Student Union
- By Greg Flakus
Frat Boys Snagged on Shark's Tooth Over Spring Break
But this year, photos that caused viral outrage included a young college man using a shark to pierce a can before slurping up the beer. (Later, an apologetic post from a Brazilian international student alleged that the shark was humanely caught and returned to the ocean after the photo was snapped.)
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Animal rights advocates were not impressed. Neither was the general public.
"This is disgusting!! There is clearly a hook and line in its mouth, did you kill this shark just so you could open a [expletive] beer in its mouth? What the hell is wrong with you?" asked hannahs427 on the Instagram post.
"Have some respect for life, you stupid 'people.'" said beatlechick1, echoing many comments responding to the video.
Many comments from young college men suggested that critics were overreacting.
"I can admit that it’s in relative poor taste, but it’s not so bad that it deserves all this attention, or even close to it," wrote Dillon Cheverere on totalfratmove.com. The website features bros, babes and beer and includes a story headlined, "Quit Picking Up Trash On Spring Break, Nerds," after the Miami Beach Police tweeted a thank you students who cleaned up the beach.
Another spring break post that went viral showed a young man pouring alcohol into a starfish before drinking from it.
Alcohol reduces inhibition and alcohol abuse is not uncommon during spring break, according to Project Know, an organization that provides addiction and alcohol abuse treatment. Close to 40 percent of college students travel each year to spring break venues like Florida beach cities, South Padre Island in Texas, and a number of tropical sites in Mexico and the Caribbean, spending more than $1 billion each season, it says.
Most return to their U.S. colleges and universities refreshed and ready to resume their studies, but alcohol-related incidents ruin the experience for many.
A study by the American College of Health found that during spring break the average male reported consuming 18 drinks a day and the average woman drank 10. Such consumption can lead to alcohol poisoning as well as fatal or injurious accidents, assaults, sexual abuses and other problems.
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Dr. Eric Collins, a psychiatrist in Connecticut who specializes in substance abuse says binge drinking has become “extremely dangerous.” Binge drinking is defined for males as five drinks within a two-hour period; it’s four drinks for women.
Spring break can be traced back a couple of hundred years to European schools that allowed time off during the Christian celebration of Easter. In the mid-1930s it became associated with a break from winter when students from some colleges and universities began traveling to beaches in Florida to escape from studying.
It was a best-selling book and popular movie in 1960, “Where the Boys Are,” that led to a massive flow of spring breakers southward to Fort Lauderdale. Before the book and movie, the beach resort north of Miami had drawn only a few thousand students for spring break. Afterward, the city was overwhelmed with more than 50,000 visitors for that week.
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But certainly not all students participate in beach-and-beer fiestas. Many students spend their break with family or work on community service projects. Samantha Giacobozzi is executive director of Break Away, a non-profit organization that promotes alternative spring break programs to the beach resort parties.
She says 22,000 students from 158 schools took part in Break Away alternative ventures last year.
Career advisors say that such charitable projects can boost a student’s resume and make them more attractive to potential employers. But Giacobozzi says most participants do not approach the experience with that in mind.
“For the most part, the students we work with are not doing it to enhance their resumes,” she says. “It is about understanding community in a deeper way and understanding the world in a different way and being connected to something bigger than themselves."
Giacobozzi says social justice is a component of the programs. She says financial aid is available to students who cannot afford to pay.
“We believe alternative breaks can be a catalyst experience for individuals to move along the path of active citizenship, where community becomes an active priority in your life choices,” Giacobozzi said.
Although she concedes that the party venues still attract far larger numbers of students for spring break, she says the alternative programs are growing steadily in numbers each year.
This year’s most popular destination for college students may have been Orlando, Florida, based on four million travel plans handled by Allianz Global Assistance. The second most popular domestic destination was Las Vegas, Nevada. The two top foreign destinations were Cancun and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
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- By VOA News
Studying STEM? International students have funding options
US News & World Report takes a look at funding options for international students pursuing STEM degrees in the U.S.
The article explains the different kinds of scholarships and grants and offers tips on getting part-time jobs and private student loans. Read the full story here. (March 2024)
- By Robin Guess
US campuses are battlegrounds in free speech debate
This week the University of Southern California canceled the graduation speech of its senior class valedictorian at a time when there is a growing debate over the limits of free speech on American college campuses.
USC’s Asna Tabassum, a Muslim biomedical engineer major, was selected from among 100 outstanding students to address the graduating class of 2024 this May. However, the school withdrew the invitation for her to speak at the graduation ceremony citing safety concerns.
Tabassum denounced the decision, which she attributed to her public support for Palestinian human rights. She said it is part of “a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice.”
The school maintains it is a safety issue, not about free speech. School officials say they received an alarming number of violent threats after selecting her as speaker.
