Campus Informer – January 23, 2006

Inebriated horse slapping, fair trade coffee drinking, worldwide conspiracy hatching and more news from schools across the country.

By Annika Carlson, Hope College
Monday January 23, 2006

A Heavy Blow to Crazy Liberal Professors
UCLA

OK, maybe not a heavy blow so much as yet another lame attempt to convince America that its impressionable college students are in danger at the hands of bloodsucking liberals. UCLAProfs.com aims to expose the supposed bastions of extremism that crowd UCLA’s campus. Fortunately for the profs, website founder Andrew Jones’ multiple-page profiles of faculty members are so full of ridiculous, unsubstantiated judgments that they’re unlikely to spark any student revolutions.

Consider this illogical chestnut taken from the profile of History prof Gabriel Piterberg: “Given that Piterberg is a Jew himself, we can hopefully assume that it was not anti-Semitism that attracted him to the anti-Israel cause.” Um, yeah.

The danger of this website is not well-written, legitimate accounts (because if any such accounts exist, they’re well-hidden among the sarcastic, petty muck), but in its advertised cash rewards for students’ detailed notes or recordings of offending lectures. Exchanging money for lecture materials violates University copyright policy, so students participating in UCLAProfs.com’s clever info exchange/spying scheme could be penalized.

Most self-respecting student revolutionaries will probably steer clear of a website that lives to chronicle “a witch’s brew of worldwide conspiracy,” anyway.

Another Reason Not to Quit Your Caffeine Addiction
Brandeis University

Starting the New Year off right, Brandeis University, prompted by a student initiative, vowed to serve exclusively Fair Trade coffee at several of its on campus facilities. This victory, originally a project of Brandeis’ Fair Trade Brigade, was supported by students in a December vote, for which large numbers of students turned out to support the switch. Starting this semester, two dining halls and a campus convenience store will feature exclusively Fair Trade certified coffee; other coffee shops on campus will likely follow suit when contract issues are resolved.

Fair Trade Brigade leaders call on fellow college activists to continue the fight: “Universities have long been at the forefront of these types of social movements and should be again,” said Dan Mauer, one of the group’s leaders. “Hopefully, Brandeis’ recent action will encourage other schools throughout the country.”

So while you keep drinking massive amounts of coffee to get you through the semester, consider justifying your habit by encouraging your school to support Fair Trade products.

Illness Gets a Student Kicked Out of School
George Washington University

Although one might assume that college students should be encouraged to seek help if they’re depressed or having suicidal thoughts, the opposite seems to have happened at George Washington University. Instead of supporting a student who needed help, the school kicked him out and banned him from campus.

Jordan Nott, a former GW student who is now suing the school, alleges that the school’s policies discriminate against students with mental illnesses and discourage students from seeking the help they need. According to the suit, Nott was a good friend of Hasan Hussain, a GW student who committed suicide in April of 2004. Nott visited the Counseling Center several times in fall 2004 and was prescribed medication for his insomnia and depression. Later that fall, knowing that his roommate would be out of town for the weekend so he would be alone, he chose to check himself into the university’s hospital for treatment for depression and general suicidal thoughts. Nott was subsequently “suspended from classes, removed from his dorm and barred from campus.” Not a great reward for reaching out for help, eh?

This isn’t the first time the school’s endangerment behavior policy’s been called into question—could it be that GW’s priority lies in protecting itself instead of providing quality care for its students?

The Worst Back-to-School Night Out Ever
University of Florida

That award goes to Elana Pearl Levin, who rounded out a night of celebrating her return to school by hitting a police officer’s horse. The horse, Calvary, bumped into Levin, causing her to drop her post-partying slice of pizza on her shirt. According to the arrest report, this occurred while a police officer attempted to clear a crowded street. He told Levin to move, and she apparently retorted with “Fuck you. I’m eating my pizza,” and then slapped the horse across its face, or muzzle. One of Levin’s friends responded that he “saw police harassing people with their horses,” and that “the cops grabbed [Levin] by the hair, she started screaming and they arrested her.”

It’s a Great Day to Be the CEO of Pepsi
NYU, Universities of Michigan and Minnesota

Turns out Coke might be bad for more than just your blood sugar levels. Coca-Cola’s treatment of workers in overseas plants is being questioned by groups like Killer Coke and Coke Watch—allegations run from safety and contamination violations to reports of tortured factory workers.

Unsurprisingly, these allegations are raising concerns at campuses across the country. After Coke refused to launch independent investigations into the allegations, New York University and the University of Michigan both recently banned Coke products from their campuses. University of Minnesota’s Student Association is pushing for a similar ban.