Campus Progress Updates

Climate bill delayed … again … as Sen. Graham drops support

Tristan Fowler — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:59:32 EDT

(flickr/Center for American Progress Action Fund)

As if a climate bill hasn’t gone through enough hurdles over the past year, today adds another goomba to the quest for clean energy. On Saturday, Sen. Graham (R-SC), a co-author of the legislation along with Sen. Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. Lieberman (I-CT), threatened to walk away from his many months of work on this legislation if Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) puts immigration policy reform ahead of climate.

That threat has delayed today’s unveiling of the bill and Sen. Kerry and Sen. Lieberman are working with Sen. Graham this evening to win back his support. Sen. Graham is the only Republican working with Democrats on this bill, and he has risk his reputation and the support of his party. His sponsorship of the bill is expected to garner votes from other Republicans, but has also earned him scorn from his party and his home state.

This shockwave ripped through the internet, and everyone has an opinion. Tom Friedman of the New York Times and David Roberts from Grist blames Harry Reid/Democrats. Huffington Post features an attack on Sen. Graham for playing politics. And Joe Romm from Climate Progress says that if the White House loses Sen. Graham, then this would “certainly kill any chances of a climate bill this year.”

Are Journalism Classes Worth It?

David Spett — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:45:26 EDT

After running an op-ed by Peter Funt that decries the downfall of high school journalism classes, the Boston Globe turned to Campus Progress for some responses. Several of our web magazine's current and former writers joined me in commenting.

From Emily Rutherford, a CP.org staff writer: "When I recollect the very low quality of my own high-school paper, I can't help but think that it wouldn't be a great tragedy if the school no longer had the funds to print copies."

From Ned Resnikoff, a former CP.org staff writer: "I can't bring myself to mourn the passing of journalism classes from the high school curriculum."

From Matt Zeitlin, another former CP staff writer: "I don't think we should care whether or not future freshmen will have trouble 'succeeding in college journalism courses'—we should worry about whether or not they have the opportunities to do journalism."

And a contrarian take from yours truly: "The skills — interpersonal, management, technological and ethical — taught through journalism (and journalism courses) are useful to innumerable situations in life. Journalism is a uniquely efficient, effective way to teach young people to handle conflicting interests, meet deadlines, manage a staff, and hold their school and local officials' feet to the fire."

Jim Crow Throwback: AZ legalizes racial profiling

Kim Leung — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 21:48:05 EDT

On Friday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the most draconian immigration bill (SB 1070) into law, throwing America back to the Jim Crow Era.

The bill gives broad powers to law enforcement, making it legal for police to detain anyone whom they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe is in the country illegally. In other words, it grants police the right to racial profiling.

The law is to take into effect in August. Many civil rights groups have begun contesting its legality.

Gov. Brewer attempted to assuage the bill’s numerous and vocal critics, but her words were as convincing as saying separate is equal. She said that she won’t tolerate racial profiling, and that “we have to trust in our law enforcement”. Never mind that our nation’s history is wrought with instances where law enforcement has demonstrated to be less than trustworthy.

SB 1070 blurs the line between a police state and a democracy. When you blindly put trust in law enforcement—when you strip away the checks on its power as SB 1070 does–racial profiling and police brutality are bound to occur unchecked.

The law also makes the failure to carry immigration papers on hand a crime, which the Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles has likened to Nazism. According to the Nytimes, Arizona is the first state to demand that immigrants meet federal requirements to carry identity documents legitimizing their presence on American soil.

While the new law represents a grave lost to the human rights of immigrants, it has also appeared to reinvigorate the movement for immigrant rights. On April 22, thousands of protestors–most of them young people--crowded outside of Arizona’s state capital, calling on Gov. Brewer to veto the bill.

Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva, a democrat, is calling on industries from manufacturing to tourism to boycott his own state as an “embarrassment sanction”.

