Nearly 500 Duke University students gathered Wednesday afternoon to protest an Asian-themed party hosted by Kappa Sigma fraternity on Feb. 1, Duke's student newspaper, The Chronicle, reported. Duke's Asian Students Association organized the rally to protest the party's theme and provoke a campus-wide discussion about broader racism at the university. Protestors called for the establishment of a new task force to address similar incidents and suggested that members of the fraternity engage in community service. Prior to the event, the fraternity sent out an invitation with offensive misspellings, such as "herro," and a meme of Kim Jong Il from the movie "Team America: World Police" (2004). A bias complaint was submitted to Duke's office of fraternity and sorority life and nearly led to the cancelation of the party, but the fraternity simply changed the theme from "Asia Prime" to "International Relations" in response. Members of Kappa Sigma issued a written apology to the student body on Wednesday.
The change in the number of applications to Harvard Law School did not experience the same significant decrease as it did in previous years, according to the Harvard Crimson. While law school applications have declined 20.4 percent nationally this cycle, Harvard's decline is not as dramatic as that of this year's national pool. Harvard saw a decline in the number of applicants in the past two years, corresponding with a nationwide drop in law school applications, which has been decreasing nationwide since 2010. This trend may be due to the competitive job market, which students said is not as much of a concern for students at Harvard as it is at other schools. The employment rate for Harvard Law School graduates has been approximately 95 percent for the past three years.
Former Columbia-Julliard exchange student Oren Ungerleider filed a lawsuit against Columbia University after being committed unwillingly to St. Luke's Hospital for cursing at a professor during a Spanish final, the Columbia Spectator reported. Ungerleider claims he was forced to remain at the hospital against his will for 30 days and that doctors involuntarily medicated him while he was a patient in December 2010. Ungerleider filed the lawsuit on Jan. 17 and accused Columbia and Continuum Health Partners, which owns St. Luke's, of wrongly arresting and imprisoning him. He was released from the hospital in January 2011 and was not permitted to return to Columbia. The lawsuit seeks $10 million in damages for Ungerleider's mental and emotional suffering, but the case will likely take years before making significant progress, the Spectator reported.
