Student Life

The images are familiar from the glossy pages of countless college brochures: bright-eyed students curled up on couches, deep in intellectual discourse. Friendly faculty bathed in autumn sunlight. Athletic trainers at the Nautilus, ready for aching shins. Until now, such bonding might have required heavy logistics at Widener University's 100-acre campus, with communing couches in short supply and students so spread out. Now, with an architectural leap of arcing sunroofs, granite staircases and soaring statuary, the college has catapulted itself into a contender for the brochures.

On the day they moved into their three-bedroom Merion Gardens apartment last month, recalled six young women at St. Joseph's University, their next-door neighbor stopped by to introduce himself. He turned out to be a nice guy, so nice that he has even surprised them a few times with dessert. To show their appreciation, the women have offered to make him dinner. But that's as far as it will go. That fellow down the hall happens to be the president of St. Joe's, the Rev. Timothy Lannon, a 56-year-old Jesuit who lives surrounded by 214 students in the university-owned apartment building at Wynnewood Road and City Avenue in Merion.

Karen Tidmarsh, 63, of Haverford, a Bryn Mawr College graduate and professor of English who later served as dean of the women's college for 20 years, died Saturday, March 2, of end-stage carcinoid syndrome at home. Dr. Tidmarsh devoted more than half of her life to Bryn Mawr, where she arrived in the 1960s to study English. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in English there in 1971. As dean, Dr. Tidmarsh was responsible for overseeing undergraduate academic programs and student life.

Louise Breier Kean, 71, longtime educator who assisted thousands of Rutgers University students through her dual positions as administrative assistant dean of students and international student adviser at the Camden campus, died Saturday at her home in Cherry Hill. Mrs. Kean was born in South Acworth, N.H., where she attended a one-room schoolhouse. She moved to Woodbury in the early 1930s and graduated from Woodbury High School in 1941 as a member of the National Honor Society.

Haverford College president Tom G. Kessinger has been appointed by President Bush to serve as a member of the Peace Corps National Advisory Council. The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed his appointment this summer. He will begin serving on the 15-member council next month. In 1961, Kessinger joined the first group of Peace Corps volunteers in India while he was an undergraduate at Haverford College. He said he was looking forward to playing a role in the Peace Corps' expansion into Eastern Europe beginning with programs in Romania and Bulgaria.

A handful of Rutgers University students, rallying around a woman who said her roommate hit her last month, staged a lunchtime protest over dormitory conditions yesterday. "We're sick and we're tired of what goes on in the dorms being swept under the carpet," said Domenech Plaza, 19, a junior from Camden. Bystanders said they agreed with the 12 protesters that the administration could be more responsive to complaints about the dormitories. But they added that they had reservations about the incident that spurred the protest.

Tomorrow's move-in day at West Chester University means that, along with lugging suitcases, linens, popcorn poppers and stereos up crowded elevators or endless flights of stairs, freshmen may once again find that a double room has become a triple. West Chester is not alone among universities that overbook dormitories to account for first-semester attrition. And this year, despite an effort to limit admissions, there are still 3,320 students - including 1,530 freshmen - who must be squeezed into 3,100 dorm spaces.

The Coatesville Parents' Music Club is again sponsoring the annual Cavalcade of Bands Show. This year's will be held Saturday at the Coatesville Area High School Multi-Purpose Stadium, off Business Route 30 in Caln Township. The gates open at 5:30 p.m., and the show begins at 7. In the event of rain, the show will be moved to the gym at Coatesville Intermediate High School. Besides Coatesville, the bands scheduled to perform are from Downingtown, Owen J. Roberts, Garnet Valley, Ridley, Spring-Ford, Upper Merion, North Penn, Daniel Boone and Central Dauphin High Schools.

It was that time of year. Not the mad rush for the holidays, but time for parents to begin the campaign to find the perfect school for their child. My son and I set out for our journey to Blacksburg, Va., to the one and only Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University - Virginia Tech. Here I was taking my son on the same trek to my alma mater that I had made 29 years earlier. For my son, this would be his initiation into adulthood. Just as my life had begun an exciting transformation on that campus, now my son will have his opportunity in June 2012 when he enters Virginia Tech as a transfer student from Gloucester County College.

Last semester, a group of Rutgers University soccer players living together in a Camden rowhouse received a surprise visit from the sorority sisters living in the house next door. It was an old-fashioned panty raid. Not to be outdone, the soccer players sought revenge. Hours after the raid, the athletes commandeered a sorority sister outside her door, fastened a pair of men's underwear on her head, tied her up in a chair, then carried her off to the perimeter of the nearby Ben Franklin Bridge toll plaza.