Nationwide, demonstrations are taking place in opposition to SB 1070. And particularly spirited protests are expected to occur across the nation this May 1st—a designated day of activism for immigrant rights, making it all the more difficult for politicians to shirk the need to establish comprehensive immigration reform.

Justice Diane Wood? Yes, Please

Pema Levy — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:54:17 EDT

It could be a weeks before Obama announces his pick for a Surpeme Court nominee to replace Justice Stevens. While this makes me antsy, it also gives me time to speculate and to be hopeful!

Yesterday at TAPPED, Scott Lemieux wrote about why Judge Diane P. Wood, currently on the Seventh Circuit, is his favorite off of Obama's shortlist. He quoted a New York Times piece on Judge Wood's superior powers of persuasion, quoting a fellow conservative Judge's reflection on Wood's judicial approach:

“She had to make a judgment: How do you have a constructive and productive career on a court in which you may be in the ideological minority?...I think she’s been very tactful in dealing with people — not giving up her views but trying to look for common ground.”

John Paul Stevens, who has been ont he court for over 34 years, is known for his ability to persuade, to find common ground, and to build coalitions. Judge Wood is promising not only for her progressive judicial philosophy, but for her ability to persuade, since it is not only Stevens's liberalism but his leadership that the liberal wing of the court will miss.

But I found another aspect of Wood's career fascinating, and that is the gender dynamics she has navigated throughout her career; she has not only been the "ideological minority" on the Seventh Circuit as well as in her previous work, but also a woman among many men.

The New York Times piece makes this point by referencing all the men she has worked with and forged alliances with throughout her career;

She was eight-and-half months pregnant with her second child, a busy working mother in an environment where, as Professor Epstein put it, "regulated aggression is the norm at the lunch table."

Another thing I like about Wood, just because she has worked hard to excel in a man's world, doesn't mean she has forgone issues particularly important to women. For example, she is not shy about abortion rights (she clerked for Justice Blackmun who wrote the opinion in Roe v. Wade).That's the kind of liberal the Court needs; it's also the kind of liberal women need.

Conservatives have warned that if Obama nominates Wood, they will make the confirmation hearings a referendum on abortion rights. I say, bring it on. Women typically vote more than men, and the upcoming midterms are all about getting out base voters. This November in particular, the Democratic Party is working hard to recruit young voters, who, while not particularly progressive on abortion rights, are more socially progressive. If Republicans come off as reactionary culture warriors this summer, that might not be a bad thing.

(Photo: Linda Rux)

Journalism Network Featured on Podcast

David Spett — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:47:46 EDT

Michael Tracey, editor of our sponsored publication the TCNJ Perspective, joined me in this month's Student Press Law Center podcast to discuss the benefits and pitfalls of nonprofit journalism, particularly at the college level.

Give it a listen!

Choi, Other Veteran Protesters Released from Jail After 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Action at White House

Kay — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:27:38 EDT

The DC Agenda reports today that former Lt. Dan Choi and five other LGBT veterans who chained themselves to the White House fence on Tuesday have been released from jail. The protesters were calling attention to the administration's lack of movement on repealing "don't ask, don't tell."

Choi and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo have been charged for the action Tuesday combined with a similar action last month. The two have trial date set for July 14 and have both plead not guilty. The judge also ordered the two to stay away from the area in front of the White House until they pay a $100 fine. GetEQUAL, the group who supported the protests, says they plan similar actions in the coming weeks.

The actions of Choi and GetEQUAL are considered controversial both within and outside of the LGBT community.

The Pill: 50 Years And There's Still a Long Way to Go

Kay — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:00:24 EDT

(Flickr/futurowoman)

Time magazine has an extensive (albeit somewhat boring) feature on the history of birth control pill, and The American Prospect released Michelle Goldberg's review of America and the Pill online today. Why is the birth control pill getting so much attention lately? Because this is the 50-year anniversary of the Food and Drug Association approving the hormonal birth control pill for consumer use.

