The HuffingtonPost just reported that shots have been fired on campus at Virigina Tech today. The shooter, who has already killed a police officer and possibly another victim, remains at large and is a white male reportedly wearing “gray sweat pants, gray hat w/neon green brim, maroon hoodie and backpack.” Campus officials have placed the entire campus community on lockdown until further notice.

Stay tuned to @CollegeCandy for more details as we receive them.

"DE-FENSE!"

For millions of Americans, the holiday season isn’t only a magical time because of the standard stocking stuffers and gingerbread houses, but also because it means college football bowl season is here (!!!!).

Unless you’re a die-hard football fan or your team is playing in one of these games, you probably won’t have the time to tune into some of the smaller bowl games such as the Beef ‘O’ Bradys’ St. Petersburg Bowl (yup, this is an actual name of a bowl game). But for everyone else (and yes, I mean everyone – from the dedicated college football fan to the dedicated Saturday tailgater), the big bowl games are fun and exciting to watch.

Here is a quick guide to the biggest bowl games this season, and the deets you need to know while watching each. So grab a couple friends and a couple beers (optional) and park yourself on the couch. It’s time to go “bowling”!

Be honest, what else do you have to do over winter break?

Rose Bowl (January 1, 5:00 ET on ESPN)
Who: TCU Horned Frogs (3) v. Wisconsin Badgers (5)
What to know: The third-ranked Horned Frogs (intimidating right?) will take on the fifth-ranked Badgers in the Rose Bowl, the historical New Years day game held in Pasadena. TCU offense is led by quarterback Andy Dalton who is coming off a successful senior season, and their much-hyped defense is number one in the nation for holding their opponents to the fewest points. TCU will be playing with a lot of emotion; they finished the season undefeated and feel as though they should be playing for the national championship.

Wisconsin offense is led by quarterback Scott Tolzien and three standout running backs. Badger linemen Gabe Carimi and John Moffitt were just named all-American first team and will provide a note-worthy match up with the TCU defensive line.
Fun Facts: The Rosebowl is known as the ‘Granddaddy of Them All’ because it is the oldest and formerly most prestigious game… Wisconsin has scored over 70 points in three of its wins this season… This is the first ever Rosebowl for TCU.

Fiesta Bowl (January 1, 8:30 ET on EPSN)
Who: Connecticut Huskies v. Oklahoma Sooners (7)
What to know: This will be an emotionally charged game for both teams. Last season, UConn star Jasper Howard was tragically murdered on campus. Oklahoma will also come out fired up; they are 1-3 in their last four bowl appearances. The Huskies are the champions of the Big East, which is arguably one of the weakest conferences in the country. UConn tailback Jordan Todman is second in the nation in rushing and could be a key factor considering Oklahoma has struggled stopping runs this season. Oklahoma is coached by legendary Bob Stoops and their high-powered offense is led by sophomore QB Landry Jones, running back Demarco Murray, and receiver Ryan Broyles.
Fun Facts: Many analysts don’t think UConn’s 8-4 record (with two losses to inferior teams) merits them a spot in this game… Sooners are the heavy favorites.

Orange Bowl (January 3, 8:30 ET on ESPN)
Who: Stanford Cardinal (4) v. Virginia Tech Hokies (13)
What to know: This will be a battle between two hard-nosed football teams. Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh has taken Stanford from one of the worst teams in the Pac 10 to nearly playing for the National Championship. Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck was a Heisman trophy runner-up (award given to the best college football player in the country) and is expected to be the first pick in the NFL draft. In other news, sports journalists have way too much fun coming up with headlines that incorporate “Luck” or “Lucky.” Expect to hear play-on-words with this name inevitably before, during and after the game.

Virginia Tech suffered two tough losses in first two games of the season, but then rallied and have come back to win 11 straight. Keep an eye out for Ryan Williams, David Wilson and Darren Evans, the three dynamic running backs for the Hokies.
Fun Facts: ESPN’s Monday Night Football crew is calling the game… Stanford’s last bowl victory was in 1996 (in more relatable terms, the last time Stanford won a bowl game, Miley Cyrus was 4 years old!)… Ready to feel bad about yourself? Stanford’s Owen Marecic starts on both offense and defense and is a human biology major with a near perfect GPA… It is the Stanford Cardinal, not Cardinals (no ‘s’!)

