See what university and college newspapers across the country are writing about.

Fewer health exams, more at risk

Two recent revisions to cancer screening guidelines could carry dangerous consequences for women’s health. One is particularly harmful to college-aged women and younger, who are now being told to put off Pap smears until they are 21.

Earlier this month, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists changed the long-standing recommendation that women receive their first cervical exam three years after becoming sexually active or at age 21, whichever came first, and be screened annually thereafter. The recommendation is now to wait until age 21 and then be screened every two years.

The stated reason for the change is that overtreating young women can impact their ability to carry a child full term. Dr. Thomas Herzog of Columbia University told MSNBC.com doctors have been “”overtreating”” and “”overdiagnosing”” young women. Along with sending the message that the medical establishment does not care whether young women may have cancer, this reasoning ignores the reality of young women’s lives and the services many patients receive during Pap smears.

—The Oregon Daily Emerald, University of Oregon

Your money, your roommate, your choice

If you pay $12,780 in rent to spend a year in an on-campus double, you should be comfortable. That was the basic principle behind the Student Government Association’s push for gender-neutral housing.

Yesterday, after a year of deliberation and debate, the administration showed that it agrees.

In an e-mail to former and current dorm dwellers, Dean of Students Ronald Ludman announced yesterday that Emerson will launch a pilot gender-neutral housing program for returning students next fall. Consenting participants will be able to live with roommates and suitemates of their choosing, regardless of gender.

This is a major step forward for student rights, and a reason for us to be proud to attend the spirited college on Boylston and Tremont.

Emerson has already proved itself a very gay-friendly institution in many ways — we are one of only a dozen colleges that cover hormone treatments and sexual reassignment surgeries in student health insurance. In the past, the college has implemented gender-neutral bathrooms and allowed students to change names on their Emerson e-mail addresses should they also change genders. A few months ago, The Princeton Review named Emerson the fifth most gay-accepting college in the country.

—The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson College

Just can’t do it alone

For years the United States government has sat idly watching the earth suffer from global climate change.

Men and women in positions of political power with the opportunity to help correct this problem have ignored it. These next few years have the opportunity to be different.

With Barack Obama attending the international climate meetings in Copenhagen, there comes encouragement for the U.S. to do more than make promises — it gives us the opportunity to live up to them.

Obama is bringing with him a plan to reduce U.S. emissions by 17 percent of the 2005 level by 2020 with increasing reductions from that point on.

All of this sweet excitement comes with the bitter realization that a bill with the same ideal reduced emissions was passed in the House in June but remains stuck in the Senate. This leaves Obama with little to truly offer the world at these talks, which he will only attend in their beginning stages.

Although Barack Obama’s presence and promises seem to be a tangible reality of America for the world to see in Copenhagen, a closer look will reveal a one-dimensional picture, falling apart to reveal a rotten bureaucracy which seems to be uninterested in its inability to enact real change.

—Indiana Daily Student, University of Indiana