The pill has had an interesting -- and certainly controversial -- history. But what's most amazing about the history of the pill is perhaps how far we haven't come.

Given the variety of birth control methods available and the prevalence with which women use it (reproductive rights organizations estimate that 98 percent of American women use contraception at some point in their reproductive lives), access to birth control is still viewed as more of a challenge than it is a right.

We still provide federal funding for programs that have been scientifically proven to be ineffective at lowering unintended pregnancy rates or the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Emergency contraception, simply a stronger version of the birth control pill that women have now used for over 50 years, is still difficult to access in many places, and women under the age of 18 can't access it over the counter. And there still seems to be a great reluctance to view birth control as anything other than the female partner's responsibility.

Birth control has become more controversial, it seems, than it ever has been. But still, millions of women rely on it every day. It seems time for a more reality-based approach.

Unpaid Internships Can No Longer be Slave Labor

Rebecca Foerg-Spittel — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:21:46 EDT

HuffPo reported this morning that organizations that offer internships are finally going to have to answer to a higher authority. The Department of Labor released guidelines today that interns can use to determine whether their internship is fair, and that employers should use to make sure they’re creating fair and legal internships.

Basically, internships have to be more of an educational experience than free labor, and organizations can’t use their interns as replacement for regular full-time workers. Interns have to actually be told that they won’t be paid, and they have to have a given an end date for their internship. These are all criteria that seem like they should come pretty naturally to any employer with unpaid interns, but given stories like this these, that was clearly too much to hope.

Now that the government’s stepping in, no intern should be asked to wipe down doorknobs for Swine Flu again. Of if they do, they at least know that A) It’s illegal B) they have something to stick their employers to. Some are worried that the guidelines might mean that fewer places will offer internships, because they’re fearful of the risk, but if they’re not prepared to meet these basic guidelines, do we really want them offering internships anyway?

You’ll be happy to know my internship checks out fine, so I won’t be taking any grievances to the DOL anytime soon.

Campus Informer: Students Protest Citibank CEO for Commencement Speaker at Columbia, Texas A&M Honors Earth Day with Festival

Rebecca Foerg-Spittel — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:59:26 EDT

Students from the School of International and Public Affairs are protesting the university choice of Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citibank as graduation speaker, because they consider him both an inappropriate choice at a time when banks have been irresponsible and uninspiring as a leader. [Columbia Daily Spectator]
A group called the Southeast Como Improvement Association at University of Minnesota will be announcing an initiative called “Move-In, Move-Out” at the annual Spring Jam Concert. The initiative allows students to give away their still-usable items rather than throwing them away at a “free store” created with the University Reuse Center.[Minnesota Daily]
In honor of Earth Day, Texas A&M University is holding an informational festival today, where students can learn how to be part of the solution to environmental problems. [The Battalion]
Grad students at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration are working with the Zambian government to try to increase their tourism. [Cornell Daily Sun]
Students at Yale University are protesting a 15 percent increase in what students on financial aid are expected to contribute to their tuition. They plan to deliver a petition with over 200 signatures to administrators next Friday.[Yale Daily News]

How Do We Seperate Institutional Racism with Institutional Classism?

Lisa V. Gillespie — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:52:09 EDT

Too often, classism gets construed as racism. Race is easier to spot, it's based on the color of skin. But class can be invisible. If you ask Americans how they identify by class, you'll probably get “middle class” even if the person hovers around $20,000, close the poverty line in many states.

According to statistics from the National Opinion Research Center, large numbers of American define themselves as "working class" or "middle class," including:

50% of those families who earn between $20,000 and $40,000 annually
38% of those families who earn between $40,000 and $60,000 annually
16.8% of those families who earn over $110,000 annually

After reading an article on The Grio covering a case of what they say is environmental racism in a small town in Louisiana, I started thinking about the ties between low-income areas and pollution. I'm not sure the case of Mossville, Louisiana, is a case of environmental racism, but environmental classism that permeates factory spills.

