DKL

UFO 101

UC-Berkeley has created the first academic position devoted specifically to the search for extra-terrestrial life.

According to the Daily Californian, the Watson and Marilyn Alberts Chair in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) was established last year by two alums.

"An academic chair will ensure that if nothing is found in the near future, the search will continue," said Watson Alberts, who noted that the prestige conferred upon this project might help dispel some of the negative perceptions of the subject in general.

The newly established chair was set up as part of the school’s astronomy department. Astronomy Prof. William Welch, the first appointee, will be involved in constructing an array of 1,000 radio telescopes dedicated to searching for intelligent signals from space.

Trekkies, stay tuned.

THE SHARPER IMAGE

Regina Barecca, an English prof at the University of Connecticut, recently told Boston Globe Magazine: "Watching religious conservatives is like people in the 18th century going to asylums to watch lunatics chew on their own wrists. They are a fringe, and the people who take them seriously aren’t engaging in some disinterested dialogue."

LIVE AND LEARN

Popular culture commentator Camille Paglia apparently takes a dim view of Wendy Shalit’s much-ballyhooed book, A Return to Modesty. In a recent issue of Salon mag, Camille noted that "while Wendy’s premise is a promising one, the sexual revolution, as I myself have argued, has removed all kinds of protections from young women that male gallantry once provided—her book is meandering and impressionistic, as might be expected from a 23-year-old prematurely awarded a big book contract. A Return to Modesty is a pastiche of breathless anecdotes, magazine clippings and sonorous quotes from collegiate reading lists.

"Although Shalit lists my books in her bibliography, she has apparently only skimmed them for lurid excerpts to prove her case that she and her fellow shy maidens are lost lambs in the wolf-filled pornographic woods planted by witches like me.

"Brainy but maleducated baby prepettes seem to be the latest thing in publishing. Dewy, doe-eyed innocence gets on my nerves. Give me sardonic drag queens any day!"

STRIPES OF A DIFFERENT COLOR

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that when it came to following orders, no matter what the consequences and putting customers’ needs first, the inmates actually scored higher than the MBA students.

WIZARD OF AIDS

Romance, Respect & Responsibility Week had an unusual kickoff at the University of Illinois this year when a troupe from Healthworks Theater in Chicago presented a skit called "The Wizard of AIDS."

Cast members, dressed as Wizard of Oz characters, sang "We’re off the see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of AIDS."

The Daily Illini reported that after the Dorothy character was picked up by a cyclone, she was whisked away to the land of AIDS, defined in this PC production as "Aware Individuals Deserving Survival."

After meeting the various munchkins and witches, Dorothy runs into the good witch Glinda, a safe-sex advocate who gives Dorothy a supply of AIDS pamphlets and KY Jelly lubricant and sends her to see the wizard. Along the way she meets a "straight" scarecrow, and an AIDS-infected lion.

After surviving a trek through the forest of STDs, "Gonorrhea, herpes, AIDS, oh my," the skit ends by killing the "Wicked Witch of Unsafe Sex" with—a condom.

Healthworks Theater, established as a graduate project of the University of Iowa in 1987, has developed five different performances dealing with AIDS and violence. Theater production manager Kara Delay described the group as an AIDS-education violence-prevention-outrage theater.

MIDWEST MICHELANGELO HITS THE CEILING

Ryan DuVal, a student at Northwestern University, must have had a lot of free time and energy recently. Last fall, the sophomore music major decided to paint a replica of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel mural on his dorm room ceiling.

Although most students viewed his opus simply as a form of student expression, school administrators took a dim view of Ryan’s handiwork, saying it had to be re-painted. But after Ryan took the school to federal court, they consented to leave his ceiling intact until the end of the academic year.

The campus brouhaha over the ceiling-painting episode inspired the school to clarify its policy, saying that dorm residents who wanted to re-decorate had to stick to standard-issue, university-supplied, bone-white paint.

Besides drawing attention from a variety of international media outlets, Ryan’s case may have some additional benefits. He’s already received offers from two Chicago area schools and restaurants, asking him to paint murals.

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

A bizarre entertainment event took place recently at the University of Iowa when a group called the African-American, All-Male Revue Dance Show, featuring five male exotic dancers from Chicago, performed strip, lap and table dances for an audience of several hundred women at the student union.

The Black Entrepreneurial Association, a recognized UI group, sponsored the event as a benefit for their upcoming calendar.

Red-faced university officials were quick to explain that since it was a university-sanctioned event, not a thing could have been done beforehand to prevent it. Ann Rhodes, vice president for university relations, pointed out that this was also a "freedom of expression issue." As a university, they didn’t want to appear to be censoring free speech. She added that if certain behavior is inappropriate, "we need to find out where the line is."

The Daily Iowan reported that "investigators were trying to determine the context of the strippers’ full-frontal flashing to see whether UI policy had been violated."

Although the event raised the hackles of campus women’s groups concerned about using the body in a demeaning or trivializing way, grad student Tamara Thompson raved about the event, calling it "a true ladies’ night out."

PAYING YOUR WAY

If you’re a high school student in Ohio, you could be in for the best of all rewards for good academic performance—cash. Starting this year, the Ohio Board of Regents will offer a one-time $500 scholarship to high school seniors who pass all five of their proficiency exams.

The only caveat is that the money must be spent at an institution of higher learning in Ohio.

Tom Rudd, the director of state grants and scholarships, said that regents have asked for $17 million to cover this year’s scholarships that have been authorized by the state general assembly.

If the current year runs true to form, the state of Ohio will need every penny. Last year, more than 35,000 Ohio seniors passed all five tests.

L.A. LAW

Six Los Angeles libraries will start using Internet filters on computers in children’s areas, despite screeching and wailing from the ACLU. The Los Angeles Times reported that the the 90-day pilot project will inform parents that children may use other library computers to access unfiltered material. However, no parental consent is required for the kiddies to do so.

The L.A. city attorney warned the city council that blocking adult-oriented sites on any library computers may not be permitted, because it limits free speech. ACLUers agreed. They reportedly plan to file a barrage of lawsuits this year "to ensure that adults can use libraries’ Internet-connected computers to look at pornography and other materials that may be deemed offensive."