On Campus

What students are talking about today (Aug. 22 edition)

Dirty Dancing, a fireworks battle and spying on Muslims

Still from Dirty Dancing

1. It’s been quite a morning for celebrity gossip when Avril Lavigne’s engagement to Nickleback frontman Chad Kroeger can be overshadowed by… anything. But it has: Prince Harry was photographed naked in a Las Vegas hotel pool.

2. The rector of Sweden’s Karlstad University is defending a piece of art on a new library building emblazoned with Patrick Swayze’s famous line in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing. The $25,500 artwork says “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” The rector say it’s inspiring art. Professors say it’s stupid.

3. A young francophone wrote on Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois’ Facebook page that she was proud to have done her studies at an English CEGEP. She asked the leader to reconsider her proposal to keep Francophone students out of English colleges. “Its one of the best decisions that I took for my professional future and for my openness to the world,” wrote Tania Lefrançois. The post has 45,000 likes already. Many of them are from fellow francophones.

4. Students in a fraternity house in Ohio were charged on the weekend after police responded to a 5:30 a.m. fire alarm and found a young man shooting fireworks at the frat house across the street. It was an apparent “fireworks battle.” The students face marijuana charges and fire citations.

5. A more honourable fraternity at the University of British Columbia is angry that the university’s parking authority will charge them $714 to rent a parking lot for a charity ball-hockey tournament for the Canadian Cancer Foundation. Delta Kappa Epsilon used the space for free last year. The parking authority, which had $1-million deficit in 2011, says it’s simply enforcing a rule.

6. Olympic swimming champ Ryan Lochte has already appeared on the TV show 90210. Now he’s rumoured to be considering Dancing with the Stars and he also told Jay Leno he wouldn’t rule out a stint on The Bachelor. Apparently TV producers haven’t seen this reel of Lochte interviews.

7. A train derailed on a Maryland bridge killing two college students. The two 19-year-old women posted photos and comments on Twitter shortly before the crash. “Drinking on top of the Ellicott City sign with @r0se–petals,” wrote one of them, referring her friend’s Twitter handle. A very sad event.

8. A history professor says John A. Macdonald was a white supremacist. You be the judge.

9. The head of the British Broadcasting Corporation has objected to a statue of George Orwell being erected on its property because the Nineteen Eighty-Four author was “too Left-wing.” The BBC, like our own public broadcaster, is trying to shield itself from accusations of political bias.

10. In more than six years of spying on Muslim communities, the New York Police Department admits its surveillance never generated a single lead or terrorism investigation. The police and CIA tracked where Muslims lived, shopped, worked and prayed. They even infiltrated student groups.

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.