Comedians are known for finding humor in virtually everything, which is why it’s refreshing to see both “The Daily Show” and “Saturday Night Live” take the high road with the Penn State scandal.

Check out what Jon Stewart had to say about Penn State:

And look at Jason Sudeikis’ funny bit during “Weekend Update.” I’m giggling, but there’s a serious message here:

When comedians aren’t finding any humor in the situation, you know it’s bad. Join me at 4PM ET today on Twitter to discuss the Penn State scandal.

–Barbara Bellesi

I’ve been trying to figure out all week how to best write about the Penn State sex abuse scandal. As a higher education blogger, it’s natural for me to focus what the allegations hold in store for the future of the university; however, in doing that, I realize that I am not focusing on what should be the bigger picture: the alleged victims of football coach Jerry Sandusky’s horrible misdeeds.

College football is a kind of religion to some people, and I can understand the fierce loyalty that students, alumni, and fans feel for Joe Paterno, head coach of Penn State’s Nittany Lions. At the same time, if allegations are true, then Paterno is indeed very much at fault for not reporting the sexual abuse to the police. Penn State itself is certainly acting as though they are true, and Paterno, as well as college president Graham Spanier, have been dismissed for participating in the coverup.

Penn State is obviously a sports-minded university. But it is, first and foremost, a university. The majority of students who attend Penn State do so to get an education. In that light, the football team is a very small part of the school as a whole. Which is why it’s so terrible that the school’s 156-year-long legacy is being so tarnished right now.

I’d like to think that coverups of this magnitude are not the norm; that we will not see a rash of similar allegations on campuses across the country, in a similar way to what happened with the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis. Therefore, if I were a student entertaining the idea of attending Penn State in the fall, I might seriously reconsider my application.

Penn State’s executive vice president and provost, Dr. Rodney Erickson, said in a statement posted on the school’s website: “This is one of the saddest weeks in the history of Penn State.” This might be true–but it’s nothing compared to the emotions felt by the abuse victims and their families.

–Barbara Bellesi

What’s scarier than the Saw series? More frightening than Freddy Krueger? For colleges and universities, it’s…DISGRUNTLED ALUMNI!!!

(Cue the Psycho music.)

College rankings, like those issued by U.S. News & World Report, have always held a controversial spot in the higher ed world, usually because no one but the staff of USN&WR truly understands the basis of those rankings. That’s why entrepreneur Tom Benghauser has decided to go rogue with College Straight Talk,  his unprecedented system of university rankings that involves input from college alumni. And as a result, college administrators across the country find themselves foolishly running back into their houses as the crazed killer is on the loose.

Why are colleges running scared? Well, for one, it makes SENSE to ask the opinion of recent graduates. Most will probably have at least something good to say about their home campuses, but unfortunately for colleges, there will always be alumni who will hold grudges about something during their college years–not to mention that unemployed graduates may hold their alma mater in contempt for their lack of jobs, rather than the depressed economy.

Benghauser himself is a graduate of Princeton University and The University of Pennsylvania, so he got started by using his own alumni databases. UPenn noticed the inordinate amount of searching he was doing, found out why, and so the alumni office shut him down. (Boo, UPenn.) Benghauser labels himself a consumer advocate, but so far, colleges and universities aren’t buying it and are refusing to work with him.

Provided that Benhauser can access alumni to get their feedback, College Straight Talk will plan to calculate the results of its extensive surveys and put the data on one website for college-bound students and their parents to access.

Just like car shoppers can look up ratings on Consumer Reports, it seems as though college-bound students will soon be able to look up ratings from alumni on College Straight Talk. Good idea or ghastly idea? Leave a comment below.

–Barbara Bellesi

So many people admire Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who passed away last week, for his innovation and impact on our culture and even education. And though he didn’t finish college himself, he had a connection – through his wife – to helping students make it to college.

Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, is a co-founder of College Track. College Track is an after-school program that since 1997 has helped more than 1,100 high school students in California, Colorado, and Louisiana get into college. The first group of minority students it worked with headed off to college in 2001, and hundreds have followed since then.

