briefs

(U-WIRE) NEW YORK CITY – Oklahoma State University’s student-run newspaper is no longer… (U-WIRE) NEW YORK CITY – Oklahoma State University’s student-run newspaper is no longer supplying content from the print edition to its own website.

The dispute arose when Fritz Wirt, the O’Collegian general manager who is not a student, allowed someone to write for the website that the print editor said she had previously fired.

According to Wirt, the student was never told he was fired from the print edition but that there was a disagreement the staff was to discuss sometime this month.

“This action goes against the heart of a student-run publication,” Editor-in-Chief Jenny Redden wrote in Monday’s edition. “If students control a publication, they must have the ability to hire and fire employees of that publication. When non-students are afforded this power, the publication is no longer student-run. It belittles me and the other editors in the newsroom, undermining our authority to the point that we are ineffectual. …What is our recourse? We can fire them, but they can in turn seek employment at the website.”

The print newsroom is posting its stories on MySpace (http://myspace.com/ocolly) and Facebook (http://okstate.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5948389386’ref=mf).

They are building a more permanent online publication to launch if the Student Publications Board does not agree this week to a meeting, Redden said. The next scheduled meeting is not until January.

“My staff and I hope,” Redden wrote, “that members of the Student Publications Board realize that these entities should not be separate.”

Wirt said the print and online editions have operated separately for 12 years and have different editors.

The entities and their content are owned by the O’Collegian Publishing Company. “No one has the authority to authorize an alternate website, which the students said they’re going to do,” Wirt said.

He is in the process of contacting a media attorney to discuss content ownership with the student journalists.

(U-WIRE) RALEIGH, N.C. – Yahoo launched a preview of its new social network website, Yahoo Kickstart, last week specifically aimed at college students, recent graduates, professionals and alumni.

Created by Yahoo’s Advanced Products team, Kickstart connects its members to help them find out about internships and jobs, get career advice and mentorship, discover new hires, give back to colleges and universities and connect with fellow alumni and past colleagues, according to the website.

Members of Kickstart create a professional profile and have the ability to browse company profiles and network with peers, professors, alumni and potential employers.

Along with providing several networking and job benefits, Kickstart is also holding a contest to provide a college with $25,000. Yahoo plans to donate the money to the alumni association of the college with the most profiles by Dec. 31. – Aria Behrouzi, Technician (N.C. State)

(U-WIRE) BOSTON – Patriotism and antiwar passion collided Sunday when 18 former soldiers turned activists were arrested during a Veterans Day parade at City Hall in front of the uniformed, whom they blamed for unnecessary bloodshed in Iraq.

Members of Boston Veterans for Peace, a group of former soldiers who oppose U.S. involvement in the war, were reprimanded by police when they refused to move away from the main podium after continued warnings.

The city permitted the group to march in the parade Sunday, but banned carrying antiwar signs.

“The American Legion sponsors this parade and doesn’t like veterans who are against war,” Veterans for Peace member and Vietnam veteran Jim Packer said. “The Legion thinks that to support the soldiers, you have to be for the war, but I think that the best way to support soldiers is to bring them home.”

Packer, who stood near the rear of the crowd, said he developed a new perspective on war after he graduated from Boston University in 1966 and enlisted in the Marines.

“I came back from Vietnam with a commitment not to allow this country to start another war based on lies,” he said.

According to the Boston Police Department website, those arrested are being charged with disturbing a lawful assembly. – Rachel Leamon, The Daily Free Press (Boston U.)

(U-WIRE) WACO, Texas – The most recent trend in tutoring is coming from India. Along with jobs for telephone operators, financial advisers and medical analysts, jobs for tutors are being outsourced.

Companies like TutorVista, a two-year-old Indian tutoring company, use the Internet to communicate with customers all over the world. Students can receive tutoring in subjects such as English, calculus or economics, as well as help for standardized tests, such as the SAT or GRE.

Online tutoring has been successful, according to an article in The New York Times, but the lack of human contact may have some negative effects, said Margaret Thomson, a Baylor University lecturer in the curriculum and instruction department.

Steve Gardner, director of the McBride Center for International Business, agreed on the importance of face-to-face tutoring.

“Certainly for something like tutoring, I think it’s going to be something that’s going to need to develop a lot,” he said. “If you’re looking for someone who can explain clearly to you a difficult theory or help you to get through a reasoning process, the kind of relationship you need with a tutor and a student is difficult to establish over a distance.”

Thomson said changes in learning styles for different generations may make a difference.

“I think a lot of learning takes place in a social context,” Thomson said. “However, this younger generation is much more computer savvy.”

“I think it’s been a little bit overhyped on its overall impact, especially the U.S. economy,” Gardner said. “There are some functions that can be outsourced very well; others can’t be outsourced well at all.”

India is also under capacity restraints as far as how much work it can take on, “even with the enormous population they have,” Gardner said.

“If you’re outsourcing computer support, it doesn’t magically cause these people – the people that have the technical and education skills needed for the job – to come into existence.”

Investors have also been hesitant to invest in these operations, Gardner said. – Shannon Daily, The Lariat (Baylor U.)