Campus CrossWalk Magazine: 2004 Fall Issue -- Tracking Trends: News You Can Use

The number one ranked academic school in America is the University of Chicago according to the Princeton Review’s annual survey of 100,000 students at “the best” 357 colleges and universities in America. The top five “party schools” (in order) were SUNY at Albany, Washington and Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison, West Virginia University and Ohio University-Athens. Pepperdine was ranked Number one as having the “best on-campus housing” and was also ranked 11^th as a place where students are “most likely to pray.”
(http://www.princetonreview.com/research/rankings).
Mel Gibson’s “The Passion” is the year’s biggest movie money-maker at $609 million in worldwide ticket sales since it was released in February according to the New York Times. Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911,” the most popular feature-length “documentary” ever, had sales of $80.1 million in just its first three weeks. ("http://www.newsmax.com", 7/13/04).
A new type of ultrasound scan has produced vivid pictures of a 12 week-old fetus “walking in the womb” and can be viewed on the BBC News World Edition website. Professor Stuart Campbell at London’s Create Health Clinic has pioneered scans which “uncover secrets of the womb” that are much more detailed than conventional ultrasound.
("http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3846525.stm").
Students often complain about college expenses. However, the $32,000 tuition this year at a private school like Columbia University covers “only 50% of the cost to educate a student” (not including travel, living expenses, housing or books). Universities make up the difference from alumni contributions, grants and investments. (Los Angeles Times, 8/11/04).
Under current IRS law, houses of worship are strictly limited in their ability to speak to the moral issues of the day, since the issues can be seen as political. However, Bill Thomas (R-CA), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives, has obstructed legislation (H.R. 235) that would have allowed religious leaders to educate their flock on the moral issues of the day, whether considered political or not without threat of action from the IRS. (SMTP:frepul@fre.org, 6/25/04).
The Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act (signed into law by President Bush last year) was declared unconstitutional by U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in San Francisco recently. Hamilton stated “The act poses an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose an abortion.” The ruling applies to Planned Parenthood clinics and their doctors, who perform roughly half of the abortions in America. (aol.svcnews.aol.com, 6/1/04).
Colleges may be allowing minority and financially needy students to fall between the cracks according to a recent report by the Education Trust. The report; “A Matter of Degrees: Improving Graduation Rates in Four-Year Colleges and Universities,” says that “less than half of all full-time black students and less than half of all full-time Hispanic students who attend four-year colleges graduate within six years. (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/27/04).
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (the court that struck down “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance) has now decided that Idaho’s law requiring parental consent before a minor obtains an abortion is unconstitutional. (SMTP:frepub@fre.org, 7/22/04).
“Did Mohammed really have a 9-year-old wife?” This question was asked by two students in a Christian school near Lahore, Pakistan. The instructor, Parvez Masih, graciously mentioned her name “Alisha” and told them “to look in the Koran.” Because of the answer the teacher gave the students Masih was arrested and accused of “blasphemy” against Mohammed by the Pakistan government and has now been imprisoned over three years for “truthfully answering a simple question about Mohammed.” He has not yet been sentenced. ("http://www.newsmax.com", 7/15/04).
The typical television viewer watched “nearly five hours of TV each day in 2003” according to Communications Industry Forecast and Report which is up 2.4% from the previous year. Radio listners had an increase of 1.2% or a total of 1,002 hours a year in 2002. Video/DVD consumers spent some 70 hours in 2003 watching prerecorded home videos while estimating a growth to 103 hours by 2007. The average consumer of all media (including computers) found us spending 3,663 hours a year engaged in media and 10 hours a day. (USA Today, 8/10/04).
States increased financial aid to college students again last year to make up for rising tuition rates and declining appropriations, the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs reported. “The total -- nearly $6.9 billion -- was up 9 percent from the year before.” (The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 26, 2004).
A group called Americans United for the Separation of Church and State wants the IRS to investigate the Catholic diocese of Colorado Springs because of a pastoral letter sent last month by its bishop<, Bishop Michael Sheridan. The letter “defines abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia and same-sex marriage as intrinsically evil and says that a Catholic can not be in full communion with the church and support these issues.”
(SMTP:frepub@frc.org).
Tupac Shkur, one time gangsta rapper, has his posthumously published book of poems being used in a public middle school in Worcester, Massachusetts as well in Palm Beach County, Florida. Worchester’s Michael O’Sullivan, member of the school’s reading committee said (supporting the use of Shkur’s book) “Reading counterculture in schools, and to get kids to read anything that is not completely objectionable, is the goal.” (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 7/05/04).
Anthony Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice, belittled Americans for their anti-homosexual views when the court’s decision forced our states to accept a right to sodomy. Kennedy pointed to Europe as a model when he and the Supreme Court majority wrote against anti-sodomy laws which “have been rejected by the European Court of Human Rights.” (“Family Research Council Newsletter,” April, 2004).

Rick Rowland, D.Min.. is a professor in Speech Communication at Pepperdine University and has taught courses in Campus Ministry for 25 years. Rick is the External Campus Ministry / Young Adult leader for the Murrieta Church of Chrust serving students at Mt. San Jacinto College in California.