Sugar Bowl (January 4, 8:30 ET, ESPN)
Who: Ohio State Buckeyes (6) v. Arkansas Razorbacks (8)
What to know: This game features two of college football’s most popular teams, two well respected coaches, two star quarterbacks, and will undoubtedly intensify the bitter rivalry between the Big 10 and the SEC. Look out for Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, the leader of the explosive Ohio State offense, to spend just as much time running the ball as he does passing it. Ohio State’s versatile offense may give them a slight advantage. Arkansas will rely on quarterback Ryan Mallet and running back Knile Davis, and will enjoy huge turnout of loyal fans who will travel to New Orleans for the game.
Fun Facts: Mallet began his college career at Michigan (Ohio State’s biggest rival) before transferring… Ohio State has a 0-9 record against SEC teams in the post season and such struggles have prompted claims of an “SEC curse.”

BCS National Championship Game (January 10, 8:30 ET on ESPN)
Who: Oregon Ducks (2) v. Auburn (1)
What to know: Both teams have high-powered offenses and this game is expected to be a quick-paced and high scoring one. Oregon is averaging 49.3 points per game and stars running back LaMichael James and receiver Jeff Maehl. Oregon defense is solid too and has recorded 20 interceptions this year. Heisman winner Cam Newton is the physical and moral leader for Auburn. Auburn defense has struggled defending against the passing game, and this weakness could be their downfall if it goes uncorrected.
Fun Facts: Neither team has played for the National Championship before… Auburn (then called Alabama Polytechnic Institute) was named national champion in 1957, but was ineligible to play in a bowl game… If the name Casey Matthews (Oregon lineman) sounds familiar, it’s because his grandfather, dad, and uncle have played in the NFL and his brother Clay is currently on the Green Bay Packers.

Welcome back to The Rival Rundown! If you’ve always wanted to give props to your school on CC, now’s your chance! Shoot us an email explaining what’s awesome and unique about your school (or what stinks about Rival U) at rivalrundown@collegecandy.com!

Old Dominion fans, take note! This week our rivalry takes us to the fair state of Virginia, where the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech hope to take home top honors.

Quick Facts

Virginia: University of Virginia or UVA, a public research university in Charlottesville, VA with 13,000 undergraduates.  Mascot is the Cavalier (or Wahoo).
Virginia Tech: The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a public land grant polytech university in  Blacksburg, VA with 24,00 undergraduates. Mascot is the Hokie.

1. Commonwealth Cup / Rivalry Record

Virginia: 3 wins/ 37 wins (5 games tied)
Virginia Tech: 11 wins / 49 wins

Three credits to: No question, Virginia Tech! Good show!

2. Mascot Matchup

Virginia: Officially known as the UVA Cavaliers, for its historical significance, the ladies and gents of Virginia are also known as the Wahoos, for the school’s rallying cry (“wah-hoo-wah!”)
Virginia Tech: The Hokies are also known as the Fighting Gobblers, and are represented by a giant turkey!

Three credits to: Virginia. Amongst these multi-moniker’d rivals, “Wahoo” is just more fun to say.

3. Fun Facts

Virginia: Founded by Thomas Jefferson, UVA is the only university in the United States to be named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Virginia Tech: Was twice named by Princeton Review as #1 in the Best Campus Food category. No mystery meat here!

Three credits to:  A close one…but we’ll go with Virginia Tech. Never underestimate the value of good food on campus!

4. Ass-Kicking Alumni

Virginia: Katie Couric, Tina Fey, Tiki Barber, Ted Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy
Virginia Tech: Michael Vick, Nikki Giovanni (Professor)

Three credits to: Sorry, Virgina Tech, but Michael Vick is really not helping your case. Virginia knocks this one out of the park!

5. Acceptance Rate Agony

Virginia: 36.7%
Virginia Tech: 65.4%

Three credits to:  Absolutely Virginia.

And the diploma goes to: Virginia! Though the Hokies crush the Cavaliers in football, UVA gets a “wah-hoo-wah” in nearly everything else.

No one should be expected to sit in the library or stare at their dorm room walls every day of the week with their nose in a book. Everyone needs something that helps them unwind, especially on the weekends.

Sometimes finding something to do – especially on a campus where parties are a rare occasion -  is hard. I knew when I signed my life away as a Hollins woman, I was going to be living in Roanoke, Virginia,and that I wouldn’t have a big city as my playground on the weekend. I knew I wasn’t attending a huge state school where fraternity parties are the social factor and that club activities would be endless. As a prospective, I remember asking about the student life on the weekends only to hear the same fib that my fellow peers heard themselves as prospective students: “Don’t worry about it, you will always find something going on.”