The organization even drew Justin Bieber, who performed at a College Track benefit concert in June 2011 (that event and other fundraisers helped College Track raise $2 million). Will.i.am also spoke in May 2011 to graduates assisted by College Track. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Jobs family provided “significant” financial donations to found and run College Track. Jobs’ wife remains chairwoman of the board.

College Track assists mostly low-income students who would be the first in their family to go to college. The organization starts working with students before their 9th grade year in these cities – California’s East Palo Alto, Oakland, and San Francisco, as well as New Orleans, and Aurora, Colorado. It provides all types of resources – academic, social, and financial (student earn up to $1,400 for each year they participate to go toward college) – to help students find a way to go to college. Here’s how it has succeeded:

• 100 percent of its seniors graduate high school

• 90 percent go to a four-year college

• 85 percent are the first person in their family to earn a college degree

• 70 percent graduate from college within six years

Many college students helped by College Track (see these videos with students’ stories) are serving as interns and volunteers, sharing their knowledge with current high school students.

Of course, many people are wondering which philanthropies or organizations will receive some of the billions of dollars that was part of Steve Jobs’ fortune. We’ll see if College Track is a beneficiary. In the meantime, if you know of someone in any of those cities in middle school who want to commit themselves to graduating and going to college but need a little assistance, they can apply online.

A student who graduated from high school in 2007 posted a comment on College Track’s website: “To succeed, you need to find something to hold onto to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. That place for me is College Track.”

–Lori Johnston

You don’t have to look far on a college campus to see how Steve Jobs (ironically a college dropout himself) has helped revolutionize higher education.

During just two hours today at the University of Georgia, where I am an adjunct journalism professor, I saw many students serving as living reminders of Jobs’ creations:

• A female student jogging on the perimeter of campus, with an iPod attached to her arm under a T-shirt and those omnipresent white Apple earbuds sticking out of her ears.

• A group of students huddled in a classroom hallway watching a video on the small iPhone screen.

• Groups of students texting or reading Facebook or Twitter messages from their iPhones while waiting for campus buses outside the football stadium and student center.

• A guy sleeping in the student center with a MacBook Pro in his lap and iTunes piping music into his earphones.

• Students with MacBook screens open, finishing assignments or assigned reading from their laptops, able to squeeze in the work before class begins.

• Mac desktops lined up on workstations in classrooms, where students are learning video editing using Mac software, updating class blogs, working together on group projects and completing other assignments.

• Professors and students toting iPads loaded with apps, textbooks and assigned reading, often making it more affordable to buy the downloadable version instead of a traditional textbook.

The technology advancements that defined Jobs’ career help make the college learning experience more vibrant, in the moment, and even affordable. When I required my magazine writing students to subscribe to a magazine this semester, one iPad owner discovered the iPad subscription was cheaper.

Earlier this week, I sent a message to students about a class assignment, and within seconds, a student responded via iPhone. That accessibility is something that professors and students often appreciate, turning learning into a 24-7 experience.

Many students are bringing Apples to classes these days–and they’re just not giving them to the teachers.

–Lori Johnston (Photos by Michael Barone)

I can imagine the excitement Amanda Knox must have felt on her flight to Italy at the start of her study abroad program four years ago. But I can’t even begin to imagine the emotions she is feeling today as she awaits her fate in an Italian courtroom. As the prime suspect in the murder of her roommate, British student Merdith Kercher, in Perugia, Knox has professed her innocence, but that hasn’t stopped an Italian prosecution team from convicting her and the judge handing down a 26-year sentence.

I’ve followed Knox’s appeal, and I’m not convinced she is a murderer; it’s a combination of a gut feeling and the more logical fact that the DNA evidence is inconclusive. So I’m truly pulling for her to be released.

But here’s what scares me: I was CONVINCED Casey Anthony was guilty and…well, we all know how that story went.

