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KINDER, GENTLER RIOT GRRRLS?

Temple University students Julie Stauffer and Jamee Wilke soon realized they were more than just feminist allies. So, in order to truly "celebrate the sisterhood," they launched what they believe is the first campus chapter of "Riot Grrrl."

You remember "Riot Grrrl," the female empowerment movement that surfaced in the early ‘90s, fueled by post-Thelma & Louise all-girl rock groups with names like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. In their march toward mainstream respectability, Temple’s "Riot Grrrls" are now seeking official university status, according to the Temple News. If the school approves, meetings would be open to anyone, male or female, which would do a lot to dispel the group’s negative stereotype as a "man-hating, militant-lesbian movement."

Chapter co-founder Julie Stauffer predicts that Riot Grrrl’s "new wave" will not only be more educated and serious, but will expose people to what the group is really about—"nice people who want to uplift their gender and celebrate womanhood."

SYMBOLISM OVER SUBSTANCE

Fighting hunger and homelessness might not have been on your "to-do" list the week before Thanksgiving, but some Florida State University students, fortunate enough to attend a Public Interest Research Group-sponsored hunger banquet, got a lesson in liberal compassion as well.

In keeping with the mystery meal concept, the mystery was not only what you would eat, but if you would eat, since, according to the PIRG event promo, distribution of students would approximate how the world’s income is divided. So, while 60 percent of the student guests would sit on the floor, dining on rice and water, 30 percent would eat rice and beans while the remaining 10 percent would enjoy a four-course meal.

Noting that the hunger and homeless problem "transcends race and social diversity," Florida PIRG spokesman Mark Nelson stressed the need for the FSU community "to see the interconnectedness of wealth and poverty. One fifth of the children in the United States, one of the richest countries in the world, lives in poverty. We can’t let this continue."

While it’s difficult to figure out how the PIRG banquet might have alleviated world hunger and homelessness, proceeds from each $3.00 ticket went to the Tallahassee Coalition for the Homeless.

RATS IN SKIRTS?

The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) has come a long way, baby. First, cadets at the formerly all-male school had to get used to females in their ranks after a 1996 Supreme Court ruling mandated the school admit women or give up its state funding.

This year, another culture shock hit the staid Lexington, Virginia campus when, for the first time in its 159-year history, the school had its own female cheerleaders (mainly freshman "rats") at football games.

Student reaction has been mixed, according to the Washington Times, which reported that at least one petition urged a ban on female cheerleaders, citing "mounting sexual tension" among cadets. "They shouldn’t be down there," griped a junior, adding that the cheerleaders’ obligatory short haircuts made them look more like "men in skirts."

Even so, squad captain Randy Eads defended his female recruits, saying their determination made him have "more respect for these cheerleaders than just about anyone else in the corps."

Okay.

TRUST BUT VERIFY

Okay, let’s get this straight. The new non-preferential admissions policy in effect throughout the University of California system precludes consideration of applicants on the basis of race or ethnicity.

However, university applications still ask prospects to identify their race or ethnicity.

Now, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the school’s entire computer system has just been re-programmed to delete these answers from applications.

According to regent Ward Connerly, who spearheaded the statewide policy shift, it’s really quite simple. Some university and admissions folks have been defending the old preferential policy in a manner that shows they "still don’t have religion," he said.

While administrators claimed that race/ethnicity subjects were necessary to "comply with federal data-reporting requirements," the new screening procedure is viewed as a compromise between school officials and those who favored deleting the application questions entirely.

CAMPUS ADMINISTRATORS: DAZED AND CONFUSED?

Many campus administrators who’ve been able to get by as liaisons, facilitators and schmoozers now face a major problem: how to be decision-makers.

The new parental notification amendment (in the Higher Education Act of 1998) allows administrators to relinquish their hands-off policy and contact parents about drug and alcohol violations of students under 21.

According to the Washington Times, this wreaks havoc with some administrators’ long-cherished role of neutralizer, putting them instead "in the line of fire between parents who pay tuition and want to be kept informed and students who demand their right as legal adults to keep their troubles to themselves."

Before this year, colleges could only inform parents of their offsprings’ drug and alcohol offenses in two cases: (1) when parents could prove with a signed affidavit and tax return that the student was a dependent and (2) when an emergency situation endangered the health of a student or another person.

Crucial questions still haunt administrators as they develop a workable philosophy. For example, in dysfunctional family situations, does one call the parent who pays the bills or the other parent?, asked American UniversityVice President of Student Services.

Whatever the case, the facts speak for themselves. This year, student recidivism is WAY DOWN. At the University of Delaware, one of the first schools to implement the policy, parents of more than 1,400 students received letters last year about their offsprings’ drug or alcohol violations. "More than half of the 600 first-time offenders of alcohol policies during the ‘96-’97 year were caught a second time."

During the most recent (‘97-’98) year, "fewer than a quarter of the 630 students cited for alcohol violations were caught again."

BOOKED UP

Tired of shelling out big bucks for textbooks? So were Eric Kuhn and Tim Levy. A few months ago, they started peddling their new discount online bookstore, VarsityBooks.com, on the sidewalks around George Washington University. The news about discounted textbooks on the web attracted hundreds of students, fed up with the school bookstore’s long lines and high prices. Even though the bookstore summoned campus cops who "swooped in and busted" Kuhn and Levy, the two entrepreneurs knew their audience was primed and ready.

Capitalizing on the success of Amazon.com, Kuhn and Levy plan to revolutionize the "staid $2.7 billion college textbook industry by offering wired students 15% to 40% discounts and quick, hassle-free delivery." So far, the average VarsityBooks.com customer spends about $150, according to USA Today, a figure that will increase as the company’s inventory rises to more than 300,000 online titles next spring.

Some students already love VarsityBooks.com, even though they haven’t spent a dime at the company yet. After paying $94 for an accounting book, Johns Hopkins business student Mike Miller saw that VarsityBooks.com was selling it for only $60, and vowed: "Next semester, I’m going there first."

WOMYNSPEAK

At Barnard College, a petition outside the door of the Queer Co-op Office asked for signatures in order to let the school admissions office know that a particular statement, "along with its implications regarding traditional ‘feminine’ roles and ‘normal’ family structures, unacceptable."

And what did the Queer Co-op find so offensive? The following statement in the "Alumnae Achievement" section of the Barnard College admissions brochure: "Studies show that, at a greater rate than other female college graduates, women’s college graduates also marry and have children."