U. Texas walkout protests war
(U-WIRE) AUSTIN, Texas – About 2,000 University of Texas-Austin students congregated on the steps of the Main Mall Wednesday after walking out of class to show their opposition to a possible war in Iraq.

Students were informed to walk out of their classes at 11:30 a.m. and assemble at the Martin Luther King Jr. statue on the East Mall. Marshals carrying bullhorns divided the crowd of 2,000 into two groups and led them in marches down 21st and 24th streets while police stopped traffic.

-Daily Texan (U. Texas-Austin)

Sex offenders on campuses to be tracked
(U-WIRE) PHILADELPHIA – Registered sex offenders on college campuses around the country may have to add their names to another list this fall.

While the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act went into effect on Oct. 28, 2002, schools have until Sept. 30, 2003, to comply before they lose federal funding. There are still many states that have yet to bring their own laws into compliance and therefore stand to lose funding.

The CSCPA mandates that all states require colleges and universities to make information about school-affiliated sex offenders available to the campus police department. The list must then be made available to any member of the community.

-Daily Pennsylvanian (U. Pennsylvania)

Study says Greeks excel in careers
(U-WIRE) ITHACA, N.Y. – Pledging a Greek-letter organization may prove worthwhile beyond graduation, according to Forbes.com. The Web site recently reported that “about a quarter of all chief executives on the Forbes Super 500 list of America’s largest corporations were members of college fraternities.”

The recent Forbes article suggested the same social skills that help students get into the Greek system “can later give them a leg up in corporate climbing.” In addition, the network of alumni fraternity and sorority members can help current students build connections and search for jobs.

-Cornell Daily Sun (Cornell U.)

U.S. cases of HIV increasing in young people
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Wednesday that HIV rates are up in the United States.

In recent years, the number of newly infected individuals remained stable at 40,000. However, during a conference on retrovirus and opportunistic infections in Boston, the CDC said this figure increased by one percent in 2001.

The number of individuals infected with HIV is increasing because of indifference toward the disease, intravenous drug use and optimism about medical treatments, according to the study. Furthermore, the newly-infected are primarily in the younger segment of the population. Half of these cases are found in people younger than 25.

-University Daily (Texas Tech U.)