Collegiate Press Roundup

We present our weekly review of selected student columnists and opinion writers. This week’s coverage includes a censure of the OWS’s turn to violence, the pervasive nuisance of on-campus smoking, the poor state of American science education and some unexpected complications involving FERPA.

1. An editorial writer for the Emory Wheel, although sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street movement, can’t abide its descent into violence. A number of angry respondents think he’s the one who’s off base.
2. A colleague at the Indiana Daily Student doesn’t condone violence by OWS protesters, but argues that we shouldn’t give the police a free pass, either.
3. We shouldn’t get carried away with hope following the Arab Spring revolutions, says an analyst for the Maine Campus, since they were manipulated for the self-interest of external powers such as the United States.
4. Cigarette smoking really seems to appeal to Tulane campus Hipsters, but a guest columnist for the Hullabaloo doesn’t see anything hip about second-hand smoke.
5. The pending California Dream Act has an op ed commentator pretty chagrined, since it would make access to higher education and financial aid much easier for illegal immigrants than for American citizens.
6. A writer for the UND Student is really irritated by the women’s section just added to one of the state’s regional newspapers. It says “women,” and promotes gender stereotypes.
7. Although the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) can serve to protect the privacy of individuals, the editors of the Oklahoma Daily think that, contrary to its purpose, it’s also being used to obstruct access to public records.
8. Recent news headlines about the tribulations of presidential candidates, football coaches and Congress leave a staffer for the USC Gamecock thinking that we’ve lost sight of our original vision and values.
9. There’s a very high attrition rate among college students who start out majoring in engineering or the hard sciences, and the editors of the Pitt News pin the blame on exceedingly poor preparation in high school. 
10.   By contrast, a guest writer at the Daily Texan thinks that the shortage of STEM grads can be increased by easing grading standards. There’s a market shortage, she figures, and beggars can’t be choosers.
11.   A regular for the Daily Utah Chronicle looks back admiringly at the Vietnam War protest movement of the late ‘60s, and marvels that the two wars currently engaging US foreign policy don’t even rise to the notice of present-day students.
12.   Sex scandals involving athletics seem to evoke peculiarly virulent public reactions, notes a columnist for the UVA Daily Cavalier. And while PSU’s legendary football coach Joe Paterno had to go, let’s not jump to conclusions about him until all of the facts are in.