My Own Students-Slaughter-Bear-Story, New Professor Show, & More
Around the College Towns: Links and commentary related to urbanism and higher ed for the week of Aug. 1 - Aug. 16.
Note: Around the College Towns is my weekly links roundup article on urbanism and education. These posts mostly cover news that may have fallen through the cracks rather than the big events. Since I had back-to-back guest posts, this edition will be a bit longer. Enjoy.
Bears and Pigs and College Students, Oh My!
This week, The New York Times had a (sort of) humorous story about college students that I saw a lot of higher ed people discussing. The article’s setting is Cornell University, where the Upstate New York Ivy League school recently banned students from processing wild game in dormitory kitchens. What prompted this new policy? Well…
One Saturday last September, two Cornell University students plopped a bear carcass on a table in a communal dormitory kitchen and began to carve it up. They planned to make “black-bear pastrami,” as one of them described their plans later.
Yes, the students slaughtered a bear in the dorm kitchen. Apparently, the students were hunting enthusiasts and legally shot and killed the black bear since it was open season. I know there are likely vegans and vegetarians disturbed by the story (and the photos circulating do look gory), but the process is fairly typical in hunting circles. It just happened to happen in a shared dorm kitchen.
The students defended themselves on a hunting podcast called The MeatEater Podcast. “We were really diligent in reading all of the rules, you know, regulations. We made sure we did everything by the book,” said Aaron Chin. Their plea was basically that there was no explicit rule against slaughtering a bear in the dorms.
This story illustrates some of the ridiculous experiences that come out of college campuses. It is one reason I loved my own time in college! It reminded me of my first job after my undergrad as a Leadership Consultant for my fraternity (Acacia) in Indianapolis, Indiana. This job had me traveling to college campuses across the country (fun job for a 22-year-old), helping or starting local chapters, and also dealing with disciplinary issues with things like hazing.
One day, headquarters got alarming news from the Penn State chapter. The university’s Greek Life director told us that our boys had slaughtered a pig in their basement. If that weren’t enough, they also invited the entire chapter and even neighboring sororities to watch. We were horrified, thinking it was some kind of disturbing ritual sacrifice. The next day, they sent me and a couple of other reps to State College, PA, to investigate.
Down in Happy Valley, we met with the university officials and interviewed much of the chapter. What we pieced together was not dissimilar from the Cornell story. The chapter had some country boys from Pennsyltucky (self-described), the lingo for rural counties in the state that traces cultural roots to Appalachia. They had actually followed the rules and norms in processing ham. They just did it in the fraternity house and with an audience.
In the end, the chapter received a slap on the wrist from the university. The headquarters basically told them to never do something like this again or else lose their charter. The chapter had a pretty wild reputation, even amongst the seasoned fraternity headquarters. They were eventually suspended from operations due to hazing and other misconduct, according to Penn State.
Things like hazing are far more common and dangerous than processing pig or bear meat. These kinds of bizarre stories just capture an audience. They are just part of the totality of happenings in a college town. Young people from different cultures making dumb decisions together, as long as not too consequential, is exactly what college is for.
Links I’m Reading This Week
Education
In college housing news, Liberty turns old dumpy hotel into dorms. This kind of conversation has become quite common in higher ed. Even when I was an undergrad two decades ago, my university recently purchased a hotel as a dorm.
In California, Fresno State is building its first on-campus housing in 50 years, while Long Beach City College is building its first on-campus dorms ever. California is bonkers: 50 years of growth and just now building housing.
Shuttered college dorm to become affordable housing in Philadelphia. This is a perfect adaptive reuse of closed college campuses.
Florida Tech is opening its largest dorm to ease the housing crisis. It’s just too bad the building is utterly ugly. It seriously looks like an Amazon distribution center.
Which one is the dorm and which one is the Amazon warehouse? The only giveaway is the giant delivery truck. The fastest-rising housing markets are all basically towns with colleges. So I do not expect the housing struggles around colleges to end anytime soon.
