Frozen in San Diego

From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

Student Government Freezes Funds for Student Media at UC-San Diego

The student government president at the University of California at San Diego temporarily froze funding for all student-financed media operations on the campus after members of a student media group made racially charged comments on a broadcast, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The incident, which was the second involving derogatory comments about black students in a matter of weeks, led the president of the student government to freeze student funding for all media outlets while the campus drafts a new policy on funding student media. The Guardian, the student newspaper, which does not receive student fee support, blasted the decision in an editorial entitled "Stopping the Presses Won't Heal the Hurt."

Meanwhile, at the Chronicle of Higher Ed:

Student Media Groups at UC-San Diego Lose Funds Amid Controversy Over Race and Speech

The head of the student government at the University of California at San Diego has temporarily suspended funds for all of the university's student-run media outlets after a broadcast prompted new outrage in a controversy over a party mocking Black History Month, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The broadcast was produced by The Koala, a controversial campus humor magazine, and aired over the student-run television station last Thursday. The freeze on funds, which affects 33 student media outlets, has in turn prompted complaints of muzzling free speech. Utsav Gupta, the student-government president, said he wanted the campus to craft a new policy for student media groups before lifting the freeze.

Also in IHE:

Merced Bans Chancellor-Mocking Art From Exhibit

The University of California at Merced has banned from an art exhibit a student's series of photographs that mock Chancellor Steve Kang, the Associated Press reported. The photos, among other things, show the chancellor speaking into a microphone that has been covered with a condom. University officials said that the art exhibit is billed as a family event and that this series was inappropriate. A video by the student, showing and explaining her work, may be found here. She writes: "My piece is a reflection of the torn feelings students face when discovering themselves. It outlines the ability to love two different campus idols: Steve Kang, our chancellor, and Lady Gaga, a pop idol."

And at the always entertaining OC Reg:

School board adopts patriotic policies

FULLERTON - All high school classrooms in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District will display the American flag and hold a patriotic activity on a daily basis after a 5-0 vote Tuesday by district trustees.

The new policies were researched and developed by an eight-member student advisory council in the past four months.

"The whole goal of these policies is for students to have an appreciation for the country we live in, and for all our freedoms," said Amanda Wong, the district's student board member – and a senior at Sunny Hills High School – who led the council effort.

A handful of students and residents complained to the board last July that the district wasn't following the state Education Code, and urged trustees to adopt a written policy.
. . .
"Our fear was that if the (Pledge of Allegiance) were recited every day, we could lose touch with the students," Wong said. "So, we decided that period of time could also be used to read a quote from one of our presidents, read a patriotic passage, discuss the meaning of words in the pledge or hold a moment of silence.
. . .
Ultimately, the council decided those students who chose not to participate must remain silent, Wong said….

"The angriest group of captive customers to be found anywhere"

.....The college textbook industry, while not abandoning traditional books, seems to be moving toward e-books, i.e., online subscriptions that give students access to a book for a semester or two. So says an article in this morning’s New York Times (First It Was Song Downloads. Now It’s Organic Chemistry.).
.....According to the article, the “digital transition” is tough for all book publishers, but it is especially tough for the college textbook crowd because students have zero sympathy for publishers and they’re often more than willing to rip ‘em off. “College students may be the angriest group of captive customers to be found anywhere,” says the author.
.....Websites that specialize in providing digital versions of textbooks for free keep popping up. Publishers keep stamping ‘em out, but it isn’t easy.
.....The Times article focuses on a particular textbook—“Organic Chemistry” by John E. McMurry—which lists for $209.95 and is usually sold at the discount price of $150. That’s expensive, and students certainly see it that way. And so, increasingly, students opt for used books. In this case, a used copy goes for $110.
.....But the popularity of used textbooks reduces profits, and so prices go up and students are more inclined than ever to buy used.
.....E-books potentially could change all that. The e-book version of “Organic Chemistry” sells (rents?) for $109.99. Selling an e-book cuts out the middleman (the bookstore), since the sale is directly to students, and it reduces the number of used books at the end of the semester.

• • • • •

.....The issue of the high cost of textbooks has been simmering for years in the SOCCCD. Students grumble endlessly, though they seem to do nothing beyond grumbling and buying used texts. Student government sometimes speaks for students, but student government, in our district, has a stake in bookstore profits, since that is a major source of revenue for them. Trustees (e.g., Wagner, Fuentes) sometimes zero in on this student government gravy train, but that usually just pisses everybody off.
.....It’s too soon to tell whether this e-book innovation will amount to anything. After all, students might well regard the scheme as another publisher rip-off.
.....I kinda hope it works.

• • • • •

.....Lately, DtB has been discussing the sorry state of our democracy. In my opinion, there is nothing sorrier than that democratic institution known as student government, at least what I've seen of it at our colleges. Undoubtedly, some good kids pop up there, but mostly it’s just a very expensive joke run (typically) by manifestly self-serving jokers. Most students seem not even aware that student government exists. Knowing how painful the textbook cost problem is for students, and knowing that one reason for the problem is the status quo re student government, it is very hard to watch typically hapless student officers give budget reports at board meetings and not wonder: maybe we oughta just pull the goddam plug.
.....You know how much I hate to agree with the likes of Wagner and Fuentes. But, at the very least, student government ought to get out of the book selling business.