Posts Tagged ‘The Lantern’

‘LieStrong’: Student Columnists React to Lance Armstrong Doping Confession

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

In a two-part prime-time special late last week, former champion cyclist Lance Armstrong told Oprah Winfrey he used performance-enhancing drugs during the height of his once-renowned career.  Although slightly overshadowed by the Notre Dame Manti Te’o online love hoax, Armstrong’s on-camera confession has still spurred worldwide media attention and a bevy of public reactions since its airing.

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In a slew of commentaries and editorials, student journalists have also been weighing in. The students’ sentiments overall: Apology accepted, but it does not negate the lies.

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As Clayton Fuller writes in The Lantern at Ohio State University, “LieStrong. That’s how you summarize the disappointment of something being too good to be true. . . . And for now it seems, that’s what a once-special message of empowerment and inspiration has been reduced to amid the surging news of Lance Armstrong’s confession to using performance-enhancing drugs.”

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Michigan State University senior Josh Mansour is taking Armstrong’s lies especially personally. Mansour, a men’s basketball reporter for The State News, lost his mother to cancer.

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In a State News piece, headlined “Armstrong’s Confession Insulting to True Heroes,” he writes, “It makes me feel like my mom was manipulated and lied to, taken advantage of in her darkest hour. When you’re immersed in the fight of your life, you need something to believe in. A belief that you could not only survive cancer, but live a thriving, prosperous life, physically stronger than ever before. For my mom, and millions of people around the world, that belief was personified in Armstrong. … That’s tainted now, tarnished. I guess it always was. I’m left with the betrayal my mom isn’t around to feel.”

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Indiana State University student Julian Winborn fully understands the public’s feelings of betrayal. But, in a column for the Indiana Statesman, he reminds readers that “something must be said for Armstrong’s philanthropy.”

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As Winborn writes, “All of us can nod disapprovingly toward his doping saga, but the fact remains that he founded a foundation for people who are and will endure in the same struggle against cancer. The Livestrong Foundation has donated an overwhelming amount of money to cancer patients and research. And the Foundation has taken up the task of supporting each person who is willing to accept their help through a myriad of resources for cancer patients and survivors. Aside from his legacy that is the Livestrong Foundation, Lance Armstrong also serves [as] a prominent beacon of hope to millions.”

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For John Russett at St. Cloud State University, Armstrong’s confession ultimately just begs more questions. As he asks in The University Chronicle, “[W]ho is the real Lance Armstrong? Is he the guy who wanted so badly to help the people who could not help themselves, or is he the guy who wanted to bring down people who were correct in their assertions of Armstrong being a cheater and a liar? It seems these two personal philosophies cannot exist within the same person, can they? … He admitted what he did was wrong. He admitted he was a ‘bully’ and did some things which he regrets. But overall, is he really sorry?”

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10 Things I’ve Learned About College Students, Campus Life

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Nerdfighters. Hipsters. Speedy seniors. Dropouts. Superfans. Slackliners. Drunkorexics. Tanorexics. Adderall addicts. Longboarders. Sleep texters. Thrifters. Illegall downloaders. And one very bold halftime streaker.

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Over the past 18 months or so, for my Campus Beat column on USA TODAY College, I have written about an array of students involved in a ton of different activities, organizations, scandals and states of mind.

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My most popular piece: a glimpse at the rise of college Quidditch teams. The most poignant piece, in my opinion: a Q&A with a student journalist who reported on the surprisingly high number of undergraduates who lose a parent while still in school. The most infuriating piece: a rundown of a university testing center that temporarily banned students who were wearing skinny jeans. And the silliest piece, among the most shared on social media: the student embrace of the “YOLO” craze.

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In recognition of my 100th column– posted earlier this semester– here is a quick top 10 list of things I have learned about college life and the world at-large through Campus Beat.

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1. College students’ grades are going up– and it may have nothing to do with the quality of their work. As The Student Voice at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls reports, “For the past 30 years, grades and grade point averages in private and public universities have risen significantly. …[S]tudents should be aware that the ‘A’ they are striving for may not be as big a deal as they once thought it was.”

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2. The Freshman 15 is actually the Freshman 3. According to a study featured in Social Science Quarterly, first-year students at colleges and universities only gain a bit more than three pounds during their first two semesters in school. As the study’s co-author tells The Daily Texan, “There are a lot of things to worry about when you go to college. However, gaining 15 pounds your freshman year is not one of them.”

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3. Nerdfighting, a cult movement, is increasingly gaining traction on campuses nationwide. Nerdfighters are a loose collection of geeky do-gooders who attempt to enact positive change in the real world and online. As a Butler Collegian student staffer at Butler University explains, “[A] nerdfighter just tries to fight against world suck.” Nerdfighters’ favorite acronym– and call-to-arms– is DFTBA, or “Don’t Forget to Be Awesome.”

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4. One in 10 individuals deals with the death of mom or dad before turning 25, including during their time in college. As The University Daily Kansan shares, “College students who lose a parent are affected emotionally, psychologically, physically, academically and financially. At the very time they are about to launch independent lives, they lose the people they rely on most for direction.”

