Collegiate Press Roundup

We present our weekly review of selected student journalists and editors.   For this edition, our writers hold forth on cyberspace marital infidelity, the need to address gender imbalances in hiring a new university president, improvident gun laws and the difficulty of opposing gay marriage on campus.

1.  An op-ed writer for the University of Alabama’s Crimson White tries to find his political bearings between Republicans and Democrats, and it’s not easy.
2. President Obama’s plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan sounds great, but won’t end American involvement immediately as we need to do , says a political commentator for USC’s Daily Trojan.   
3. The editors of the Daily Illini endorse passage of the American Dream Act, and urge readers to consider the human costs of uprooting illegal immigrants already living here.
4. With the departure of Purdue’s first female president, the editors of The Exponent believe that her successor should also be female, in order to rectify the university’s gender inequality. They advise the presidential search committee accordingly.
5. Just because former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner’s sexual antics were conducted in cyberspace rather than in person, he doesn’t get a pass from a columnist for the University Daily Kansan. She thinks he’s a cheater, pure and simple.
6. Affirmative action admissions programs were supposed to be short-term remedies, but are still with us nearly a half-century later. The reason for this, says a writer for The Dartmouth is the failure of the public school systems which so many racial and ethnic minorities must attend.
7. A columnist for the IU Daily Student thinks the state legislature really blew it with an ill-conceived gun law. Lots of people don’t need to carry guns, even if they want to, she argues.
8. MSNBC recently suspended a regular commentator for “inappropriate” comments about President Obama on the air. Are you serious, ask the editors of the Iowa State Daily. Adult audiences can handle far worse, so what’s the problem?
9. A writer for The Tech at MIT can’t endorse same-sex marriage, and laments that it’s become impossible to oppose openly in many venues. An angry storm of comments suggests that he’s got a point.
10. On the other hand, an opinion analyst for the Daily Nebraskan emphasizes the importance of “pride”festivals, and argues his case in a video production.
11. This July 4^th was America’s 235^th birthday, but an op-ed regular for MSU’s State News wasn’t in the mood to celebrate.
12. In light of the UN’s recent additions to its biospheres reserve list, an editorialist at the Stanford Daily explores the practical policy implications in response to ecological and climate change.