That’s the video of a Maryland student getting brutally beaten by police officers after Maryland beat Duke in basketball about a month ago. The student, who may have been antagonistic and/or drunk, was nonetheless physically docile. The cops were not.

This could happen anywhere where police don’t know there’s a camera watching. It’ll be interesting to see how Towson and other universities respond. This kind of thing just can’t happen. It’s simply unacceptable. TUPD ought to speak up soon.

Both tickets for SGA elections have been loud on the pavement.

Is this too much inundation from student politicians, or just free speech?

Facebook: the easiest way to get into trouble in the 21st century.

And apparently, you don’t even have to say anything wrong, as a professor from East Stroudsburg University, Gloria Gadsden, found  out.  She wrote after a long day on her status that she “didn’t want to kill even one student.” Funny? Perhaps, but not to ESU admin.  She was put on administrative leave for a month.

Administrators remain unaffected by sarcasm, so if you wrote it on your Facebook page, dammit, YOU MEANT IT. And then you’ll be suspended indefinitely.

Students receive "Gay? Fine by me" T-shirts at a giveaway April 5 at the Speaker's Circle. Photo by Pete Lorenz.

Towson University scores 3.5 stars out of 5 on the Campus Climate Index, a tool to assess college campuses’ LGBT-related policies and environment.  Towson scores best on LGBT student life and LGBT counseling & health, but it scores fairly low on the subcategory campus safety. Back at the “Gay? Fine by me” T-shirt giveaway, Bryce Edwards said  Towson could score a little better on CCI, and that such an improvement would help the university in the long run.

“A lot of LGBT students look at that when they’re looking at schools,” Edwards said of CCI. “Towson doesn’t score very high on that, so this [event] is one step in that direction.”

Edwards said that the shirts can help to create an environment that makes life more comfortable for LGBT students at Towson.

“I know for me, seeing people walk around in those shirts makes me feel better, more comfortable,” Edwards said.

The new sexual misconduct policy at Duke University has crossed the line. The FIRE alerted me to this potentially problematic policy, which at one point states that “real or perceived power differentials between individuals may create an unintentional atmosphere of coercion.”

Perceived power differentials? What on earth does that mean? More importantly, what on earth COULD that mean in the eyes of someone who wants to get an enemy into trouble.

This policy leaves a whole lot to the discretion of a school board, and in today’s world, that makes me nervous. In general, discretionary policy seems like a good idea. However, in a university atmosphere where rape is considered a mortal sin (for good reason) and where a lot of other things go by the book, it’s easy to see an administrator taking anything that falls under “perceived power differential” (i.e. pretty much any professor-student relationship) as an automatic offense.

Watch out, Duke profs. While you’re lecturing about the history of European economies, the student in the front row might think you’re coming on to him or her.

Bradley Bolin helps distribute shirts at the Speaker's Circle. Photo by Pete Lorenz

Earlier in the semester, I blogged about the “Gay? Fine by me” T-shirts worn by students all over campus, and how it’s a positive influence and a display of free speech at the same time.

Well, on Monday, the Queer Student Union was at it again, this year in the Speaker’s Circle. Several members of the organization donated their time to hand out shirts sporting the slogan, and the line backed up into Hawkins Hall. Senior Bradley Bolin, an outspoken proponent for gay rights on Towson’s campus, was part of the team giving shirts away to interested students. He said the yearly event is important for Towson, because it isn’t very demanding of money or time.

“It’s an easy way to get involved,” Bolin said. “You just put on a shirt; everyone wears a shirt. It’s colorful, it’s easy to do and it has a strong message.”

Natalie Sheppard, a freshman mass communication student, got in line to get a “Gay? Fine by me” shirt after her class in Smith Hall was over.

“I feel like it gets people aware of people of other sexual orientations,” Sheppard said after receiving her shirt. “It’s one thing to have a seminar, but to see a shirt makes a stronger statement.”

The shirts, which are available Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., have traditionally been quite successful.

“We always run out,” Bolin said. “That means it’s necessary. That means people need it.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIpCJOU9w24

After the armed robbery that occurred in Glen Tower B this week, school officials have responded by saying that while there will be no increase in security as a direct result of the incident, the planned increase in security for future residence halls will continue as planned.