Nick Gerli@nickgerli1The fastest-appreciating housing markets are not where you’d expect. Syracuse, NY: +49% Knoxville, TN: +46% Hartford, CT: +44% New Haven, CT: +42% Rochester, NY: +42% Cheaper Northeast markets are dominating, particularly across Upstate New York and Connecticut. The pattern is
9:20 PM · Aug 3, 2026 · 55.2K Views29 Replies · 22 Reposts · 239 LikesStanford backs off Flock cameras after outrage. I wrote previously about how the university was getting pushback over its surveillance deal, but I am starting to soften my stance (perhaps I will write a longer response as to why).
ASU launches school for content creators. Honestly, I do not hate it. If this is what students want to invest their time and passion in, then universities should oblige. I may have to do a deeper dive on these types of programs in the future.
UCLA wants to add shade infrastructure across LA. I am glad someone is trying, but it is pathetic how little the city leaders actually care about this issue.
New study abroad targets? Bored retirees. Now this is interesting. With the looming population cliff, there will be a dearth of 18-year-olds. At the same time, we are going to have an excess of seniors. More universities should try this.
Not every person in the older generations is financially comfortable. Some Boomers are saying that they cannot retire because of student loan debt.
There’s a new college entrance exam that promises to return to the classics. This is another sign of the divide in educational philosophies. I have a planned article to break down this issue in more detail.
Urbanism-ish
LA’s airport people mover is nearly done but still facing delays. We already missed the World Cup. We should get it open by the Olympics, but anything is possible in this city. Pathetic.
In more bad news from my state, California must get rid of its double-decker trains. We are letting another icon die due to overregulation and bureaucratization.
Further, California is getting sued by Teamsters to keep self-driving big rigs off the road.
In other parts of the country, a state rep in Pennsylvania wants to ban automated public transit (a Democrat, no less). Short-sighted! Naked rent-seeking is one reason we cannot escape our terrible transit ecosystem in the US.
While we stumble with basic transportation here, Russia wants to build a train route to India. Russia→ Turkmenistan → Iran → Afghanistan → Pakistan → India. Well, that would certainly be an adventure!
It’s not all good news abroad, though. In South Korea, Seoul’s nightlife is grappling with young people’s new temperance tastes. The old bar district I used to hang out in is “not what it used to be.” Many such cases for things from my youth. Bummer.
In the adaptive reuse corner, a church-turned-nail-salon for sale as a single-family home in Wisconsin. You can also live in a train in Washington. I love adaptive reuse!
An author argues the national housing crisis is a moral problem for churches. Yes! Let the churches build for their parishioners and communities.
In other self-driving car news from around the world, China is banning blue lights to indicate self-driving mode. When the blue lights were on, other drivers would know the car is being driven by a robot. I like this concept. It gives drivers more signals. Alas, it looks like it is gone.
Volvo removes LiDAR. The company is saying that their regular sensors are safe enough. It does make me a bit nervous, though. I will have a future article on how these impact road safety.
The number one most feared public safety issue by Americans: traffic violence. While also true around the world, the numbers of people who fear road-related accidents in the US are much starker. It makes sense; our roads are very dangerous.
Closing Time… New Professor Show
A couple of weeks ago I posted about Amy Poehler fantasizing about being a professor. Well, it seems the thought must have been on her brain because a new show was in development where she will be an academic. Dig will star Poehler and Hugh Laurie as archaeologists taking students on an expedition.
The showrunner will be Mike Schur, who will reunite with Poehler, having formerly worked together on Parks and Rec (a great show on small-town politics). Schur has a murderers' row of heartfelt sitcoms: The Good Place (a great show that taps into academic philosophy), A Man on the Inside (which I almost wrote an article about on the season it was set at a struggling college), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (probably my least favorite, though it’s fine), The Office (an all-time TV show).
I am looking forward to seeing how Poehler, Schur, and the gang depict the academy. We already have Indiana Jones as the iconic archaeologist professor depiction. Will this show add to the cultural relevance or fade into obscurity?
