SGA Vice President for Finance Andrew Steinberg is striking out on his own to raise money for Haiti, asking student groups to each donate $100 for an ultimate goal of $10,000— an amount Steinberg plans to ask the state of Maryland to match. But SGA President Steve Glickman is keeping all hands off.

“I think it’s a great idea, what Andrew’s doing,” Glickman said. “But I think he’s doing it as Andrew Steinberg, not as SGA.” (It’s worth noting Glickman and Steinberg aren’t the best of friends.)

Steinberg said he’s still trying to get the green light from administrators before being able to work with the state of Maryland, but many student groups have already pledged their share, including MaryPIRG, the Equestrian Club, the Latino Student Union, and the Black Student Union.

“It’s a work in progress, certainly,” Steinberg said.

According to Steinberg’s press release, hundreds of thousands of dollars are annually left unspent after the end of the fiscal year that cycles through the student group financial system.

Though a press release Steinberg put out announcing the effort used SGA letterhead, Glickman says the effort is unaffiliated.

He added: “It can’t have anything to do with SGA, because he hasn’t even told me about it.”

Meanwhile, the SGA launches its own Hearts for Haiti nearly month-long event today. While the majority of events is run by other organizations under the name’s umbrella, the SGA’s contribution a meal point donation drive this Friday, Feb. 12.

A full list of Haiti-related events can be found here.

This post was written by Anna Isaacs, The Diamondback’s SGA beat reporter. She can be reached at aisaacs@umdbk.com.

Attention beer-lovers! Improvements to the way you procure and consume your favorite beverage are on the way.

For all you fitness junkies still laughably committed to New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, you’ll soon be able to crack open a cold one without feeling guilty. Budweiser has just released Select 55, the “lightest beer in the world” at just 55 calories, beating out Miller Genuine Draft’s MDG64. It probably tastes like water with a slight beer flavoring, but that won’t stop Budweiser from announcing it with a bang during the Super Bowl.

In a move likely to resonate among students who live too far from Shoppers, Giant may soon be selling beer. The grocery store chain has applied for a liquor license at its new store in the Poconos. If the pilot goes well, other stores may soon stock wine and beer, especially seeing as how customers have made it “abundantly clear” that they would appreciate the convenience, in the words of Giant’s president.

And across the pond, the British government is testing shatterboof beer glasses in an effort to cut down on pub violence. More than 87,000 incidents involved broken pint glasses used as shanks occurred in the UK in 2009 alone, and fights involving jagged glass have cost an estimated $170 million a year. The shatterproof glasses will undergo more testing before being sold to bars and pubs next year.

Happy guzzling!

A british university registrar traded women falsified college degrees for spanking sessions.

Karl Woodgett, 37, who worked at the University of Surrey and the University of Bath started off fabricating degrees to relatives of his Cameroonian wife while he worked at the University of Bath. Woodgett soon combined this business with his own sexual fetishes by luring them to hotel rooms, where he would spank and cane them. He told them that they were subjects in a “pain management study”.

He also videotaped two of the women.

James Ward, prosecuting for the UK Border Agency, told Bristol Crown Court: “[Woodgett] did not want Kah for sex but to indulge his spanking fetish with her because she had a black bottom.”

Woodgett charged £500 for an undergraduate degree and £1,000 for a Master’s with distinction.

He was charged with two counts of possessing articles for the use of fraud. His sentence includes nine months in prison, suspension for a year and 200 hours community service. His wife, who assisted him, was also charged with falsifying documents and was sentenced to four months in prison.

But also turns out, Woodgett is not the only one getting into the paddling trend these days. University of North Florida professor Tayeb A. Giuma will be fired for paddling a contractor outside of his home during a dispute last fall. He was arrested on battery charges and will be tried later this month.

For most students, a class on happiness would be no class at all.

But for 800 students at Harvard, it is very much real, with a syllabus, assignments and exams. Talk about an oxymoron.

Devoted to examining what conditions lead to satisfaction and distress, the Harvard course on happiness is just one of many popping up at colleges and universities around the world — a positive trend, writes former Harvard president Derek Bok at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In his article “College and the Well-Lived Life”, Bok reports that more students than ever are taking “a remarkably materialistic view of what a college education can provide”, given that about 75 percent of entering freshman rank making a lot of money as a top priority. But major research has shown that people whose only goal is to be rich tend to lead less fulfilling lives, Bok notes. (Take it away, Hall & Oates.)

Extracurriculars, designed to broaden a student’s perspectives and interests, reach fewer students now than before, as older undergraduates and commuters — who are less likely to participate in them — make up larger and larger portions of student bodies. So in order to teach students how to live full and satisfying lives, Bok recommends education tailored to that vaguely New-Agey ideal: well-being.

Classes dedicated to the study of happiness are one approach, while the other is more practical: teaching how to express gratitude, say, or perform a good deed. Classes like this one boast claims like “as a result of at­tending this class, you will also experience a personal transforma­tion in which you become a more positive person” and “develop a zest for living a virtuous, satisfying, and meaningful life”.

Yet another way to help students find the path to a meaningful life would be a thorough examination of the long-lasting effects of their chosen profession, beyond salary.

Ultimately, Bok’s argument is this:

Nevertheless, educa­tors and policy makers must recognize that there is much more to education than becoming a productive member of the work­ force—and more to universities than producing “human capital.” Happiness remains the ultimate end to which other goals are only the means. Education cannot tell students what will make them happy. But universities can do their best to supply them with the knowledge, skills, and interests that will aid them in their search.

Today, Gov. Martin O’Malley gave his fourth annual State of the State address. And, according to Maryland Reporter, it looked like this:

So now that you know that O’Malley talked a lot about ‘Maryland,’ ‘business,’ ‘jobs,’ and ‘choices,’ you’re probably wondering what it is he said exactly. Here’s the text of O’Malley’s remarks as prepared for delivery. Don’t want to read the whole thing? First, here are some highlights. As for the higher ed arena, O’Malley said the following:

It is not by chance but by choice that – alone among the 50 states – we have made college more affordable for more families in Maryland by going four years in a row without a penny’s increase in college tuition for Maryland residents.

And that was it, except for a mention of “rebuilding community colleges” and some discussion of research and an innovation economy, in which science, technology, engineering and math are all bound to play a role. So what else did he talk about? Jobs, mostly. From Aaron C. Davis and John Wagner’s report in The Washington Post:

But, in a speech that included about three dozen references to ‘jobs,’ O’Malley said that ‘progress requires that we focus the energies of this session on three primary actions: creating jobs, saving jobs and protecting jobs…’

O’Malley’s proposals include a $3,000 tax credit for every person companies hire off Maryland’s unemployment rolls. The initiative would be capped at $20 million in the coming year.

Before the speech, Wagner predicted it would basically serve as a kick-off to O’Malley’s election campaign. And it was. O’Malley used a frame of ‘choice, not chance’ to take responsibility for various positive developments — a top K-12 education system, rock-bottom crime rates — in the state over his four years, and during the 27-minute long speech, he also said — as he repeatedly has — that Maryland is weathering the recession much better than the average state.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans didn’t give the governor the benefit of the doubt. From the Post (emphasis ours):

“Words aren’t going to solve this problem, a good speech isn’t going to make the people of Maryland have jobs tomorrow,” said Senate Minority Leader Allan H. Kittleman (R-Howard), who taped a response to the speech without having seen it.

And those Republicans look likely to rally behind the mantle of former Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who O’Malley ousted. Larry Hogan, who served in Ehrlich’s cabinet, dropped out of the gubernatorial race on Sunday, and called for Ehrlich to enter it, making Ehrlich the likely GOP nominee in 2010.

Turns out Maryland stands to benefit from President Barack Obama’s proposed budget cuts, despite predicted record deficits. The plan would increase funding to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, up aid to state Medicaid programs, increase pay and job openings for federal workers and even salvage some NASA jobs in Maryland.

The $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2011 will allot money for improving Chesapeake Bay watershed. Funds to clean out the bay would be increased to $63 million plus $72 million for a separate effort to reduce farm runoff into the bay.

The budget also reaches out to state Medicaid programs with 25.5 billion in additional aid, a measure Gov. Martin O’Malley is “thankful” for.

The plan would mean a 1.4 percent annual pay increase for federal workers. Construction for military and civilian projects in Maryland will get $800 million.

And though many NASA officials are upset by Obama’s plan to cut the $49 billion Constellation human spaceflight program, NASA employees in Maryland are safe. Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt (College Park’s very own neighbor) will as of now not see any cutbacks.

Even Maryland Republicans admitted begrudging satisfaction. Republican Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett of Frederick, though insistent on a more “tightfisted approach,” had this to say:

“proposing a little bit of budget restraint in the future is better than the dangerously bloated and unsustainable budget that the president and the Democratic congressional majority approved last year.”

Quick Hits:
Tuition rates are increasing nationwide. Turns out at least the University of Maryland system is not the hardest hit as schools like University of Illinois and University of Wisconsin pay 9 percent more.

Metro transit police held a terror drill this morning at Union Station during morning rush hour in order to demonstrate increased preparedness for possible terrorist attacks.

A Culpeper County school will not remove Anne Frank’s diary from the curriculum though controversy over the book was stirred-up last week when a parent complained about some of the content. The school is now set to appoint a committee to review the book for future educational purposes.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty is receiving donations for his re-election campaign from a few Hollywood big shots like Lost creator J.J. Abrams.

So here is The Situation. If you don’t know The Situation, we are about to tell you The Situation. Cuz that’s The Situation.

Though Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino of the hit reality series The Jersey Shore may be off gallivanting the country showing the ladies his trademark abs and hosting hot tub parties (We’re making a reasonable assumption), another cast member also near and dear to our hearts could be more close by.

The one and only DJ Pauly “D” DelVecchio, a.k.a. Pauly D is coming to — and spinning at — The Thirsty Turtle March 1st, according to a Facebook event.

So, Jersey Shore fans, get out your favorite Ed Hardy shirt, find some gravity-defying hair gel, spray on your fake tan and get ready for the shameless reality show star to spin some sweet beats and pump some fists at Turtle next month.

What should you expect? More tan, less clothes and even less dignity. Maybe not a recipe for success, but certainly for an awesome night. From the mouth of Pauly D himself :

We’re beatin’-up-the-beat, that’s what we say when we’re doing our fist pump. First, we start off by banging the ground, we’re banging it as the beat builds ‘cause that beat’s hittin’ us so we’re fightin’ back, it’s like we beat up that beat.

The show about eight very tan, very single self-identified guidos and guidettes (only one is actually from New Jersey) who spend a summer living in Seaside Heights, a Jersey Shore town, has literally become a pop culture sensation. The crew has made the late-night talk show rounds and inspired countless spoofs and paraodies that are sweeping the Internet.

And cast members have apparently been raking in the dough. According to CNN Interational, the cast appears on behalf of MTV, but are also keeping busy making individual appearances. The article says that Pauly D and Sorrentino have reportedly been paid $10,000 individually to appear at events.

And that’s not all. Jenni “JWoww” Farley has apparently been selling some of her signature clothing off of her website so quickly, that she has not been able to keep up with demand.

The show has caused its fair share of controversy as well. Italian Americans felt that the show was ruining their ethnic group’s reputation, because The Sopranos and The Godfather movies hadn’t done that already. And domestic violence groups were upset MTV’s plan to air an episode in which Nicole “Snookie” Polizzi was punched in the face by a man at a Seaside Heights bar. But all of it turned out to be a recipe for success with 3.6 million viewers tuning in.

So get ready College Park, because according to Facebook, tickets go on sale some time this week. So buy your tickets, get into your “G.T.L.” (gym, tanning, laundry) routine and be ready for March 1st.

Other things to look forward to in the meantime? The show will officially be getting a second season, though not in New Jersey, a decision that has led to a whirl of speculation as to the crew’s next stop. Check out TV.com’s best predictions. And Snookie may even get her own show similar to Tila Tequila’s Shot of Love in which Snooks would look for the bronzed, muscular man of her guidette dreams.

And for right, right now, enjoy this:

This campus has seen a few hazing allegations in recent years, but no Maryland Greeks has seen the same consequences as six Sigma Gamma Rho students at Rutgers — jail.

The students were charged with aggravated hazing, a felony in New Jersey that carries a sentence of up to 18 months, for allegedly beating three pledges this month.

One pledge, the first to alert authorities, was hospitalized after she said she was paddled 201 times over the course of a week.

The victim told authorities that she was explicitly told that the paddling was not actually hazing, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

In a further action — which this campus is more familiar with after a fraternity or sorority is accused of hazing — Rutgers suspended its Sigma Gamma Rho chapter.

Also in the last week, the Texas Christian University chapter of the Kappa Sigma is being investigated over allegations that some of the fraternity’s members have spent more than a year branding the frat’s letters — and those of the Tri Delta sorority — into another member’s backside.

The victim’s family is still considering criminal or civil charges, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

These days, it’s no surprise to find out that a cast member on one of your favorite reality shows has dabbled in naked photoshoots or gay porn — and if you haven’t caught on yet, pardon me for being the bearer of bad news, or thank your lucky stars, depending on how you feel about X-rated material.

Most recently, six masturbating men who starred in Tool Academy (refrain from obvious joke here) made their debut on the pornographic website Straight College Men … somewhat of a misnomer, if you know what I mean.

They’re far from trailblazers. Here’s a rudimentary list of reality shows whose stars have been filmed in other, namely naked, circumstances: For the Love of Ray J, Double Shot at Love, I Love New York and the upcoming Conveyor Belt of Love; Design Star and Chef Academy; Survivor and Big Brother; So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.

Phew! That’s a lotta porn. And that’s not even counting those shows that combine the two, like HBO’s Cathouse, a series about a real life brothel.

What does it say about the world we live in that reality shows and pornography so often intersect these days? The Daily Beast’s Andy Dehnart notes that both mediums require highly exhibitionist stars to “expose themselves in intimate ways”:

The space between what reality TV offers and just watching people have sex has collapsed over time, which was perhaps inevitable for two genres that blur fantasy and documentary, asking subjects to expose what are usually secret parts of themselves in artificial contexts. Our attraction to reality TV stars’ private lives has led to the inevitable, as reality TV begins to embrace porn and porn embraces reality TV.

Brian Moylan of Gawker puts it a little more simply:

So, yes, it’s mildly entertaining to find out someone on television has been getting naked for money before a camera, but it’s not really news anymore. What we have instead is porn and reality TV sealed in a marriage of convenience as the two things that America loves more than anything, but doesn’t want anyone to know they watch.

Two universities went into lockdown in the past two days after suspicious activity was reported on both campuses.

Northwestern University issued a lockdown at their Chicago campus early yesterday after people reported seeing a gunman in an elevator. Offices and rooms were closed off in the Rubloff Building, locking students, employees and faculty in the building. A two-hour search by police proved fruitless, though the investigation continues.

The Takoma Park campus of Montgomery College was locked down Tuesday afternoon when a man raped a woman in the second floor bathroom of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Performing Arts Center.

Police arrested Nathaniel L. Hart, 34, Tuesday evening at a Days Inn and charged him with two counts of first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and attempting to escape after arrest.