Residents in neighborhoods with the highest pollution scores tend to be poorer, less educated and more often unemployed than those elsewhere in the country, an analysis by AP found in 2005.
However, race does seem to play a part. In 19 states, blacks were more than twice as likely as whites to live in neighborhoods where air pollution seems to pose the greatest health danger, the analysis showed. Is it institutional racism that put Mossville on the map of environmental pollution? I guess that when factories decide where to build, they choose cheap real estate, which is usually in lower-income areas. Perhaps the problem is that minorities still make proportionally less money than white men, thus the areas they live in and the real estate they buy probably mimics that inequality in pay.

I'm not sure that the problem is institutional racism, but institutional classism, where those who make the least are the ones to suffer economically, environmentally, and socially. It is easy to point to race/ethnicity when chemicals leak into the ground from surrounding plants. But, really, the thing that makes a factory meet regulations is money. Money is power. Money equals class. And what Mossville, Louisiana lacks is both of these. Maybe we should be looking at how a group of lower class people are treated than honing in on just race.

Egypt Has a Radical Feminist And She's Totally Badass

Kay — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:45:51 EDT

The Guardian ran a profile recently of Nawal El Saadawi, a self-described radical feminist and novelist from Egypt. The profile is amazing and details her work fighting against female circumcision (also known as female genital mutilation), but here are some key reasons she's totally badass (and, therefore, controversial):

Brought up in a middle-class Egyptian household, she was expected to become a child bride, but refused; she blackened her teeth and dropped coffee over one would-be suitor who came to call. "When I was a child it was normal that girls in my village would marry at 10 or 11," she says. "Now, of course, the government is standing against that because it is unhealthy. And it happens much less. But we are having a relapse again, because of poverty and religious fundamentalism."

On religion and the oppression of women:

She still refuses to tone down her work. "I am very critical of all religions," she says. "We, as women, are oppressed by all these religions." It is religious extremism, she believes, that is the biggest threat to women's liberation today. "There is a backlash against feminism all over the world today because of the revival of religions," she says. "We have had a global and religious fundamentalist movement." She fears that the rise of religion is holding back progress regarding issues such as female circumcision, especially in Egypt.

On wearing the veil:

Despite the fact that her sisters wear the veil, she refuses to accept it as a free choice. "What do we mean by choice? It is pressure, but it is hidden pressure – she is not aware of it. I was exposed to different pressures from my sisters. We are all the products of our economic, social and political life and our education. Young people today are living in the era of the fundamentalist groups."

Helping Out the Stop ENDA Campaign

pdelatorre — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:14:30 EDT

There is a new campaign in town to stop ENDA, or the Employee Non-Discrimination Act, which would extend workplace protections against discrimination to the LGBT community. The campaign, sponsored by the Family Research Council (FRC), put out a video with scary music--the kind you would hear on a renactment of some horrible crime on America's Most Wanted--and even scarier claims (see below).

They never really explain these claims, however, and so I thought I could be helpful by filling in the blanks. For example, this statement doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense on its own, given the content of the bill:

"Did you ever imagine that you would be fired for your religious beliefs?"

It makes much more sense if we add the following:

"Did you ever imagine that you would be fired for [illegally discriminating against someone in the workplace based on their sexual orientation or gender identity in order to force upon others] your religious beliefs?"

It looks like the FRC needs quite a bit of help if they want this video to make sense. I'd love to see some other folks give a helping hand in the comments!

