The College Fix

The College Fix presents a roundup of the top scandals, screw-ups, and stupid decisions involving college campuses this week.

3). Administrators at East Carolina University fired the adviser to the student-run newspaper, the East Carolinian. Officials said this was because they wanted a “change in leadership,” but numerous critics think the firing happened because the newspaper published an uncensored photo of a man streaking. The college had apparently warned that there would be “consequences” for publishing the photo. Considering this, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has condemned the way the university handled the matter, and warned that the adviser’s First Amendment rights may have been violated.

2). In an op-ed for the New York Times concerning the youth vote in the upcoming election, an Ohio University student penned this intriguing paragraph:

Three years of only partially realized promises has depressed Obama’s once vibrant and vocal throngs of zealous young supporters. But fortunately for Obama, none of the Republican hopefuls have exhibited the energy, organization or moderate stances necessary to attract young voters, who hold largely independent leanings. The young masses remain Obama’s to win or lose, with the primary challenge lying in mobilizing an otherwise disengaged demographic.

Really? There isn’t a major Republican candidate with moderate stances on social issues that young people care about, who is known for generating intense excitement on college campuses and attracting ever-widening support from students, liberals, and independents while maintaining his popularity among libertarians, Tea Party types, and certain conservatives? Nah, guess not.

1). There’s no better way to ridicule this new idea concocted by Michigan Democrats than just stating it: Their plan would cover $9,500 worth of tuition per year for four years of college in Michigan, and every person who graduated from high school in Michigan would qualify. It would also cost an utterly bankrupt and financially depressed state about $1.8 billion. Democrats would pay for the plan by closing “loopholes” in the tax code, ending some tax breaks, and imposing new taxes on out-of-state retailers. You know, $1.8 billion of them.

The Michigan Daily, the University of Michigan’s student newspaper, supports the plan:

The price tag may appear shocking, but its potential benefit to Michigan’s struggling economy exceeds the cost.

Except it’s impossible to know that for sure, unless the Daily commissioned, completed, and published an economic impact study between Wednesday and Friday. The Daily continues:

Michigan’s manufacturing and automotive markets have proven unable to sustain jobs.

You know what else has proven unable to sustain jobs–or even obtain them? Liberal arts degrees. The Daily continues:

Investing in students now will increase the state’s competitiveness in emerging, lucrative fields in the future.

Lucrative investment scheme, or Outrageously Dumb Campus Moment of the Week? You decide.

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