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Black on Campus has a pair of new posts up on the issue of alcohol consumption on campus, and they’re both well worth reading.
First, there’s a quick overview of the situation, and an endorsement of lowering the drinking age back to 18. Dr. Mance argues that “the current prohibition policy for drinkers under the age of 21 encourages an illicit alcohol culture, and one that is characterized by the same excesses and extremes (and denial) that accompany any illicit activity.” (Mance also links to Choose Responsibility, a drinking-age reform group that arose out of college administrators’ frustration with the status quo.)
The second post explores the fact that drinking rates are lower among black college students than among white students, and lower still among students at historically black colleges and universities. The post concludes with a provocative quote from a black student leader on the relationship between binge drinking and bias crime.
Ken Blackwell, a candidate for chairman of the Republican National Committee, is calling for the RNC to devote “unprecedented” financial resources to the College Republicans “to build vibrant College Republican chapters on every major university campus in the nation.”
The president of Carnegie Mellon’s College Republican chapter is telling him not to bother.
Throwing money at the College Republicans “will do nothing to win over young voters,” says Aaron Marks, and it may actually make things worse.
Until the GOP starts conducting more thoughtful outreach efforts, running younger candidates, and letting go of demographically toxic positions such as opposition to gay marriage, he says, it will never win the youth vote.
The Rutgers Daily Targum may take a financial hit soon, if the university enacts a student senate proposal to allow students to opt out of paying the fee that funds it.
The Targum is independent of the university and the student government, but receives about a third of its funding from a $9.75 per student per semester designated fee. Currently, students can request a refund of the newspaper fee at the end of the semester, but the student senate proposal would allow them to opt out in advance by checking a box when they pay their tuition bill.
The newspaper’s editor says that about one half of one percent of students currently opt out, and that if the check-box system caused that figure to rise as high as ten percent, the paper would likely be forced to eliminate one edition per week, ending its run as a daily newspaper.
The Targum is one of two organizations on the Rutgers campus funded through such a designated fee. The other, the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG), already has an opt-out check-box provision.
Rutgers’ president is expected to make a decision after the end of the semester.
studentactivism.net 
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