The best of last week's editorials from college campuses across the nation
Princeton University
Princeton's officials know that while sexual assault is rarely reported here - fewer than 1 percent of students identified themselves as victims in a 2001 survey - national studies suggest only one in five rapes is reported. Understanding how difficult it is for victims to come forward in the traumatic wake of an assault, let alone initiate a rape investigation, the university must remove any obstacles it can. A 40-minute ride through Route 1 traffic is more than any sexual-assault victim should have to go through.
That one student in the past three years has gone to New Brunswick is not an indication rape kits are not needed. Rather, it is a sign that they are urgently needed. The university must do all it can to bring them closer to campus.
- "Rape kits," from Princeton University's Daily Princetonian
University of Pittsburgh
Imagine the nerve of a small group of concerned citizens informing their fellow citizens about imminent danger to their local vibrancy. Imagine keeping Wal-Mart from absorbing possibly upwardly mobile jobs that offer the chance to join a labor union. How dare those upstarts - insidious "special interests" like family businesses - prevent Inglewood, Calif., residents from having one giant monolith dominate their shopping choices? Wal-Mart turns real cities into company towns. Most of the locals, after having their mom-and-pop options eviscerated, will have to get jobs at Wal-Mart, where they won't earn enough to shop anywhere else. In Inglewood, at least, thanks to the honorable actions of a few, Wal-Mart Bucks won't be printed up any time soon.
- "Little guys beat Wal-Mart, for once," from the University of Pittsburgh's Pitt News
Illinois State University
If the United States is determined to continue on the course of action that causes terrorism in the first place - such as blindly supporting Israel and other selective foreign policies - then terrorists are going to continue to attack our citizens. U.S. anti-terror policy cannot focus only on airplanes - terrorism in other countries has been more geared toward bombs on trains or subways. The next time a terror attack occurs, it will be unexpected like Sept. 11, 2001, and it is unlikely terrorists would choose airplanes as a mode of attack again. As it exists, the no-fly list does little but inconvenience innocent passengers and force Americans into distrusting their government. Giving up freedoms for the sake of paranoia only hurts freedoms in the long run.
"TSA no-fly lists make war on innocents, not terrorists," from Illinois State University's Daily Vidette
Northern Illinois University
While abstinence obviously is the best way to protect against contracting a sexually transmitted disease, let's face it: People still are going to have sex. So, why not try and educate people more before they have sex? Too many warnings on a product could detract from what it really does. In this case, if you're going to have sex, using a condom is safer than not using anything at all.
But too much fine print actually might encourage people not to use condoms. With all the doubts warnings could create, people may wonder how effective a condom actually is. Activists against premarital sex should concentrate more on educating people about the possible dangers of unsafe sex and not hope people will get scared away from the act of having sex because of a cluttered warning label.
- "Unsafe sex a more worthy foe," from Northern Illinois University's Northern Star