USC is one of many American universities that have struggled with policies over free speech and campus protest since October’s Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the continuing fighting in Gaza. After weeks or months of on-campus protests and rallies, schools have been taking more forceful action to punish protesters who administrators say have become disruptive.
On Thursday at Columbia University in New York, police arrested more than 100 students who had gathered on campus for pro-Palestinian protests. The school’s dean wrote that the protesters had been told several times that they were violating university policies and would be suspended. The students say they were exercising their free speech rights.
At Washington’s American University, protests in all campus buildings have been banned by the school’s president since January. Under the new policy, students may not hold rallies, engage in silent protests or place posters in any campus building.
Protests and safety
University students have a long history of engaging in political activism. From the Vietnam War to abortion rights, universities have played a key role in American political debates.
However, students now say that schools like AU with a long-standing protest culture are silencing protesters with new rules.
Arusa Islam, American University student body president-elect and current vice president, says the policies are preventing an open discussion about U.S. foreign policy.
“Indoor protesting was never a problem, it was never an issue before October 7th,” Islam said. “Students were allowed to put up posters in buildings and students were allowed to have a silent protest.”
“And now we don’t have that right anymore,” she added. “We have been silenced and it is affecting us greatly.”
American University’s president, Sylvia Burwell, says the school’s new policies are intended to ensure that protests do not disrupt university activity.
Burwell also referred to recent events on campus that “made Jewish students feel unsafe and unwelcome.” She added, antisemitism is abhorrent, wrong, and will not be tolerated at American University.
While administrators insist that they are making narrow restrictions in the interests of providing an education, critics say the policies have a far-reaching effect.
At Cornell University, where new rules took effect in January, Claire Ting, the executive vice president of the Cornell Student Assembly, said the policies have had an unsettling effect on campus.
“The campus climate at Cornell has been tense surrounding free speech in recent times,” Ting emailed VOA.
Ting said that both students and faculty feel the policy has had chilling effects on free expression.
“Students report facing arbitrary, escalating punishment for violating the policy, with the policy itself lacking clear outlines for the consequences of civil disobedience,” she added.
In its new policy Cornell warns students that disciplinary action may be taken if protests impede people or traffic, damage school property or interfere with the school’s operations in any way.
In its campus-wide notice explaining the new guidelines, the school wrote that the new policy would ensure that expressive activity is allowed but must remain nonviolent.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, also known as FIRE, has tracked free speech issues on American campuses.
FIRE and College Pulse have produced an annual survey, since 2022, ranking colleges based on their policies and what students say about the free speech climate on campus.
This year the group reported that “alarming” numbers of students say they self-censor or “find their administrations unclear” on free speech issues.
“College campuses have always been places where students have been unafraid to express themselves and with the recent Gaza conflict after the 10/7 attacks, it’s been very heated on both sides of this issue,” said Zach Greenberg, the senior program officer of FIRE.
Harvard ranked last in this year’s survey. FIRE said the school punished some professors and researchers over what they had said or written, and students reported a poor climate for free speech on campus.
The controversy came to Congress late last year, when Harvard’s president testified over complaints of widespread antisemitism.
“I don’t think you’d find many students on campus right now that would say we are the model for flourishing free speech and ideas exchange in the country,” said J. Sellers Hill, president of Harvard’s school newspaper The Harvard Crimson.
“But I think you’ve really seen that be acknowledged by administrators and it seems to be something they are dedicated to taking on.”
As the head of The Harvard Crimson, Hill manages the paper’s 350 editors and 90 reporters, who’ve covered, in detail, the ongoing free speech/protests controversy and the resignation of former President Claudine Gay following her testimony to Congress.
“I think no one would dispute Harvard has work to do and progress to make,” Hill said. “I think it’s a tough sell, for me, that Harvard is uniquely in its own league in terms of intolerance of speech. That doesn’t square with what I have seen on our college campus or on other college campuses around the country. I think Harvard is held to a higher standard.”
Proposed settlement offered over financial aid allegations
A group of U.S. colleges and universities have agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging deceptive financial aid tactics, according to a report published in The Hill.
The schools would pay $284 million to plaintiffs who were enrolled full-time and received financial aid between 2003 and 2024.
The schools have denied the allegations. (April 2024)
Universities in Middle East building research relationships with China
As China bolsters research relationships with universities in the Middle East, the United States has taken notice – especially when that research involves artificial intelligence.
Reporting for University World News, Yojana Sharma has the story. (March 2024)
Tips for staying safe while studying in the US
Recent news events have raised safety concerns among some international students studying in the United States.
Adarsh Khandelwal, writing in the India Times, has tips for staying safe from the moment you arrive until the day you complete your studies. (March 2024)
