This is the second post of our new series called Welcome to Academia, which will give a weekly update about the interesting, weird and newsworthy happenings at Duke’s peer institutions.
A naked masturbator nicknamed "jerking Tom" has been walking around Brown University's campus recently, according to the Brown Daily Herald. One female senior living off campus said that she saw the man standing outside her kitchen window at least five times last month. One Brown student described the man to the Daily Herald as "as having a mop of black hair and wearing gym shorts with a shirt on top of his head." The Providence Police Department said they think they know who it is—the suspect has been arrested 22 times.
A recent mumps outbreak at the University of California at Berkeley has grown to 44 suspected and confirmed cases since a Berkeley student contracted the virus while in Great Britain, according to the Daily Cal. Berkeley's Health Services believe that the outbreak began in high-population housing with shared dining and bathroom facilities. Medical Director Brad Buchman said that the reported cases have mostly been "mild"—parotid gland swelling and testicle inflammation.
Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer cancelled a speech he planned to give at Barnard College Oct. 12 because of travel issues, but missing the event also allows him to avoid protests that had been planned for during his speech, according to the Columbia Spectator. Columbia University students had organized "School of the Squid" week to honor the writer Matt Taibbi who called Goldman Sachs "a great vampire squid," and thus the week would focus on the issues of corporate greed and abuse of power.
Sex columnist Dan Savage visited Cornell University last week as part of his college tour that will form the base of his MTV pilot show "Savage University" that will air in January, according to the Cornell Daily Sun. During a question-and-answer session, Savage said that most men lose their virginity at 17, and a few males in the audience reportedly raised their hands in agreement. "I think that must be a Cornell thing," Save said to the Daily Sun. "We spoke at a more conservative university where [people remained virgins] on purpose, as compared to here where it's more, 'I wish I weren't.'"
Anthropology chair of Northwestern University, William Leonard was featured on an Oct. 2 Discovery channel show called "I, Caveman," which explores the idea of modern humans adapting to a Paleolithic diet and lifestyle, according to the Daily Northwestern. The show followed 10 people for 10 days as they lived as cavemen and cavewomen in the high-altitude environment of Colorado. Only eight of the 10 participants lasted on the show for the full 10 days, and many members of the group reportedly lacked the proper background of natural resources. Females on average lost 10.3 pounds and males 15.8. All the participants did, however, experience an improvement in blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose and hemoglobin, as well as enduring strength.
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