However, not all students think that tighter security is the answer. Given that the robbery has been speculated to be drug-related and that the victims were targeted, Kathryn Scalfari, a resident of Tower B, said she doesn’t think it would be worth the trouble to increase security to a level that would actually prevent incidents like this one from happening.

“I feel like they pretty much do everything they can,” Scalfari said. “You can’t prevent somebody from bringing a gun in unless they have, like, metal detectors or something.”

Junior Andrew Grogg, who has in the past worked as a CC attendant in Richmond Hall, shared those sentiments. He said that if the administration tried any harder to keep residence halls secure, it could result in a “police state” type of atmosphere.

“Imagine having to get your ID checked and bags searched by a security guard every time you walk in,” Grogg said. “Sometimes, this is hard to prevent.”

Dieringer said that one of the prevention methods that Housing and Residence Life is undertaking is installing more security cameras, including in the hallways pointed at every door. However, Grogg said that might be a breach in privacy.

“[Cameras] only should be at the entrances and exits of buildings, not on actual floors with residents.”

What do you think? Should there be tighter security? Are cameras in dormitory hallways an appropriate means to achieve such security?

The big health care legislation passed the other day, and it won’t affect anybody for another few years. So why am I posting about it?

Because it raises a huge question: is health care a human right?

There are two types of rights generally considered in sociology/philosphy: there are positive rights and there are negative rights. Positive rights are those which you are given by an authority; material gifts guaranteed to you just for being human. Healthcare would fall under this category, as would the right to education, etc.

Negative rights are those which you already have and are guaranteed NOT to have taken away. Free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and reproductive rights would fall under this category. Guns go either way; in the context of the second amendment, the right to bear arms is a negative right, since the government isn’t handing anyone weapons. The amendment simply states that they cannot be seized.

This country, originally, was founded on the basis of promoting negative rights only. It was only later that politicians began enforcing more and more positive rights, for better or for worse. So healthcare, whether you support it or not, is not the same kind of right as those upon which the United States was founded. It’s just different. It’s a positive right.

At Towson University, once we enter into the school’s pact by paying tuition, we are essentially guaranteed basic healthcare at Dowell Health Center.

But how many good stories have you heard from there? Sometimes it’s a mess. More often than not, in the experiences of people I know, it makes patients worse.

Not to vilify Dowell; it’s also somewhat of a learning institution, but it doesn’t make me feel like I’m going to get healthy, even though, it’s “guaranteed.” Let’s be careful about the rhetoric we throw around in the healthcare debate.

We’d all love for stories like this to never happen at Towson. A couple of guys broke into a dorm room in Glen Tower B and, armed with a crowbar and handgun, robbed the room’s two residents. What a shame.

Especially in the long run for students here who will have to deal with the long-term consequences of this event.

We’re going to hear two huge points in response: We need tougher gun restrictions on campus, and we need tighter dorm security. But those won’t help; all they’ll do is make life harder for TU students.

It’s quite likely that the two perpetrators aren’t even Towson students. They knew where to go to find some rich kids with stuff to steal. That’s it. We couldn’t have stopped them from getting the firearm they purchased on the black market. Which leaves us with tighter security.

But that won’t help either, in long-term results. Could those two men have been stopped from entering? Perhaps. But at what cost? We’ve all seen what happens when a residence hall ups the security for a brief period. It’s absolutely maddening, and it’s frankly unfair for residents to be hassled every time they just want to go home.

Do you think there ought to be significantly tighter security in residence halls?

Another case of a university trying to limit free speech to a small zone.

While I’ve said before that I understand the plight of an institution trying to promote order, boxing in free speech isn’t the way to do it. In fact, boxed-in speech isn’t even “free.” It’s restricted. Very restricted

Tarrant Community College, in Ft. Worth, Texas, tried doing it, too. A lawsuit was filed, and TCC lost. A big win for freedom of speech.

We see it at Towson all the time. There are more restrictions at places other than the free speech zones. There’s not much to say other than that if a college is going to do it, that institution should tell it like it is: they provide only res

Tarrant Community College, Texas.

tricted speech and expression as a side effect of an attempt at an orderly educational environment.