Advocate Online

They're Talking On Campus. . .

. . .About a series of student campsites that sprang up on campuses during the last part of April, combining protests against higher education funding cuts and higher fees with opposition to the Iraq war.

“Tent State University” was launched at Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, three years ago and runs for one week every spring. It has now spread to 15 campuses across the United States, aiming to radicalize a new generation of students.

The organizers have linked students’ concerns about university funding cuts and soaring tuition fees—the TSU motto is “alumnus brokus maximus”—to the Iraq war, arguing that war is costing billions of dollars that should be used for education.

. . .About a study showing that conservative and liberal students do equally well in courses with politically charged content.

The study found no difference in the grades conservative and liberal students receive in sociology, cultural anthropology, and women’s studies courses. It also found that conservative students tend to earn higher grades than their liberal classmates in business and economics courses.

“What’s in a Grade? Academic Success and Political Orientation,” a four-year longitudinal study, began in the late 1990s and surveyed 3,890 students at a major public university in the Midwest.