News From the Nation's Colleges

College Updates Controversial Civility Code to Affrim Freedom of Speech

Columbia College announced this week that it will revise a controversial civility code that angered free-speech advocates when it was adopted a year ago.

The original code, enacted in the spring of 1991, contained a provision threatening disciplinary action for hate speech.

The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling this summer striking down a Minnesota ordinance singling out hate speech for punishment.

"The new draft will affirm free speech," said Elizabeth P. Berke, a reporter at the student newspaper. "I don't think students want to be restricted."

Other colleges have recently rewritten their speech codes in what appears to be a trend toward "deregulation."

Brown University, for example, updated their speech code to outlaw "intimidating speech" rather than "demeaning speech." It's unclear what that change represents.

An intoxicated Brown undergraduate grabbed national headlines last year after being expelled for hurling racial, anti-Semitic, and anti-gay epithets at another student. DARTMOUTH

Annual Rush Begins as Administration Continues Campaign to Control Frats

Fraternities at Dartmouth College inaugurated their infamous "rush" period two nights ago, as administrators continue their campaign to restrict the behavior of the social clubs.

For the first time, the College has barred students from living in independent frat houses in an effort to force the off-campus frats back under the auspices of the University.

"There is an undeclared war on the part of the University to end the emphasis on frats as a part of campus life," said a reporter for the student newspaper.

The rift between the College and the fraternities began in April 1991, when the administration banned alcohol from "common sources" (read: kegs). The fraternities responded by becoming independent of the school.

In addition, officials have barred first-years and students not in good academic standing from rushing any fraternities. The school has also imposed fines on frats for not complying with its regulations. U. PENN

University Trustees Demote Veterinary Professor After Charges of Plagiarism

A senior faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania has been admonished and demoted for alleged plagiarism.

The University trustees voted over the summer to make Robert Whitlock an associate professor, rather than a full professor, at the Veterinary School.

Whitlock retained tenure as well as the same salary he earned before the incident. CORNELL

Spike Lee to Lecture for $15,000 Fee

Controversial filmmaker Spike Lee will be traveling to faraway Ithica, N.Y. later this month to deliver a lecture at Cornell University.

Lee, a visiting lecturer at Harvard's Afro-American Studies Department, will be paid $15,000 by the Cornell University Program Board. The student group often pays similar fees for big-name speakers.

The organization, which will charge $7 for tickets, is partially funded by the University.

The speech is scheduled for October 22. PRINCETON

New Report May Seriously Weaken Influence of Campus Eating Clubs

A report released this week at Princeton University may seriously weaken the influence of the campus' eating clubs, ancient social organizations that include most upperclass students.

Drafted by Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel and Provost Hugo Sonnenschein, the report recommends the creation of "four-year colleges," dormitories for all undergraduates containing eating facilities.

Currently, first-years and sophomores live and dine in two-year colleges while upperclass students inhabit dormitories without dining provisions.

Roughly a quarter of them take meals in University cafeterias while the rest opt to join the eating clubs.

Students must "bicker" to join eating clubs, but all of the clubs now admit women after a bitter legal struggle.

A narrow majority of students polled by the campus newspaper objected to the four-year college proposal.

They said it would end the eating clubs' dominance of the social atmosphere. U. MAINE

Air Force ROTC Program Dismisses Cadet Captain Because He Is Gay

A University of Maine student who was kicked out of the Air Force ROTC program because he is gay is asking students to write to members of Congress to protest the anti-gay policy.

Neal Snow, a 21-year-old senior at the college in Orono, Maine, will be officially dismissed next week.

About 150 students and faculty members attended a "speak out" on campus last week prompted by Snow's dismissal.

The event was sponsored by the university's office of multicultural affairs to give students an opportunity to discuss both sides of the issue. No one spoke in favor of the ouster.

Snow is a psychology concentrator and was a cadet captain. STANFORD

University to Open Branch in Moscow

Stanford announced plans this week to open a new branch of the university in Moscow, Russia next fall.

Twenty-five students will live with host families in Moscow and take classes with both Stanford faculty and local teachers.

To qualify for the new program, students must take at least a year of college-level Russian.

Stanford already has similar study-abroad programs in several cities, including Florence, Oxford, Paris and Kyoto.

The university hopes to broaden its overseas offerings by opening campuses in other Eastern European cities once the Moscow experiment is underway. YALE

Students Meet With Administration To Discuss Search for New President

Students and administrators met last weekend in an attempt to decide what criteria should be used to select the next president of Yale University.

The Yale Corporation, the school's governing board, met with about 70 undergraduates in a breakfast meeting and discussed what qualification the school's new leader should possess.

Among the issues raised were whether the future president should be a current affiliate of Yale, or whether he could come from a background in business or politics.

No short list has yet surfaced for a successor to former Yale President Benno C. Schmidt, though the New York Daily News recently reported that Gov. Mario M. Cuomo was a possibility.

A Yale spokesperson termed it an interesting rumor, but an official in the governor's office judged it unlikely.

Stanford Business School Dean A. Michael Spence, formerly the faculty dean at Harvard, has also been mentioned as a possible candidate.

Schmidt announced he was resigning last spring to lead an effort to design private elementary schools. His six-year tenure at the New Haven school was often punctuated by rocky relations with students.

"Where's Benno?" became a popular refrain of students and faculty who criticized his frequent absences from campus. Schmidt lived in New York City and commuted to Yale.

Students at the meeting last week debated how much time the new president should be forced to spend in New Haven.

Committee to Examine Science Courses

In other news at the financially strapped college, the new dean of the college has named a committee to investigate the quality of science classes for non-science majors.

Dean Donald Engelman created the committee to examine whether the courses are too easy and whether they're taking at all.

Yale undergraduates generally think they're pretty easy.