Despite a controversy that began last month after photos surfaced that appeared to show him wearing black face-paint, junior Josh Weinstein was elected Princeton University’s undergraduate student government president, The Daily Princetonian reported. The photos, released by an anonymous source, showed Weinstein in October 2005 wearing a Halloween costume that consisted of black face-paint and dark clothing. Weinstein said he was supposed to be a “shadow” and that his friends had planned to dress as the Blue Man Group until they failed to find blue paint. According to photo captions, however, he and other students dressed in a similar fashion were meant to depict Rick James, Rosa Parks, Nat Turner and Malcolm X.
Weinstein said that the costume was not intended to be racist and that the captions were “attempts at humor.”
Color me offended
A former University of Iowa law professor plans to file a Title IX complaint against the school because the college’s football stadium reserves a pink locker room for visiting football teams, the Daily Iowan reported. The professor, Jill Gaulding, has voiced concerns that the university decided to keep the pink color during renovations to Kinnick Stadium in 2005.
Gaulding and her supporters said the color is derogatory to women because it is intended to make the visiting team feel like “sissies.” She started a petition to get the locker room painted a different color and so far about 100 people have signed. The college has not said whether it plans to repaint the locker room.
Nerd alert
The University of California at Berkeley is the go-to destination for geeks, according to recruiters from the television reality series “Beauty and the Geek,” The Daily Californian reported. Producers of the program visited Berkeley’s campus last Monday to find “geeks” for the next installment of the program. Dana Tomsic, the show’s associate casting producer, told The Daily Californian that computer science or physics majors were perfect for the show because “those are the people who usually work in labs and have little time for their social lives.” Tomsic said recruiters would be happy to find beauties at Berkeley but were focused on finding geeks because of their success at Berkeley in the past.
Blame Canada
More than 400 students have been banned from attending classes at the University of Southern Maine because they have not been vaccinated for mumps, The Associated Press reported. According to a school spokesperson, about 20 of the students refused the vaccination based on ethical or religious grounds. Maine is currently experiencing a mumps outbreak suspected to be linked to a concert by a Canadian rock band in the Portland area. A member of the band came down with a mumps infection and the state’s first two confirmed cases attended the concert.
Karey Quarton