Oh, but that is very far from the truth. Options on campus are very bleak. From the first weekend as a first year, I realized as no one was around on the weekends I would have to be entirely responsible for finding something to do Friday and Saturday nights. While not feeling bogged down by having too many social activities planned, I like that Hollins has a sleepy atmosphere (especially for those weekends I need to do a lot of work), but for the most part – I don’t understand why we can’t have some sort of decent entertainment when the weekend rolls around.

The social scene at Hollins on any given weekend can be summed up in three ways:

1) You leave on the weekends

2) You rely on an apartment party or a party hosted by NEFA (a specialty housing dorm)

3) You hope the Student Life/Activity Board has something planned

A huge chunk of the student body leaves on the weekend. Girls carpool for the entire weekend up to Hampden-Sydney, an all male college two hours away and sleep on random futons since making the drive back in one night is out of the question. If Hampden-Sydney isn’t someone’s bag, other colleges like Washington and Lee, Virginia Tech, and Roanoke College can be visited. However, if you don’t know someone who goes to those schools, good luck finding a party or meeting people. What does the rest of the student body do when they leave? They go home! Students who are from Virginia or even close cities in North Carolina find themselves frequently going home because of the lack of campus activities. The only time students make plans to stay is if a formal is happening, which only happens twice a year.

Occasionally an apartment party or a themed party through NEFA will happen, but the frequency of this is rare. Also, these parties aren’t for everyone. Many girls don’t feel comfortable going over to the campus apartments because they don’t fit the cliques that live in many of the apartments. NEFA, a housing dorm for the campus’ artsy folks, throws unique, unforgettable parties, but most of them are not for the faint of heart. What if you just want a small get together? What about a dorm room?

Parties in other dorms do not happen, whatsoever, which can be very frustrating. Say it’s 11pm on Friday and you want to “Just Dance” along with Lady Gaga and your two best friends? Good luck getting through the song before someone calls Campus Safety to complain and a knock from an officer interrupts you. Every hour in all the dorms seems to be quiet hour. Whenever students speak up about the lack of social atmospheres, the Activity Board usually says “We have monthly mixers with a DJ and we invite other schools” to combat the complaints, but it does not suffice when no one actually shows up to the poorly planned and advertised school sponsored parties.

For a small university, Hollins is very diverse in its beliefs and types of students. Regardless of the variety amongst us, I have heard over and over again that not enough is done on the weekends in order to give students something to do. Yes, Hollins shows a movie every weekend in the auditorium and they have a shuttle take students to the mall, movies, and Wal-Mart, but that is not enough. When over half of the campus departs on the weekend to other colleges or home, something more needs to be done. How can a campus have a close-knit community when everyone leaves by 2pm on Friday and returns by 6pm on Sunday?

I am not asking for endless activities on the weekend. I think that students should be responsible for coming up with something to do, but I do believe that the university should endorse a more sociable atmosphere. Whether that means allowing students to have dance parties at reasonable hours without getting campus officers sent up or providing well planned mixers with other colleges, something needs to happen in order to help the social scene from sinking even more than it continues to do so!

In asking for other opinions from students on campus, Hollins sophomore Jennifer Old sums up how actions should be taken on campus to improve the overall weekend situation: “I think people are hesitant about the parties and other social events held on campus. Parties are broken up much more quickly at Hollins and the threat of the Roanoke Police has become very real. As for the social scene outside of the party sphere, I think there should be a community forum every semester. HAB (The Activity Board) should hear the collective desires of the campus and cater to the diverse interests of Hollins women.”

Obviously a social environment is very important to college life. Now tell me, how do you spend your weekends? Do you think your college provides enough entertainment and amusement for students? What do you want more of in your school’s social scene? Dish – I want to hear what I’m missing!

Anyways, eating in the dining commons at my school was my least favorite option and I imagined it to be the same for every campus, until I came across an article on Yahoo about the Top 20 Rankings for Best College Food and became insanely jealous of these delicious treats.

At Wheaton College, ranked number one in this survey, Klaud Mandl, the General Manager of Food Services at Wheaton, who previously worked at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, has a menu of Belgian chocolate homemade truffles, lavender-infused pork chops with onion gravy, and cumin-lime baked chicken with avocado cream sauce. Are you serious?!?! Homemade Belgian truffles??? The closest thing we got to that at my school was a help-yourself ice cream machine with watered down frozen yogurt.

These dishes at Wheaton are created by “The Wheaton Cuisine Team,” a group of students who represent the student body and come up with ideas, new recipes and fun ways to create a staff-student partnership with the dining commons. The Yahoo article goes on to report that the New York Times recently did a story on this topic, saying “as palates grow more sophisticated and admissions become more competitive, many top colleges are paying attention to dining rooms as well as classrooms.” Nifty. Who would have thought that food is becoming as high a demand as academic?

