CAMPUS BRIEF SOC hosts week of events
Free ice cream, movie screenings and a luau are among some of the activities the School of Communication planned this week to encourage students' interest in the school's majors.
The week started with a luau in the Tavern Monday. Journalists and professors discussed how well the media checked and covered facts about the Iraq war in an American Forum panel discussion Tuesday. SOC also sponsored a film festival of high school and college student-produced films Tuesday. "American Prairie Reserve," a film about creating a reserve in Montana, premiered last night as part of the week's events.
The events continue today with a discussion with filmmaker Liz Miller and professor Pat Aufderheide in Wechsler Theater. There will also be a film screening and discussion of "Shattered Glass" at 8 p.m. in Ward 2 Thursday. Two more film screenings - "Battle to Save the Tiger" at 7 p.m. in Wechsler Theater and "Caught on Safari" at 8:15 p.m. in Ward 2 - will end the week's events.
-RACHEL TRAINER
METRO BRIEF Anti-Iraq war poetry festival comes to D.C.
Poets and others will converge on D.C. from today until Sunday for the inaugural "Split This Rock" poetry festival, during which activist poets plan to express their continued opposition to the Iraq war - which began five years ago yesterday.
The poetry and other expressions featured during the festival do not only have to include hostility toward the Bush administration's Middle East policy, but could also deal with a general dissatisfaction with a dwindling environmental situation or suffering economy as well.
"Who better to create a new vision for the country than poets?" conference director and head of DC Poets Against the War Sarah Browning said in a press release. "Language is power."
The conference will offer poets the opportunity to sharpen their activist and literary skills with workshops, panel discussions, films and walking tours.
-CHRISTOPHER COTTRELL
NATIONAL BRIEF Florida lawmakers have students by the pants
Florida lawmakers are attempting to make it illegal for students in state public schools to wear their pants too low, Reuters reported Friday.
The Florida State Senate passed legislation last week that would allow public schools to issue suspensions to students who do not comply with the stricter dress codes by letting their trousers sag, according to Reuters.
While some critics argue that dress codes are for schools and parents to decide, the bill's supporters claim parents are often "under aware" of what their children are wearing to school, Reuters reported.
The bill's sponsor, Florida State Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, told Reuters he was trying to make students more aware of the inappropriate origins of the fashion trend - namely prison inmates that signaled they were looking for sex.
Officials in Riviera Beach, Fla., followed suit by passing a similar law, which carries a maximum sentence of 60 days in jail for offenders, according to Reuters.
-C.C.
INTERNATIONAL BRIEF Australian couple interrupts own murder investigation
An Australian couple returning home from a weekend retreat were surprised to stumble upon a police investigation into their suspected deaths, The Australian reported last week.
Melbourne residents Roy and Heather Ostell had left on a Friday afternoon. They asked the neighbor to feed their dog and forgot to lock the front door - signs their daughter interpreted as sure-fire proof of their disappearance, according to The Australian.
The daughter placed an emergency call and told police her parents' car was missing and that she had discovered the house unlocked and the dog abandoned, The Australian reported.
The search for the couple's bodies began at 2 a.m., and the investigation lasted until the couple returned home nine hours later, only to encounter a horde of reporters, uniformed officers and detectives, according to The Australian.
"This is the best outcome," one detective told the newspaper.
-C.C.
