Free Republic

New research confirms that the land under the Chesapeake Bay is sinking rapidly and projects that Washington, D.C., could drop by six or more inches in the next century—adding to the problems of sea-level rise. This falling land will exacerbate the flooding that the nation’s capital faces from rising ocean waters due to a warming climate and melting ice sheets—accelerating the threat to the region’s monuments, roads, wildlife refuges, and military installations. For sixty years, tide gauges have shown that sea level in the Chesapeake is rising at twice the global average rate and faster than elsewhere on the East...

Academics really need to study the effects of unintended consequences more often. When the University of Vermont, one of the greenest campuses in one of the greenest states, banned bottled water, the school gave students an incentive to consumer sugary drinks. “We investigated how the removal of bottled water along with a minimum healthy beverage requirement affected the purchasing behavior, healthiness of beverage choices, and consumption of calories and added sugars of university campus consumers,” Elizabeth R. Berman and Rachel K. Johnson wrote in a study which appears this month in the American Journal of Public Health. “With shipment data...

Burlington (VT) Free Press doesn't allow linking to its stories, but if you go to their front page on their site it says Univ. of Vermont faculty members want to "cut ties" between the university and WVMT, an AM radio station that runs Rush Limbaugh. They don't want UVM sports on the station. WVMT's owner and GM is quoted as saying Rush is a program they carry, "the most listened to talk show in the nation" but that Rush is not necessarily the voice of the station...which pays UVM for the right to carry the games. So UVM is doing...

A month after Daniel Fogel resigned as president of the University of Vermont, a top school fundraiser has also left amid an investigation into his affair with Foley's wife. Michael Schultz, an associate vice president for development at the school in Burlington, Vermont, accepted a severance package and departed on Wednesday, a university spokesman said on Thursday. The school's board of trustees conducted a review of the relationship between Schultz and Rachel Kahn-Fogel, the president's wife and a volunteer in the fundraising office. Schultz, who earned a doctorate after writing a dissertation on the proper role of a university president's...

3 February 2009 Judge Jones gets multiple honorary degrees, Ben Stein has his withdrawn William Dembski Judge Jones, whose distinction prior to the Dover case was running the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, now has multiple honorary doctorates for rendering his decision, which he cribbed from the ACLU’s Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. Ben Stein, who is an acclaimed actor, author, and economist, on the other hand, has just been denied an honorary doctorate at the University of Vermont: “This is not, to my mind, an issue about academic freedom or the openness of the campus to all...

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- The University of Vermont's big new student center doesn't just have women's bathrooms and men's bathrooms. It also has gender-neutral bathrooms, a feature added to accommodate transgendered people, as well as those with some disabilities. The four single bathrooms in the new Dudley H. Davis Center -- each with a toilet, sink, shower, and lockable door -- cost about $2,500 a piece to build. Their wall signs identify each as "gender neutral restroom." "It's about inclusivity and accessibility and the importance of meeting all people's needs, not just a few," said Annie Stevens, assistant vice president for...

"Guillaume McDowell, UVM, Burlington: I was struck by an idea this month: Since college students who register to vote outside their home states risk losing their financial aid, I think that, before the Progressives put up their voter registration tables every fall at UVM, concerned citizens should have a table set up with all the appropriate forms to request an absentee ballot for the students' respective home states. We should make a point of the fact that registering to vote in Vermont will endanger your financial aid if you are an out-of-state student. That way, we couldn't be accused of...