College Clips
Published April 20, 2007
Police evacuate Minnesota campus after threat
Police evacuated eight University of Minnesota buildings at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday after receiving word of a bomb threat in Smith residence hall. No bomb was found in an ensuing search, and the buildings were scheduled to reopen this morning.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, University Police Chief Greg Hestness said given the shootings at Virginia Tech on Monday, officials decided to take the threat seriously while considering the possibility of copycats and hoaxes.
"We know there have been other hoax situations," Hestness said. "We understand that exists."
Sophomore Joe Plocher said he found a letter detailing the threat at about 12:10 p.m. in the men's bathroom. The letter stated that the buildings would be bombed "simultaniously (sic)" before 10 p.m.
He took a picture of the letter with his phone and gave it to a woman in a first-floor office. She called police, he said.
— The Minnesota Daily (University of Minnesota)
Speaker at Oregon says meat-eaters to blame for global warming
In a Monday guest lecture at the University of Oregon, San Jose State University sociology professor Dan Brook said a vegetarian lifestyle is better at preventing global warming than driving a fuel-efficient car.
Brook, who was invited by Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the international meat and dairy industry are the leading cause of damaging greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
"Every time you purchase a hamburger you're saying, 'I support the meat industry. I support global warming,'" he said.
In the lecture, Brook tweaked a number of statistics taken from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. He said methane produced by livestock is 300 times more damaging than carbon dioxide from vehicles. The real statistics state methane is 10 times more damaging and nitrous oxide, also from livestock, is 300 times more damaging.
— The Oregon Daily Emerald (University of Oregon)
Old speakeasy found near SUNY-Binghamton
The remnants of a Prohibition-era speakeasy were found on March 27 in the west parking lot of the Cyber Cafe near the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Dan Carruthers, a local landscaper, found the rooms during a renovation of the parking lot.
"I grabbed a flashlight and crawled down (into the hole)," he said.
Inside, Carruthers found three decaying wooden kegs. CyberCafe owner Jeff Kahn said he had long suspected that a speakeasy had existed in the building he owns.
It seems the rooms had connected to the café's basement.
The chambers found in the parking lot seem to have been passages to get alcohol into the speakeasy and as an escape for patrons.
The CyberCafe played host to tours of the rooms on April 18.
— The Pipe Dream (SUNY-Binghamton)
