Author: Caitlin Wells

On April 5, 1986, 19-year-old Jeanne Clery was asleep in her dorm room at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. Another student broke into her room, tortured, raped and killed her. Her killer had entered the building through a door that was supposed to be locked but was propped open. Jeanne's parents found out after her death that there had been 181 reports of doors propped open in her building in the four months before her murder and that students had not been told about multiple violent crimes on campus over the past few years.

Sexual assault is a serious cause for concern at any university, and when student athletes are involved, the cases can cause a media sensation. Recent developments in an assault case involving two former football players at the University of Iowa in Iowa City have caused more than the usual furor.

This spring, banners and signs will adorn campuses. Students will stand behind tables around campus, handing out fliers and trying to convince passersby that their candidate is the best for the job.

Hundreds of protesters were arrested in Denver, Colo., and St. Paul, Minn., during the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, respectively, this fall. However, these mass arrests managed to snare student and professional reporters with the protesters.

April 1 is traditionally a day for practical jokes like changing your friend's MySpace picture, stuffing the toes of your sibling's shoes with socks or resetting your roommate's alarm clock to 5 a.m. Many high school and college newspapers also jump into the act, publishing an April Fools' Day issue to skewer school policies and poke fun at the news they cover seriously for the other 364 days of the year.

Editors of the Eastern Progress, student newspaper for Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Ky., scored a victory for open records in an appeal to the Kentucky attorney general that challenged the university's redaction of information from campus police reports.