Terrorism Tests Charity

THE NEW YORK POST, Oct. 30 — A student at Christendom College has been suspended for six months after distributing a flier that took issue with fellow students who, he claims, rejoiced in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as fitting blows to capitalism and democracy, according to Post columnist Rod Dreher. Dreher found the flier to be “tame stuff by the standards of most campus polemics.”

He reported that a member of the disciplinary committee said that a faculty committee's unanimous decision to suspend Marshner-Coyne was based on his prior offenses, lack of genuine contrition and an inability to verify that anyone had made provocative statements about the Sept. 11 attacks.

Plea for Ceasefire

BETHLEHEM UNIVERSITY, Oct. 26 — The head of Vatican-sponsored Bethlehem University is calling for international pressure on Israel to cease its bombing of portions of the West Bank, including the birthplace of Christ, which had previously been under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.

During four days in late October, every building on campus was hit by gunfire, with evidence of at least 86 tank grenades and hundreds of bullets found in the aftermath, according to a statement issued by De La Salle Christian Brother Vincent Malham, the university's president and vice chancellor. “Security measures and flying the Vatican flag, have, unfortunately, not produced results,” he said.

Collegians OK War

THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, Nov. 1 — Nearly four of five college students support the U.S.-led air strikes in Afghanistan, and more than two-thirds back the use of U.S. ground troops in the war, according to a national survey conducted by Harvard University's Institute of Politics. Seventy-one percent of male students said they would serve in the military if the draft were reinstated and they were selected.

The survey of 1,200 undergraduate students, part of an annual study of college students' attitudes toward public service and government, found that the majority — 71% — had donated blood, given money or volunteered in relief efforts stemming from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Catholic U Scholarships

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Oct. 26 — The university has pledged to renew a parish-based scholarship program that benefited hundreds of new freshmen in its first year, exceeding expectations. More than 800 students from parishes in 43 states were nominated last year by their pastors for the renewable $3,000 parish scholarships, according to a university press release.

Of those, 555 students were admitted and 256 high school seniors from 38 states enrolled. Forty percent of the incoming freshman class received parish scholarships.

Shocking Protest

THE MICHIGAN DAILY, Oct. 25 — Two trucks covered with pictures of aborted fetuses circled the central campus of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor one day in October as part of a national tour that began in June, reported the university's daily newspaper.

“The truck project shocked students on both sides of the abortion debate,” said the newspaper of the tour, sponsored by the Reproductive Choice Campaign of the Center for Bio-ethical Reform, a grassroots education foundation based in Anaheim, Calif. “I wasn't personally offended, but it's not something I really want to see,” said one pro-life student.