Beyond The Hill

Hitting the film festival circuit

A simple film project for class has turned into an entry into multiple film festivals across the country for two University of Arizona media arts seniors. The production, which was supposed to be just five minutes but ended up 20 minutes, is about a Mexican man who marries an American woman after illegally crossing the United States-Mexico border. ‘We ignored the time length,’ said senior Jordan Fuller. ‘We wanted a good quality project when we were done, and I am glad we detached ourselves from the rules because the film has given us the opportunity to meet a lot of people for our careers.’ In America, the man discovers that the American Dream is not as accessible as he once thought. Fuller and Justin Mashouf’s film, ‘The Runners,’ took more than three months to complete and was shot in the desert near the Arizona-Mexico border.

SOURCE: The Arizona Daily Wildcat

Former student arrested

A former student at State University of New York Binghamton was arrested Nov. 23 after allegedly breaking into the Registrar’s Office and fighting two police officers from the university. Officers did not find any stolen property on Armen Enikolopov, 25, upon his arrest. He was later charged with second-degree burglary and second-degree assault. ‘I think they caught him before he had the opportunity to do whatever it was he was going to do, but that’s just speculation,’ said Investigator Dennis P. Bush of the Binghamton New York State University Police. ‘I have no idea what he was attempting to steal. I have no idea why he was there at that time.’

SOURCE: Pipe Dream

New student records system

Ohio State University is spending $40-$50 million on a new student records system that would provide an easier way for school officials to manage student records and better ensure student identification information. The current system separates student information into several different databases, including financial, recruiting, admissions, financial aid and records information. The new system would centralize everything into one database. ‘If it works really well, your identity will be safe and you’ll be able to get self-service that is well integrated and effective on many, many different processes,’ said Martha Garland, vice provost for enrollment services and the chief business owner for the project. The new system will begin in the spring and is planned to be completed by fall 2009.

SOURCE: The Lantern

HPV vaccine eliminated

Georgetown University’s Student Health Center recently decided to cease funding for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which sparked an outcry from students and faculty in the Georgetown community. Due to high costs – $150 per injection – the center stopped purchasing the vaccine, Gardasil, which was actually created by researchers at the school and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2006. Under a new policy, the health center will administer the vaccine if Georgetown students purchase it from an outside source. ‘If all students should have access, we should be facilitating it at Georgetown. That’s for sure,’ said Richard Schlegel, academic chair and pathology department professor. ‘I think that anything Georgetown can do to get a student vaccinated is important.’

SOURCE: The Hoya

Feces found

When the Muslim Student Association at the University of Miami went to its usual meeting place recently, it discovered an unusual finding: feces. The group is considering the act as a hate crime because there are bathrooms in the area. After the discovery, members of the group immediately removed the feces from their meeting place, which eliminated evidence to file a possible police report. Though the incident cannot be investigated, the group’s executive board plans to e-mail the school’s president about the event. ‘My office and I take these types of incidents very seriously,’ said Dean of Students Ricardo Hall. ‘It is disrespectful, disgusting and uncalled for in a college campus and anywhere else.’

SOURCE: The Miami Hurricane

An early Christmas

Members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at West Virginia University brought Christmas cheer into their fraternity house in an untraditional way last week: by cutting down a $700, 10-foot blue spruce from a local city park. Just a few days later, the tree was declared a fire hazard and it had to be given back to the city. ‘They said they wanted a Christmas tree. It was very poor judgment on their part,’ said Ron Justice, Morgantown mayor and director of WVU’s Student Organization Services. ‘It would probably have been less expensive for them to go to Wal-Mart.’ Replacing the tree will cost the fraternity anywhere from $700 to $1,400. Additionally, the brothers responsible for actually cutting the tree down may face a host of consequences, including suspension or expulsion.

SOURCE: The Daily Athenaeum

IM break ups

A new Associated Press-America Online poll indicates that users are now using instant messaging to avoid awkward, personal conversations. Of those polled, 22 percent said they used the service to accept a date, and 13 percent admitted to breaking up with someone over an IM conversation. ‘It’s much easier to let someone down (online), to say ‘I don’t want to go out with you,” said AOL spokeswoman Erin Gifford. ‘I think a lot more people are turning to instant messaging to have an awkward or negative conversation. … You can just sign off, and that’s the end of the conversation.’

SOURCE: The Daily Collegian

Mouse

Two students at the University of Utah have been placed in counseling by school administrators after one of the students allegedly made a death threat against a peer. According to a police report, the suspect told the victim that he wanted to ‘fight him until one (was) dead.’ The alleged feud began during a lab session when the suspect told a group of people that he saw a mouse in the building. The victim said they should call pest control, which upset the suspect. There may have been, in fact, a language barrier between the students, since the victim is from China and the suspect from South Korea. ‘It could have been cultural differences,’ said a school official. ‘What could have been something innocent in one culture could have been taken more seriously’ in the other.

SOURCE: The Daily Utah Chronicle