Here’s a hard sister act to follow: identical twins Kirstie and Kristie Bronner (yes, those are their names) have been named co-valedictorians of Spelman College, a historically Black college in Atlanta, Georgia. See, Kirstie had a 4.0 GPA and her twin sister Kristie also had a 4.0 GPA, so the school appointed them both to the highest academic honor. Both sisters were music majors and plan to record a gospel album together; after graduation, they want to work for their father, who is a minister. They’re also planning to write a book on how to achieve academically — a subject they both know well. The young women said they exercised intense self-discipline, only socializing on the weekends. “We maximized our study time,” said Kirstie. “People would ask us ‘do you want to go do this or that on a weekday’ and the response was an automatic ‘no.’ We saved recreation for the weekend. Our philosophy was and is, pay now and play later.” The twins will be honored this Sunday at Spelman’s 126th commencement. [News One; Patch]
Tag Archives: university
Guy Accused Of Sexual Misconduct At College, So His Mom Pens Victim-Blaming Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
CDC Sex Assault Data
Adolescent girls and preteen boys are at the highest risk for sexual assault. Read More »
The Wall Street Journal is about as publicity stunt-y as The New York Times’ Style section in terms of publishing articles guaranteed to kick up a fuss. But the WSJ, being owned by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp (Fox News, etc.), leads with a conservative slant. This week’s case-in-point is an op-ed by lawyer Judith Grossman, whose son was accused of vaguely stated sexual misconduct by an ex-girlfriend at his college and subjected to a messy campus tribunal process.
You can read the entire piece here, but the summarized version is that her son was accused by an ex-girlfriend of “nonconsensual sex,” as Grossman puts it, “that supposedly occurred during the course of their relationship a few years earlier.” She then describes the “nightmare” her son and family endured through the college’s tribunal process. Her son was given written notice of the charges against him from the campus Title IX officer, listed in “a barrage of vague statements.” Writes Grossman, “The letter lacked even the most basic information about the acts alleged to have happened years before. Nor were the allegations supported by any evidence other than the word of the ex-girlfriend.” During the two-hour tribunal process, her son was grilled by the campus. Eventually the charges against him were dismissed — an outcome, Grossman implies, attributed to the fact he has a lawyer for a mother who was able to advise him on how to handle it. Keep reading »
Holy Crap: Colleges Are Now Suing For Your Student Loan
Ahhh, student loans. Or as I like to think of them, that giant hole where I pour hundreds and hundreds of dollars every month. I hope you can buy some fancy couches for the student center, NYU! Imported South African sea salt for the cafeteria? Gold-plated BIC pens for every librarian in the library? Whatever you do with my your money, I’m sure it’s money well spent. And yes, it will keep coming, probably until I die. The sad truth is that I speak on the phone with the loan servicing lady more than some of my relatives.
Three colleges are not content to just have their loan serving office keep broke grads on speed dial — now, they’re lawyering up. Keep reading »
Study Abroad: I’m Off To South Africa For The Semester
The Frisky’s former intern extraordinaire, Daley, is studying abroad during her spring semester. Over the next several months, she’ll be writing us dispatches from her studies in Africa.
“South Africa is going to be hot,” I told Kim, my hairstylist of almost nine years, “so I need a couple of inches off.”
While individually dying the multitude of grey hairs that had enveloped my head, Kim laughed and said, “Why didn’t you pick, like, a European country to study abroad, like a normal kid?”
“The evil Spanish language,” I replied. Keep reading »
Yes, Master! Harvard Students Now Have A BDSM Sex Club
They have the best and the brightest in the country and now they have a bondage, dominance and sadomasochism club, too.
Harvard University students are in the early stages of convening an official campus club — like, say, the school paper or the French club — centered around a shared interest in BDSM kink, like bondage, flogging, spanking, and other 50 Shades-style “play.” Harvard students aren’t the only little horndogs: other college campuses that have similar BDSM clubs include NYU, MIT, Tufts, Yale, and the University of Chicago. Keep reading »
Male Miami University Student Who Posted “Get Away With Rape” Flier Pleads Guilty
Earlier this autumn, we felt a coldness in the pits of our stomachs when we heard that a flier was discovered inside a dorm at Miami University in Ohio listing “10 ways to get away with rape.” It included items like “Sex with an unconscious body does count, so don’t back down if she’s sleeping” and “When you see a woman walking by herself take advantage of the fact that she is alone.”
Was it just the plot of some sick fuck? Was it some kind of meta-feminist commentary? Well, now we have an answer: it was written by a freshman boy at the school, who no longer attends Miami University. Yesterday, he plead guilty to a disorderly conduct charge, which carries a $100 fine. Keep reading »
Rapist Blames Four Loko
An accused rapist blames his vicious attack on too much Four Loko. Read More »
Amy Poehler’s Advice On How To Survive Freshman Year
Amy's Makeup Advice
Amy Poehler advises a girl whose dad won't allow her to wear makeup. Read More »
Okay, this Grace Helbig chick is a little grating. But Amy Poehler’s swoop-in to field a question on how to survive freshman year has me convinced she needs her own talk show. How awesome would that be? (No offense, Katie Couric.) “Eat your feelings” = best life advice for everything. [Flavorwire]
Woman Arrested After Posing As Columbia Student For Two Weeks
New York City police have arrested a 26-year-old woman who has been posing as a Columbia University freshman throughout orientation and the first days of school … even though she’s not even enrolled as a Columbia student.
Briva Patel pretended to be 20-year-old “Rhea Sen,” attending Columbia’s orientation events like trips to the Bronx Zoo and a music festival in Brooklyn. Even though “Rhea Sen” didn’t have a Columbia student ID, orientation leaders and fellow students saw her around the dining halls and even attending classes, The Columbia Spectator reports.
Iran Bans Women From 77 College Courses
This coming academic year, 36 universities in Iran have announced that 77 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Sciences courses will now be “single gender” and therefore only available to men. With women outnumbering men by three to two in passing this year’s university entrance exam, The Daily Beast theorizes Iranian leaders are becoming “concerned about the social side-effects of rising educational standards among women” — as in, women are becoming too educated at the (scare quotes!) “expense” of men.
This is scary stuff. Keep reading »
Campus Confidential: Advice For Next Year’s College Freshman
There was a moment sometime during the weekend before finals week that I looked up from the copious U.N.-related documents assigned by my Intro to Human Rights professor that I had somehow failed to read during the semester and realized: “Holy shit my first year of college is basically over.”
I thought back to about a year before and tried to remember what I thought finishing my freshman year would feel like. I guess I thought I’d be far more sophisticated, secure and grown up in general. In reality — at least at that moment at time —I just felt a hell of a lot more stressed. But the truth is, I learned a lot over the past year, even if that transformation manifested in a number of small ways rather than one grand overhaul of my childish naivete.
So here are just a few pieces of advice for rising freshmen from somebody who just finished being one. Keep reading »