A good friend of mine who has been more closely following the case than I have (I call her my personal CNN correspondent) offered some good advice to future students looking to study in a foreign country: “At the very least, students should familiarize themselves with the laws of that country.” She used jaywalking as an example: It’s common occurrence here in New York City, and it’s one that’s usually frowned upon, though it can result in a citation. However, try jaywalking in another country and you could find yourself behind bars, in a jail where they don’t take kindly to foreign prisoners.

Granted, being a murder suspect in ANY country is pretty bad, but when the language you need to defend yourself is not your own, well, it’s a nightmare–or incubo in Italian. Knox was fully intent on learning some italiano while she was in Perugia, but she probably figured she’d learn phrases such as “How much is that gelato?” and “Where is the train station?” Certainly not “I did not kill; I did not rape; I did not steal; I was not there,” which is indeed part of the statement she gave today, in Italian, to the court, in what sounds to me like fluent, flawless Italian.

Italian is the language that she’ll need to use for the rest of her life if she is not released today. If she is released back to her family in Washington State, then I, as an Italian-American, wouldn’t begrudge her one small bit if she decided never to speak another word of Italian in her life–provided, of course, that she is truly innocent.

I’ll stay tuned…

–Barbara Bellesi

I had thought that National Louis University’s Groupon for a college course was pretty cool, but the news about Seton Hall University sort of blows it out of the water.

The New Jersey university is planning a two-thirds discount tuition incentive for early applicants who meet these outstanding qualifications: top 10% of their high school class and either a combined score of at least 1,200 on math and reading portions of SAT (no less than 550 on either) or an ACT score of at least 27. The discount currently equates to about $21,000 shaved off the tuition bill.

It gets even better: New Jersey residents have long enjoyed the in-state tuition rates of the state university, Rutgers, but this proposed discount evens out the two tuition bills. About 70 percent of Seton Hall’s undergrads hail from New Jersey, so that will make for a lot of happy students. But the happiness will extend outside the borders of the Garden State, too, because the price reduction will now make Seton Hall the less expensive option for out-of-state students when compared to Rutgers out-of-state rates.

The New York Times reports that Seton Hall is the first school to offer a tuition discount of this magnitude. Considering the amazing potential the school will have to amass a stellar incoming class next year, it only remains to be seen if other schools will follow suit.

I have young cousins who live in New Jersey and who are pretty darn smart. I can only hope they stay that way–and that Seton Hall’s policy stays this way, too.

–Barbara Bellesi

One of the things we love about college is that when it comes to style, you can be yourself. But on college campuses this fall, some students are getting attention for their unstylish garb. It’s not just students’ gossiping, but enraged football fans complaining about some of these fashion faux pas. That’s because certain college football players are wearing new Nike and Under Armour uniforms with questionable color combinations and non-traditional designs.

In their defense, these players have no choice – it’s the decision of the school to have them wear the new jerseys, pants and helmets, sometimes for one game, but possibly throughout the entire season.

The buzz about these college football uniforms is bringing even more attention to longtime college football powerhouses and nationally ranked teams. Boise State (a rare all-white look), Georgia (some said they looked like Power Rangers), and Oklahoma State (especially the all gray ensemble) are among the schools whose new uniforms caused negative comments from fans. Others, like Navy, Army, and LSU have avoided the same type of outrage.

Whether people love the uniforms or hate them for being so ugly, we love that the furor over football fashion is giving more attention to schools like Maryland, which isn’t  known for their football programs. Some thought Maryland’s odd garb (see photo above), with the helmets and jerseys split down the middle to reflect the state flag, looked like the colorful attire of the knights at Medieval Times – the joust-filled dinner venue. The uniforms – seen during a nationally televised game in early September – was just one of 32 different combinations from Under Armour, and more than a few spectators got dizzy looking at them.

Of course, one would hope that you’re not going to choose a school based on a football uniform or even how fashionable students are on campus. But consider the fuss over football uniforms as just one more way to learn about more schools and college life.

What do you think? Offensively ugly or much ado about nothing?

–Lori Johnston