Is this true? Well, it sure wasn’t at my school. From the burnt burgers to the sticky, over cooked pasta, there sure wasn’t any “Cuisine Team” and there definitely were no chocolate truffles (although, that may have added to the freshman 15!).

Here are the Top 20 schools for 2009…is your school on here? If so, please dish about the uber delicious foods you are chowing down on, while I stick with my daily diet of Lucky Charms cereal.

1. Wheaton College (IL), Wheaton, IL

2. Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME

3. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

4. St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

5. James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

6. Colby College, Waterville, ME

7. Franklin W. Olin Col. of Engineering Needham, MA

8. Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

9. University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN

10. Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, MN

11. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

12. University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

13. Scripps College, Claremont, CA

14. Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT

15. Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA

16. Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA

17. Miami University (OH), Oxford, OH

18. College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME

19. Bates College, Lewiston, ME

20. University of Georgia, Athens, GA

[photo by JFKlibrary.org]

February 8th:

February 11th: 17-year-old student shoots and critically wounds a fellow student during high school gym period in Memphis, TN.

February 12th: 14-year-old boy shoots a classmate, 15, at junior high school in Oxnard, CA. The victim is declared brain dead.

These three shootings preceded the most recent school tragedy to take America by the heartstrings. February 14th, 2008 will not go down in history as just another Valentine’s Day: instead, it will be remembered as the day of another fatal college campus massacre, this time, at Northern Illinois University.

Six people, including gunman Steven P. Kazmierczak, were shot to death, with 14 more shot and wounded. The gunman appeared from behind a curtain in a geology class minutes before the period ended and began to open fire.

It was less than a year ago that the Virginia Tech massacre (the deadliest ever at a U.S. school) happened; 33 students and faculty members died, and 20 more were wounded.

According to reports by CNN and Yahoo News, Kazmierczak was dubbed an outstanding student, celebrated by his peers and teachers. Whereas the Virginia Tech shooter described his motives and anger in a horrifying video and was classified as mentally ill, Kazmierczak simply showed no warning signs; he won awards and excelled in school (although new reports now say he recently came off of medication and exhibited “erratic behavior” in the last two weeks).

As I read the coverage of this latest tragedy, so many questions flood my mind, and I don’t know where to begin.

How much is too much? As young adults, our moods and personalities fluctuate all the time, especially with the aid of various medications. When is there a reason to worry–when does a seemingly average mood swing turn into something more, something fatal?

Maybe it’s an issue of school security. Maybe schools should start incorporating metal detectors and an airport-esque security process. Or maybe background checks on the mental stability of each student should be run. Maybe the focus should be on prevention? As the New York City subways say, “If you see something, say something.”

Are all of these shootings reflective of the scary access U.S. citizens have to guns, or the mental states of certain members of the population? Is there an outside influence in the media, with images of violence in the news, video games and movies affecting some people too much?

I attend a very small private college in a secure Manhattan neighborhood–and I’m still shaken up about going to school. I can only imagine what it’s like to attend a large college with an actual campus. But I don’t know or understand the root of my fear–why are these shootings happening?

I want to be able to point the finger at someone or something, to know what’s causing this. We have to determine the cause before we can come up with a solution. Right?

What are your thoughts on this matter? What is going on with America and school shootings?

To all the victims and families affected by all of the recent shootings, our thoughts and prayers here at College Candy are with all of you.

I had a HUGE crush on him when I first saw Grease. Like, gigantic. My mom was concerned.

Hard to believe that this is what Danny Zuko looks like now. (Looks like some one’s got a case of the Man Boobs!) And even weirder is how he looks in the upcoming summer movie Hairspray.

I mean, look at him. I’m embarrassed for him.

But worse than John Travolta’s outer appearance is his recent blabberings-on about the horrific events at Columbine and Virginia Tech.

Page Six reports that Travolta said publicly, that all of these tragic school shootings are not really the fault of those who committed the acts, but but on psychiatric drugs. “I still think that if you analyze most of the school shootings, it is not gun control. It is [psychotropic] drugs at the bottom of it,” he said.

This goes along with Scientology, of which Travolta is a devout follower; Tom Cruise, as we all know, is also a major figure in the religion…er…the science…er…belief? Basically, they all believe that all drugs – prescriptive or otherwise – are completely uneccessary and are the root of all evil.

So, what Travolta is saying, is that it wasn’t the freaking psychopaths who are at fault for their murders, but the anti-depressants the freaking psychopaths were taking – it was their fault. The pills. It was the pills’ fault. Riiight. So, anyone and everyone who is on an anti-depressant is capable of doing what the school shooters have done. Riiight.