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5. Sleep texting has become a common activity on college campuses. As The Lantern at Ohio State University reports, “Sleep texting is as simple as it sounds: a person will respond or send out a text message in the middle of their sleep. Most people who do this usually do not remember doing it and it usually doesn’t make much sense.” A University of Georgia student admits once sending a sleep text that led to an accidental pizza delivery.

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To read the rest of the post, click here or on the screenshot below.

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Student Newspaper Obama Re-election Front Pages: ‘A President Prevails’

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 7, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Along with a number of stirring images and iconic front pages designed and published today by the professional press, the student press has delivered some memorable, historic page ones as well.

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Below is a screenshot sampling college newspaper post-election front pages, including from papers in battleground states and states in which a majority of voters did not support President Obama’s re-election plans.

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Please email or tweet me to add your front page to the mix.

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The Daily Tar Heel, University of North Carolina

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The Daily Princetonian, Princeton University

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The State News, Michigan State University

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The Michigan Daily, University of Michigan

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The Pipe Dream, Binghamton University

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The Ball State Daily News, Ball State University

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The News Record, University of Cincinnati

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The Loyolan, Loyola Marymount University

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The Appalachian, Appalachian State University

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The Loquitur, Cabrini College

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The University Daily Kansan, University of Kansas

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The Oklahoma Daily, University of Oklahoma

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Indiana Daily Student, Indiana University

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The Torch, St. John’s University

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The Oracle, University of South Florida

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The Daily Illini, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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The Daily Reveille, Louisiana State University

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The Observer, Notre Dame University

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The Cavalier Daily, University of Virginia

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The Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech

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The Daily Collegian, Penn State University

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The Minnesota Daily, University of Minnesota

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The Daily Nebraskan, University of Nebraska Lincoln

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The Daily Toreador, Texas Tech University

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The Columbia Daily Spectator, Columbia University

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The Daily Mississippian, University of Mississippi

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The Student Printz, University of Southern Mississippi

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The Daily Texan, University of Texas at Austin

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The Daily Iowan, University of Iowa

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The Daily of the University of Washington

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The Daily Campus, Southern Methodist University

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The Lantern, Ohio State University

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The Yale Daily News, Yale University

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The Daily Northwestern, Northwestern University

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The Daily Orange, Syracuse University

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Anti-Romney College Football Ad in Ohio State Lantern Grabs Eyeballs, Press Attention

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 9, 2012 | 2 Comments »

A full-page advertisement in the recent Homecoming issue of The Lantern at Ohio State University has stirred attention for serving up a simple reminder to OSU diehards and alums: Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a fan of the University of Michigan Wolverines, a heated OSU football rival.

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Student press, meet the political silly season.  As Deadspin asked, “Do Buckeyes fans hate Michigan enough to change who they vote for purely based on the candidate’s support for University of Michigan athletics?”  Don’t doubt it.  According to one football blogger, “Stranger things have happened.”

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The ad ran last Friday, adjacent to the start of the Lantern sports section.  It features a black-and-white portrait shot of Romney looking especially earnest, overlaid with a quote expressing his Michigan love– pulled from remarks he made last year.  It’s an unsurprising loyalty of course, given he is a native of the state.

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The ad’s creators: members of the Ohio Democratic Party.  Given its appearance a month before Election Day at a major university in a battleground state, it has garnered outsized news coverage.  The Atlantic Wire sees it as a sign of tightening poll numbers, noting, “Democrats are clearly feeling the heat if this is the level they’ll sink to swing voters. It would have said terrible things about [Romney's] character if he did schtup for the Buckeyes just to get votes. Is nothing in this world sacred?”

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The Detroit Free Press seems especially unimpressed with the football tie-in tactic, beginning a related write-up with an Ohio potshot: “Nice to know we can count on our neighbors to the south to come up with a completely pointless tie-in between the presidential race and the University of Michigan-Ohio State football rivalry. . . . But really, Obama and Romney are a couple of guys who spent their undergraduate and graduate years in the Ivy League.  What the heck do they know about football?“

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15 Newspapers That Belong on Princeton Review ‘Best’ List

Posted in College Media, Journalism, Student Newspaper, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 5, 2010 | 6 Comments »

My review of the Princeton Review’s latest ranking of the best college newspapers: solid, but incomplete.  Among the student papers I hereby nominate for inclusion in the 2010 ‘best’ list, in alphabetical order:

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The Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech

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The Daily Californian, University of California, Berkeley

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The Daily Kent Stater, Kent State University

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The Ithacan, Ithaca College

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The Flat Hat, College of William and Mary

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The Lantern, Ohio State University

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The Maneater, University of Missouri

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The Minnesota Daily, University of Minnesota

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The Nevada Sagebrush, University of Nevada, Reno

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The Northern Light, University of Alaska, Anchorage

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The Optimist, Abilene Christian University

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The Post, Ohio University

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The Red and Black, University of Georgia

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The Suffolk Journal, Suffolk University

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The University Daily Kansan, Kansas University

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