Campus Informer - April 25, 2006
Apprehended ninjas, arrested protesters and more news from schools around the country.
By Annika Carlson, Hope College
Tuesday April 25, 2006
Ninja apprehended on campus
University of Georgia
No, seriously—a student at University of Georgia who was dressed as a ninja was apprehended by Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents as he left a Ninjas vs. Pirates event. ATF agents were on campus for a training and spotted sophomore Jeremiah Ransom as he left the event, which was sponsored by the Wesley Foundation, a United Methodist student group.
Ransom’s ninja gear—black sweatpants and a t-shirt with red bandanas covering his face— and sweet ninja moves tipped off ATF agents as he crossed campus. “Agents noticed someone wearing a bandanna across the face and acting in a somewhat suspicious manner, peeping around the corner,” said Vanessa McLemore, an ATF special agent. After agents chased him, “One of the guys yelled I had a gun, tackled me and asked where my gun was,” said Ransom. “I told them, ‘There’s 30 other people dressed up as pirates and ninjas.’”
After spending several minutes trying to convince the agents that he was an unarmed student, campus police arrived to help straighten out the misunderstanding. “I can see how as law enforcement officers, they interpreted what they saw as suspicious,” said University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said, “but the police have to show a bit of due diligence.”
Though Ransom made out relatively unscathed—“I have a good bruise on my back where [an agent] had his knee on me”—the ninja apprehension sparked debate on campus about the true nature of the age-old ninja and pirate rivalry.
Look at me being serious!
University of South Carolina
Upon returning from a trip to Washington, D.C this month, newly-elected Student Body Vice President Ryan Holt found his office egregiously defaced by $80 worth of balloons. Holt proceeded to flip out, demanding that the balloons be removed by 8:00 a.m. the following morning or actions would be taken against the student government members who perpetrated the prank. “This is the kind of unprofessionalism that characterized student government years ago, and it’s not going to happen now,” Holt sternly told Student Congress President Tommy Preston, who responded by laughing and disappearing into the sea of balloons. “Look at me being serious!” yelped Holt, next asking whether student activity fees were used to buy the air that filled the balloons. And while USC writer Aaron Brazier is right in his assessment that “What Ryan Holt did was human,” it’s too funny of a video to pass up.
The price of demanding a living wage
University of Virginia
Seventeen UVA students were arrested last weekend for holding a peaceful sit-in to demand that the University pay its workers a living wage. UVA’s living wage campaign garnered increasing attention in the past few weeks, culminating in the sit-in, when students occupied the lobby of an administration building on campus for four days and three nights.
The students met with University President John Casteen III while rallies and tent cities continued outside the building but ultimately chose to stay when no deal was made. After the failed negotiations, Casteen ordered the arrest of the students, who were physically removed from the building. They have since been released from custody, but the University will press charges for the sit-in.
Pointing to the success of living wage campaigns at schools like Georgetown and nearby University of Mary Washington, student activists are increasingly turning to intense demonstrations of their commitment to living wages. At the University of Miami, students and janitors are participating in a hunger strike to raise wages and benefits for janitorial staff. At University of Vermont, students are camping out in a tent city to make sure their presence is known to their president. Several of these campaigns are sponsored by the Living Wage Action Coalition, a group of college students and recent graduates seeking to make campus living wage campaigns more effective.
“We engaged in civil disobedience with awareness of the legal consequences,” said sit-in organizer Abby Bellows after the students were arrested. “Yet still we are very disappointed that this is how the University has chosen to respond to the critical thinking and constructive compromises of students standing with workers.”
Administrators paranoid about 4/20 event
Macalester College
Macalester officials cancelled a marijuana legalization festival organized by student organization CHEEBA (Creating a Harmless Environment to Enjoy Buds Appropriately) last week. Administrators previously supported the second annual CHEEBAdanza festival as a valid expression of student activism, but changed their tune after a less-than-flattering article on the festival appeared in the St. Paul newspaper. “This is a group of students who feel really strongly about the issue…We have to encourage and provide a forum for the discussion — that’s what higher education is all about,” said associate dean of students Jim Hoppe in the article. After the article was printed, authorities reconsidered and officially cancelled the event.
Students blame adminstrators’ worries about the school’s image for cancelling CHEEBAdanza. “We worked very closely with Campus Programs,” said CHEEBAdanza organizer Spencer Edelman. “They knew what was going on. We made a conscious effort to do that so this wouldn’t happen. Why couldn’t this have been addressed another time?” Another organizer, Reid Lustig, says that “Macalester is trying to save face,” reacting to the increase in press surrounding this year’s event.
Although some students planned to show up and celebrate anyway, Edelman worried that CHEEBAdanza’s mission was compromised by the administration’s decision: “I don’t know what people are going to do who show up and expect free pig and sweet music and fire dancers, but I’m sure we’ll look like jerks.”
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you will forever be my campus informer, friend.
— The White Ninja - Apr 26, 09:15 AM - #A note on the Ryan Holt story…I go to USC and Tommy Preston is the President of the Student Body (not the Student Congress) and the person lectured was not Tommy Preston, but Alex Bryan, the Student Senate Sergeant at Arms.
— Sam Cooper - Jul 26, 06:12 PM - #