Student Governance and Campus Administration

  The Michigan State University Board of Trustees unanimously voted to revoke an honorary doctorate of law degree bestowed upon Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1990. This is the first time an honorary degree has been revoked in school’s history. President Mugabe’s policies have be largely rebuked by the international community as not being complicit with the needs and demands of his people and earlier this year after losing the most r

  A student report found Columbia’s Ethnic Studies under-funded, and recommended that current programs and institutions receive departmental status by 2010. The goal of the 15-member student research group was “to present the academic justification for why ethnic studies is important for Columbia specifically, and how it furthers ... the purported mission of the college and the Core Curriculum.” 4/17/07  Read More from

  What happens when two people are involved in a fight, both cases are heard before the Student Conduct Committee, the same disciplinary course of action is recommended by the committee, and the College decides to disregard the Committee’s decision in order to punish one of the students much more harshly than the other? If you guessed controversy, you’d be right. Colorado College’s Cipher does a good job of illuminating the brouhaha brewing in a racial discrimination case at their school. (Did we mention that the severely punished student was black?) The administration’s case seems not

  A Crimson White article explores the how the University of Alabama decides who is allowed to live in each particular dorm. Honors students are placed in the newer dorms with nicer features, while non-honors students are placed in the older dorms, which have smaller rooms and are often run-down. 2/28/07   Read More from the University of Alabama

  If your school is like most, participation in student elections tends to rival participation in, oh, I don’t know, the elections of a small military dictatorship. If that’s the case, you might be curious about the efforts of the Associated Student Government (ASG) of Miami University. These folks have struck upon a little gold nugget: maybe if more people run for those uncontested offices, more people will vote for them. They even have a strategy. Brilliant. 11/28/06

  Reform Chavurah, Washington University’s Reform Jewish student group, is hosting a conference for the student leaders of Reform Judaism from across the country. The President of Reform Chavurah says the conference is an opportunity to learn leadership skills, plan programs and network the community. About 100 participants are expected. 3/1/07  Read More from Washington University

  Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have banded together to fight a University proposal to limit the consumption of alcohol by student organizations.  Students feel the new policy is too vague, and say the University should have included more student leaders in the drafting of the new plan. Students and faculty members at the University of New Mexico will be able to decide whether to ban smoking on campus.  This week, the Staff Council voted to ban smoking on the university's Main campus, but will not proceed with the ban until students and faculty members demon

  The latest in the tax-free textbooks movement comes from the University of Georgia, where the Student Government Association (SGA) has voted to support a Georgia House of Representatives bill that would allow students to buy textbooks without paying sales tax. On an unrelated but important front, the article also covers a proposal from the same SGA meeting that would essentially forbid slates in student government campaigns. The proposal would prohibit senators from running with executive members, sharing logos, combining campaign money, or endorsing fellow candidates. 3/7/07