Turning to the opinion pages:
-In a Badger Herald column arguing that Muslim women should be allowed to wear the hijab, University of Wisconsin senior Danny Tenenbaum leads with a discussion of his right to speak:

I shouldn’t be writing this column. Look at my byline. Read my last name and note how it ends with a resounding “baum.” Or take a glance at my picture and note my misshapen nose. I’m a Jew through and through. And that’s not all: I’m a Jewish-American male studying at the University of Wisconsin. The closest I’ve been to the Middle East was a brief 48-hour jaunt through Slovenia, a wonderful little country sadly mired in existential crisis ever since Slovakia came and crashed the party.
Despite my complete social disconnect from issues pertaining to Islamic women’s headwear, I refuse to refrain from throwing in my two cents, which is a fairly accurate measure of the value of my opinion. The latest European trend, calling for dress codes that ban the hijab in various public venues, is a major fashion faux pas.

Tenebaum is pictured above for those who want to examine his nose. He says attacking the hijab “makes it a cause that invigorates religious extremism and gives power to those who rule through fear and hatred.”
-It’s “the worst debate on campus,” says University of Michigan student Christopher Zbrozek, who edits The Michigan Daily editorial page.

As an editor whose duties include choosing and editing viewpoints, I’m routinely told by both sides that I’m biased. It so happens that I don’t really have a favorite between the two sides. I have no religious or ethnic ties to either side of the conflict. I’m appalled at the oppression and violence Israel inflicts on innocent Palestinians, and I’m disgusted at terrorist attacks that kill innocent Israeli civilians. I would like to see people there stop killing each other, but just about everyone professes to believe that.
Nevertheless, it seems there are student leaders on both sides of the issue who are convinced that the Daily is out to advance one agenda and suppress the other. If I believed everything in my e-mail inbox, I’d come to the conclusion that I must be both a Zionist and an anti-Semite.

Zbrozek says he has found discussion on campus to be “useless”, because students on both sides “generally view their ideological counterparts with disdain, distrust and disgust.”
-University of New Mexico journalism student Steve Painter doesnt mind taking sides. He makes the case for Israel in The Daily Lobo:

If the constant persecution experienced by the Jewish faith or the holiness associated with Israel does not make you believe that the U.S. should continue to support Israel, then maybe the pictures of people celebrating the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, would change your mind. On the morning of Sept. 12, 2001, my hometown newspaper, the Las Cruces Sun-News, featured a picture of Palestinians celebrating the destruction of the Twin Towers. When I saw that picture, I knew from then on I would support Israel, because nobody should cheer for tragedies that occur in the U.S.
The Palestinian government may or may not support the U.S. in its quest to rid the world of terrorism, but the people make it clear they are not behind the U.S. Perhaps this makes sense because of U.S. support of Israel, but I doubt people’s minds would change if the U.S. suddenly discontinued its support. Besides, the U.S. needs Israel in its war on terrorism, and Israel needs the U.S. in its war for survival.

Nobel-winning economist Milton Friedman, who died this month, was recognized for his work during his life - but now Rutgers senior David Maxham dedicates a Daily Targum column to the man he calls “Our Forgotten Alumnus.”

Earlier this month, a great American passed away. Milton Friedman was the son of Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary who settled in Rahway. He managed his way through college and graduate school after his father’s early death.
[…]
Though for a time he attempted to teach at the University of Wisconsin, Friedman’s career was stymied by anti-Semitic sentiment, and he returned to government work. He was the recipient of the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal - for influential economists under the age of 40 - the Nobel Prize in Economics, the National Medal of Science and, in 1988, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among many other awards and recognitions.
[…]
But despite fighting bigotry and accomplishing these amazing feats, Friedman has been negligently underplayed here on the banks of the Raritan River. No building bears his name, and there is no Rutgers scholarship in his honor. Heck, he did not even get a floor in Mettler Hall - which was named after him.
Last year, I along with other members of [Rutger’s conservative journal] The Centurion staff, tried to convince the Rutgers administration to do at least one of the above. New Jersey Hall - seat of the economics department at the University - was offered by the magazine’s staff as the most suitable structure. After all, it is the economics department, and what kind of bland name is New Jersey Hall, anyway? Unfortunately, University President Richard L. McCormick’s administration disagreed - saying that no one of any actual consequence wanted the name of the building changed and that it would probably require some kind of donation.
I suppose being a Rutgers alumnus who changes the face of American economic theory does not count. And so - to this day - nothing at Rutgers is named for Friedman.
I urge McCormick and the University administration to revisit this issue, do the right thing and not let this giant of 20th century economics fade into obscurity on this campus. Doing so would also go a long way in showing that the University administration is interested in seeing real debate and discussion of the issues and not the steady drumbeat of big-government enthusiasts.