Julianna Margulies poses with the Emmy for best lead actress in a drama series. Michael Levin, a student at Ithaca College, was awarded an internship at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation, who vote for the Primetime Emmy awards. Jae Hong/AP.

When Michael Levin enrolled in Ithaca College, he knew his education would eventually lead him to a job in Hollywood. With four internships under his belt and majors in television production and script writing, moving to Los Angeles was always part of his grand plan.

“I wanted to write for television and film and the only place to do that is Los Angeles,” Levin said. “Going to Ithaca meant that I wanted to move to Los Angeles.”

Little did he know he would achieve his dream within a month of finishing school.

Levin was one of 1,200 applicants selected for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation’s prestigious internship program last summer. The Television Academy Foundation is the charitable arm of the Television Academy, the group that votes for the Primetime Emmy awards. Established in 1959, the Foundation’s paid internship program provides more than 40 internships within the entertainment industry to undergraduate and graduate students from across the country.

“We offer over 40 different areas of television,” Nancy Robinson, manager at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation said. “It’s a great opportunity for film and television students to figure out what is it they’re interested in and get their feet wet during the summer through these internships.”

Applications are reviewed and then finalists are asked to make a video resume to submit to the Foundation.

Only 38 students were selected in 2011.

The competitive eight-week program is based in Los Angeles and provides students with exposure to the television industry. Positions are offered in a variety of sectors of the business, including production, post-production, business affairs, development and public relations. Interns are paid a stipend of $4000.

As part of their duties, interns have worked on top shows such as Californication, True Blood and Mad Men, as well as the Star Trek franchise.

“Its really difficult to get in,” Levin said. “In my video I was kind of just going with it and having a good time.”

Levin was placed in the Montana Artists Agency, where he was an intern at the television department.

“It was a lot of calling on projects and figuring out what executives of different shows were working on,” he said.

Past companies that have partnered with the Foundation include Sony Pictures Imageworks, Film Roman, CBS, HBO, The Disney Channel, Discovery Times, Fox TV Studios, E! Entertainment, NBC Universal and Warner Bros.

“The Television Academy Foundation’s interns have consistently been top-of-the-line,” Todd Beck, the president of Beck Media & Marketing said. “We’ve hosted two students so far, and both came in the door totally focused and eager to learn.”

Because of the Foundation’s association with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, students in the internship program also come out with an added prestige.

“It’s really the name of the organization,” Robinson said. “Going through our program looks nice…(on a) resume and we also offer workshops for the interns.”

The Foundation is currently accepting applications for it’s 2012 summer internship program. Applications must by postmarked by March 15.

“Definitely apply,” Levin said. “ And don’t let yourself be sheltered or shy. If you want to make it into this business you’re going to have to break out of this shell and talk to people. The internship program allows you to get your foot in the door, meet other people, and develop your own network.”

And that’s exactly what Levin did. Today he is the executive assistant to the Montana Artists Agency’s head of business affairs. He was offered the job during his internship over the summer.

“They offered me a job because they knew me. Whenever I would see paper on the printer, I would get that paper and put it on a desk,” he said.

Some members of the Colgate University faculty were able to “study abroad” in India recently. Photo by Christopher Henke.

As improvements in communication technology brings the world closer together, one university is taking the unusual step of sending its faculty overseas in the hope that they will pass on new ideas to their students.

Colgate University, a private, liberal arts college located in upstate New York, recently sent its faculty members to India in an effort to improve their curriculum.

The trip, which took place from Dec. 31 to Jan. 13 and involved 27 faculty members, or 10% of the Colgate staff, was partially paid for by a $100,000 grant from the Andrew W. Melon Foundation.

“Further internationalization of the university is of critical importance,” said Jeffrey Herbst, Colgate University president.

For the past 85 years, all Colgate undergraduates have been required, along with their general education requirements, to take a set of core classes designed to increase their awareness of the world and their responsibilities in it.

The core classes never had any specific connection to anything international, which was not to the benefit of the students, said Kaimal.

As the university prepared to make revisions to their core program a debate began concerning why the program existed and how faculty could best prepare their students to be members of the world community.

“They really need an education that connects the pieces for them,” said Kaimal.

The Matrimandir, which is surrounded by a large manicured park, is plated with gold. Photo by Christopher Henke.

