Student Body

In the spring, St. Joseph's University began building a residence hall for freshmen; when it opens next fall, there will be more spots in existing dorms for upperclassmen who want to live closer to campus. On the Main Line, Villanova University and Haverford College also are working on dorm projects to accommodate ever-changing student needs. It's not just a local phenomenon. Loren Rullman of the Society for College and University Planning said similar projects were under way around the country.

As Jim Lehrer told the nation that the first presidential debate's live audience would refrain from cheering, booing, and hissing, a theater full of college students in a critical swing county erupted in laughter - and hisses. Hundreds of miles from the debate at the University of Denver, more than 200 students gathered at West Chester University's Sykes Student Union on Wednesday night to watch it on a giant screen, discuss their postdebate thoughts, and participate in a "Debate Watch" officially recognized by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Her peers at Girls High School made an informed decision when they chose Kelly Anderson as student body president. Their confidence in her is borne out by the fact that she is an honor student graduating in the top 10 percent of her class in a student body noted for academic achievement. Anderson is also eight months pregnant. For that reason, she was barred from leading the line of march into next Tuesday's graduation ceremonies at the Academy of Music, as have all other past presidents.

"Of course we're going to riot. What do they expect when they tell us at 10 o'clock that they fired our football coach?" - Paul Howard, 24, a Penn State aerospace-engineering student, as quoted in the New York Times OK, SO maybe Paul Howard is no rocket scientist. (Oh, wait, actually he is a rocket scientist!) But I think that his comment sums up the real problem with the Penn-State-child-sex-cover-up-and-God-knows-what-else scandal. People barely blink an eye when a 24-year-old adult in an elite academic program says that a)

Rick Santorum is not only the first viable presidential hopeful from Pennsylvania in many years, but he's also the first candidate who is a graduate of Penn State. And how does he thank his alma mater? By brandishing Happy Valley as "one of the liberal icons. Unfortunately it's gotten a lot worse," he said recently, a description of Penn State that's rarely made. "I can tell you professor after professor who docked my grades because of the viewpoints I expressed and the papers that I wrote.

The Rev. John E. Brooks, 88, the longest-serving president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., who as a professor there in the days after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. set out on a mission that led to the integration of what had been an all-male and virtually all-white institution, died Monday in Worcester. The cause was complications of lymphoma, said Ellen Ryder, a spokeswoman for the college. On April 4, 1968, the day King was murdered, fewer than a dozen of the 2,200 students at Holy Cross were African Americans, most of them on athletic scholarships.

Fast Eddie" Savitz and the disclosures that followed his arrest have sent a surge of emotions dashing against the student body, the faculty and staff, and the administration at St. John Neumann High School. We have experienced shock, compassion, frustration and a gathering sense that we are being spotlighted, forced to bear all the pent up angers and unanswered questions of society. It is not easy to stand for moral values in a valueless age. It is not easy to be an oasis when the desert sands encroach.

A boy with a ball walked past Omowumi Rafiu's home in Nigeria, and instantly her eyes lit up. She wanted to know where he was going and what he was doing. Playing basketball, he told her. "Tomorrow, when you're going," she replied, "call me. " Rafiu (RAH-fee-oo) quickly fell in love with the game. Pretty soon, she was making the mile-long walk to the Police College of Kaduna court day after day. It led her to her future, to today, when the senior is taking the prestigious Philadelphia Catholic League by storm as a Neumann-Goretti Saint and soon-to-be Georgetown Hoya.

Shuttered colleges across the region urged students over the weekend to leave campus and go home, but many have decided to remain, and university officials are working to make sure they stay fed and safe. Some schools allowed students to pick up several meals from the cafeterias in advance so that they would have supplies and wouldn't have to venture out in the severe weather. Through emails, Twitter feeds and campus alerts, university officials are urging students to stay indoors, arming them with public safety numbers and keeping essential personnel on campus to help in case of emergencies.

The student and teacher at the center of the Romney/Ryan T-shirt controversy returned to Charles Carroll High School on Tuesday - briefly and for different purposes. Samantha Pawlucy, the sophomore who received a highly publicized classroom dressing-down by her math teacher for wearing the pink T-shirt, appeared overwhelmed as she was greeted by supporters outside the Port Richmond school. Pawlucy read from the Declaration of Independence at a brief rally before school. As the group of about two dozen supporters crowded around to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner," the 16-year-old held her hand to her mouth, tears filling her eyes.