Colleges becoming more competitive, study says
MINNEAPOLIS (U-Wire) - Colleges are becoming more like businesses, according to a report released last week by a higher-education research group at Brown University.
The group, The Futures Project, did a five-year study on how higher education is becoming more competitive and market-oriented, said Lara Couturier, the project's interim principal investigator.
"The way universities are competing for the best students, prestige and reputation has become far more competitive than a decade ago," Couturier said.
According to the report, colleges are spending money on facilities with little educational value, such as "state-of-the-art computer labs, luxury dormitories and sparkling, new gymnasiums" to attract the best students.
"What's interesting and so threatening about this is each of these decisions makes sense on an individual level," Couturier said. "The students are asking for these facilities. But when you look at it as a trend happening across the country, it takes away from the overall mission of public universities."
Sex workers fight stigmas through UCLA art show
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LOS ANGELES (U-WIRE) - Seeking to end the stigma of their occupations, sex workers will combine performance art and activism to make their voices heard Wednesday at an on-campus art show at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Sex Workers Outreach Project-UCLA is hosting the Sex Workers Art Show in conjunction with Queer x Girl and La Familia.
The display of visual and performance art, which is on its third national tour, will feature music, spoken word, poetry and burlesque offering different perspectives on the sex industry, which includes exotic dancers and prostitutes.
Design competition aids Habitat for Humanity
BATON ROUGE, La. (U-WIRE) - The Louisiana State University School of Architecture and Design announced Tuesday the winners of a competition to design a house for Habitat for Humanity.
Six teams of fifth-year students competed, said Tom Sofranko, interim director of the School of Architecture. The winning design will be built by students and Habitat for Humanity.
The two winning teams received $2,000 each, and the other four teams received $500 each.
Students protest bill banning gay literature
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (U-WIRE) - A bill by state Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, that would prohibit state funds from purchasing literature that acknowledges homosexuality or written by gay authors has already drawn the ire of some of Alabama's college students.
But students and faculty members at the University of North Carolina expressed their opposition to the legislation Monday and Tuesday by reading the texts that would be barred under the bill outside the Chapel Hill, N.C., student union.
'Awareness' barbecue parodies animal rights
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (U-WIRE) - Hungry University of Florida students ate more than 100 pounds of meat in less than two hours at Tuesday's People Enjoying Tasty Animals, or PETA, Barbeque.
The barbeque, which was hosted by UF's College Republicans, was held to "raise awareness about the extreme efforts utilized by the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) organization and demonstrate that the consumption of meat is not inhumane," according to a release.
The event took place at the Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity house, where visitors snacked on beef, pork, venison and bratwurst.
Texting made practical by Southern Illinois U.
DEKALB, Ill. (U-WIRE) -Text messaging is finally good for something besides avoiding conversation. At least, at Southern Illinois University it will be when its technology service unveils their innovative program DawgTel next fall.
With SIU's TeleComm service, students and faculty are working together to create a program that will allow professors to communicate with students about various class-related material via cell phone text messaging.
Students campaign for co-ed dorm rooms
CORVALLIS, Ore. (U-WIRE) - Emily DeLora and Ryan Greene think there is something wrong with the status quo in student housing at Oregon State University. Specifically, they're targeting the unwritten rule that males and females cannot share the same room in campus residence halls.
"Most of the students here are 18, yet don't have the freedom to choose who they can live with," said DeLora, a sophomore in elementary education.
Their goal is not to make this a university-wide policy, they said, but to establish one hall or maybe just one wing of one hall that would allow co-ed roommates.
NYU president uncertain about grad student union
NEW YORK (U-WIRE) - New York University President John Sexton was unwilling to commit to renegotiating a second contract with the graduate student union after hearing from several students at Tuesday night's graduate student Town Hall meeting.
A recent Brown University decision overturned the 2001 decision that recognizes the right of graduate students to unionize, restoring the precedent of treating GAs and TAs at private schools as students and not employees. The university will first reevaluate the union's value before deciding on renegotiation, as its contract expires in August, Sexton said.
