Napping clubs, banned laptops, dorm room competition

By Eric Horowitz

St. Joseph's gets a football team...sort of, Brown students compete for the best room on campus, laptops could be banned from classrooms, and two students get fined for sleeping at night. All this and more in this week's Campus Chronicles.

Don't worry Penn fans -- your school will air its free 30-second commercial on CBS this year. Al Bello/Getty Images

College students have long since made napping an art form, and at Indiana University-South Bend it's now an official extracurricular activity. Last year two students founded a napping club, and this semester the club has obtained a room on campus and nine air mattresses. All students are free to come and nap in the room between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and they can even be awoken by a moderator at a requested time. While club leaders are pleased with the progress, they say their ultimate goal is to make it acceptable for students to spend every hour of the day in bed.

Brown University believes that students who get the first pick in the housing lottery should have to earn it. Last week the school held its third annual First Pick Competition -- a contest in which students can submit a video, drawing, written piece or other media production explaining why they deserve the best room on campus. This year's winners made a video of an allegedly naked a cappella group singing off-key songs in various places around campus, including the library's "absolute quiet room." The video also featured a cameo by Dan Marino, proving once and for all that the former Dolphins quarterback is capable of winning the big one.

Making the NCAA tournament brings a school more than just the opportunity to show off its cheerleaders on national TV. Every college that makes the Big Dance is given a free 30-second ad by CBS. Despite the fact that the ads have a $300,000 value, last year the University of Pennsylvania elected not to air a commercial -- I guess it decided it could just get that kind of cash by raising tuition instead. This year Penn says it plans to take advantage of the free advertising space, although I would recommend the school not mention in the ad that its administration once turned down a $300,000 handout.

The Boston College football team will have a new set of fans next season. Last week St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia announced that beginning next fall it will adopt BC's football team as its own. The decision will finally give St. Joe's students a football team to root for, and an agreement between the schools will give those students a chance to attend a home game in Boston. We're not sure how we feel about this. How about you?

The administration at St. Augustine College in North Carolina isn't as kind to students who are passionate about their slumber. Last month the school fined two roommates $150 each for sleeping through a fire alarm. The students say the fine is unfair on the grounds that they never heard the alarm and only woke up after a fireman knocked on their door. The students are probably right, but look at it from the administrators' point of view: They clearly need to buy better fire alarms, and since the money has to come from somewhere, why not fine the students who will benefit most from those new alarms.

Laptops in the classroom could soon be a thing of the past at Barnard College. The school is considering banning laptops because of concerns that they cause students to become disengaged in the classroom. Should Barnard and other schools take such a drastic step, economists predict that there could be catastrophic effects on the online poker and shopping industries.

In other news ... Lute Olson expects Chase Budingerto return for his sophomore year ... The University of New Mexico had some problems with its campus calendar ... LSU coach Les Miles has words for Alabama ... UNC gave away Duke tickets to the student who could dribble the longest ... And Blacksburg residents are extremely protective of their Virginia Tech Hokie statues.