Correction Appended

Students at Northwestern’s school of journalism are doing more than learning to write ledes, conduct interviews and blog. Instead, they have worked toward and succeeded at exonerating innocent inmates who have been wrongfully accused. But now, the group of students who take part in the Medill Innocence Project are being threatened by a demand by local prosecution to hand over information surrounding a current investigation.

One of my Facebook friends posted a status that was all, “Why can’t The Sun publish educated opinions?” So, here goes nothing: David Foster Wallace is the poor man’s Thomas Pynchon ’59. Pynchon is the pretentious man’s Vonnegut ’44. Bam. Moving on.

Last weekend, my friend (who has recently found the man of his dreams) expressed his concern over my own lack of significant other. Heretofore, I’ve remained relatively indifferent on the subject. But then he told me that boyfriends buy you things. Suffice it to say, I’m down.

It has been made clear by Vice President for Student and Academic Services Susan Murphy ’73 that program houses are not going anywhere in the near future. With that in mind, it is time to turn the discussion away from a debate about whether or not the program houses should exist, and refocus on how to better represent and integrate program houses into the community at large.

Health care is big money. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that health care represents America’s largest industry, providing roughly 14 million jobs. The Bureau goes on to mention that seven of the 20 fastest growing occupations are health related. Here at Cornell, medical research is a huge deal, producing shiny new buildings like Weill Hall, and attracting top professors from around the country. And our top students have always been lured towards medicine as an attractive, stable, intellectually stimulating career option.

But question: Jobs and investments aside, is this approach to medicine effective? Does it produce a healthy, productive society in the most efficient way possible?

Pop quiz: What do Glenn Beck and Bill Maher have in common? If you answered with, “They’re both blowhards” ... well, sure. But for the purposes of the present conversation, let’s take a look at these two from another angle. What other similarities might they bear? Well, for starters, they both host news-centered cable television programs. More to the point, they’re both famous for their “colorful” approaches to political commentary. And, most recently, they’ve both urged Americans to reject the new swine flu vaccine.

The Sun’s Public Editor Rob Tricchinelli has written a column for today’s paper (published right above me) about the interactions between the newspaper and our readers (adoring fans, as I like to call you). And I think that is a great idea, so I am going to take the Cornell route, and rip him off. I have absolutely no idea what he is going to write about, but I am just going to give you the straight dope about my interactions with readers.

For example, two weeks ago I wrote a column. A week later, I had something stolen from me. Vandalism or fan-mail? The jury is still out. Literally.

On a cold and rainy night this past Friday evening, members of the Board of Trustees, scurrying from dinner to a gala in Bailey Hall, were met with an unlikely greeting: peaceful, yet pronounced, student protest.

A self-described “coalition of students of color” staged the protest to shine light on what they consider to be a lack of administrative support for the needs of various minority communities on campus. Among these concerns were minimal financial resources for Asian and Asian-American students, neglect of student input in the decision to reassign Ujamaa Residential Housing Director Ken Glover and insufficient staffing at the Office of Minority Educational Affairs.

The relationship between The Sun and its readers should be a two-way street. The paper’s coverage, obviously, is a gateway through which the campus community can stay informed. But the paper is ultimately beholden to its readers, and reader feedback must be one element to guide The Sun’s decision-makers in their overall vision for the paper.

Marijuana law reform is back at the forefront of national debate after the Obama Administration’s new guidelines on medical marijuana investigation and prosecution came out Oct. 19. The federal government’s new stance comes as a relief to the many users and suppliers of marijuana for medical purposes and is seen by some as a move towards a more liberalized drug enforcement policy in the nation generally. However, with all the excitement over the new policy comes a wakeup call for the states which have legalized medical marijuana use or are considering such legislation. Inconsistent regulation, vague standards and patchwork enforcement are threatening to stall marijuana law reform.

[Editor’s Note: This column is the second installment of a two part series, the first half of which appeared in yesterday’s Sun.]