Student life

PHILADELPHIA – At a conference all about how college health officials can help students solve their problems, one speaker took an unexpected stance in a speech on student alcohol use and abuse: colleges can’t do much to stop it.

In a presentation Thursday at the American College Health Association’s annual meeting, Edward P. Ehlinger, director and chief health officer of Boynton Health Service at the University of Minnesota, took aim at campus-based projects intended to cut down on binge and underage drinking.

PHILADELPHIA – Just as he was delivering his opening speech to the annual meeting of the American College Health Association here last Wednesday, Jim Turner, the group’s president, got word that he was wanted at the White House that afternoon.

Career-minded college students (or their concerned and hovering parents) are always in search of surefire ways to make their résumés and transcripts stand out as they try to elbow out classmates for full-time jobs after graduation.

Two decades ago, Xavier University could only count on three of every four freshmen returning for sophomore year. Even fewer made it to graduation.

Today, though, close to 9 of every 10 students who start freshman year at the Jesuit university in Cincinnati make it back the next fall. Seven in 10 will graduate in four years, and another one will likely graduate in the two years after that.

WASHINGTON -- In the aftermath of the 2004 murder of a University of North Carolina at Wilmington student by a classmate with a history of violence against women, the deceased student's family came to see the decision-making of the university’s admissions office as one of the major factors leading to her death.

This fall, freshmen at George Washington University will have a little work to do that their predecessors did not: cleaning their own bathrooms. The university announced last month that it will eliminate its maid-like housekeeping services (which included vacuuming the rooms and cleaning private bathrooms) in freshman residence halls.

As a result of the change, housing rates will not increase in many of the freshman residence halls for the 2010-11 academic year.

It's no surprise that universities have been eliminating extras in order to tighten budgets, but getting rid of toilet paper might really stink. Texas A&M University, which is trying to cut $60 million campuswide, hopes to save $82,000 by ceasing to stock the bathroom essential in dormitories.

“We looked at what areas can we cut and not negatively affect our students’ academics, and it was that,” said Sherylon Carroll, associate vice president for communications.

Student sex journalism is one of those topics that tend to arise in the context of controversy -- the sort that begins when a student publication offends a reader or readers; grows with a tussle between editors and administrators (as well as, often, editors and their

Student affairs experts have said that gambling is an unhealthy habit among college students, especially in the age of online poker. But what about if instead of a virtual hands, the students were betting on their ability to meet or exceed a certain grade?

Federal appeals court finds that U. of Wisconsin at Madison improperly rejected funds for Catholic activities that involved worship.