Information overload and the economic recession are obstacles that this year’s class of graduating seniors must be prepared to overcome, President Barack Obama said at the Hampton University graduation Sunday.

Obama included many Hampton-specific references in his commencement address, but there was also no shortage of comments that will apply to anyone who will soon be forced out of the comfort of academia into the waiting arms of their parents’ basement and the unemployment office.

But even as Obama reminded the Hampton grads of the unpleasant picture — “you’re graduating in a time of great difficulty for America and the world” — he offered optimism to students: things may be bad for everyone, but a college education provides a leg up.

“It’s a period of breathtaking change, like few others in our history,” Obama said. “We can’t stop these changes, but we can adapt to them. And education is what can allow us to do so. It can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time.”

Obama also described all the distractions that face today’s young people, both in a wide variety of entertainment options — “iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations” — and in a barrage of conflicting information in the media.

“You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t rank all that high on the truth meter,” Obama said.

“Fortunately, you’ll be well positioned to navigate this terrain,” he continued. “Your education has honed your research abilities, sharpened your analytical powers, and given you a context for understanding the world. Those skills will come in handy.”

“An education can fortify us to meet the tests of our economy, the tests of citizenship, and the tests of our time,” Obama said.

Let’s hope.

Read the full transcript of Obama’s speech

So far this academic year, the closest thing to a large-scale ’student protest’ was several hundred people peacefully assembling in front of the Administration building.

In this campus, in this day and age, a crowd of 80 students is an unprecedented turnout in local elections and a mass of rowdy demonstrators could only be responding to basketball scores.

At Kent State University, 40 years ago Tuesday, four students were shot dead and nine others injured by National Guard troops as 2,000 students protested the American incursion into Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

Soldiers had fired on the crowd of students — which was throwing rocks and which had rioted destructively the week before — after claiming they were under sniper fire. Two of the students killed were uninvolved in the protests.

The Kent State Massacre sparked widespread protests on and off campuses nationwide, shutting down hundreds of universities.

But 40 years later, even as there are other national and international controversies that would be equally viable targets for student protests, we must make do with less — and be satisfied with police clashes that produce injuries but not deaths.

A university of Virginia women’s lacrosse player was found slain in her bedroom Monday and a member of the men’s lacrosse team has been charged with first-degree murder.

Yeardley Love

Yeardley Love, a 22-year-old senior from Cockeysville, Md. had had a previous relationship with George Huguely, 22, a senior from Chevy Chase, Md., who has been charged with her murder.

Geoge Huguely

Police arrived at Love’s off-campus house that she shared with two roommates after a call from one of Love’s roommates. Though police have not disclosed the cause of death, they said it appeared she had been heavily beaten.

When our officers arrived on the scene, it was readily apparent that this young lady was a victim of something far worse, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo said. There were obvious physical injuries to her body.

Both Love and Huguely were to play with their respective lacrosse teams in the national tournament later this month. The athletic department, however, will now be questioning whether both lacrosse teams will participate in post-season play at all.

There will be a point when the teams are reconvened, later today and in coming days, when those sort of conversations will take place, said UVA athletic director Craig Littlepage, who appeared at the police news conference.

Huguely is set for a bail hearing later this afternoon.

Quick hits:

>>In other Virginia news, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II is seeking documents from a former University of Virginia professor. Cuccinelli believes that the professor defrauded taxpayers when he was obtaining grants for global warming research.

>> Former Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. is denying democratic party claims that his law firm, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, is donating unreported services to his campaign.

>> A black bear cub was found roaming the streets of Frederick yesterday, before it was hit and killed by a car.

A class where you and your friends assign each others’ grades may sound like a breeze, or a joke — but it’s one Duke professor’s idea of a grading policy, according to this article in Inside Higher Ed.

Cathy Davidson’s plan for her spring semester course called “Your Brain on the Internet” was to leave grading almost entirely up students, with a few caveats: all work and classes were mandatory to earn an overall “A,” with incomplete work resulting in a “B” or lower, depending on just how much a student slacks.

After the 16 students signed contracts, it was up to two students per week to evaluate the work done based on class discussions and blog post reports on what students had accomplished.

Not a breeze: According to Davidson, students wrote about 1,000 words per week, all of which she called “better than the norm” in the creativity and risks students took in their work.

Not a joke: They all got As, pending one incoming assignment.

If you could be University President Dan Mote for one day, what would you do? Increase financial aid? Send the Purple Line down Campus Drive? Just order a whole boatload of lobster from dining services?

While it’s unlikely any of us will be stepping into Mote’s shoes anytime soon, Widener University in Chester, Pa. gives one student a year the chance to swap places with the president. And this isn’t just fun and games. The students actually have a chance to implement policy initiatives that they design. From the Associated Press:

The annual President for a Day switch gives undergraduates a taste of the responsibilities of running the 4,800-student campus outside Philadelphia. It also reminds Harris of the challenges students face in balancing work and education.

“It gives me a firsthand experience of what they go through every day,” [Widener President James T. Harris III] said. “It makes me a better administrator in the long run.” …

[21-year-old Doug] Shultz, an environmental science major from Halifax, Pa., beat out 16 other applicants by wowing the selection committee with a comprehensive plan to expand Widener’s recycling and sustainability initiatives.

As president last week, Shultz presented the proposal to top administrators, university staff and other students. Widener officials say they plan to implement it in full.”

Shultz also got to use the president’s parking space and “fire” one of his favorite staff members, giving them the day off. He also met with a major donor and handled other presidential responsibilities.

Quick hits

• Virginia wins! The battle between Maryland and our southern neighbor has been decided, and Northrop Grunman is moving its headquarters there.
• Virginia loses! Tuition is going up 10 percent at the University of Virginia and 8.5 percent at James Madison University.
• Gov. Martin O’Malley kicked off his re-election bid yesterday

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• University of Washington President Mark Emmert is the new chief executive of the NCAA.
• Metro workers rallied on Capitol Hill yesterday, asking for more federal funds.

A crotchety old man living near Georgetown University is fed up with scolding the intoxicated college kids who keep him up all night.

So Stephen R. Brown, 62, launched the website drunkengeorgetownstudents.com, where he posts illicit photos of noisy backyard keggers in an effort to give the university a bad name and lead to more crackdowns.

It seems that Brown has exhausted other efforts, including knocking on doors, writing letters and calling the cops to bust parties. The intro to his blog offers some tips on what other sleepless residents could do if they witness a rowdy scene.

—First, call the University Hotline (202-687.8413) and you will get an answering machine. Leave a message for the”nationally renowned” SNAP vehicles who will attempt to quiet things down. Unfortunately, they have no legal authority and drunks are notoriously unstable.
—Second, call 911. You probably feel foolish calling the emergency services number but Georgetown University has made it known that they don’t care so this is your only alternative.

Brown also lambasts the university’s lack of on-campus housing and told Washington Post higher education reporter Jenna Johnson, “If the university would let me have a night’s sleep, I might take it down. The students call me a ‘grumpy old man.’ That’s fine. I have been called a lot worse than that.”

Brown plans to post video soon and encourages neighbors to contribute their own pictures to the site, although he cautions them not to confront partygoers when snapping shots: “Be careful, drunken persons are frequently violent and unreasonable so “reasoning” with them isn’t a great plan. Keep your distance!”

Meanwhile, Georgetown’s blog Vox Populi warns students to be careful when venturing off-campus to drink their faces off, lest they end up plastered all over the Internet by some old guy in the bushes with a camera, like these guys:

A captain of the University of Pennsylvania football team was found dead in his home yesterday afternoon.

Owen Thomas

Wharton junior Owen Thomas was found in his off-campus residence, but university officials believe no foul play was involved.
Thomas played defensive end and was a second-team All-Ivy player in 2009.

Quick Hits:

>> George Washington University may be increasing their financial aid pool by $5 million, The GW Hatchet reports.

>> Anne Arundel Community College will now be offering midnight classes in order to handle high demand.

>> Indiana University will allow students to rent textbooks next fall in a new agreement with Barnes and Noble.

Though the university counts Jim Henson, Connie Chung, Larry David, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin among its celebrity graduates, the one and only Liz Lemon of 30 Rock has now joined the Terp elite.

During last Thursday’s episode of 30 Rock, “Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter,” Lemon announced that she had attended this university on a “partial competitive jazz dance scholarship.”

The only problem with that is, this university does not even have a competitive jazz dance team. Turns out it is as fictitious as Lemon herself.

Played by Tina Fey, Lemon is a quirky, self-deprecating comedy writer who is addicted to junk food and chronically single. Lemon is said to be a fictionalized version of Fey. Up until last week, however, nothing was known of her College Park connection.

On the show, one of the writers decides to quit after he finds out he was only hired because of Affirmative Action. Lemon decides to respect his decision, because she said she never got a “hand-up.” Her co-worker, determined to hire the writer back, pulls Lemon’s file:

Pete: You attended the University of Maryland on a partial competitive jazz dance scholarship.
Lemon: So?
Pete: So, NCAA competitive jazz dance was created as part of Title IX — because of a program that favored women.
Lemon: Favored women to correct an imbalance.

Who should control what students pay for college?

In this state, the governor prepares a tuition proposal that is typically approved by the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents — a group of 17 gubernatorial appointees.

In Florida, the Associated Press reports, the state legislature is vying for control of the state’s college tuition rates against a citizens group that wants the authority to be solely in the hands of universities.

The citizens group has expressed concern that the legislature is too willing to keep tuition low for political reasons, starving the state’s 11-university system of necessary funding.

Legislators have been fighting for the better part of this decade against what the consider to be reckless overspending by the university system.

Although the university system’s Board of Governors has recently reached a compromise with the Florida legislature — granting university leaders the right to raise tuition by as much as 15 percent in a year without seeking legislative approval, until Florida’s inexpensive schools reach the national tuition average — the citizens group remains opposed to any political influence in determining tuition.

Florida lawmakers have already approved an 8 percent increase in the state’s universities this year. In Maryland, meanwhile, the Board of Regents just approved a 3 percent increase — the first time tuition has changed since Gov. Martin O’Malley took office in 2007.

Florida may have the palm trees. But Maryland has the tuition stability.

College students who tan compulsively may not be doing so merely for that golden glow, according to a study published recently in the medical journal Archives of Dermatology. It’s because they’re dangerously hooked – on ultraviolet rays.

Of more than 400 students surveyed, tanning bed enthusiasts matched two different psychological criteria for addiction, the study found. This propensity also caused the compulsive tanners to binge on alcohol and drugs more frequently: 42 percent of tanning addicts reported using more than one drug in the previous month, double the rate of casual sun-seekers.

A co-author of the study theorized that the endorphins released in a tanning bed session might be the reason tanning addicts also turned to mind-altering substances as well. Compulsive tanners suffer disproportionately from anxiety, which could in turn lead to behaviors that help them relax and decompress.

A vicious cycle of booze, drugs and tanning: who knew? Oh, wait, these guys did: