Not Your Old Man's 'Kegger'...

JMU Party Riot Likened to a 'War Zone.'

The Washington Post [click to read] reported on the block party gone bad at JMU. Phil [click to read] samples the 'phone videos' put up by sudents. One came down pretty fast as the police began scanning them for bottle throwers and arsonists.

The Post calls the event 'uncharacteristic' and JMU's President, Linwood H. Rose issued the following statement to students:

"Your collective behavior was an embarrassment to your university and a discredit to our reputation," he wrote. "No one is opposed to some fun on a beautiful spring weekend, but public drunkenness, destruction of property, and threats to personal safety are unacceptable outcomes."

Agreed, students have always enjoyed high energy weekends and many a beverage distributor has thanked Providence for a territory that includes an institution of 'higher learning.' In the late sixties you could see ugly on campus during the many antiwar demonstrations but the spring kegger was always a relatively low impact event.

But I am thinking now of Robert Bork's writings on the subject. The campus radicals of the sixties are now tenured professors. Bill Ayers actually has a real job! The radicals are in the classroom promoting Marxism, Socialism and Moral Relativity. When riots break out in the streets, why are we even surprised?

Tear gas and police in riot gear... is this Harrisonburg or Watts?

Times Change, Things Get Ugly at JMU Springfest

What Kind of Leadership Are We Preparing for the Future?

"You tell kids in school that there is no absolute right or wrong. You tell them in college that there is no right and wrong. You tell them that people who believe in absolute right and wrong are intolerant and deny them a platform to speak from... then these young people rise to positions of leadership in industry... AND GOVERNMENT... and they believe that there is no absolute right and wrong. What do you get? When a person's own self-actualization becomes the sole moral imperative, how WILL they decide in those instances we have always considered 'making the tough choices?' " [1.]

When I saw Phil's report I had to remember these words. Looking at the videos it is hard to tell if you are in Harrisonburg or Watts? It seems the level of ugly has been raised on campuses.

Times change. Springfest turns ugly at JMU

2010 Springfest
Apparently good times went bad in Harrisonburg. During the annual JMU Springfest, 30 people were arrested and 30 people or more were treated at a local hospital.
See the story here

Pic from previous Springfest with no reported problemsFrom a previous Springfest.
No reported incidents at this event.

JMU Felony Possession of a Snowball.

A JMU Duke Basketball Guard was arrested for Felonious Snowballing.
He decided that it would be cool to throw snowballs at a truck and an unmarked cop car.
See the story here

JMU Grad Awarded Fulbright-CONGRATS

Traci Cox,who graduated from James Madison University in December, is spending her sunshine days learning to speak Slovak.
In September, Cox will travel to the central European country to teach English to high school students at a private school in Zilina, Slovakia's fourth-largest city.
She found out earlier this spring that she was accepted for a highly competitive Fulbright teaching assistantship.
The Fulbright Program is an international educational exchange for scholars, educators, graduate students and professionals, founded by the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright.
It operates in 144 countries and is one of the most prestigious awards programs worldwide.
See the full story here
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