News

News

AFL-CIO president discusses election

By Justin Van Der Horn | October 16

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney stressed the need for progressive politicians in light of the current economic crisis during a Kennedy Political Union event Tuesday night. Sweeney criticized President Bush's job development program as the worst since Herbert Hoover was president during the early years of the Great Depression.

---

News

Metro brief

October 16

The Virginia State Board of Elections passed legislation Tuesday to ban voters from wearing any campaign paraphernalia to polling places. The ban prevents people from wearing any campaign clothing, hats, buttons or other campaign material that supports or condones any candidate or party within 40 feet of polling entrances, according to The Washington Post.

---

News

Experts praise power of youth

By Jen Calantone | October 16

The key to gaining the attention of youth voters is to get them engaged in a candidate's message and pushing partisan politics aside, Republican strategist David Winston said during an American Forum event in the Abramson Family Recital Hall Tuesday night.

---

News

Ads promote GBLT issue

By Lindsey Anderson | October 16

Some AU students and faculty have involved themselves in a recent advertising initiative created to eliminate the use of the phrase "That's so gay." The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and the Advertising Council recently joined together to create an advertising campaign that seeks to decrease anti-gay language, according to the campaign's Web site.

---

News

Campus calendar

October 16

Thursday, Oct. 16 Human Rights Film Series: "Banished" 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Wechsler Theatre INFO: The ninth annual Human Rights Film Series screens films that showcase how video can make a difference in human rights. There will be a discussion with Director Marco Williams after the screening.

---

News

Strategic Plan addresses more student needs

By Jen Calantone | October 16

The Strategic Plan has undergone additional revisions since the campus community received their last draft of the plan Aug. 25. The plan has become more student-centric and underwent a board of trustees review during their Sept. 25-26 meeting, according to Student Trustee David Teslicko, who officially became a member of the board during the meeting.

---

News

Missing alumna released from Syria

By Rebecca Kern | October 16

Two American journalists, including an AU alumna, were released into U.S. custody last Thursday after being detained in a Syrian prison for crossing border from Lebanon aided by smugglers. Holli Chmela, 27, a 2003 AU graduate and former Eagle staffer, and Taylor Luck, 23, claimed they were "kidnapped" by a taxi driver in Lebanon.

---

News

Program encourages fitness

By Nicole Glass | October 16

The Jacobs Fitness Center plans to host the Turkey Slim-down, a fitness contest throughout the pre-holiday season, in which AU students may participate to try to burn the most calories. The center's staff named the program, which it calls a "holiday calorie workout challenge.

---

News

SOC seeks reaccreditation

By Katie Litvin | October 13

The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC) will assess the School of Communication this week to certify that the school will continue to meet the council's national standards. ACEJMC representatives will watch SOC classes and interview faculty members as part of the six-year renewal process according to SOC professor W. Joseph Campbell, who is involved in the accreditation.

---

News

AU students plan to assist at polls

By Rachel Lynne Smith | October 13

In addition to campaigning and canvassing during this election, students at AU and other schools across the country will assist in the electoral process by working at polling places. Some AU students have signed up to work at area polling places Nov. 4 through AU's Center for Democracy and Election Management.

---

News

Metro calendar

October 13

Monday, Oct. 13 Exhibition - "One Planet: Ours" 10 a.m.-5 p.m. WHERE: U.S. Botanic Garden, 100 Maryland Ave. S.W. METRO: Smithsonian (blue and orange lines) INFO: This exhibit features garden displays and structures that focus on sustainability and solutions to global warming.

---

News

Few AU students return home after graduation

By Sarah Rudnick | October 13

The majority of AU graduates have not ended up moving back into their parents' homes following graduation, which contrasts with recent national statistics. A recent study from CollegeGrad.com, a job search Web site, found that 77 percent of college students moved back into their parents' homes after graduation in 2008.

---

News

Kent State prof fires back at Web site

By Rachel Lynne Smith | October 13

Students aren't the only ones who look at RateMyProfessors.com anymore. An increasing number of students and professors access the Web site, a forum for students to discuss their positive or negative feelings about specific teachers. Professors at AU and schools across the nation have begun to view the site more as a place for students to vent than to post useful information.

---

News

Students average $20k in debt

By Elena Isella | October 13

The average debt AU undergraduate students accumulate in four years of college for federal loans is $19,000, according to Shirleyne McDonald, associate director of Financial Aid. However, there is no way for the Office of Financial Aid to keep track of personal student loans because the student initiates those loans, she said.

---

News

Annual documentary series to begin this week

By Olivia Stitilis | October 13

The ninth annual Human Rights Film Series, which begins Thursday, will highlight social issues through up-to-date documentaries, according to Micael Boger, the project manager for the School of Communication's Center for Social Media. The Center for Social Media and the Washington College of Law's Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law will present the series, which is open to both the AU community and the public.

---

News

National brief

October 13

The Connecticut Supreme Court overturned the state's three-year-old ban on same-sex marriage Friday. Connecticut is the third state to legalize same-sex marriage, after California overturned a similar ban in May and Massachusetts took similar action in 2004, according to The New York Times.

---

News

Fulsom reflects on Watergate

By Clint Rice | October 13

School of Public Affairs professor Donald Fulsom said during a "Professors Are People, Too" event Thursday night that when he was a White House correspondent in the early 1970s, he was the first person to connect the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate complex to Richard Nixon's presidential re-election campaign.

---