In things that are absolutely the worst but should surprise no one because we live in a sexist society, a law school dean had to send out a strongly worded email to students reminding them that judging an instructor on their sexiness is not part of the approved student evaluation criteria.

Well, it's come to this: Skidmore College will be offering a course this summer on "The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender, and Media."

In 1972, Rutgers University admitted its first women. Now, forty-one years later, the University has finally gotten around to changing the lyrics of the school's alma mater so it's not all about going to Rutgers and becoming a man because your dad told you to. Uh, yay? I guess?

We all got excited when Rutgers hired Julie Hermann as its Athletic Director; she was only the third female AD ever at a BCS school. Awesome! Then allegations surfaced that Hermann humiliated and emotionally abused players while coaching Tennessee’s women’s volleyball team 16 years ago. Not so awesome.

A little less than two months after firing abusive men’s basketball coach Mike Rice, Rutgers’ athletic department once again finds itself having to do a public relations shuffle with news that its brand new, reform-minded athletic director may have abusively berated members of the University of Tennessee’s women’s…

Graduating from college is supposed to be a time of great hope. You're supposed to take all of the clichéd lessons from your commencement speaker and go forth into the world to make a difference. Your future is just beginning, the world is your oyster, etc. Except that in order to make a difference, or more…

The habit of gathering for nightly family dinners sounds delightful—perfectly behaved children answering nicely as their parents ask them about their day, the passing of gorgeous green vegetables, a complete absence of fast food wrappers—but it's not very common in practice. And this, it turns out, is a problem. Why?…

A jury found 20-year-old Dharun Ravi guilty of having homophobic motivations for using a webcam to spy on his former Rutgers roommate, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, who killed himself shortly after the incident.

Yesterday, a group of Rutgers students took the English Dept. to task for failing to respond to a student's racist email about a whites-only screening of the film "Song of the South". But the department chair has contacted me to say that, in fact, they have responded.

Recently, students in the Rutgers University English Dept. received an exceedingly crap email, inviting them to a screening of a racist Disney movie, where "Darkeyisms" and "watermillyum" were on offer. Now some students, understandably, would like an apology.

The suicide and depression of Tyler Clementi is not relevant in the trial of his former roommate Dharun Ravi, a New Jersey judge has ruled.

Rutgers has added a summer course on Contemporary Black Women Writers, less than two weeks after an uproar over the fact that the university was paying Snooki a higher speaking fee than Toni Morrison. (Morrison, of course, is on the syllabus.)

http://youtu.be/ee1C5FB3ceoAt least, in Jersey!

The parents of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers student who committed suicide after his roommates used a webcam to stream his liaison with another man, may sue the university.

The Rutgers sex-spying case is the latest in a string of tragic stories about people committing suicide after having been allegedly bullied, harassed, or violated. But can people truly be "driven" to suicide?

Two Rutgers students were arrested this week for planting a hidden camera webcam in a fellow student's dorm room, and broadcasting video of him having sex. And, tragically, sources say their victim has now committed suicide.

[New Jersey, September 2: Lindsay Matthews, left, puts the finishing touches on a letter "U," painted on the stomach of Lauren Benton before the Norfolk State against Rutgers NCAA college football game at Rutgers Stadium. Image via AP]