South Carolina student charged with gun possession
A student at a South Carolina technical college was arrested last week after a gun went off in his pocket.
The 19-year-old student originally claimed that the gun fell out of his pocket. Investigators later determined that he had the gun in his pocket and was aiming to shoot.
A new bill currently under consideration in the Texas legislature would allow faculty and students with concealed handgun licenses to carry their weapons on campus.
Texas senator, Republican Jeff Wentworth, has been an advocate for such legislation since the shooting at Virginia Tech.
The current state law distinguishes between carrying a firearm in a university building and on campus. The Texas State University System currently forbids concealed weapons on campus. Violators of the law are subject to expulsion from the university.
Wentworth noted that the bill would only have an effect on individuals over 21, limiting the number of students with a concealed weapon license who could exercise these rights on campus.
Supporters of the bill cited self-defense, along with the Virginia Tech shootings, as valid reasons for allowing concealed weapons on campus.
Others felt that the bill was unnecessary and that allowing weapons on campus would not make the campus safer.
Florida teens attempt to eat marijuana
Two 19-year-olds in southwest Florida unsuccessfully tried to swallow a bag of marijuana during a traffic stop and have been charged with tampering with evidence.
The teenagers were stopped by an officer originally because their car's high beams were on, but the officer proceeded to notice the smell of marijuana coming from the vehicle.
When the officer returned to the car after receiving the teenagers' identification, he said he found the two attempting to swallow the marijuana.
The officer additionally reported finding four grams of marijuana in one of the teen's shoes, leading to an additional possession charge.
The pair have since been released from jail.
Univ. Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon lose $114 million on Wall Street
Administrators at University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University realized last week that the $114 million they had invested with two Wall Street bankers had vanished.
Federal agents arrested the two suspects, Paul Greenwood and Stephen Walsh, on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the men misappropriated $554 million in funds from 16 institutional investors for their own purposes, spending at least $160 million on mansions, horses, books and an $80,000 teddy bear.
University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University filed a civil lawsuit before the federal agents acted and are attempting to recover their funds, but securities experts say they are unlikely to secure much of the money, which appears to have been either used to cover losses or spent.
This follows a similar case, the Bernard Madoff scandal, in which Madoff bilked millions from Yeshiva University, New York University and several other institutions
Harvard English department cuts British literature
The Harvard English Department's recent revamp of their course selection includes cutting programs in British literature and replacing survey courses with smaller discussion-based courses, grouped in four categories: "Arrivals", "Diffusions", "Poets" and "Shakespeares."
The majority of the survey courses were slated to be cut altogether due to budget restrictions, but the Educational Policy Committee has expressed hope that they will continue to exist if only as electives.
As a definite plan, the survey courses will no longer be mandatory for majors or minors within the department.
According to the Harvard Crimson, the department hopes that this will bolster a new kind of seminar atmosphere within the English program and cut down on lecture requirements.
Racist e-mail implicates Dartmouth President-elect
Controversy was sparked at Dartmouth College last week when an e-mail was circulated that referred to President-elect Jim Yong Kim as a "Chinaman" and warned the campus to prepare for "Asianification."
The e-mail was circulated a mere three days after the announcement that the current Harvard professor and global health leader would be inaugurated as Dartmouth's 17th president.
The e-mail was sent to approximately 1,000 students and alumni and was the Tuesday morning edition of the Generic Good Morning Message, a student written and edited tongue-in-cheek compilation of each day's news.
Current Dartmouth President James Wright said in a statement that this message does not represent the mood that most members of the Dartmouth community share.
The message was written by an anonymous author named "Lozar Theofilactidis."
The author soon apologized for "inappropriate" and "insensitive" comments in an e-mail to the student listserv, saying that the comments were intended to be satirical. The staff also offered a follow-up apology and said they regretted their lack of oversight.
Many students were upset by the e-mail because they believed it reflected badly on Dartmouth, according to The Dartmouth.
Gunman scare causes confusion at Princeton
Student reports of a man carrying a weapon on the Princeton campus triggered campus-wide safety alerts beginning at 12:40 a.m., roughly 80 minutes after the first report of the sighting was filed with Public Safety.
Public Safety and Borough Police officers eventually established that the individual in question was a student carrying a permanently disabled firearm to his friend's room.
The student was taken into custody, and it is unclear whether any charges will be filed.
According to the Daily Princetonian, the exact timeline of what transpired during the 80 minutes before the safety alerts were circulated remains unclear.
At the time the task force was first alerted, there was not sufficient evidence to categorize the threat as "credible," although it was reported by several students, according to Public Safety.
