Area colleges not only ranked on football teams

Whew!

A techno-glitch nearly caused me to miss The Princeton Review's new edition of "The Best 366 Colleges," plus its rankings of the Top 20 "Party" and "Stone-Cold Sober" schools.

My apologies to all you parents and students who may have been waiting for the party schools rankings before making that life-changing final decision on an institution of higher learning.

Kentucky and Indiana had one school in the Top 20 in the party and sober categories.

Berea College of Kentucky ranks 16th on the Top 20 list of sober schools...

...Transylvania University in Lexington, 11th as a "Major Frat and Sorority Scene."

Centre College in Danville, 16th, 18th and 19th, respectively, in "Professors Get High Marks," "Professors Make Themselves Accessible" and "Lots of Hard Liquor."

..."I see that Berea is on the 'Scotch-and-soda, (HOLD-the-Scotch) list,' " said [Princeton Review publicist Jeanne] Krier.

Berea College spokesman Tim Jordan said it's not all work and no play for students at the small, private, liberal-arts school, but Berea is content to leave the party school honors to someone else...

This from Byron Crawford at the Courier-Journal.

Money not a factor in choice of debate sites

On July 4th, KSN&C posted the story on Centre College's effort to attract a presidential debate to Danville. I wondered if Governor Fletcher's addition of a $1 million item to yesterday's short-lived special session was related to his Deputy Chief of Staff and Centre alum, Wes Fugate.

Today's letter to the Courier-Journal from Dot Ridings, a member of the Commission on Presidential Debates, raises questions about what such funding would have bought in the first place.

I was startled that Gov. Ernie Fletcher's call for a special legislative session includes a request for $1 million to assist Centre College in its bid to become a site for a 2008 presidential debate. ("Centre vying for presidential debate," July 4).

I hope legislators will carefully consider what that allocation is specifically intended to cover, since I can attest that the only two significant factors in the final choice of sites among the 19 applicants are 1) a venue's production capabilities (which Centre
demonstrated admirably when the 2000 vice-presidential debate was held there)
and 2) security concerns (which have increased enormously since 2000).

If the $1 million is targeted at bells and whistles, it will be money poorly spent.

Centre College hoping for state funds to lure presidential debate

DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A Kentucky college is seeking $1 million in state funds as part of an attempt to lure a presidential debate in 2008.

Governor Fletcher included the funds for Centre College's debate bid in his call for a special session of the General Assembly.

Centre College President John Roush says the school appears to have benefited from hosting a vice presidential debate in 2000. Roush says the 2008 debate would cost about $2.5 million, with the college paying $1.5 million of that tab.

This from WAVE 3 TV.
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We hear that Wes Fugate, Governor Fletcher's Deputy Chief of Staff, is also a very active Centre College alum. Is this budget item just a coincidence? Hummm.