Traveling through both the north and south of India, Colgate’s faculty were able to interact with local communities, view religious events, partake of local cuisine and visit a different culture.

The trip also enabled university faculty to view their own disciplines through the eyes of a different culture.

Although officially outlawed, the caste system, a social system determined by birth, still exists in India to a large degree.

Jenna Reinbold, assistant professor of religion, was able to view this system and question how Karl Marx, a German philosopher and the author of The Communist Manifesto, would see it.

“Capitalism is helping dismantle the caste system in India,” said Reinbold.

Colgate faculty were able to record these and other experiences using social media to pass on their thoughts to the outside world and continue the discussion after returning home.

They have posted a blog entitled Reflections from India, which has garnered 1,000 hits a day, according to Barbara Brooks, director of public relations and marketing.

Professors from every subject of the program took part in the trip assuring its multidisciplinary success.

The faculty members chose India as their destination, in part, because it is an emerging democracy struggling with modernization.

Although this was the largest group that Colgate has sent overseas it was by no means their only trip. In the past Colgate faculty traveled to destinations including England, East Asia, Italy and Spain.

“We now live in a world where we have much greater communication with people in other parts of the world,” said Reinbold. “We no longer live in a world where we can’t say we’re not influenced by the rest of the world.”

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, right, and former candidate Jon Huntsman, left, hold shirts they received from Saint Anselm College after a one-on-one debate held on campus in Manchester, N.H., on Dec. 12, 2011. AP Photo/Elise Amendola

The Harvard Crimson newspaper once wrote: “With the 1912 presidential campaign near, interest in politics has found expression in the political clubs. It is their purpose to arouse in the College a lively interest in the political history which is now being made.”

One-hundred years ago, The Crimson realized the importance of college political clubs to empowering the youth vote, and this is a relationship that remains just as strong today. For many politically-inclined college students, Republican and Democrat clubs are the main venues for involvement in national politics.

“College Republicans and Democrats are great student organizations. They’re clubs that give students a strong political outlet,” said George Washington University political communication professor Steven Keller.

Drew Cyr, a native of Saco, Maine and a senior politics major at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, is chairman of the small college’s most popular political club, the College Republicans. In a campus culture Cyr acknowledges as being a ratio of 60:40 conservative to liberal, he is proud of the work done by the 21 active members of the club, 10 of which were campaign interns during the New Hampshire primary.

“The club can really cultivate an attitude of activism and energy when it comes to the election and politics,” said Cyr.

Saint Anselm Republicans is following the election through hosting a variety of events — in December, the club sponsored a Lincoln-Douglas style debate between Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman after being approached by the candidates’ campaigns. Next week, eight members of the club will be traveling to Washington, D.C. to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference, and there are also plans to host a Lincoln-Reagan dinner and a campaign kickoff party.

While the school may seem to lean in one political direction, the College Democrats have their own stake in the action. Although the club faces a smaller membership and a recent slowing of momentum from the 2008 loss of appropriation due to misuse of funds, club president Theo Groh is confident that the club will grow strongly over the next few years.

“We have a core group going now, and we’re really trying to reach out to more students,” said Groh, a junior politics major and native of Wilton, N.H..

Groh says that the club will be stepping up their efforts to reignite support for President Barack Obama as the election nears.

According to Groh, Saint Anselm was identified as a “flagship college of New Hampshire” by the Obama campaign, which means that college democrats will be a major force in New Hampshire for the president’s reelection campaign.

On the other side of the country, a completely different atmosphere stews at the University of California at Berkeley. Cal Berkeley Democrats, or Cal Dems, is the “largest and most active chapter of college democrats in California” with a membership of 75 students, said President Anais LaVoie, a senior ethnic studies major and native of Redlands, Calif..

From internship fairs to phone banks, the club works hard to keep students involved, said LaVoie, and are planning a trip to Nevada to strengthen support for Obama.

“(We made) 4,500 calls for candidates, knocked on 6,000 doors and distributed 5,500 pieces of literature to student voters” during the 2010 local election, said LaVoie.

While the clubs at both schools acknowledge that there is a small amount of tension between the clubs of each party, the discord is less than one would expect at such politically charged campuses.

“Our mission is essentially the same — we want to get people involved in politics,” said Groh.

Both he and Cyr mention the mock caucus that the two clubs co-sponsored in December as proof of the effectiveness of collaboration.

“By working together we’ve been able to grow our own membership as well as drag people in who may not have otherwise gotten involved,” said Cyr.

LaVoie shares a similar conviction.

“The two clubs have developed a friendly — if competitive relationship. Our campus has a diversity of opinion,” said LaVoie.

Many college students change their major, and some dread telling their family about it. If you fall into this camp, don’t worry. If presented properly, you can solicit their support. Here are some techniques to help you break the ice and prepare for the conversation.

1. Start the conversation early.

The longer you wait, the more shocked your parent(s) will be. They might also be hurt that you did not seek their input. If you think you can wait because you view them as aloof and disinterested, be careful. They could just be acting this way because they do not want to directly influence your decision. Make no assumptions, and take the initiative to begin the discussion.

2. Focus on your common ground and understand that they have good intentions.

Both you and your family want you to be successful and happy. If they ask tough questions, it is only because they want to confirm that you are making an informed decision. Reframe this as a valuable resource rather than lecturing.

3. Lead with the facts instead of emotional appeals.

Identify the reasons you disliked your initial major. Then share the research you have collected about yourself and your options. If you met with or shadowed a professional in the field, share the information you acquired. This dispels the misconception that you made the decision impulsively, while also helping them learn more about your new program of study.

4. Celebrate the experience.

Mention that nearly half of all college students change their major before they graduate. This will help them understand that this exploration is not only common, but it is also beneficial. Tragically some college students ignore their dissatisfaction, only to have it surface later when it is too late. You, however, have had the courage to proactively look for alternatives, which will improve your motivation, concentration and chances of securing satisfactory employment after graduation.

5. Be realistic.

No career or academic program is perfect. Identify any disadvantages that surfaced in your research to demonstrate that you have examined it from every angle.

6. If some concerns still remain, identify the course of action you will take to address them.

For example, if you learned that the job outlook is only growing at an average rate in your new occupation, outline the internships, employment or co-curricular activities that you will pursue to gain a competitive edge.

7. Provide some peace of mind.

For instance, share that you will be meeting with an advisor to develop a plan of study to ensure that you do not need to extend your graduation date. This again conveys your careful analysis of the decision and reassures your family members that you will not incur additional tuition expenses as the result of the change. Also emphasize the activities you will pursue to verify your decision, such as finding a part-time job related to your new major or enrolling in an introductory class. Continue to share your confirmation over time in case they fear that you will be dissatisfied or change your mind again.

8. Provide specific examples of how they can learn about your new major or career.

Share with your parent(s) the websites that you have visited, such as your university’s catalog, O*Net or the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

9. Ask for their support.

Emphasize that you value your family’s input and hope that they can come to share your enthusiasm about the new career you have chosen.

10. Assess the importance of your own voice and the voice of others.

More than likely, your culture and background will influence your perceptions. Some Americans value independence, while others value communal decision making. Only you can determine the role and importance others will play in the process.

If you have shared with your parents that you changed your major, how did the conversation go? What tips or suggestions would you add to this list?

Protesters demonstrate against the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) on January 18, 2012 in New York City. Mario Tama/Getty Images.

After a month of protesting online and in Washington, Internet users seem to have thwarted the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) before either reached a vote in Congress.

But now, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) offers another challenge: if the treaty, signed by 30 countries and the European Union, is ratified, it will tighten online piracy laws significantly. And if it doesn’t pass, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is waiting in the wings to undo other copyright reforms tailoring the laws to the digital age.

The Internet and intellectual property laws just aren’t compatible yet, and until they are, many expect fights over bills like SOPA to continue.

“Copyright was created not with the Internet in mind, and not with the idea that anyone can be a creator,” said Timothy Vollmer, Policy Coordinator at alternative copyright host Creative Commons. “I see the open data movement kind of expanding more and more globally. The Internet makes it so easy to share.”

Creative Commons issues alternative copyright licenses to any person, company or organization that wants to share its content.

Under a “some rights reserved” policy, content creators can decide what others can do with their work. At their most liberal, CC licenses allow anyone to use content for any reason, as long as they attribute the creator. At their most restrictive, creators can mandate that their work is only used non-commercially and in its original form.

But every Creative Commons license allows other Internet users to borrow content and make something new – an essential skill for communicating ideas in the digital age.

“Digital technology has transformed media into a language of images,” said Virginia Kuhn, Associate Director of the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at the University of Southern California.

“But there’s no liberating potential in literacy unless you can both consume it and add to the discourse. What is an available resource through which to speak? It’s images. If you’re banned from using [images], you can only use part of the available alphabet. That’s effectively silencing people.”

To ensure that complete alphabet, United States citizens can be protected under Fair Use. The legal provision permits people to use copyrighted material for “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research” without the author’s permission, meaning student work is often protected.

But the Supreme Court decides every Fair Use case by whether the copyrighted piece was used commercially, what it contained, how much the user borrowed and whether the new use took money from the original – and there is no set of answers that guarantees a user’s victory. The statute remains vague.

Media “should be available in a way that the public knows how they can use it,” Vollmer said. “If users don’t know how they can use it, it’s going to put a chilling effect on that content.”

Despite its murkiness, though, Fair Use is a privilege almost totally unique to the United States. Similar provisions are absent from ACTA and TPP.

“One of the main dangers with ACTA is that it’s extremely protectionist in that it gives all the powers to the producers, the authors of content – and it doesn’t provide any of the safety valve for the public interest,” Vollmer said. “Fair Use is a fantastic safety valve, and if there’s anything we want to export from us copyright law, it’s Fair Use.”

That exportation may start soon. Because so much media is accessed through the global Internet system, global intellectual property laws like ACTA and TPP are surpassing the popularity of national ones. And although Vollmer and Kuhn agree that legislation needs an overhaul, they believe traditional copyright deserves a place in it.

“I think streaming video that you haven’t somehow paid for or rented actually is piracy,” Kuhn said. “Fair use doesn’t cover just taking something and not using it in any way. If you just decide, ‘I’m not going to pay for it,’ that is a problem. On the other hand, if you decide to make a statement about its ideology, and to speak with its own words by clipping some of the images and telling a story, then that’s another story.”

Overarching measures like SOPA, PIPA and ACTA, endanger those statements by confusing users about what they can and cannot use. Vollmer worries that the harsh punishments each law gives copyright violators will curb free speech precariously.

“Once the public pays for something, it should be available to the public, and it should be available in a way that the public knows how they can use it,” Vollmer said. “If users don’t know how they can use it, it’s going to put a chilling effect on that content.”

“It’s essentially a freedom of speech issue,” Kuhn added. “All these laws are attempting to apply standards for goods into an immaterial space, into the realm of free speech and rhetoric. If we don’t challenge and push this, we’re going to be in really bad shape.”

This image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shows one of nine new warning labels the government is fighting to require cigarette makers to use on packages.

The federal government this week argued that tobacco companies should be required to put graphic labels on cigarette packs.

For the 20 percent of college students who smoke, that means the very real possibility of seeing photos of diseased lungs and cadavers every time they pick up a pack.

Students seem divided on the effectiveness of the labels requirement, which is supposed to go into effect next year. While some say the labels would help prevent potential smokers form starting, others say it only adds an image to what smokers already know.

Attorneys for the Obama administration argued the photos are “factually uncontroverted.”

The images show what could happen, and that could deter potential smokers, said Logan Heley, a freshman broadcasting major at the University of Southern California.

“I think the new labels will scare a lot of teens into quitting smoking or not even starting the habit,” Heley said. “They’ll be like ‘hey, that could be me in 30 years’ and I don’t think any of my friends would want the things those labels illustrate to happen to them.”

Aaron Bowles, a sophomore at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the opposite was true with smokers.

“I think that a lot of smokers try not to think about a lot of those things,” Bowles said. “When you smoke you think, ‘that won’t ever be me.’ They might be playing off hyperbole, but I guarantee you can find real world examples of all of those images.”

Cigarette makers told a judge they shouldn’t be forced to put graphic warnings on legally-sold products. Rhiannon Root, a senior journalism major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the the labels are simply “scare tactics.”

“Seeing our government stoop to scare tactics is tragic,” Root said. “I’ve never known a smoker who was unaware of the effects smoking could have on his or her body. These labels are a waste of time, money and effort.”

Critics of the labels say the requirements also allow the government to set additional rules for a private industry, an issue Heley said should be examined.

“Smokers raise healthcare costs for everyone, so I think the government has a right to mandate the labels,” Heley said. “But even though I’d like less people to smoke we need to be careful as to what kind of a precedent those labels set in terms of the government’s involvement in private industry.”

The labels, while graphic, do make the effects of smoking seem more real, said University of Nebraska senior Frank Wandersee.

“The new labels take the sexy out of smoking.”

During his State of the Union speech last month, President Obama called on America’s community colleges to become a key part of revitalizing the skills of the U.S. workforce.

New data shows that community colleges still have significant hurdles to clear to meet Obama’s goals.

Enrollment at two-year institutions is nearly 22% higher than 2007 figures, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. But while community colleges are accommodating more students, there remains a need to address incongruities in policies and programs.

By adopting a more realistic understanding of the challenges ahead and what has proved “promising practices,” colleges have a chance to adjust to the changing landscape.

A brand-new study by the Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin explores four key findings in student engagement and success:

• • Gaps between student aspirations and results

Data shows that 79% of entering students aim to complete an associate degree, yet fewer than 45% who intend to earn an associate degree or certificate meet that goal within six years.

• • Developmental education

Nearly 75% of students report they were required to take an academic placement test, but only 28% report using materials provided by the college to prepare for those tests.

For Contra Costa College student Robin Lopez, being placed in a remedial math course was disappointing. Certain the placement exam was incorrect, he provided proof of similar high school coursework and skipped ahead to pre-calculus.

But rather than saving time as expected, Lopez dropped the course after realizing it was too difficult and enrolled in the basic skills course the following semester.

Data suggests that given the opportunity to review materials or take short-term workshops before placement tests, students can minimize the amount of mediation needed.

• • Supplemental learning communities

Investing in centralized learning and technology support for students in developmental skills led to a 10% increase in the number of students successfully completing classes at Tallahassee Community College.

“Helping students beyond the classroom is fundamental to the success of community colleges,” former college president William Law said. “We need to put our money where our values are.”

Nearly 90% of participating colleges reported supplemental instruction, but only 14% make it a mandatory segment of the curriculum.

For Mike Reid, a student at San Diego Mesa College, having tutoring services is a key component in his education. The 57-year-old was laid off from his job as a truck driver and is now seeking a teaching career.

“I consider myself computer illiterate, but there are resources and people here to help learn those skills,” Reid said. “It’s a brave new world.”

• • Academic planning

Only 26% of entering students report that a college staff member or teacher spoke with them about their commitments outside of class to help them figure out how many classes to take.

Law said that more fundamental face-to-face or intensive orientations are necessary at the community college level. These experiences, especially setting up students with learning plans, should be mandatory.

“We have to be much more proactive than we’ve ever been in the past,” he said. “The results we’re seeing shows we’re not purposeful enough.”

These preliminary descriptive findings paint the picture of what community colleges are facing and future reports will show more analysis of what the effects are when students and faculty participate in a combination of these promising practices, McClenney said.

Visit our SuperBowl party board on Pinterest for more great ideas for entertaining on Sunday.

Unless your university campus is close to your parents’ home, chances are you won’t have the luxury of mom’s 7-layer dip and dad’s plasma screen for Super Bowl 46.

Yes, the good ol’ days are over, and now you have to make do with what you have: Your tiny apartment and tiny budget.

Get a lead over the Super Bowl and make the necessary preparations to get your apartment Super Bowl ready by following these five simple tips:

1. Have a game plan

Realize that watching the Super Bowl isn’t nearly as fun if you have a lot of things on your mind. According to BYU junior Daniel Lewis, there are several things that a true football fan has to do before game day.

“[You’ve] gotta make sure your meetings are done, church is over, nothing scheduled [and that you] collaborate [with friends] to guarantee that no one is left without a place to watch the game.”

Your friends (or “teammates”) are key to scoring an excellent Super Bowl party.

After you know who is coming to your party, you’ll know how much food is needed, and as every Super Bowl fan knows, food can make or break the game watching experience.

2. Divide and delegate

While food is important, don’t tear your hair out over making and purchasing all of the food and drinks on your own. The best way to split up the costs and labor is to make a list of all of the items you want to have at your party. Then ask each person you’ve invited to bring an item to share. After all, they are using YOUR apartment to watch the game. It’s the least they can do!

It’s also important to take into account how much time is needed to make your favorite Super Bowl dishes or you might have to go without!

“Some bbq takes days to prepare,” Lewis said. “If I make bbq beef, I have to marinate the meat for at least 24 hours, so it’s a process.”

3. Forfeit fumbling the fragile

If your living room couch is your desk away from home, make sure that your laptop is out of sight. There’s nothing like a laptop that’s been sat on to crush your spirits.

Elbow room and jumping space is also very important. Make sure that when your team scores a touchdown, one of your friends doesn’t get a concussion from banging their head on stuff hanging from your ceiling.

4. Put your furniture in formation

Not all apartments are created equal.

Because of this, make sure that you place your furniture in such a way that everyone can see the TV. Some students simply move their furniture around for better viewing while others take more extreme measures.

“We did stadium seating by placing a couch on our kitchen table at [our dorm freshman year],” said Tyler Young who is a third year at the University of Virginia law school. “[We found the table] far better than cinder blocks, and we liked it enough to keep it for the rest of the semester (until the collapse of the table seemed eminent).”

Another nice touch is to put foot rests and coffee tables out for your guests. Everyone likes to put their feet up and not spill their food and drinks all over their favorite jersey.

5. Go wide… screen, that is

One of the most forgotten but most important preparations of at all is making sure that you get the channel that the game will be shown on, and if you don’t, make sure you can stream it from the internet.

Also make sure your TV or projector and screen are big enough to accommodate all of the people you’ve invited.

“Whoever has the biggest TV in your group should supply either the host site or bring the TV over,” Lewis said.

It’s important to make sure everyone can see and is comfortable and able to see the TV.

Poor student behavior has led to a moratorium on bar buses meaning students at Rochester must find alternate transportation for nights on the town. Photo by Cheryl Seligman.

Safety and fun are two words that are sometimes, unfortunately, difficult to marry. While having fun, college students constantly bend and break rules, jeopardizing their own safety and the safety of others, especially when under the influence of alcohol.

At the University of Rochester, Dean of Students Matthew Burns recently directed Associate Dean of Students Anne-Marie Algier via email to suspend all “bar buses,” the buses that student groups can reserve for off-campus bar events.

According to the email, “a careful and thorough review of the process by which we have utilized ‘bar buses’ and the problems and incidents associated with this process (and especially student misconduct during this process)” prompted the moratorium.

Put into effect last November, the moratorium is not the first that Rochester students have endured. Student misconduct in 2008, including incidents involving a knife, vomiting and overcrowding on buses, called for the formation of the Off-Campus Events and Bar Committee.

The committee reviews requests for restricted (invite needed) and unrestricted (no invite needed) bar parties – events held at bars by university groups. The committee also assesses the preparedness and staffing needs associated with each request.

Students’ Association President Bradley Halpern, a senior, said in a message to the student body that Burns’ decision is less about bar buses themselves, and more about “an overdue culture change that is necessary to address issues on which we all agree.”

“We all want to live in a community where every student can have fun -– with and without alcohol — but the fun stops when someone gets hurt,” said Halpern.

To disagree with Halpern’s statement is a difficult and unproductive task. That being said, the administration has seemingly failed to realize that its decision does not heighten students’ safety, but rather jeopardizes it.

The moratorium is not permanent and Burns asked Algier and the committee to recommend changes to the process by which bar buses are used. But in the meantime, students do not have a safe and convenient way to travel to their off-campus events. Planning a better system can easily occur without a moratorium in a safer process than the current one: no system at all. A number of concerns addressing everyone’s safety now surround the lack of bar buses.

Many college students live on a tight budget. Thus, avoiding expenses is a priority and taxis can be pricey. Still, students will go to bars for various reasons, including unwinding after a long week of challenging classes, spending time with their friends, and meeting new people, the last of which is particularly difficult if stuck on campus.

With transportation that is free-of-charge, namely the bar buses, students traveled safely to and from their destination without dipping into their limited funds. While the organization sponsoring the event paid for the bar buses, the attendees received rides for free.

Electing a designated driver becomes the most cost-effective option in the absence of bar buses, but rarely does anybody jump at that opportunity, as, theoretically, the driver-elect is stone-cold sober in a sea of tipsy or drunk friends. Therefore, the designated driver may test sobriety limits, know his or her tolerance and have a drink or two.

While under the influence of alcohol, even a small amount, the designated driver puts everyone at risk. The best way to keep drunken college drivers off the roads is to provide them with an option that is just as convenient (if not more) and cost-effective for the student. The bar buses allowed everyone to drink as little or as much as they desired because a designated driver was not necessary.

Additionally, the bar buses promoted safety by offering a trustworthy and definite mode of transportation. Students knew exactly how and when they were moving from place to place. Uncertainty about such matters causes stress and chaos, particularly when under the influence of alcohol. The bar buses effectively eliminated that pandemonium.

To avoid stressful situations, students may feel inclined to stay on campus and exercise their drinking in dorms. This only encourages the exact opposite of what the university should want: on-campus, underage drinking in unsanctioned locations. The consumption of alcohol is not merely allowed in bars, it is welcomed. There will never be a next-door neighbor unable to sleep when drinking occurs in a bar instead of a dorm room.

While Rochester’s review of bar party requests by the Off-Campus Events and Bar Committee is unique to the school, there is an underlying structure that other schools should admire. The system, before the moratorium on bar buses, allowed for safety in transportation, safety in convenience, and safety in location. The far less admirable action is indefinitely suspending that safety.

“The incidents and considerations factoring into the Dean’s decision to withhold ‘bar buses’ are topics on which most of us agree; this wasn’t about appropriate social drinking or the ‘bar atmosphere,’” said Halpern.

He further explained that risk management had reached a very high level which warranted fear of what could happen should reckless behavior escalate further. Halpern said that he would not want to wait to learn from a tragedy that could have been prevented.

Students agree that risk management is a cause for concern and preventing tragedies is of the utmost importance. However, to prevent reckless behavior from escalating any further, the administration should not indefinitely suspend what is currently the safest mode of transportation to bar parties. Students are likely to welcome change that is in their best interest, but meanwhile, the moratorium on bar buses puts everyone at greater risk.

Twitter was in an uproar this week over new changes that would censor tweets from certain countries — but are people missing the point? Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images.

“#socialsuicide”

That’s what many critics are calling Twitter’s announcement on Friday that they will soon enforce country-specific censorship on tweets.

The news came as a blow to many political dissidents throughout the world.

“Dear Twitter, I face so much censorship in Sudan as a journalist, you were my free and safe space. I’m grieving now,” wrote Reem Shawkat, a Sudanese journalist, on his Twitter on Jan. 27.

Others responded with anger, prompting many users to implement a “Twitter black-out” on Saturday in hopes of the site rescinding its decision.

Twitter soon became filled with melodrama fit for a junior-high hallway. Accusations of the Orwellian future of “Big Brother” were slung left and right. People deleted their accounts. Many said Twitter had dug its own grave.

However, these reactions were just that — melodrama.

If anyone had taken the time to actually read the statement released by Twitter instead of feeding into the instant-information sensation that is social media, they would have realized the policy isn’t so egregious as everyone made it out to be.

Here’s what Twitter had to say about the changes Thursday on their blog:

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content. Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally.”

That is to say, if someone in France or Germany posted white-supremacist drivel, that content was taken down even if said white-supremacist drivel was legal in your respective country.

But now, Twitter has a new approach:

“Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world,” wrote the site.

That means if a journalist in Sudan, for example, posts a tweet that is illegal in their country, it will be taken down from Sudanese accounts and remain visible elsewhere.

Of course, it is not an ideal policy. Twitter was a vital tool in last year’s Egyptian revolution. People used tweets to gather crowds together for demonstrations, and if the protestors tweets had been pulled in Egypt, it would have been meaningless that they were still visible in London or Tokyo. It is fair to speculate that Twitter’s new policy would have rendered the Egyptian revolution downright impossible.

But, the reality is that censorship happens. Twitter was already censoring many things before Friday, like child porn and phishing scams. It happens everywhere, not just North Korea and China.

For the most part, Friday’s policy improved their old policy, letting the majority of the world see things that would have completely disappeared otherwise.

The outcry and vitriol seen in the days following Twitter’s announcement were a testament to the sheep-mentality that permeates social media. One person deems it an assault on liberty, various nuances of the same tweet spread, blog posts are hastily thrown together, and suddenly, Twitter is said to have committed #socialsuicide.