If you’re reading this in your dorm room during your daily blog roll, I encourage you to change out of your casual Friday outfit and put on some classic black – New Jersey’s Rutgers University has organized a “Black Friday” memorial today for Tyler Clementi, the college student who committed suicide after being outed on the Internet by his roommate.

It started out as a harmless prank that became an invasion of privacy and deadly, anti-gay harassment. Tyler Clementi, an eighteen year-old Rutgers freshman, asked his roommate, Dharun Ravi, for some privacy in the room they shared. Ravi complied by killing time with Molly Wei down the hall, where they used her computer to log onto Skype and access his own webcam back in his and Clementi’s room. Whether by accident or on purpose, they allegedly caught Clementi and another male in what authorities called a “sexual encounter.”

And what did Ravi do with that information? The same thing all students living and connecting in the 21st century do when we’ve got something to share (be it a great new product or annoying things our roommates say): he Tweeted. The video he captured was also streamed live online, and Ravi and Wei repeated the ritual to try and catch Tyler in the act again a few nights later. The video spread fast, as the most scandalous often do, and the public revelation of Clementi’s secret sexual orientation ultimately drove him to jump off the George Washington bridge.

This story is disturbing on two very serious levels. First, Tyler Clementi is the third male within a month that has taken his own life as a result of anti-gay harassment. It is a sad reminder that although the 21st century has brought its share of liberation for the gay community, there are still a number of battles left in this war against homophobia (including the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell debate). A war which clearly has tragic consequences. Read More »

[Everyone's had that internship. The one that sounded awesome but ended up being awful. I had that internship. I thought I'd be reading scripts and doing coverage, but instead, I was leaning over a rickety filing cabinet for 5 hours every day, filing bullsh*t as big Important People stepped over me and constantly forgot my name. I also went on errands for necessary things like laundry, cappucinos, dog food, and cardboard boxes. It was truly a monumental waste of time.

Judging by stories from friends and colleagues, I know I'm not the only one who's done something stupid in the name of free, resume-building labor. When CollegeCandy put out a request for a Secret Intern to write an Internship Diary, we got some truly cringe-inducing stories, but "Elisa's" experience trumped all.

Currently, "Elisa" is interning for a big, flashy 5th Avenue designer. Sounds awesome, right? Well...read on.]

“What are you doing this summer?”

“I’m a marketing intern for a designer on 5th ave.”

“No way!! You’re so lucky.”

Yup. That was me. The “lucky” one. Little did I know I was in for a whole different ride. Read More »

Being the Senior Class President has its perks. Meetings with professors, campus-wide popularity, walking first at graduation…sometimes you can even get free or discounted boarding. It’s a lot of pressure but it’s also a lot of acclaim, and putting it on your resume will definitely get you in a few doors.

Or you could just use the power you have to break into people’s dorms and steal computers.

That’s what 23 year old Christa Olandria, Senior Class President of Livingston College at Rutgers University did. Olandria was arrested last Monday on burglary charges, and is suspect in seven other burglaries that have plagued the campus since September.

She was caught standing outside a dorm room (which she, as an RA, had keys for) as an accomplice stuffed “a laptop computer, a digital camera, a wallet and an iPod case into a duffel bag”. Read More »