HACKENSACK, N.J. - Hundreds of college students have descended upon the Jersey Shore during spring break this year to help with cleanup and rebuilding in the wake of superstorm Sandy. And the state's public architecture school is bringing its expertise to bear in offering to help local officials and groups with research and design as the area rebuilds. The project at the New Jersey Institute of Technology - dubbed Resilient Design - will look at lessons gleaned from other flooded areas, from Venice to New Orleans, and is setting up studios throughout the affected areas of the state, said Thomas Dallessio, the project manager.

Karen Tidmarsh, 63, of Haverford, a Bryn Mawr College graduate and professor of English who later served as dean of the women's college for 20 years, died Saturday, March 2, of end-stage carcinoid syndrome at home. Dr. Tidmarsh devoted more than half of her life to Bryn Mawr, where she arrived in the 1960s to study English. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in English there in 1971. As dean, Dr. Tidmarsh was responsible for overseeing undergraduate academic programs and student life.

AMARILLO, Texas - A former Texas college student from Saudi Arabia was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for trying to make a bomb for use in a religious attack, possibly targeting a former U.S. president. Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari was sentenced in Amarillo, where jurors convicted him in June of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Prosecutors say he had collected bomb-making material in his apartment and researched possible targets, including the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush.

It was that time of year. Not the mad rush for the holidays, but time for parents to begin the campaign to find the perfect school for their child. My son and I set out for our journey to Blacksburg, Va., to the one and only Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University - Virginia Tech. Here I was taking my son on the same trek to my alma mater that I had made 29 years earlier. For my son, this would be his initiation into adulthood. Just as my life had begun an exciting transformation on that campus, now my son will have his opportunity in June 2012 when he enters Virginia Tech as a transfer student from Gloucester County College.

Born in Russia with cerebral palsy in 1990, Vanya Pashtukhov was abandoned by his alcoholic mother at a bleak Moscow orphanage called Baby House 10. For the next half-dozen years, he was clothed in rags and confined to a metal crib in near-constant "bed regime. " Government doctors labeled him "ineducable" and, when he was only 6, shunted him to an adult asylum for "mental defectives. " "It was terrifying," he recalled recently. "Like a devil's den. " Pashtukhov's pitiful childhood was no singular nightmare.

This is the latest in a series titled "Off Campus," featuring opinion pieces by writers from local colleges and universities. 'I touch the future. I teach.' Those are the words of Christa McAuliffe, educator and astronaut. The weight of these words, and the weight of their truth, are self-evident to teachers across the educational spectrum, from grammar school to grad school. Whether we are still docile students or seasoned adults in the "real" world, we can all recall a teacher who has left an indelible impression on our lives, be it good or bad, and who has shaped who we are today.

The University of Delaware has adopted a revamped residence life program, replacing controversial discussions of race, politics and sex with lessons on personal development, citizenship and environmentalism. The board of trustees on Monday approved the toned-down curriculum, which will be implemented in the fall for about 7,000 students in eight residence complexes on the Newark campus. Critics say they remain skeptical about the program, which caused an uproar last fall after students complained that they were being forced to adopt political views and reveal personal information, such as their sexual orientation.

David Leary wanted to give the frying pan a shake. Antonio De Rosa, or "Mr. Toni" as he's known in the kitchen, handed it over without hesitation. "Here goes nothing," said Leary, a 19-year-old student in Elwyn's Davidson School, which helps students with mental retardation, Autism Spectrum Disorder, or other physical and mental disabilities transition into the work world. Standing in a West Chester kitchen and wearing a white paper chef hat, Leary lifted the pan, shook the oil and onions simmering inside, and grinned.

A month ago Gregory Thornton, the new Chester Upland School District superintendent, was directing repair and landscaping crews as they spruced up troubled, worn-down Chester High School for the new year. Yesterday, Thornton paced outside with a cell phone glued to his ear, grappling with fearful students and unhappy parents, and fielding questions from police and reporters after a shooting at a school entrance left one student wounded and another on the run. Thornton knew such a day was coming.

On the day they moved into their three-bedroom Merion Gardens apartment last month, recalled six young women at St. Joseph's University, their next-door neighbor stopped by to introduce himself. He turned out to be a nice guy, so nice that he has even surprised them a few times with dessert. To show their appreciation, the women have offered to make him dinner. But that's as far as it will go. That fellow down the hall happens to be the president of St. Joe's, the Rev. Timothy Lannon, a 56-year-old Jesuit who lives surrounded by 214 students in the university-owned apartment building at Wynnewood Road and City Avenue in Merion.