, your internet privacy will take a huge hit. Their colleagues at SIU’s Daily Egyptian are in agreement.
5. Although it seems to be taken for granted that Middlebury College is a “diverse” institution, a commentator for the Campus offers some thoughts on what that might mean practically.
6. 6)As Congress flounders through another debt crisis standoff, two colleagues at the UNV Sagebrush offer contrasting takes on the whole mess, here and here.
7. In the wake of the UC/Davis confrontation between Occupiers and campus police, a writer for the Berkeley Daily Californian is incensed by the authorities’ use of excessive force. That’s how the DePaulia’s editorial board see it as well.
8. Supporters of a state-enacted DREAM Act are truly dreaming if they think there wouldn’t be major problems with such a law, says a guest columnist for the University of Delaware Review.
9. As the GOP continues to wrestle with the selection of a presidential candidate, a political analyst for the Indiana Daily Student can tell you that he really doesn’t like one of them.
10. What’s the value of a college degree? A guest writer for the Kentucky Kernal isn’t really sure, and suggests that you think about it before going after one. You could wind up with a pile of debt and no job prospects.
11. The Occupy Wall Street movement, despite its tactics, doesn’t really present any new ideas, says a regular for the Auburn Plainsman.  Its hostility to capitalism was central to the Obama administration’s worldview from the outset. The comments thread indicates that her readers see it differently.
12. Although the use of social media technology such as Facebook and Twitter will play a major role in upcoming political campaigns, a political commentator for the Arizona Daily Wildcat wonders what misuse they might invite.