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Alert: At Duke University (Durham, NC), an ex-con bomber advised students that "it's easy to do a bombing," while at Columbia University (New York, NY), a professor offered his rationalization for suicide bombings. African-American students at the University of Mississippi (Oxford, MS), who confessed to writing racist graffiti on campus, were let off criminal charges to serve community service and write therapeutic reflection papers. And at Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.), the punishment for killing a fellow student was equally "severe" -- a 10-page reflection paper and counseling.

Congratulations are in order for these universities, along with Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill -- they're the 2003 winners of the Collegiate Network's Sixth Annual Campus Outrage Awards, popularly known as the Pollys. The Collegiate Network, a Wilmington, DE-based organization, rewards exposes of what they deem "absurd political-correctness" in higher ed with $1,000 and $500 for grand-prize and second-place winners, respectively.

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The Campus Outrage Awards

  were started as a way to highlight outrageous behavior we felt compelled to publicize," informs Bryan Auchterlonie, executive director of the Collegiate Network. Students and faculty submit their nominations for the Campus Outrage Awards, which are evaluated for content and how well they speak to the decline in American higher education, he says.

According to Steve Sexton, a senior economics and political science major at Berkeley, and editor of the Cal Patriot, "There's definitely plenty of liberal lunacy on campus." The latest at Berkeley? Through its Queer Alliance Web site -- on the university's server -- gay students used message boards to organize anonymous sex on campus. "This was allowed to persist, even though the police have been trying to stop this kind of activity," reports Steve. "It's been proven unhealthy, and the university is supposed to be trying to promote healthy behavior. It's contradictory."

Deb McCown, a junior journalism major at Chapel Hill and associate editor of the Carolina Review, has also witnessed what she considers instances of hypocrisy.

This year's winning incident features a professor who was pressured to resign for creating a hostile learning environment. Her crime? She mentioned a comment made to her in the '60s, that N.A.A.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was an acronym for "N@##%&$ Ain't Acting Like Colored People."

"She compared the climate of education when she went to university to now," explains Deb. "Her point was that things have changed for the better. She used her experience to illustrate that -- she wasn't intending to offend anyone."

But students dropped her class, accusing her of racism, and she ultimately resigned. "The climate at this university is an obsession with political correctness at the expense of things like academic discussion," claims Deb. "That provides a biased and incomplete education. This incident is a glaring picture of a troubling trend in American universities."

So why stay in a school where ridiculousness runs rampant? Simply stated, to make a difference. "Since I've been at Berkeley, I've been privileged to be part of a movement to make the university more accountable and representative of the general student body," shares Steve.

Deb agrees. "My goal is to put that other viewpoint out there. When something is blatantly biased and unfair, it's important to have another voice to create dialogue and debate."

So there's no need to fear -- though you may uncover similar atrocities when you arrive on the college scene, you can effect change. "If you see something that's biased or unfair, speak up," advises Deb. "The only thing that makes a university a place of learning is the constant input of new ideas. Any student can and should be part of that."

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