Campus Informer: Biden Announces Title IX Fix at GW, Pranks at Yale Annoy Professors

Rebecca Foerg-Spittel — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:06:00 EDT

New York University is launching a new site called nyu.pulse, on which students can post the latest NYU news, comment on it, and change each others’ posts if they’re inaccurate.[Washington Square News]
This week is the fourth annual Sex Week at Northwestern, hosted by a group called the College Feminists. Workshops are designed to educate and de-stigmatize discussions about sex.[Daily Northwestern]
Vice President Joe Biden announced a change to a Title IX policy decision yesterday at George Washington University. The change means that universities can no longer use student polls to prove a lack of interest in female participation in sports. [GW Hatchet]
A profusion of pranks played in classes at Yale University is frustrating some professors. [Yale Daily News]
The UCLA Concrete Canoe Team, which actually does build and race canoes made entirely out of a reinforced light mix of concrete, has qualified for the 2010 National Concrete Canoe Competition. They and 21 other university teams will compete for a $5,000 grand prize. [Daily Bruin]

Campus Informer: Students Waffle on Recycling at NYU, Vote at U Chicago will Decide Fate of Sexual Assault Policy

Rebecca Foerg-Spittel — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:57:26 EDT

New York University has stepped up its recycling efforts, but students are divided on whether to put in the extra effort to recycle or not. [Washington Square News]
The American Association of Community Colleges is asserting that American community colleges need to globalize so their students can compete in the global market, and the colleges themselves can gain from influxes of international students.[Inside Higher Ed]
The Working Group for Sexual Assault Policy at the University of Chicago is hoping to get an overwhelming majority of students to vote to reform the university’s sexual assault policy in a referendum vote today. [Chicago Maroon]
Dr. James E. Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Science, spoke to students about the urgency of climate change and the necessity for serious action at Cornell University on Monday. [Cornell Daily Sun]
Students running in the Take Steps for Kids 5K race at Washington University Saturday raised $3,750 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri. [Student Life]

The Functioning NLRB's First Case!

Jake Blumgart — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:22:33 EDT

Hat tip to Jeffery Hirsh at the Workplace Prof blog:

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is alive, alive I say! Several jolts of electricity, er, recess appointments later the NLRB is resurrected from its deadened state, and ready to tackle its first case.

First, some background. Prior to late March the board sat with two members, one liberal and one conservative, staring at each other across a stack of ever growing cases. It was an awkward situation, as one might imagine. Since the beginning of the Reagan administration the Board has operated with three members matching the partisan persuasion of the president, and two in the opposition. But during Obama’s first term in office, conservative senators placed holds on the NLRB nominees, accusing them (well, one of them) of radicalism and union-favoritism. They specifically targeted Craig Becker, who had been a lawyer for SEIU and the AFL-CIO—and while it is true that he will most likely be sympathetic to organized labor, that hardly sets him apart from the Bush NLRB appointments who were slavishly indebeted to the business side of things. After a lot of cynical maneuvering (during Becker’s second Senate hearing he was asked over 400 questions, more than Sonia Sotomayor), and a losing vote to break the filibuster against him (52-33, with the majority voting to confirm him), Obama simply appointed Becker and Mark Pearce, the other progressive nominee, during a Congressional recess. He neglected to appoint the conservative nominee, Brian Hayes, who had initially been shut down along with Becker (Obama put the three up for a package vote).

So after all this partisan back-and-forth the NLRB is finally ready and capable to tackle such world-altering problems as….a jurisdictional dispute between an Electrical Workers (IBEW) local and a Laborers (LIUNA) local over “the installation of highway signalized traffic control systems” upon a particular stretch of highway in Butler County, Ohio. Truly, a case to shake the very pillars of Christendom, someone should alert Glenn Beck. (The IBEW won, by the way.) I don’t mean to belittle the case, as it was surely extremely important to those directly involved. But like the majority of the NLRB’s work it was a relatively minor, and it should have been cleared very soon after it came up. Instead it languished while Senate conservatives wailed and moaned about Big Labor and the Union Bosses. Ugh.

The Problem with Fembots

Lisa V. Gillespie — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:48:46 EDT

I will never forget a conversation with my 12-year-old cousin three Christmas' ago. I was fresh from college, with A Cyborg Manifesto, Audre Lorde, and Judith Butler on my mind. We were in my room, away from the “adults,” when I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. “A Playboy bunny.”

She said that it seemed like a lot of fun and she wouldn't have to work. This was at the height of “The Girls Next Door,” the show chronicling the lives of Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends, which I enjoyed on a pure entertainment level, but had no sense of relating it to my life in a day-to-day way as my little cousin seemed to have done.

After reading an examination on the rise of the Fembot, those Barbie-like real-life women who have endured so much plastic surgery and hours at the gym that they no longer look quite normal, I wondered what their impact was beyond hogging airtime from natural women.

What's the big deal.

The memory of the conversation with my cousin came to mind. Ah, that's the big deal. Young women who lack the parental guidance (or even have it, but don't have enough information to combat that image of slim thighs and large breasts) watch television and read magazines where these Fembots are shown leading luxurious lives. And they want to be them. At least, my cousin wanted to be Kendra Wilkinson. She didn't see any problem with it. She didn't see a problem with getting breast implants at 18, becoming an object for the desire of a much older man, not working, living with two other women (who just happen to also be having sex with that much older man), and having her only stressor be planning a party for the much older man.

This is the problem with the Fembots. Young women want to be them. Unless there is a strong woman figure to balance that picture of what a woman ought to be, those young women grow up and attempt to be those Fembots. It's making a big jump from the Fembot to the causes of the pay gap for women, but I think they just might be connected. A young woman watches years of Kim Kardashians and Kendra Wilkinsons being all timid around men, living off their bodies and not asserting their power in any of the right ways, and then they go into the workplace without a feminist theory class in college. They don't know how to ask for a raise. They don't advocate for themselves. That same passive, take-care-of-me attitude comes flaring up. One year out of college, women earn 80% of what men earn. There are many factors to this, but I think the rise of the Fembot has something to do with it; they certainly do not help the situation.

Last Christmas I saw my cousin again. She seemed really excited to see me and wanted to know all about my life in D.C. and what working was really like. I asked if she had any thoughts on what she wanted to be when she grows up. She mentioned wanting to go to college and then veterinary school.

I don't know if my pep talk and subsequent phone calls made any difference. I hope I am setting an example for her, or at least presenting another option of womanhood than Kendra Wilkinson does.

Republicans Confront the Problem of "Backroom Deals" by Eschewing All Policy During Campaign

Pema Levy — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:28:32 EDT

If the title of this post doesn't make sense to you, then you actually get it.

It's probably one of the unfortunate facts of our political dialogue, but we love to talk about elections while skirting more substantive policy discussions. This tendency must favor Republicans, mostly because they don't have any policy to talk about.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the efforts both Democrats and Republicans are putting into recruiting young voters in the upcoming midterms. When I called Democrats, they talked policy (HCR, SAFRA, repealing DADT, and so on). When I called Republicans, they had big ideas (responsibility) but no specific policies to support, besides the ambiguous umbrella of "deficit reduction." When I visited their websites, I found Democrats had platforms and issues conspicuously absent on the RNC's site. I attributed this, in part, to the fact that Republicans wanted to appeal to more socially liberal Millennials by de-emphasizing cultural issues. But as it turns out, this is really a party-wide decision, not something College Republicans are doing alone. As the election approaches, Republicans have decided to draft a document, a sort of Contract With America 2.0 modeled on Republicans' successful 1994 Midterm effort. Only this time, there won't be any actual proposals in it.

The obvious explanation is that Republicans really don't mind the status quo and so don't really have any suggestions for fixing it. Republicans don't want financial regulation reform, because they are getting good money from Wall Street to fight it. They didn't want health care, and repealing HCR isn't tenable either. They don't want to make immigration more humane or practical, many don't want to repeal DADT. In fact, none of their goals can be easily spun as a savory campaign promise, so they have resorted to themes: make government smaller, reduce the deficit, return fiscal responsibility (it's important to remember that these aren't actually policies but rather vague themes Republicans don't actually adhere to but generally insinuate cutting social spending like Medicare).

