(knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/)

For $40,000 a year, it’s only fair that you take advantage of all the services Penn offers.

Two years ago, as a freshman Ware resident, I was apathetic about all college house activities. I didn’t participate in the weekly hall dinners, ignored all flyers for in-house competitions and didn’t even partake in the free food served at study breaks.

When sophomore year rolled around, I got an e-mail from a friend who invited me to crash her freshman college house study break in the faculty master’s apartment. All of a sudden, what I had been so passive about the previous year seemed exciting and new. Now that I didn’t have the luxury of getting free food every week, I was adamant about joining her to get some snacks.

Over the course of the year, more and more of us non-Quad residents joined our freshman friend at the multitude of free food events that were only offered to new students. We sampled everything from free Allegro’s to Insomnia Cookies to home-baked apple cobbler.

We became buddies with all the freshman study-break goers, who believed we were their fellow college house residents. We also bonded with the faculty master, whose weekly study breaks we crashed every Tuesday night. When we finally admitted that most of us were not freshman, the faculty master just gave a small chuckle and let us keep stealing food.

New Student Orientation is like Christmas to a study break crasher. At this year’s Convocation dessert buffet, I ran into my sophomore year roommate, two upperclassmen whom I attended high school with and a handful of my teammates on the track team. They were loading trays and containers with sweets and shoveling goodies into purses.

My friends were not the only ones crashing Convocation. One girl was even filling up a large cardboard box to bring dessert to her off-campus house.

Tina Morrison, a College senior, has attended several freshman-only events this year, including her fourth freshman Convocation desert. Some of her favorite events included the freshman library social and a tea and scone event that was held later last year.

Do my peers and I feel guilty about our crashing?

“No, there’s definitely a certain kind of rush you get,” Morrison said. “It’s like being a freshman again.”

Little do freshmen know that as they get older, the luxury of free food is practically non-existent, especially for those who do not live in college houses.

So freshmen: Take advantage of the goodies you get this year. Unless you become a study break crasher, your days of free food are numbered.

Those of you who saw my recent (and controversial) video interview with Dan Savage might be interested to know that Savage apologized on his Web site today for his remarks about Carl Romanelli.

The apology comes after a number of blogs and message board posts compared Savage to Ann Coulter. Savage denies this comparison.

Around the Ivies* is a daily roundup of news from Ivy League and other top tier schools.

• [ Harvard Crimson ]
  The Crimson sweats Pres. Clinton, hard
• [ Yale Daily News ]
  Yale devotes entire story to introducing its own columnists
• [ Stanford Daily ]
  School-sponsored partying in Palo Alto
• [ Duke Chronicle ]
  Duke gives media the boot

(nyunews.com)

When I lived in the Quad during my freshman year, the two most irritating wake-up calls were the Penn Band marching past my window before football games and the Spring Fling 9 a.m. sound checks.

But the RAs in NYU’s Weinstein Hall have one-upped any dorm distractions at Penn. They turned the building’s windows into a giant Connect Four board as the final round of NYU’s “Dorm Wars,” a month-long series of competitions held in each freshman dorm.

If I were a Weinstein resident, I would feel like NYU freshman Michael Bliss, who told the University’s Washington Square News, “It was definitely not good that they came and woke me up just to hang up things in my window.”

However, inconveniences aside, I have to admit that this is incredibly cool. We don’t have freshman-only halls here at Penn, but that’s no reason we can’t come up with some more creative ways to make life on campus a little more fun and keep us all united. After all, College Houses and classes are rarely united. The only time the entire campus comes together is Spring Fling.

As Weinstein RA and NYU junior Jorge Hernandez put it, the game “[brought] us together as a community just by seeing all the people out here watching.”

Sounds good to me. We need activities like this for our College House system and our comunity–as long as they start after noon, of course.

After nearly a year of energy policy being a major political issue, Penn can be proud of its accomplishments in promoting renewable energy.

The debate over energy became prominent on the national agenda with the 2006 State of the Union, where the President introduced his Advanced Energy Initiative and pledged a 22 percent increase in research spending at the Department of Energy.

Impressive claims and urgent rhetoric have continued to surround the issue of energy dependence. This past Thursday, for example, Bush spoke at a conference promoting bio-fuels and insisted that the return to lower gas prices would not affect his administration’s promotion of renewable energy.

Yet the President’s actions suggest that his sincerity mirrors that of another subset of conference attendees: representatives of Chevron, an oil company.

Sun Microsystems founder and alternative energy champion Vinod Khosla said of the latter group, “Despite nice words from the American Petroleum Institute, make no mistake about it–they are not interested in a rapid transition.” A recent report from the Council for Foreign Relations confirms that Khosla may as well have been speaking about Bush himself.

Feeling the breeze–and it’s not just the “wind tunnel” at the high-rises (communityenergy.biz)

An independent CFR task force, co-chaired by former energy secretary James Schlesinger and former CIA director John Deutsch, argues that there have been almost no perceptible changes in US energy policy from either side of the aisle. The report further claims that the continued failure to address energy concerns is jeopardizing U.S. foreign policy and security.

For a recent example of the sort of practical changes that can lead to a more sustainable future, we can look to our own university. For another quarter–the fourth in a row–Penn has topped the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of Top Ten College and University Partners.

As The Daily Pennsylvanian reported last winter, Penn has a contract with Community Energy Inc. through 2010 and receives almost 30% of its total electricity from a wind farm in the Poconos.

This is something we can take great pride in. It is also something for President Bush and other big-talking politicians to learn from. As the social, political and environmental implications of our energy problems grow, it will be small actions–and not big words–that will lead to a solution.

Students at Galluadet University are stickin’ it to the man in full view of the US capitol. Gallaudet, located in Washington DC, is the nation’s only university exclusively for deaf and hearing impaired students. Classes were canceled for three days last week following the seizure of a classroom building by a group of students in response to the appointment of former Gallaudet Provost Jane K. Fernandes as president.

Fernandes would be the second hearing impaired President of Gallaudet succeeding I. King Jordan. The hearing impaired community is a very tight knit community with a thriving, colorful culture of which it is very protective. The protectiveness makes sense to me. What doesn’t make sense to me is why Gallaudet students are so adverse to Fernandes.

Students assert that she is not integrated enough into deaf culture because she went to a school with hearing children and didn’t learn American Sign Language until she was 23. According to some students, the selection of a president that wasn’t raised speaking ASL was a result of “audism”–stereotypes of deaf and hearing impaired people. A CNN story also quoted Galluadet junior LaToya Plummer as saying “They have no idea who we are.”

The thing is, Fernandes is no stranger to Gallaudet–she’s been provostfor 10 years. As the chief academic officer of the University, she was involved in the development of the university’s strategic vision and plan and recently co-authored a report specifically addressing diversity at Galluadet.

There is no one who could possibly know the students better.

As for audism, certainly that is a concern with which I can sympathize. But while I’m not so familiar with the politics of within the deaf community, I feel confident saying that the current actions of Gallaudet students are not decreasing audism among the non-deaf population.

To be sure, the seemingly rash and irrational behavior has nothing to do with Galluadet students being deaf and everything to do with them being college students and protesters. Inertia often precludes deliberation among activists, even here at Penn. In an attempt to end the conflict at Galluadet, the University administration offered to have an outside review of the search process, involve students in the search for a new provost (a position that arguably has more impact on students’ lives), and give students a voice on the Board of Trustees. They were rebuffed.

I’m all for harnessing the “power to the people” instincts in college. Protests have a place as long as they are productive. But stubbornly fighting for an unachievable objective without any willingness to compromise seems a tad counterproductive.

Tonight, I had the opportunity to hear Congressman Curt Weldon speak at Penn at an event sponsored by the Penn Israel Coalition (full disclosure: I am a PIC board member). The Congressman did not cancel his speaking engagement despite last night’s headlines that he is purportedly under investigation by the FBI. The source of this investigation has so-far been kept anonymous. However, when I hear the word “anonymous,” I usually become skeptical.

To my surprise, Congressman Weldon was quite open with his views as to why he is now front and center in the media only three weeks before the November elections. Weldon asserts that his sharp criticisms of the FBI, the CIA and other intelligence organizations have made them want to get back at him, namely by opening this investigation.

In my interview, Weldon alleges that the source of the news about him is Melanie Sloan, a former associate of John Conyers and Charles Schumer. She is currently the executive director of CREW. He also says that people such as Sandy Berger (former head of the NSA) and Mary McCarthy have donated to Sestak’s campaign and are working to bring him down as revenge for his criticisms.

You heard it here first on The Spin:

Weldon’s opponent in this race is Joe Sestak. When asked for comment, Ryan Rudominer, a Sestak campaign spokesman, said that “Weldon is crazy if he thinks that there is a left-wing conspiracy in association with the FBI that has created this investigation.”

Highlights from the video:

1:18- “I know who it is. It’s a woman who runs an organization called CREW. She used to work for John Conyers.”

2:24- “…Democrat operative [named] Melanie Sloan and slander a member of Congress, anonymously, three weeks before an election. It’s a gross abuse of the American electoral process.”

Note: If you embed this video in your blog, please include a link to The Spin.

Editor’s Note: Welcome to The Spin! As this video has made its way around the internet, many of you are probably new visitors. I hope you enjoy browsing the site and hope to see you back in the future. Feel free to direct questions or comments to me at Obenzinger@dailypennsylvanian.com. ~Eric Obenzinger

Around the Ivies* is a daily roundup of news from Ivy League and other top tier schools.

