Collegiate Press Roundup

 We present our regular review of selected student journalists and editors.   Thie week, they look at how to fix the national budget crisis, the ominous suicide rate among their peers, the 2012 presidential race and the unfortunate intellectual vacuity among many undergraduates.

1. A Daily Pennsylvanian columnist laments the anti-intellectualism of her undergraduate peers, who seem uninterested in anything except their career goals.
2. The long, long war in Afghanistan is not going well at all, says a writer for the Oregon Daily Emerald.   Unfortunately, it continues to escape public scrutiny.
3. A colleague at the University of Alabama’s Crimson and White agrees, and faults his fellow students for their shallow disinterest in the contemporary world’s signal issues. About the only question most of them ask is where this weekend’s party is located.
4. An op ed writer for The Campus at Middlebury College tells readers exactly how to fix the budget crisis: ask him.
5. Sending more people to college isn’t going reverse the fortunes of a dwindling middle class, says an opinion columnist for UW/Madison’s Badger Herald. A far more effective solution lies in protecting their collective bargaining rights.
6. At the same time, a guest columnist for Notre Dame’s Observer argues that public employees are going to have to face some grim facts if they want to retain some portion of their health and retirement benefits.
7. Writing in the OSU Lantern, a regular staffer notes the alarming suicide rates among college students, and urges readers to keep an eye on each other during finals week.
8. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger recently visited the University of Oklahoma’s campus. A writer for the OU Daily isn’t thrilled.
9. An opinion writer for the UT/Austin Daily Texan ponders the fact that his school frequently gets sold short in the overrated US News & World Report listings.
10. The editors of WSU’s Daily Evergreen offer some preliminary analysis of the 2012 presidential race. Despite the difficulties of the past two years, President Obama still looks like a winner to them.
11. A controversial video and the even more disturbing student reaction to it lead two writers for the UCLA Daily Bruin to suggest that an undergraduate diversity requirement may be needed to produce a more inclusive campus climate.
12. At American University, a correspondent to The Eagle complains that open debate on campus is being stifled by the Women’s Initiative. Better watch what you say if they’re listening.