Student elections are over.  (Finally)

Who’d you vote for and why?

Anonymity guaranteed.

Friday, the Rocky Mountain Collegian out of Colorado State University published this on their Opinion page:

TASER THIS. F*** BUSH.

The four-word editorial was intended to ignite a debate about free speech according to editor-in-chief J. David McSwane. As you can imagine, the story hit Drudge and was featured on Rush Limbaugh yesterday. And according to a local news station, McSwane is close to losing his job.

The Collegian, like The Daily Illini is an independent publication that receives no University funding. So while administrators have no direct power over any of the operators or editors of the paper, they can use that newsy term you hear about in those COMM classes: Flak.

While everyone generally agrees that this paper had every constitutional right to print that, the debate is whether they should have printed that. Personally, I say no. Why?

The UF Taser incident and President Bush had very little in common. It just didn’t make sense to put them together. Secondly, they made the mistake of using President Bush as their target. This is what made the conservative media care about it in the first place. Surely, if they believe that they are the David to the liberal media Goliath, then they agree with the Collegian editors’ right to publish that. But that’s not a ratings grabber. Instead, they get to use this as an excuse to bash academia and the press as being too-liberal. The point is that by introducing a partisan-figure into the argument, they’ve muddied the waters of the debate and incurred the wrath of a great deal more people than they needed to. It’s not about free speech anymore, it’s about politics.

Third, if they want to talk about free speech, talk about something more substantive. How about Columbia University’s decision to let Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak at its campus next week? How about Ward Churchill? How about China’s lack of free speech? Or more appropriately, why didn’t they talk about FCC obscenity regulations? Why are newspapers allowed to print 4-letter words but radio and TV stations can be fined or have their licenses revoked if they utter them on the air?

Newspapers, especially college newspapers, make mistakes. That’s why they exist, for people to learn. I don’t disagree with The Collegian’s ideals, but they should choose their methods more wisely next time.

On Wednesday, there will be a protest on the Quad against Chancellor Herman’s Inclusive Illinois initiative. The Facebook event announcing it says that “Racism , Power, and Privilege @ UIUC. FORUM 2007″ is the host.

Titled “Take Back the Union!”, its tagline is “because racism, power and privilege didn’t begin or end with the chief halftime dances”
The organizers are against the “business as usual” behavior from the administration.

Some excerpts from their grievances:

“-It’s starting an “Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund” -Link addition is mine
-Its not providing safe spaces and resources for undocumented students and workers.
-It’s continuing to allow companies with horrible working condition and poor labor rights to produce U of I apparel
-Its continuing the culture of silence by refusing to have transparent decision making processes
-Its allowing government units and groups to recruit on campus that are currenty involved in the colonization, exploitation, and extraction of resources from the third world”

Initial thoughts? I’ll probably have some reaction tomorrow.

A reader sent this into me last night about 9PM and I awake this morning to find it at the top of Drudge, YouTube and most of the major news websites.

You may remember this incident in which a UCLA student was tasered multiple times in the school library.It seems that in this case, Senator Kerry finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s announced that he will not run for President in 2008, but seek another term as Massachusetts’ junior Senator. It’s going to be interesting to see how he handles this incident, especially because of his high profile but also because he’s a former district attorney.But I suppose the big question at the moment is whether the police were justified in their actions. Post your thoughts.

For those unaware, an engineering higher up sent an email Saturday to all electrical engineers that had an Excel spreadsheet of 5300 engineer’s names, GPA’s, racial identity, campus address, and campus phone number.

?? Yeah, exactly.

My big question: is everyone happy with their favorite columnist’s GPA? Unlike most people, I keep my racial identity to myself on all documents and apparently I lacked even a campus address whenever Linnmeyer (currently leading the pack for most boneheaded act of the academic year) compiled her list. I’m getting off easy compared to people who are not enthusiastic about their GPA’s and would rather not share their addresses that readily.

Yes, most of the info in the spreadsheet (address and phone number) is readily available to the campus by other means, but that undermines the fundamental facts. Ms. Linnmeyer needs to go. This is an egregious violation without precedent (to my 5 years of campus experience) and a rather public disclosure of rather personal information. At least her list lacked vital information like Social Security numbers. That would be really bad.

Still, I demand to know what that list was doing on that woman’s computer. For what purpose did she have those 5300 names compiled? Are we on a campus watch list for potential vigilantes? Is it the 5300 most beautiful people in engineering? Was this list put together by Banner or a special hand-assembled project (hint: it better be the former else the CoE has some explaining to do)?

I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason for this list to exist. Yet somehow, I cannot understand how someone could accidentally send it to a large number of students. When I screw up email attachments (a frequent occurrence), it’s usually by not attaching anything, not attaching 5300 people’s personal info. Unless there’s some very justifiable explanation (random computer virus comes to mind), this is an unacceptable use of our personal information. How can we hope to have a respectable global campus when we can’t even send out emails properly?

The Daily Illini has learned that The Daily Show will broadcast a segment that was filmed at the University of Illinois last week.

The segment deals with the Chief Illiniwek controversey and features Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi along with several U of I students.

The Daily Illini was lucky enough to send a photographer to It’s Brothers! where part of the segment was filmed. The bar will be holding a special viewing session tonight. You can view photos from the shoot here.

Once the segment airs, I will post the Comedy Central Motherload clip if it becomes available. Otherwise, get your YouTube on. If you’ve got a reaction to the show, send your thoughts to opinions@dailyillini.com and I will post them up here if I can’t fit them in the two print issues I have left.

Update: Comedy Central has the video up. Yes, that’s former DI columnist Jack McMillan.

Update #2: Motherload is notoriously difficult to work with. But luckily, it got posted on Youtube today. It will probably get taken down soon due to ongoing disagreements between Viacom (Comedy Central’s parent company) and Google (which bought YouTube this year) If you want to grab it before it’s gone, there are ways. Google is your friend.

Update #3: Youtube is now down and motherload still won’t embed properly, so here’s the direct link.

Today, I published a guest column from a nice guy named Nathan Vanhoudnos. After the VT shootings, he’s come up with a great idea to help campus be safer. He’s started a Facebook group and hopes to petition the administration to get a system established where they could send out text messages to thousands of people to warn them of danger like a potential VT situation.

I’m having trouble finding flaws in this idea and he addresses some concerns in the group. Hopefully, the ISS and the administration will get on this because this would be a great system to have.

If you support Nathan’s idea, join the group, write emails to administrators or as always, to opinions@dailyillini.com

According to a press release about two weeks ago, today marks the last day in which merchandise licensees will be able to place orders for products using the Chief Illiniwek logo.

So if you’ve been thinking springing for those Chief Illiniwek commemorative golf tees or wanted to pick up those keychains as stocking stuffers for the grandkids, be sure to go to the store today and see if they’re in stock. If they’re not, you have to place your order by end of business today. Otherwise, it’s off to eBay you go for that $200 bronze statue you’ve had your eye on at IUB for years.

So be sure to pick up your piece of history(or racism I guess, whatever floats your boat) today!

In the April 13 edition of The Daily Illini, a guest column by medical student Raymond Morales appeared. Morales had come forward earlier in the month during an ISS meeting and claimed responsibility for chalking the various KKK messages across campus. Most who saw the images felt a bevy of emotions ranging from fear, disgust, embarrassment and anger or were just downright puzzled. During the past month or so (which happened to correspond to the student elections) a major issue around campus was the use of spray-chalk by candidates. However, the story took on a new dimension with the introduction of the KKK. When all the spray-chalk proved to be immensely difficult to remove, most of campus was left to wonder who did all this. It got worse because the chalk persisted during one of the University’s biggest annual events, the Engineering Open House. Some of it can still be found today.

Unfortunately, not many people pay attention to the comings and goings of ISS. When Mr. Morales revealed himself and explained why he did it, few people heard him. And perhaps, some would rather have it stay that way. However, sometimes it is to everyone’s benefit to hear unpopular (enormously, I’d imagine) opinion. Unpopularity breeds debate and hopefully, debate leads to understanding.

While some will surely find Morales’ message revolting and infuriating, I believe removing the mystique around something as evil as the KKK is necessary for everyone to understand the climate in which one would be compelled to remind us of its existence. And while the argument can certainly be made that Morales’ is digging up old dirt, I do believe that it is healthy to continue the dialog between not only different ethnic groups, but also between the past and the present.

You can certainly disagree with Mr. Morales’ M.O. (I do.) but for better or worse, he got peoples’ attention without resorting to violence or breaking any laws and that’s to his credit.

Our job at The Daily Illini is to inform the campus community as best we can about as much as we can. The Opinions page, despite past controversy, is still one of the best places for the campus to express itself. While I do not personally agree with a fair amount of what I end up running each day, one thing this job teaches me constantly is that dissent is a virtue. This particular situation is no different.

The race debate in America shows no sign of slowing down. If you don’t believe me, Don Imus and the Duke Lacrosse team would like to have a word with you. While these controversies are far away, it is important to remember that there are still important issues to deal with here at home. If the publication of this column sparks a productive dialog during one of the most heated periods this institution has ever seen, then perhaps it will be worth weathering the angry reaction.

So please, send me a letter at opinions@dailyillini.com or leave a comment on this blog or on the column itself and we’ll take it from there.

According to signs up around the Union, the line to get into the BOT meeting will start at the north side promptly at 7 A.M. this morning.

With news of two Chief-related resolutions being added at the last minute, it’s safe to assume that this will not be your run of the mill gathering.

If you’re planning to attend today’s event or have already been, please share your thoughts about what went on. I would also like to remind you that if you have a laptop, you can access the wireless network almost anywhere in the building. Feel free to comment on things as they happen and I’ll try to keep up.

And once again, send your letters to opinions@dailyillini.com