Campus Informer - April 28, 2005

Mystery hate letters, purple and gold Confederate flags, California student walk outs and more campus controversy.

New Colors, Same Meaning
Louisiana State University

All students are proud to display their school colors. But at Louisiana State University, students have become very attached to displaying purple and gold versions of the confederate battle flag. The flag became popular almost a decade ago, and has since made its appearance at sports events and dorm rooms. But with the flag comes quite a bit of controversy, especially among African-American LSU students, who make up nearly ten percent of the school’s population. The controversy began brewing again recently, after a series of columns in the student paper. This led LSU’s chancellor to take the issue into his own hands. He told students that the university does not endorse the symbol and has banned the sale of the flag on campus. He said he couldn’t ban the flag all together because students have the right to free speech, but that he would not promote “intolerance or actions that are designed to provoke racial divisiveness and hatred.”

Religious Exterminators
University of New Mexico

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka Kansas, who created the web site godhatesfags.com, took a field trip to the University of New Mexico last weekend. The group came to the university because they said UNM is “fag infested.” The dozen demonstrators were supposed to be joined by their pastor, Fred Phelps, but he didn’t show. Counter demonstrators soon appeared on the other side of the street and a war of words ensued. The church members told reporters that protesting gays “is a way for a person to love his or her neighbor, according to biblical Scripture, and if people do not do this, they hate their neighbors.” This comes a week after another church group visited the University of South Carolina, preaching that gays and others were damned to hell.

“Callin’ Arnold Out,” Students Walk Out in Protest
California State University

Last week students throughout Californiastaged an organized walkout in response to fee increases for all California State University System students. The walkout began in the morning when students yelled, “ Arnold, we’re callin’ you out. Students, let’s all walk out.” At San Jose State, a group of fifty students quickly turned into over two hundred as the group went building to building urging students to walk out. Students walking into buildings were asked if they could afford going to class next year due to the fee increase. The mob of students and professors voiced their concerns about tuition increases and said they would join part of a larger demonstration in Sacramento at the steps of the governor’s office.

Spirituality Trumps Religion
UCLA

Four in five incoming college freshmen have an interest in spirituality, and three in four new freshmen are searching for the meaning or purpose of life, according to a new study by the UCLA Higher Education Institute. But this doesn’t mean students are lining up outside of churches and synagogues every weekend. Instead, college students are turning to alternatives outside of traditional religious institutions and they say that they can be spiritual without being religious. Mainstream religious outlets are also tailoring their messages more toward young people, introducing rock concerts and turning away from traditional hymns and organ playing. UCLA will conduct a study with the same students during their junior year to see how their attitudes have changed.

Ivy Leaguers Strike
Yale University, Columbia University

Graduate teachers at Yale and Columbia took part in a five-day strike last week, refusing to teach classes, grade papers or host review sessions. The strike was organized in hopes that the universities will allow the graduate teachers to form unions. This was the first strike since the National Labor Relation Board’s ruling last year that classified graduate students as student rather than workers and therefore not able to unionize. The students can only unionize if their university voluntarily grants their petition. The strikers are asking for healthcare, a concrete grievance procedure, and pay raises for graduate students who have been teaching for more than four years. While union officials may not support the protestor’s demands, the students have the support of two of Connecticut’s top politicians, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Secretary of State Susan Byesiwicz.

Mount Trashmore
Boston College

Students and service workers at Boston College celebrated Earth Day in a unique way last week, digging through a mountain of trash, named Mt. Trashmore, and separating out recyclables. Students sifted through 100 bags of trash around campus for items that could easily be recycled by students. Two hours after they began, the students had collected over 30 bags full of recyclable items thrown away with the trash. The students who organized the event said they wanted their fellow students to see just how much is thrown away in the course of a day, and how much of that could be recycled. BC was recently ranked 16th in RecycleMania, a 10-week intercollegiate competition measuring pounds of recycled material per student at 49 universities across the country. The university produces over 6,000 pounds of trash each year.

Mystery Hate Letters Sent
Trinity International University

Nearly two hundred African-American and Hispanic students missed classes last week and were forced into seclusion after three minority students received death threats over the course of two weeks. Trinity International University officials say they urged the students to leave campus after the third letter arrived. The letters were increasing in their threats of violence and vitriolic hatefulness. Officials at the school, a small Evangelical Christian college north of Chicago told reporters Friday they did not know when, or if, the students would be able to return to campus. The conservative Bible-based school says in its mission statement that its education is based on "the authority of God’s inerrant word, Holy Scripture," and that it seeks an international identity with "people drawn from ‘every tribe and tongue.’ “The situation was resolved this week when the letter-writer turned out to be an African-American student who, apparently, wanted to leave the university and wanted to create the appearance the school was unsafe for minorities.