Spellings expected to clear Senate nomination

President George W. Bush’s nominee for the post of Education Department secretary has received a unanimous nod from the Senate Education Committee.

Responding to questions, Margaret Spellings defended the No Child Left Behind Act, considered the centerpiece of the Bush administration’s education policy.

She is now just one Senate vote away from replacing outgoing Education Secretary Rod Paige. Spelling is widely expected to receive final approval for the job and has earned backing from five major education associations, including the American Council on Education and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

University Centers launches ‘Operation Raindrop’

In a winter that is predicted to be unsually wet and rainy, University Centers administrators have begun a new program to provide students with a dry place to go in inclement weather.

Dubbed “Operation Raindrop,” the new plan will open available meeting space to students on rainy days, when the majority of outdoor Price Center seating may become wet.

“Because this winter is forecasted to be a rainy one, we said, ‘Hey, what can we do to accommodate students?’” University Centers Director Gary Ratcliff said.

If unoccupied by other events, Ratcliff said the Price Center ballroom will be opened to students on wet days as a place to eat and “spend time in a dry place.”

In addition, meeting rooms off the Sun God Lounge will also be available.

Signs will be displayed on rainy days to indicate the accessible areas, according to Ratcliff.

Adviser describes worsening conditions in Iraq

Less then a month before scheduled elections in Iraq, a successful democracy in the country is less likely than the reemergence of dictatorship, senior U.S. Agency for International Development adviser Dana Eyre told a group of approximately 70 campus students and staff on Jan. 7.

Nevertheless, technical preparations for the elections have gone “surprisingly well,” Eyre said, arguing that even imperfect elections would help smooth the way for a democratic transition in Iraq.

Speaking in what he called an “intellectual and academic discussion” that did not reflect official government policy or views, Eyre described his experience as an interagency coordinator for the Office of Iraqi Reconstruction.

“The best I can say is that we have not lost yet,” Eyre said, citing an armed insurgency in the country that continues to grow in numbers.

In addition, American troops and Iraqi officials continue to struggle to provide essential services for the populace, he said, even as the emerging Iraqi security forces struggle from attrition rates as high as 30 percent.

Despite continued violence in the country, Eyre said peaceful elections remained one of few options to try to improve the lives of Iraqis and prevent the emergence of a new terrorist threat.

“There was not a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida,” he said. “However, if we do not resolve these issues … it will be a problem in the global war on terrorism.”

Study: Tobacco-sponsored parties target students

College students may be particularly vulnerable to a widespread tobacco industry marketing strategy that involves the sponsorship of social events and parties, a new national study by the Harvard School of Public Health has found.

Students at all but one university in the country reported attending a tobacco-industry-sponsored event, it reported. Though numbers differed on various campuses, 8.5 percent of students overall said they had attended a party where free cigarettes were distributed, most often at bars and nightclubs.

“By distributing cigarettes and sponsoring these events in bars and on college campuses, the tobacco industry promotes the idea that cigarettes are an essential part of young adults’ social lives,” said Nancy Rigotti, director of the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center of Massachusetts General Hospital.

The study came out just a week after California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced an $11.4 million settlement with cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds.

Filed in the San Diego Superior Court, the lawsuit alleged that the company placed tobacco advertisements in magazines with large teen readership, in violation of a 1998 national settlement the industry reached with states.

Under the deal, the company will be prohibited from advertising in publications with audiences made up of at least 15 percent teen readers.