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Thursday, November 17, 2005
Quote of the day.UCS members denounced the personal attack O'Reilly leveled against President Ruth Simmons when he called her a "pinhead." In an attempt to disprove O'Reilly's statement, the resolution lists Simmons' academic and professional accomplishments. This statement comes from an article in today’s Brown University student newspaper, in which the reporter describes Brown’s undergraduate student organization grappling with the nasty things Bill O’Reilly did and said in regard to the recent SEX POWER GOD party at the university. Thirty students who were at the party went to the hospital or Brown’s infirmary with drug and alcohol problems, “the highest number of students needing medical attention after a single event at Brown,” according to the university. To make matters worse, Saturday night's party followed several fistfights on the campus green and gunshots fired on the streets in the early morning hours after a fraternity party Friday night. Brown's public safety department said no injuries were reported. In addition, residents have complained to the university this fall, saying students throwing loud parties, yelling late at night and fighting in their neighborhood have disrupted their quality of life. There’s a curious cultural dissonance to the students' response to all of this, especially given the absolutely mad abandon traditionally associated with the SEX POWER GOD party, which this year advertised itself by posting nude photos of current Brown students. Having had a video of the party broadcast on Fox (by a Fox employee who apparently was able to buy his ticket off the Internet), the students are now “offended and furious,” at O’Reilly’s “unbecoming” language, and at his “lack of respect for the privacy” of the party-goers. Suddenly we’re Queen Victoria. "Students get drunk and go to parties wearing practically nothing every weekend on college campuses across the nation. Why did O'Reilly specifically target Brown University?" one student asks, forgetting the gunshots, fights, and hospital admissions that made this particular weekend newsworthy. The students propose “creating a council within the Ivy League to address future concerns about news coverage of prestigious, liberal schools that are targeted by conservative media.” Non-prestigious schools will presumably not be part of the council’s charge. |