Since you can't campaign on cutting Medicare but only push it through as part of legislation by a different name (see Rep. Paul Ryan's health care plan), Republicans have come up with a really lame excuse for entering an election cycle while refusing to actually say what they will do if you vote them into power. Via Politico:

But Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who is leading the effort to craft the document, says that including specific legislation in the contract would smack of the backroom deals the GOP accuses Democrats of making, so “you won’t see it written out.”

Campus Informer: YouTube Stars Speak at Columbia, “Mythbusters” Receive Humanism Award

Rebecca Foerg-Spittel — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:56:27 EDT

The YouTube stars collectively known as Wong Fu Productions spoke at Columbia University about the popularity of their satirical videos and the need for an accurate representation of Asians in media.[Columbia Daily Spectator]
Dr. Steven Koonin, undersecretary at the Department of Energy, spoke about global energy challenges and the DOE’s goals at Cornell University on Friday. [Cornell Daily Sun]
The African Student Association at the University of Minnesota hosted the 12th annual African Night Saturday, celebrating the theme “Back to Our Roots” with song, dance, and story. [Minnesota Daily]
Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of “Mythbusters” were awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism at Harvard University Friday for defending logic and humanist values on their show. [Harvard Crimson]
Students and representatives from 33 universities and 42 non-profits came together at Northwestern University last week for the five-day Northwestern Global Engagement Summit, where they discussed their environmental projects. [Daily Northwestern]

Supreme Court to Hear Oral Argument in Student Organization Case Today

Andrew Bluebond — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:07:21 EDT

The makeup of on campus religious groups might be getting a shakeup when the U.S. Supreme Court decides Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the case it will today, Monday, April 19.

The case comes from University of California’s Hastings Law School in San Francisco where the Christian Legal Society, a national organization that aims to “proclaim, love and serve Jesus Christ through the study and practice of law,” refused to admit gay students and non-believers into its leadership. The club wants to retain the official stamp of approval from the school, which entitles it to access to school facilities and student activity fees as well as the right to use the Hastings name and logo.

Hastings argues that the group is asking for special treatment in violation of the school’s nondiscrimination policy. According to the brief, “A group may abide by the school's viewpoint-neutral open-membership policy and obtain the modest funding and benefits that go along with school recognition, or forgo recognition and do as it wishes."

White House Memo Extends Hospital Visitation Rights to Same-Sex Partners

Emily Rutherford — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:39:56 EDT

My friends at Princeton's feminist blog Equal Writes alerted me to some big news coming out of the White House yesterday afternoon: a presidential memorandum which orders hospitals receiving Medicare/Medicaid funding (that's basically all hospitals) to allow patients to designate visitors other than immediate family members:

There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean -- a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them.

Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides -- whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives -- unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.

The memo goes on, and you can read it all here, but it's important to pause for a moment and reflect what a big deal hospital visitation rights are for LGBT Americans. From my point of view as a student of the history of gender and sexuality, this is a particularly potent reminder of strides that the US government has made with regard to LGBT rights—not quite thirty years ago, when the AIDS epidemic first hit and was vastly disproportionately affecting gay men, there was of course no such directive from the White House requiring hospitals to respect the wishes of their patients. And as recently as 2007, as the New York Times noted in its article on the subject, a Florida hospital denied a woman the right to be with her partner and their four children in her final moments. These are the sort of astonishing matters of life-and-death in which, hopefully, LGBT Americans will no longer be treated as second-class citizens.

What I also find remarkable about this memorandum is that Obama found a way to respect the rights of LGBT Americans without getting entangled in the marriage equality tug-of-war. Just as you don't have to be married to someone to give them power of attorney, you shouldn't have to be married to designate someone able to visit you in intensive care. I'm optimistic that this is a pattern the federal government can follow without needing to put all their eggs in the marriage basket or to wait for individual states to fight back against the National Organization for Marriage on that front.