Meet Oliver Hudson. Oliver is a junior at Brown University, where he is editor-in-chief of the campus’ conservative magazine the Brown Spectator, and writes a regular column in the Brown Daily Herald. Today, Oliver focused his writing on a topic he appears to be quite passionate about: voting rights.

“Most of us accept and celebrate our universal suffrage. But is it a good idea? In my view, no.”

Rather than allow every adult U.S. citizen to vote, Oliver argues, this “privilege” should be based on taxes. As he writes, “Restricting the right to vote to taxpayers is moral and practical.” Sounds like someone really dug that Ayn Rand seminar they took last semester.

If Oliver ran things around here, people wouldn’t just be voting wherever and whenever they pleased, no sir. Right now, the voting population is comprised of two groups: Those good hearted people who pay their taxes and give the government revenue, and another set of people who then take that money in the form of “benefits and programs” — or “stuff and things” — but may or may not pay their fair share. And for Oliver, if you don’t pay, you shouldn’t be voting, because a vote for a federal representative immediately decides where the government’s money goes. Read the rest of this entry »

A Cornell sophomore channeled everyone’s favorite face-tattooed boxer last night, allegedly biting the ear of another student during a fight, The Cornell Sun reports. The ear assault took place outside Louie’s Lunch, a food truck on Cornell’s North Campus, which was closed at the time.

It is unclear whether the nature of the assault biting and the location were coincidental, or the students just got a little too hungry and impatient. As one Sun commenter so perfectly put it, “When Louie’s is closed, you’ve got to eat something.”

Mini Mike Tyson has been identified by The Sun as Conor Goetz, who was charged with assault in the third degree. If convicted, Goetz could face up to a year in prison.

Yesterday the critic Glenn Greenwald published an excellent column describing the meretricious dynamic — recently thrust to the fore by the sudden resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus — between the American military and the individuals paid to report on it:

The military is by far the most respected and beloved institution among the US population — a dangerous fact in any democracy — and, even assuming they wanted to (which they don’t), our brave denizens of establishment journalism are petrified of running afoul of that kind of popular sentiment.

While Greenwald calls out several TV anchors for emoting, he misses one of “establishment journalism”‘s worst offenders: The Daily Princetonian.

Six weeks ago, in a 3,000-word story, the paper reported rumors that Petraeus was seeking Princeton’s presidency. (He’s an alum of the Graduate School.) A representative passage (bolding ours):

Other classmates of Petraeus described him as serious, intense and hardworking, which some said was necessary because of his desire to acquire a doctoral degree on a compressed schedule. Yet despite this indefatigable commitment to his academics, he still maintained a separate commitment that he would never cheat on: physical exercise. Petraeus ran competitively at the time and would always find time to fit a lengthy run into his schedule, classmates said.

Fast-forward to Friday. Within hours of Petraeus’s resignation, the Prince reported that, during interviews conducted for the article quoted above, Paula Broadwell’s relationship with Petraeus seemed sort of vague:  Read the rest of this entry »

Oh my. From the Crimson:

Helping those with primarily low academic qualifications into primarily academic institutions makes as much sense as helping the visually impaired become pilots. How would you feel if you were assured before going into surgery that your surgeon was the beneficiary of affirmative action in medical school? I do not see why higher academic institutions should lower their standards for admission.

PLOT TWIST: the author is—hiss, hiss!—a legacy:

In a way, I am the product of a sort of affirmative action, and it takes a terrible psychological toll. My father went to Harvard College, which makes me a legacy. I am kept up at night by the thought that simply because my father has attended and donated to the University, I might have taken the spot of a more qualified applicant. My name is not exactly “Sarah Wigglesworth Hurlbut Coop,” but I am still a legacy, and the thought of its bearing on my admission is somewhat terrifying.

May blogs diagnose new disorders? The author appears to be suffering from the delusion, largely indigenous to New England and the Tri-State area, that life is like the Harry Potter universe, where young wizards are admitted to Hogwarts by way of pure destiny and magical envelopes, rather than SAT tutors and enormous parental donations. This legacy actually seems to believe that she could not have attended any other school, or just not applied to Harvard in the first place, thereby saving her years of suffering, of thinking she doesn’t actually belong at Harvard.

And to answer the burning question: of course she took the spot of a better applicant. Probably a far better one. What else are legacy admissions for? Rescuing endangered animals?

Previously.

NEW HAVEN — In a unanimous decision by the Yale Corporation, Provost Peter Salovey has been selected as the next President of Yale University.

The announcement came in a rather secretive, almost-closed-to-everyone-but-the-YDN press conference (reporters from lesser publications could be seen loitering outside the McDougal Center of the Hall of Graduate Arts and Sciences, where the event was held). Salovey, who is known for his (no longer) mustache first and professional accomplishments second, will assume the post beginning June 30th.

According to the most carelessly done Google search in history, Salovey has previously served as Dean of Yale College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, owns a Havanese dog, and is married to Marta Moret, president of Urban Policy Strategies, LLC and ’84 Graduate of the School of Public Health.

In his acceptance speech, Salovey posed the question “What kind of Yale do you imagine?” which really encapsulated his vision for “a more unified Yale, a more innovative Yale, a more accessible Yale, and a more excellent Yale.” After the announcement, what we assumed to be various Corporation fellows and Yale society luminaries (including Yale’s Favorite Son, Brandon Levin) lined up to shake Salovey’s hand and congratulate him. The general feeling from the crowd was one of excitement, relief, and speculation as to whether or not the mustache would make a comeback.

As we noted over the weekend, the anti-Andrew-Lohse contingent Goldman Snacks published a bunch of emails between Lohse and his friends (and a professor), including an unpublished column Lohse wrote under a pseudonym in order to praise himself.

While we were going through the whole log, Dartmouth conspiracy theorist Joseph Asch dismissed the emails as “small beer,” insisting that “there is not much of interest to be found.” Asch, like the rest of Dartblog, maintains a curious epistemology — where the truth is divined by absorbing the opposite of what Asch says — so of course these emails aren’t “small beer,” and of course there is much of interest to be found.

As one of our commenters pointed out, several irrefutable details indicate that Lohse’s brother — Jon Lohse ’11 — provided these emails to Goldman Snacks, or provided them to someone who then provided them to Goldman Snacks. Myriad references, and a rather telling pattern of redactions, all point to Jon as the source of these emails. (Unlike our commenter, however, we don’t think Goldman Snacks is JL himself.)

This revelation is rather strange, sure — strange in that you wouldn’t think someone so close to Lohse would attempt to discredit him. But it’s not exactly unprecedented. As Janet Reitman wrote in March, Lohse tends to shed friends and supporters rather quickly; one student told her that “one by one, I think a lot of [Lohse's] friends just gave up [on him].”

This revelation isn’t all that illogical, either. As these emails flesh out, Andrew, his brother and their friends spent many, many months plotting an all-out media blitz in order to capture as much attention as possible. All the while, Andrew tried to anticipate — in order to minimize — any potential inconvenience to himself:  Read the rest of this entry »

A few nights ago, as I was waiting out the worst of Hurricane Sandy’s temper in the relative safety of my dorm room, I thought about my family—specifically my younger brother, who’s currently living and working in the Big Apple.

As I ruminated on the chances of his survival in his Midtown apartment (my fears weren’t allayed at all by Twitter’s grim prognostications), I had two important realizations: First, that he had—thankfully—made a pilgrimage to Dartmouth (where he’s a student) for Homecoming weekend; second, that he had probably weathered storms much worse than Sandy when he was hazed as a fraternity pledge.

Dartmouth is notorious among the Ivies for its pervasive Greek-letter culture. According to U.S. News & World Report, approximately 60% of the undergraduate population is affiliated with one of 26 fraternities or sororities. (Not-so-surprisingly, the fratty majority of the student body has a specific term for the unaffiliated that reflects the contempt they feel: GDI.)

As one might expect from a school with such a pervasive fraternity system, hazing is part of life at Dartmouth to an insane degree—it’s institutional, it’s expected, and absolutely everybody does it. It’s also been in the news: Andrew Lohse is currently America’s most famous frat brother for the dramatic reveal of his fraternity’s hazing and his own role in perpetuating it.

Hazing, as defined by the National Collaborative for Hazing Research and Prevention, is

“any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of a person’s willingness to participate.”

I’ve asked my brother on occasion what he thinks of frat life in general—I, for my own part, chose to remain unaffiliated and curious—and the answers I get from him are uniformly positive. It seems to me that the fraternity life suits him (it has certainly increased his already-impressive ability to chug), and that he’s done well for himself in the organization.

That said: he’s never spoken to me about his experience of being hazed, even when I’ve pressed him for details.

And therein, I think, lies the real ethical issue. There’s not much doubt that fraternity life can enrich its members, but the process involved in gaining admission is particularly despicable. (Not to mention the contempt that its exclusivity engenders.) Should the fraternity system be maintained if it necessarily involves—and even congratulates—harming undergraduates?

To put it simply: it’s complicated.  Read the rest of this entry »

Amid the chaos yesterday of Hurricane Sandy, one Brown student apparently thought it would be funny to score an live, on-air interview and then question the legitimacy of the storm (props to Daily Intel’s Kevin Roose, Brown Class of 2009, for finding the clip). When NBC reporter Alison Bologna asks Brown junior Daniel Moraff why he would brave the weather in Providence, he responds:

“I’m still pretty skeptical. I don’t really believe that there’s a hurricane. I know the government wants us to think that, but think about it — the earth rotates very quickly.”

How droll, Daniel. You must write for a Brown University humor publication of some sort.

Although confused, Ms. Bologna moves forward with the interview, probably thinking, “well, that sounds like something they teach at Brown.” However, when she gets to her next question — school cancellations — Daniel’s attempt at a joke becomes clear:

“Well, you know, the government definitely wants you to think classes have been cancelled. I’m not so sure.”

Brilliant trolling Daniel! Fantastic performance!

To her credit, Ms. Bologna clearly realizes at this point she’s being messed with, and does her best to expertly distance herself from Daniel by looking directly at the camera. Watch it for yourself below: