A small student group of Islamic extremists have been wreaking havoc at Paktistan’s premier institution of higher education, the University of the Punjab.

Iftikhar Baloch, a professor at the university, was attacked with metal rods and hit over the head with a flower pot after expelling several members of the group. After the incident university professors went on a three week strike that ended Monday.

University of the Punjab

The New York Times reports:

Its members block music classes, ban Western soft drinks and beat male students for sitting near girls on the university lawn.

The student group called Islami Jamiat Talaba has apparently terrorized the university for years, but has recently been gaining more power despite their small numbers. The group is against religious minorities and western countries. The government often looks the other way because the group has ties to the country’s oldest religious party.

“They are hooligans with a Taliban mentality and they should be banned, full stop,” Maliha A. Aga, a teacher in the art department, told The New York Times. “That’s the only way this university will survive.”

And the students’ control is organized and widespread.

The group created a parallel administration, according to a former member, Nadim Jamil, and has divided the university into five zones, with a nazim, or mayor, assigned to each. The dormitories are their fiefdoms, he said, where mayors monitor movements, hold Koran reading classes and recruit members.

The dominance of males in higher education may finally be ending. New Census data indicates the percentage of men and women with bachelor’s degrees is roughly equal, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education:

About 29 percent of women 25 and older had attained at least a bachelor’s degree in 2009, compared with 30 percent of men. A decade earlier, the proportions were 23 percent and 28 percent, respectively….

The pattern of women’s academic achievement outdoing men’s, on average, goes back more than a decade, and is now expressing itself in the awarding of both undergraduate and graduate degrees. According to the newly reported data, young women have widened the gap in achieving postsecondary degrees in the past decade. In 2009, 35 percent of women ages 25 to 29 held at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 27 percent of men. A decade earlier, the numbers were much closer: 30 percent versus 27 percent.

And in a speech at George Washington University yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a policy change that should strengthen Title IX, the famous legislation that ensures equal funding for men’s and women’s sports.

Quick hits

• An MTA official working on the development of the Purple Line fears former Gov. Robert Ehrlich might slow the project if he defeats Gov. Martin O’Malley this fall, Capital News Service reports.
• Ocean City, Md. is dropping its recycling program, according to The Sun.
• Washington Post metro columnist Courtland Milloy says Prince George’s County Police Chief Roberto Hylton is reaching out to community leaders for support in the wake of the controversy over county police officers beating a university student.
• Prairie View A&M has disbanded a fraternity whose hazing resulted in the death of a pledge, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Though Apple’s ipad may be the hottest new technology at the moment, some universities are less than pleased with the devices since they have been causing problems on their campus Internet networks.

Princeton University has blocked 20 percent of iPads after the tablet computers have interfered with other devices on the university’s wireless network. Apparently, the iPad has “malfunctions that can affect the entire school’s computer system.”

Meanwhile, closer to home, George Washington University has also been having troubles with Apple’s new tablet. The university’s authentification system is not registering the iPads or iPhones, preventing students from logging on to the wireless network. University officials predict it could be up to a year before the problem is fixed.

But, universities are not the only ones banning iPads. Israel has also banned iPads in the country, preventing any travelers from bringing them in. Israel says the tablets will interfere with other devices, since it was built to function with a stronger U.S. signal, compared to the weaker signal strengths in Europe and Israel.

Quick Hits:

>>Sarah Palin is set to testify in a trial of a University of Tennessee student who hacked into her e-mail account. The jury selection process begins this week. The student has been charged with identity theft, wire fraud, hindering an FBI investigation and accessing Palin’s account without authorization.

>>A new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that teens today send on between 50 and 1,500 texts a day. Four in five teens sleep with their cell phones in their bed.

>> Throngs of students at the University of Denver are expected to toke up today in the yearly unofficial public smoking event to celebrate the unofficial holiday dedicated to all that is marijuana, 4/20.

Playboy magazine released their list of top ten party schools, with University of Texas at Austin taking home first prize.

Shots all around.

Here’s what Playboy had to say about the Longhorns:

The Longhorns football team fell just short in the national championship game, but here’s a victory the entire school can claim a part of. We’re talking to you, bikinied coed in Devil’s Cove, and you, star wide receiver Jordan Shipley, and even the humanities library, which just purchased David Foster Wallace’s papers. When you add up academics, the weather, the liberal atmosphere, South by Southwest, game day and the nightlife on Sixth Street, UT Austin is one heck of a school. Hook ’em, Horns!

Texas was followed by the West Virginia University, where let’s face it, as Playboy points out, there is not much else to do. Some freshman in the magazine claims, “We drink two percent of all the world’s beer.” University of Wisconsin-Madison took third place followed by University of Miami, Florida and East Carolina University.

A few shockers included Florida’s Rollins College, which only has 1,785 undergrads, and Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, which has apparently not made the list in 20 years.

The article also handed out a handful of other very prestigious awards. The University of Southern California Song Girls were designated the “Hottest Cheerleaders.” Marquette was deemed the best “Catholic Party School.” Nursing won hottest major and the magazine named The Flabongo (a beer bong made out of a lawn flamingo) the best drinking invention.

The honor of worst party school was a tie between Brigham Young University and Oral Roberts (go figure) and the title for “Best Ivy League Party School” was deemed “N/A.”

Though this university did not make Playboy’s list this year, we have been recognized for our party credentials in the past. We just missed cracking Playboy’s Top Ten last year, coming in at #11, for “Making it happen since 1856.” In 2007, the Princeton Review ranked the university as the #14 party school, but since then, we have not even cracked the top 20.

But, despite our lack of recent reputation for having a good time (I mean, have Princeton or Playboy seen The Thirsty Turtle?), we at least can boast the most co-eds (three) in last fall’s Playboy “Girls of the ACC” spread. Now, if that’s not partying, we don’t know what is.

A study examining the history of mass violence on college campuses has found more than half of the attacks have happened in the past 20 years, reports The Washington Post’s Dan De Vise. The report, a joint effort by the Secret Service, the FBI, and the federal Department of Education, was written in the wake of the shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people. Of the 272 attacks the report examined, 79 occurred in the 1990s and 83 occurred between 2000 and 2008.

Quick hits

• Gov. Martin O’Malley will officially announce his re-election campaign next Tuesday, April 27.
• The Richmond Times-Dispatch is reporting that Virginia law enforcement officials raided the offices of James Madison University’s student newspaper, The Breeze, and seized 900 photos. The raid was related to a riot that occurred at Springfest, an annual JMU event at which 42 people were injured and 30 were arrested.
• The College Republicans at Duke are ousting their leader, and he says it’s because he’s gay, The Duke Chronicle reports.
• Colleges should be required to reveal the number of judicial hearings they have on sexual assaults each year and those hearings’ outcomes, activists said at a congressional hearing Friday, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Western Maryland’s tiny Frostburg State University was rocked by violence Sunday after one student allegedly shot two others, leaving one dead and another seriously wounded early Sunday morning.

According to an account from the university’s press release, the suspect in the shootings had allegedly assaulted a woman at an off-campus party a few hours earlier, then shot two students who followed him home to confront him.

Brandon Michael Carroll, 20, of Waldorf, was pronounced dead; the second student, Ellis Eugene Hartridge Jr. of Washington, D.C., remained hospitalized Sunday afternoon but is expected to survive, the press release said. The two had been fired on with a 12-gauge shotgun, the release said.

The student suspect, Tyrone Brent Hall, 21, of Glen Burnie, remained jailed without bond in connection with the shootings as of Sunday evening, The Washington Post reported.

Although College Park is more known for its crime than rural Frostburg — a town closer to Pittsburgh than to Frederick, a hundred miles from either — this crime would have been unprecedented even here.

Our sporadic sexual assaults are nothing to boast about, but our only recent double shootings have been between police and alleged shoplifters.

The 2010 class of Syracuse University is protesting this year’s commencement speaker, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon

Due to JPMorgan’s role in the financial crisis, many students feel that the choice of speaker is insulting, especially to a group of college kids trying to find jobs in today’s economy.

A petition titled “Take Back 2010 Syracuse University Commencement” has been circulating among students and already boasts almost 900 signatures.

Student Matt Sheehan wrote next to his name:

This is a slap in the face to us students. As we enter the work world in this economy, it is an insult to have as a speaker one who bears the responsibility of why we will struggle to gain employment.

Dimon told Business Week that he understands where students are coming from.

“I gather that this was a group of students who made the selection, but I also completely understand that some people may be opposed to it,” he said. “People should stand up for what they believe in. I applaud that some folks there want to stand up for something different.”

Chancellor Nancy Cantor had this to say:

It is rare that a university is able to bring a speaker with a bird’s-eye view of, and extensive on-the-ground experience with, a major global challenge, and that was in the forefront of my mind as I made my selection this year.

JP Morgan was one of the first banks to pay back federal loans and today reported first-quarter earnings up 55 percent from last year.

Syracuse, protestors, however, still plan to hold a rally April 16.

Rioting is back in the news today, with multiple media outlets covering yesterday’s revelations (or really, obvious accusations) that Prince George’s County Police officers may have engaged in brutality against university students during the riots following the Terp basketball team’s victory over Duke last month.

The Washington Post, Washington City Paper, and CBS News were among the myriad of organizations who reported on the video. Most students who participated in the post-game revelry wouldn’t be shocked by what the video shows – there were widespread complaints of police brutality the very next day.

But we aren’t the only local university whose students have clashed with cops. Students at James Madison were fiercely scolded by their university’s president after police had to use tear gas and rubber bullets to break up an unruly crowd of 8,000 at Springfest (which seems to be their equivalent to Art Attack). The Post and The Breeze – JMU’s student paper – have the details.

From The Breeze:

President Linwood Rose left no questions regarding his response to the JMU community via e-mail on Sunday evening, addressing those students who attended Springfest.

“Your collective behavior was an embarrassment to your university and a discredit to our reputation,” Rose said. He plans to handle similar situations even more seriously in the future.

The aftermath of Saturday’s block parties consisted of more than 30 arrests, a stabbing, extensive property damage and injured police and partygoers. The Harrisonburg community has not experienced a riot this serious in 10 years, when civil disobedience units responded to a crowd of more than 2,000 students.

And from The Post:

Rocks, beer bottles and cans flew, hitting and injuring dozens of people and shattering car and house windows, according to police, witnesses and video of events. Dumpsters were set ablaze.

The response eventually involved about 200 police officers from several different agencies, many outfitted in riot gear and fighting back with canisters of tear gas, rounds of pepper spray and foam projectiles. A Medevac helicopter arrived to take a casualty to a trauma center, and about three dozen others went to the local hospital.

By the time it was over, Harrisonburg police said they had arrested at least 17 people and were studying uploaded YouTube videos for more suspects. Other law enforcement agencies made arrests, but the total numbers are still being tallied.

Quick hits

• On Sine Die yesterday, Maryland lawmakers reached compromises on just about everything, according to The Post.
• A former Brown University student is suing the school, claiming he was suspended without due process after the daughter of a major university donor falsely accused him of rape, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
  

If you’ve been paying attention to the Student Government Association elections, you may have noticed a few similarities between the SKYY Party’s logo and a certain alcoholic beverage:

But, SKYY party Presidential Candidate Andrew Steinberg insists that his party is simply playing off of a “recognizable brand” and is “not condoning or supporting any kind of alcoholic activities.” Steinberg says that they chose the name for the message they wanted to send:

“It’s like the sky’s the limit in terms of the issues that can affect students on this campus,” he said.

Maybe someone should tell him, that the “sky’s” the limit and not the “SKYY.” Unless you are at The Thirsty Turtle on a Thursday. Details.

And the striking similarities raise a few questions.
First of all, does the logo break copyright laws by obviously mimicking the brand logo of the high-end vodka?

Well, according to the U.S. Copyright Office,

Copyright protection may be available for logo artwork that contains sufficient authorship. In some circumstances, an artistic logo may also be protected as a trademark.

And, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, “SKYY” is a registered trademark.
The official trademark even specifies the trademark as:

The mark consists of the word SKYY in stylized form.

And, as you can see from the pictures above, the logos use the same “stylized form”
The trademark also qualifies the trademark’s silver writing:

All of the wording on the bottle and label appears in silver.

Not that it needs to be said, but the SKYY party’s new logo is also in that same silvery shade.

A copyright infringement lawsuit can be filed if the mark is deemed “famous.” Factors that determine if the trademark is famous include:

(1) the degree of inherent or acquired distinctiveness; (2) the duration and extent of use; (3) the amount of advertising and publicity; (4) the geographic extent of the market; (5) the channels of trade; (6) the degree of recognition in trading areas; (7) any use of similar marks by third parties; (8) whether the mark is registered.

Let’s just say that the brand of SKYY Vodka is very distinct (I mean, what college student wouldn’t recognize those stylized silver letters?), has been in use for almost two decades, is widely advertised (do we even need to go into the number of SKYY Vodka ads in magazines, and on billboards and TV?), is sold across the country and is a registered trademark.

And, hey, while they are at it, if the SKYY Party is looking to drum up some student support, here are a few ideas for an ad campaign:

Or

Though this may university may hold the record for longest mall, Iowa University now boasts the country’s tallest garden gnome.

The gnome constructed in Wisconsin travelled to Iowa via truck.

The 15-foot tall, 3,500-pound garden sits in the university’s Reiman Gardens and is part of the year-long “Celebration of Garden Ornamentation.” The giant gnome (oximoron?) cost around $8,000 to build. As part of the exhibit, other garden decor will be on display along with a crowd of other small gnomes to be built by local organizations. A gnome kingdom, if you will.

The world record for tallest gnome is currently held by an 18-foot gnome in that Poland erected a month ago.

Quick Hits:

>> The 4th U.S. District Court of Appeals upheld a Virginia law banning alcohol ads in student papers. The lawsuit was brought by Virginia Tech’s Collegiate Times and the University of Virginia’s Cavalier Daily.

>> Metro and D.C. commuters beware of increased security and rerouting in the capital for the Nuclear Security Summit. A large grid of roads will be blocked off from traffic and parking and the Mount Vernon Square metro station is closed.

>> The state Senate is preparing to make a final decision this week on a bill allowing the use of medical marijuana. Preliminary approval was given last Friday and the Senate is set to make a final decision as early as Saturday.