It’s always exciting when your school’s team wins against a rival school. In my opinion, this always calls for a celebration. After the Sooners beat the Cowboys, my friends and I went out for ice cream. But we have never joined in a celebration that was so big that police officers were called in, 28 people were arrested, and five ended up in the hospital.

When the University of Maryland’s men’s basketball team beat Duke’s team on March 5, 2010, students gathered together and celebrated. They were very excited after defeated their rival, and “sang and cheered over their team’s success.”

However, police officers were not pleased. Officers showed up in full riot gear, with the goal of clearing the street. According to the Washington Post, many eyewitnesses reported that the officers were being overly dramatic, “banging clubs against their riot shields as they slowly moved forward.”

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I don’t know about you, but I was actually kind of surprised to read this. Forbes announced this week that enrollment in journalism schools is up, a surprising statistic when most everything in this economy is down, including newspapers. I was especially caught by this news when just a week ago CBS Sunday Morning ran a story called “Stop the Presses,” in which they talked about how crippled the newspaper business has become. The story lamented the end of an era for print journalism, citing bankruptcies, layoffs and even closed doors for many large and small newspapers. Print circulations are down, as is ad spending in newspapers.

So it makes sense that the degree program to land you one of these jobs is filling classroom seats… right? Newspaper journalism might be mourning its twilight, but journalism is most certainly not dead. While the Internet can be primarily blamed for the downward turn for print, it can also be heralded for creating an almost romantic resurgence in journalism. Computers and Web publishing don’t come with that hardened, musty newsroom feel, but it does open more doors, allow for more creative approaches to reporting, and reach more of the people we want to have hear our stories anyway.

According to the Forbes report, enrollment in journalism programs at Columbia are up 38%, 20% at Stanford and 6% at NYU. Even state schools are enjoying the surge, with an increased enrollment of 25% at the University of Maryland. They aren’t doing it for the love of the money, just the game, according to Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism. “I’ve never met a single person in 35 years who went into journalism out of pure economic reason,” Lemann says. Read the rest of this entry »

Allow students to watch a XXX porn movie in the student union or risk budget cuts by the state. That was the dilemna facing University of Maryland this week after they’d elected to screen “Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge” in its student union. Students across the country have been attending screenings of the big-budget porn flick on campuses, but when Maryland State Senator Andy Harris heard about the busty event, he made moves to have it stopped, by threatening to suspend state funding (about $424 million).

“I am pleased to know that the university did the right thing and canceled this movie,” said Harris. “Students can’t light up a cigarette in the student union but can watch a hardcore XXX porn film. Occasional viewing of porn is more dangerous than occasionally lighting up a cigarette.”

No surprise that the film and the recent move at U of M are stirring debate, talks of the First Amendment, and whether or not colleges should be an advertising medium for such films. Following the movie at the university, a representative from Planned Parenthood was scheduled to discuss safe sex. In December, the movie was shown at UCLA, after which students held a Q&A with the filmmakers and grilled them about porn’s role in the exploitation of women. Read the rest of this entry »