Mail mix-up hinders James Madison U. student voting

(U-WIRE) CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – With the general election Tuesday, officials at James Madison University told nearly 150 students they are not eligible to vote.

Fred Hilton, director of University Communications at JMU, said because of an administrative error, student registrations from a recent voter drive were postmarked after the Oct. 7 deadline.

Although students ran the voter drive, Donna Harper, executive assistant to the JMU president, was responsible for sending in the applications. They were given to her around noon Oct. 7, Hilton said.

The applications were given to Harper in order to take advantage of a “special postage rate,” JMU Student Senate Chairman Matthew Gray said.

Harper took the applications to the university post office before the 5 p.m. closing time, Hilton added.

“Four o’clock is the last delivery to the main post office in downtown Harrisonburg where postmarks are done,” he said. “Because of that, the applications weren’t delivered until the following day.”

After shootings, U. Arizona president calls campus safe

(U-WIRE) TUCSON, Ariz. – Though a student brought a gun into a campus building, shot three professors in a College of Nursing classroom and later took his own life, President Pete Likins spoke to reassure members of the University of Arizona community that the campus is safe in a speech last week.

“I don’t now believe there’s any reason to imply a deficiency in security here or anywhere else,” Likins said.

The campus police (UAPD) “will reevaluate” security and it “is always evaluating” security, though it is not possible to assure every person on campus does not have a gun, said UAPD Cmdr. Brian Seastone.

Last Monday’s incident has little do with security at UA, Likins said.

“We’re all vulnerable if someone takes it upon themselves to do evil things,” Likins said.

Study says colleges don’t report rape stats

(U-WIRE) COLUMBIA, Mo. – A two-year, nationwide study released Oct. 21 revealed less than 40 percent of colleges and universities accurately follow a federal law requiring them to report crime statistics on rapes and sexual assaults.

The Clery Act, originally known as the Campus Security Act, requires institutions of higher education to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses.

A study conducted by the Education Development Center and the University of Cincinnati investigated schools’ compliance with the Clery Act. It found that 60 percent do not report campus crimes accurately, nor do they use funding to provide awareness programs.

U. Michigan asks Supreme Court not to hear cases

(U-WIRE) ANN ARBOR, Mich. – In what marks the last step toward potential Supreme Court arguments, the University of Michigan filed three briefs Tuesday asking the Supreme Court not to hear either the undergraduate case or the law school case regarding the University’s use of race in its admissions policies.

“The reason we are doing this is not to get attention, but to defend a principle,” university General Counsel Marvin Krislov said. He said the fact that the university opposes the granting of cert in both cases does not lessen the university’s commitment to educational diversity.

Three denied applicants are suing the university. Patrick Hamacher, Jennifer Gratz and Barbara Grutter claim they were wrongfully denied admission to the university while less qualified minority students were admitted.

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the University in Grutter v. Bollinger, upholding the University’s Law School admissions policy last spring and has yet to rule in Gratz v. Bollinger, which also brings into question the LSA admissions policies.