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Campus Beat: Religious Students, Tree-Huggers, and a Potentially Dire Frappucino Shortage in Chapel Hill

By Emily Rutherford - Jul 14th, 2008 at 9:36 am

We (by which I mean “I,” but whenever I can sneak in an editorial “we” I go for it) are pleased to present Campus Beat, a new feature that will probably be incredibly sporadic and uninteresting for the next few weeks of summer, but that we were too excited to wait for. (Either that, or I couldn’t come up with anything remotely interesting to blog about.) In any case, this feature is henceforth going to be your handy syndication service for news as reported by the daily and weekly newspapers of major public and private universities. If you’ve got a campus publication you think I should be including in my RSS list, or if something exciting is happening on your campus, email me at erutherf at princeton dot edu. In any case, without further ado, we present Campus Beat:

UT Austin’s Daily Texan ran a story from the Independent Florida Alligator about a study that suggests a correlation between doing well in school and self-identifying as “highly religious.” I’m dubious–there are so many factors which affect a student’s ability to get good grades–and my doubts are somewhat confirmed by the comments of the study director: “[W]hen children raise an issue of religion, it is important to listen to what they have to say and provide encouragement instead of dancing around the issue or avoiding it all together.” Sounds like someone’s a little upset about secular education.

At ease, students! Seeking a higher education does not mean you will be initiated into the inner circles of the Democratic Party. A column in The Maneater, the University of Missouri’s semiweekly, suggests that we should not “fret about campus liberals.” Apparently most students at Mizzou are either conservative or apathetic, and political views don’t tend to encroach upon the learning experience. Oh, and apparently when we graduate and have to pay taxes, us liberals are going to stop hugging trees or whatever it is we do. What a relief!

Speaking of hugging trees–and I bet you can totally guess which news saga I’m referring to–UC Berkeley’s Daily Californian reports that Berkeley’s supply of energy bars to the infamous tree-sitters has been increased from 1,200 to 1,800 calories. You see, with the area around the trees sealed off, power bars are the activists’ only source of nutrition, and Berkeley’s Director of Public Affairs is worried about them contracting permanent nutritional problems. All I have to say is that it’s adorable that there are still four kids sitting in trees after 19 months, and that they haven’t just decided to sign a petition on the Internet so that they can go home and get some variety in their diets.

Tragedy strikes UNC Chapel Hill, where the Daily Tar Heel regrets to inform us that their neighborhood Starbucks might be affected by the many store closings the company is enacting as it faces financial difficulties. But gasp! What will the students do without their favorite brand? I suppose Frappucino withdrawal symptoms are just too tragic to contemplate.

The Daily Californian is announcing that University of California AFSCME members (who I blogged about last month) will be holding a five-day strike starting Monday. This is in violation of an injunction issued because union leaders didn’t give the university 10 days’ notice and because some members of AFSCME are healthcare staff who are considered essential personnel. Although the patient care workers will not be striking, as they are still trying to negotiate their contract, UC is urging all its employees to remain at work during the strike. A notice sent to all UC staff announced that “Employees who are absent from work without authorization during a strike will not be paid for the absence. If a strike is illegal or unprotected under applicable law, an employee may face the possibility of disciplinary action for cause.” However, given that the AFSCME members have been working for months without a contract while they negotiated for better wages, and given the high-profile political support for their cause, it is very difficult to sympathize with the university.

Tags: Campus Beat, labor, religion, Starbucks