I think these celebrities need to just shut the hell up. They’re in the public eye, they’re only actors and if they don’t have anything 100% compassionate to say about such terrible events that take place and may purposely say something that will, in any way, offend the people who were close with the victims, they deserve any public backlash that comes their way.

Now that Travolta has spoken out, it seems like he’ll be the one surrounded by controversy and this will give Tom Cruise a breather from all the hype that results in his verbal sewage. And, hey – if John takes Tom’s place as Mr. Hollywood Scientology, maybe this will happen again – at least Travolta can make an ass of himself while singing, dancing AND dressed up like a woman at the same time!

We can only be so lucky.

In a recent Time.com article, author Richard Corliss wonders if it’s more than a strange coincidence that one of the pictures Cho took of himself where he “looks fierce and holds a raised hammer” is very similar to a shot in Korean director Park Chan-Wook’s film.

Just because he raises the question doesn’t mean Corliss actually believes there is any connection. In fact, he challenges anyone who thinks these movies are somehow responsible for the aforementioned shooting sprees to “explain why [everyone else] who saw Oldboy, and The Matrix, and Saw, didn’t do the same.”

A similar article in the New York Times muses that a fellow writer who tried to connect Cho to the Korean action flick as well as John Woo films “was simply trying to make a guess as to the features of the killer’s mental world.”

As someone who is trying to make her living in the entertainment field, my opinions run strong on this issue. I agree with both reporters that blaming movies for acts carried out by disturbed individuals is ludicrous. I know plenty of people I would trust with my life who pay money to see horror films like Saw and Hostel and enjoy every bloody second. My brother and his friends played violent video games all through their childhood, and so far, not a single one has checked in their sanity card. I saw The Basketball Diaries when I was young, and all it did was make me decide I was never, ever, going to do drugs.

A movie can’t turn a sane person crazy. John Woo didn’t put the gun in Cho’s hands. The entertainment industry is a lot of things, but one thing it’s not is babysitter for the world’s youth. Every time a young person commits a horrible crime, we want answers. We want reasons. It’s too complicated to trace a person’s mental history or attempt to research his childhood. It’s too accusatory to blame the parents. But it’s real easy to find someone’s video rental log and draw a direct connection from screen violence to real violence.

Violent movies don’t instill a need for sadistic behavior in adept people. More likely, they are the preferred entertainment of a mind already warped by serious psychological and external forces.

Perhaps the Columbine shooters or the Kentucky teenager or Cho replicated images they saw in films during their killings, but it’s not the imitation we should be worried about—it’s the acts themselves, and the reasons behind them, that should be analyzed.

I am a journalism student at a large school of communications, and issues like this one are highly debated in our classrooms. We are constantly given situations in class that a news director or journalist might run into and asked to figure them out ethically. I understand that NBC receiving this footage was a ratings jackpot and it would be hard to keep it contained…But I have come to the conclusion that NBC betrayed fundamental journalistic principles.

Was it wrong for NBC to air Cho Seung Hui’s Video?

According to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, one major duty of a journalist is to “Minimize Harm.” The SPJ states that, “ethical journalists treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect.” I highly doubt that airing Cho praising the Columbine killers is minimizing harm. It only takes one more disturbed student to see that and gain inspiration from the videos.

Another point in the code of ethics is even more relative to the VTech situation:

“A Journalist should: Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects. Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.”

I personally feel that NBC did the opposite in this case by airing the Cho footage and no sensitivity was shown to the families. Apparently, the families of the victims agree with me. On Thursday morning, they were scheduled to appear on the Today show with Matt Lauer, but backed out after the footage was aired the previous night.

Coming to this conclusion was not easy for me, as I carefully thought through other journalistic reasons for NBC’s decision, but no matter what, nothing can outweigh the fact that they did not minimize harm and were insensitive to the families of this terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to the families of the victims and am sickened that their pain had to be magnified because of the choices NBC made.

Sometime between the first and second shootings, NBC News reports that Cho Seung-Hui sent a “a rambling communication and videos about his grievences” to the network.

The package containing a 23 page diatribe and a 10 minute DVD arrived at 30 Rockefeller Plaza yesterday afternoon by US mail. The carrier alerted security to the orgin of the package and NBC notified the FBI.

NBC has released photos and video clips of the gunman’s last moments. They are insanely disturbing. He claims “This didn’t have to happen.” “You could have prevented this.” “You threw gasoline on the situation.” “You forced me into a corner.”

Click here to read the full story.