the Sam Jackson College Experience

First this evening, students beat people up because they aren’t allowed to have student union elections! If only people were as enthusiastic at student council.

Students beat prof to death in Ujjain
CNN-IBN Aug 26, 2006

Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Despite efforts to clean up student union elections and to rid it of the violence and corruption associated with it, the ugly side of student politics reared its head when Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists in Madhya Pradesh allegedly beat a professor in Ujjain to death.

Professor L M Sabharwal and two of his colleagues of Government Madhav College, Ujjain, were beaten up by ABVP activists who were angry with the cancellation of elections in the college.

The elections were cancelled as certain committees had not been formed in the college. However, ABVP activists insisted that the polls had been called off at the instance of Congress affiliated-National Students Union of India leaders.

ABVP activists allegedly took the entire college hostage refusing to let any students go home, despite the fact that the principal of the college had given the students leave for the day.

Classic case of “someone beaten to death, mysterious circumstances, police account conflicts with prevailing public recollection of fact.” Woo! Reminds me of my big history paper on the 1968 Columbia student riots, only no one died there.

On a lighter note…

Students told `Yale Shmale’ : Lakehead unveils edgy PR campaign
Toronto Star ~ Daniel Girard

Consider it a weapon of mass attraction.

Lakehead University is poking fun at U.S. President George W. Bush and his Ivy League alma mater in an edgy new guerrilla marketing campaign intended to lure students to its Thunder Bay campus.

Dubbed “Yale Shmale,” the $100,000 promotion features an image of Bush — Yale University, Class of 1968 — on posters that will be plastered on construction sites and other outdoor locations across the Greater Toronto Area.

“Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart,” reads the second of two posters set for release, “Choosing Lakehead does.”

“We believe the person you become after you graduate is even more important than the person you were when you enrolled,” it reads in reference to Bush, whose policies have made him one of the world’s most controversial figures.

“Go to a university that cares how well you do after you leave.”

Interesting marketing touch! Nice ring to it, a little bit, if slightly unoriginal. We’ll have to see how that goes.