Collegiate Press Roundup

We present our weekly review of selected student editors and news analysts. As the Fall semester concludes, regulars of the student press corps explain why the Occupy Wall Street movement didn’t work, blow the whistle on faculty salaries, thump the tub for same-sex marriage and ask that we stop denying the fact that it’s the Christmas season.

1. The editors of the Auburn Plainsman are OK with anti-bullying laws and policies, but think it’s a mistake to designate specific groups and single them out for special protection. Rather than alleviate bullying, that’s likely to generate further problems.
2. Few people seem to read for enjoyment anymore, and a guest columnist for the U of Delaware’s Review thinks it’s a shame.   He urges us to pick up a good novel and re-discover a lost pastime.
3. President Obama’s recent speech invoking the spirit of President Teddy Roosevelt sits very well with an opinion writer at the University of Idaho’s Argonaut. TR was an aggressive trust buster, and Obama should go after the present-day excesses of unregulated capitalism in the same spirit.
4. She expects to get some real heat for it, but the editor of the Purdue Exponent stands by her paper’s publication of an annual salary guide for the school’s entire faculty, administration and staff. Transparency is a good thing, she thinks, and encourages readers to look at the guide and talk about what they find in it.
5. Although Maine’s voter’s rejected a ballot initiative to legalize same-sex marriage, but an op ed writer for the Maine Student hopes that a new petition will authorize a vote in 2012, where tolerance and not ignorance prevails.
6. As MIT students head into final exams, a columnist for The Tech explains to them why the Occupy Wall Street movement was a flop.
7. The federal departments of Education and Justice recently issued new guidelines encouraging college admissions offices to give race and ethnicity greater weight in hopes of bringing broader diversity to their campuses. The editors of MSU’s State News think it’s a very good idea. 
8. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich just received a stiff prison sentence following his conviction on massive corruption charges, and the editors of the Minnesota Daily hope it gives other pols some food for thought.
9. At Saint Louis University, a writer for the University News notes that it’s currently the Christmas season, and urges readers not to flinch from saying so.
10. By contrast, a guest commentator for the University of Houston’s Daily Cougar notes how diverse the school is, and doesn’t think any one religious holiday should stand out on campus. Celebrating diverse holidays is the way to do it.
11. A guest columnist for the Wyoming Branding Iron describes his surprise at encountering an open-minded clergyman in the seat next to him on a flight back to school. No hellfire, just a pleasant and hate-free discussion.
12. Swarthmore College is both Quaker in its roots and mission, and multicultural and diverse in the 21^st century. An opinion blogger for the Phoenix notes that the school seems to be struggling with an institutional identity crisis in hopes of reconciling the two.