• [ Brown Daily Herald ]
  Obama rails against White House, praises Whitehouse
• [ Cornell Daily Sun ]
  Sun columnist shows why not to begin column with ‘Dear Diary’
• [ Yale Daily News ]
  Yale food cart owner robbed–Hemo adds bodyguards
• [ Duke Chronicle ]
  Sex under the Button? At Duke, it’s all about sex in the gardens
• [ Daily Northwestern ]
  If Philly tried to steal Penn’s land, Amy Gutmann would throw a tantrum. Sucks for you, NU

Not exactly Ivy League, but it seems Ball State is having its own Sonic Youth-esque problems. Maybe SPEC can lend them a hand, since it has actually been able to get more than 400 people to its concerts these days.

Wednesday’s march of same-sex couples in honor of National Coming Out Day was undoubtedly a resounding success. As Queer Student Alliance Co-Chairwoman Alexis Ruby-Howe told the Daily Pennsylvanian, the march met with very few, if any, openly negative reactions. Penn’s campus has certainly progressed tremendously since the jaw-dropping and blatant staring of the October 2001 Coming Out Day.

(daytonlgbtcenter.com)

Thankfully, this positive reaction was somewhat predictable. Penn is very socially liberal. If you’re brave enough to admit you don’t like same-sex couples holding hands and marching down Locust Walk, then you better be gracious enough to wait until after they’re done. We’re not perfect, but we’ve got class.

Unfortunately, not all universities are so lucky. Yale’s National Coming Out Day festivities started off on a sour note when students checked their e-mail Wednesday morning. Many of them found an anonymous anti-gay message sent from what appeared to be a Yale e-mail account.

Sent under the alias “Yale LGBTTQQQQ…(et al.),” the message was signed by a fake group calling itself the “National Organization to Gain Acceptance for Your Sins,” or “N.O.G.A.Y.S.” Along with comparing LGBTQ students to racists and Nazis, the e-mail also proclaimed that “there’s no shame in being who you are. Just remember, admitting it doesn’t make it right.”

Corresponding flyers also appeared around campus, one of which featured a picture of Paris Hilton and the words, “Paris is coming out as a whore… Admitting it doesn’t make it right.”

I’m so thrilled to find out that some Yalies are putting their Ivy League education to good use by covering their campus with this prejudiced garbage. Hatred is never acceptable, and it’s definitely not okay to voice it on a day that is geared toward celebrating those who were brave enough to stand up and say to their entire campus, “This is who I am.”

It’s important to remember that no matter how much progress we’ve made, there are always new obstacles. It’s great that we go to a school where at least relative acceptance of those who might be different from us is common place. But we need to remember that this isn’t the case everywhere. And because Yale is widely known as very welcoming toward the LGBTQ community, this should serve as a wake-up call that prejudice can be found anywhere, even here at Penn.

And to the geniuses behind N.O.G.A.Y.S.: If you’re going to force everyone to listen to your hateful rhetoric, please at least have the guts to sign your name.

At 5:30 in the morning, the Supreme Court security guard told us to get off the steps. “They’re touchy about their steps,” he said, and directed us to stand politely until he summoned us into the building a few hours later.

Justices Kennedy, Roberts, Souter, Alito, and Stevens (usatoday.com)

On Wednesday, my COMM-376 “Supreme Court Advocacy” class traveled to Washington to hear two oral arguments delivered before the highest court in the land. Although my class had read the briefs of the scheduled cases and was interested in the mechanics of the arguments, perhaps the best part about being inside the Court was the chance to see that the justices are real humans.

A few observations on the justices, going from left to right along the bench:

Justice Stephen Breyer: Sounds like Mr. Rogers, and very obviously hates sitting on the end of the bench, since he flattens his body onto the table in the direction of the other justices.

Justice Clarence Thomas: Did not say a single word during two entire hours of argument. Instead, he rubbed his face for about 15 minutes at a time, completely obscuring his features. I’m sorry, but I don’t understand why this man is on the bench. At least Scalia can form sentences.

Justice Anthony Kennedy: Looks like he will eat you. Stays relatively quiet.

Justice John Paul Stevens: Is 86, wears a bowtie and is adorable. Plus, he’s moderate. What’s not to love?

Chief Justice John Roberts: The youngest justice. Who cares if he hates abortion rights–he’s sexy! However, You’d think that such a virile man would long ago have rethought that position…

Justice Antonin Scalia: A wily, wily man, with a sense of humor to boot. But I hear that Satan is a pretty funny guy, too.

Justice David Souter: Has an extremely tiny head, and asked such ridiculous hypothetical questions that I thought the lawyer for the plaintiff in the second case might faint.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A small–but fabulously feminist–troll. She also likes to interrupt. Girl power!

Justice Samuel Alito: Baby “Scalito,” appeared pretty tired yesterday, and seemed to be sleeping with his eyes open.

The fact that any person can stand in line to see an argument delivered before the Supreme Court is a testament to the transparency of the American legal system. I would highly recommend taking a trip down there–the government is the best reality television available these days.