There are new schools established every day. Some schools have only been certified for a few years. The youngest major university in the country is Ave Maria University in Florida, which was founded in 2002.

Here are the youngest five schools in the country and their founding dates:
1.    Ave Maria University – 2007
2.    University of California-Merced – 2005
3.    Soka University of America – 2001
4.    Patrick Henry College – 2000
5.    New St. Andrews College – 1994

And of course, on the opposite side of the spectrum, some schools are older than our country.

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Pop Culture Founder, Ray Browne

Pop culture is possibly my favorite subject. There’s just something fun and intriguing about studying the Muppets, Grey’s Anatomy, or sports. At my school, there is a course focusing on the Twilight phenomenon and youth culture and a course studying The Beatles’ impact on music in the 1960s. Some might think these are classes that should not be taught on a college campus, but many think that they are a great way to analyze how current trends affect our culture.

The first man to define pop culture as an academic discipline was Ray Browne, a professor at Bowling Green State University. Browne died on October 22, 2009, from natural causes. Browne founded the first department of pop culture studies in 1973.

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Parking on campus has long been one of most popular gripes of college students. But Florida International University has found a solution for its parking problems – valet! The West Miami-Dade campus has 38,000 students and 14,000 parking spaces, and it doesn’t take a math major to know that some students are going to be left scrambling for a space to make it to class in time.

The valet service is an experiment, with the pilot program running for three months. The service costs $5 for the first two hours and up to $12 per day; campus parking meters cost $1 per hour and up to $8 per day. Read the rest of this entry »

Columbia University has named Michelle M. Moody-Adams, formerly Cornell University’s vice provost for undergraduate education, as dean of Columbia College, the first black person and the first woman to serve in the post.

Dr. Moody-Adams, 52, a philosopher, has also run Cornell’s program on ethics and public life. Her 1997 book, “Fieldwork in Familiar Places: Morality, Culture and Philosophy,” was roundly praised in the field. She will become dean of the college on July 1.

Columbia College is one of the university’s three undergraduate colleges, with 4,000 students, and one of the most competitive schools in the country, admitting 9 percent of applicants for this year’s freshman class.

Read this story at New York Times.

Students gather at Harlem Armory. (New York Times)

The Harlem Armory filled with nearly 6,000 children from 35-40 schools this morning. The room was filled with red, white and blue decorated tables, and a 20-student choir sang while attention was focused on a TV tuned to the Today Show.

“I haven’t seen this many people in this armory for years, and I’ve been coming here since I was 14. I’m excited. How many kids do you know who are actually interested in politics? This shows they’re not into drugs and stuff. They’re actually interested in their future,” said Michael Tucker, a 24-year-old volunteer cadet of the Harlem Youth Marine Corps.

As President Obama was sworn in, the entire room rose to its feet, the children waved flags, and some even chanted “Barack Obama Rocks!”.

Inauguration watch party at Obama's alma mater, Columbia University. (New York Times)

Meanwhile, Columbia University Low Memorial Library steps became a gathering point for university students and faculty, area school children and other community members. The university’s president, Lee C. Bollinger, welcomed the crowd, saying “Of all the people in the world who have the best of reasons to celebrate the inauguration of President Obama, none has more than Columbia University.“ The president of Obama’s alma mater said they would be “unembarrassed about our high hopes for the future.”

Read the rest of this story, and lean about other inaugural watch events in New York.

So how did Barack Obama fare in college?

It’s unclear how well he did as an undergraduate, although he was not a distinguished student. Obama refuses to release his transcript from his undergraduate years.  According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Obama was not well-known among classmates after he transferred to Columbia University from Occidental College in the early 1980s.  The article quotes a former roommate who states that Obama’s performance improved after he stopped taking drugs (which Obama has admitted to openly).  Since Obama did not graduate with honors, that means his GPA was between a 2.0 and a 3.3 — although, since he was admitted to Harvard Law School, it’s hard to imagine his GPA was much lower than a 3.3.

Obama graduated from Columbia in 1983 with a degree in political science. He specialized in international relations.

Law school was another story for Obama.  He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School (the second highest honor available) in 1991.  He also was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, a very prestigious honor.

Read more about Barack Obama’s educational background, or read about the educational records of John McCain, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin.

Common Misspellings: Barak Obama, Barac Obama, Barack Obamma

While speaking at Columbia University on September 11, Republican presidential candidate John McCain criticized the school’s ban on the ROTC program — a program (which stands for Reserve Officer’s Training Corp), which trains college students to be military officers while they are still in school.  Although McCain offered lots of accolades to Columbia — where, in fact, one of his daughters attended — he argued that the ROTC ban excluded students from an opportunity that many would find rewarding.

So why does Columbia — along with a number of other schools across the U.S. — ban the ROTC program, which is a staple on many college and university campuses across America?  Columbia’s ban is in protest of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” regarding homosexuality.  Established under the Clinton administration, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy basically says that it’s OK for gays to be in the military, as long as they don’t openly identify themselves as gay.  In turn, officers are not supposed to inquire about anyone’s homosexuality, therefore allowing gays the opportunity to serve in the military as long as they remain silent. Open homosexuals are barred from serving in the military, so if they identify themselves as gay, they get thrown out.

Columbia University, along with many gay rights supporters, feel this policy is blatantly discriminatory and inhumane to people who are willing to put their lives on the line for America, so they’ve banned the ROTC from campus in protest.

Is Columbia right to do so, even though this prevents students on its campus from choosing the ROTC option?  What do you think?