Collegiate Press Roundup 6-17-10

We present our regular sampling of student journalists and editors, as they address various and sundry topics in their campus newspapers.  This week’s lineup includes opinions about student apathy, impediments to intellectual openness, the possible connection between federally subsidized corn and immigration problems, what to read during summer vacation and thoughts on same-sex marriage.

1. A writer for the Oklahoma Daily laments the abrupt retirement of Washington journalist Helen Thomas who, she contends, has been unfairly depicted as “a monster."
2. A departing senior staffer at Penn State’s Collegian sees distressing levels of apathy in his peers, and urges them to get interested in the world around them and speak up.
3. Writing in the University of Tennessee at Knoxville’s Daily Beacon, a senior columnist muses on aesthetics and popular student artistic tastes.
4. One sophomore opinion columnist for The Daily Princetonian argues that political correctness and the fear of giving offense often impede the robust intellectual exchanges she had hoped would be a regular part of her college experience.
5. An op-ed writer and women’s studies major takes the measure of contemporary feminism in Syracuse University’s Daily Orange.
6. Since students never stop reading – even during the summer months – a columnist for The Chronicle at Duke suggests some “green” titles that would be worth some time while they’re on vacation.
7. Could there actually be a link between federally subsidized corn production and Arizona’s controversial immigration law?  An opinion writer at The Miami Student in Ohio thinks there is.
8. A proposed state ban on smoking in Alabama restaurants is “weakly endorsed” by the editors of The Auburn Plainsman, who don’t think the law would have much effect.
9. Sexually transmitted diseases are out of control, says a writer for SIU’s Daily Egyptian, and suggests that we need to start earlier with more effective sex education programs.  For starters, teaching abstinence alone isn’t going to work.
10. A major breach of trust by an Army intelligence officer is censured by a staffer for the Iowa State Daily.
11. A contributing columnist to the Daily Sundial at Cal State Northridge weighs in on California’s public debate over same-sex marriage.  Many readers will be surprised, he says, to learn that he’s opposed.  The comments thread  illustrates the complexities of "tolerance" that he apparently anticipated.
12. Raising campus awareness about sexual assault and domestic violence at Williams College proves more difficult than two writers in The Williams Record anticipated.