Collegiate Press Roundup

Glenn Ricketts

We present our weekly review of selected student editors and news analysts.  For this week’s edition, same-sex marriage, “diversity” admissions and hiring policies, tricky words and the need to drill now for domestic oil are among the topics under discussion.

  1. A columnist for the Stanford Daily is crestfallen:  He really admired New Jersey governor Chris Christie for his forthrightness and boldness, but that was before he went and vetoed an assembly bill legalizing same-sex marriage.  A cartoonist for the Rutgers Daily Targum agrees. 
     
  2. Although there isn’t a single remedy to pull us out of the current economic slump, a financial analyst for the Notre Dame Observer thinks it’s high time that the super rich paid up in taxes. 
     
  3. Religious educational institutions may object to the Obama administration’s recent mandate regarding health care plans and contraceptives, but an op ed writer for the Tulane Hullabaloo thinks that they need to face the reality that most students everywhere engage in sexual relationships and aren’t necessarily members of their school’s denomination.  Two columnists for the Daily Illini offer a point- counterpoint exchange on the same issue. 
     
  4. A political commentator really wishes that presidential debates would stop getting side-tracked on trivial topics such as marriage or birth control and focus on the one that matters: the economy
     
  5. Affirmative action in admissions and faculty hiring was the topic of conversation at MIT this week: a guest columnist for the Tech thinks that the school is fixated on its “diversity” policies; a follow-up writer thinks he’s got it all wrong, and the editors of the paper argue that such policies are vital for maintaining a true meritocracy.  Some often-heated comments threads reveal a range of student opinion as well. 
     
  6. For anyone who’d like America to be more Christian, a regular writer for the Iowa State Daily offers some practical suggestions as to how that might look. 
     
  7. Words are often obscure or loaded in their meanings in any case, but that’s especially true when it comes to the terminology tossed about in the Israel/Palestinian controversy.  A member of Duke’s debate team explains
     
  8. With the economy still in the tank and the price of oil spiking, it’s obvious to a guest columnist for the USC Daily Trojan that we need to drill here and now.  If the current president isn’t willing to do so, then we need to elect one who is. 
     
  9. As Black History Month is widely observed, a writer for the Arkansas Traveler ponders its significance for the current presidential administration. 
     
  10. Dating and sexuality are more complicated than you think, as a columnist for the University Daily Kansan attempts to explain in light of her personal experience. 
     
  11. Although he’s changed his initial position opposing the Obama administration’s recent policy announcements on contraceptives and health care, a guest writer for Vassar College’s Miscellany News remains troubled by the frequent incivility of the debate, especially from the side of it that he’s just joined. 
     
  12. When it comes to women and birth control as an election issue, a political analyst for the University of Cincinnati’s News Record thinks GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum doesn’t get it at all.
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