Northeastern

The Huntington News reports Northeastern police officers came running when a college worker reported "a man in the Smith Hall laundry room standing still in a strange position for several hours" - with his head stuck in a drier. Turns out he had good reason for standing still: He was a mannequin.

The Huntington News reports the father of a student who'd just flunked out of school for the second time didn't take kindly to the news and called an associate dean to express his displeasure:

The dean reported the father said "in the future he will act as a terrorist toward the university."

The father lives in Turkey but is currently in Russia.

Also click the link to read about a student who followed her intuition and decided not to take up offer by the grungy "teacher's aide" to give her some one-on-one tutoring after class.

WBUR rounds up the top highest salaries for college presidents in Massachusetts.

The Huntington News reports that campus police officers responded to a pre-Thanksgiving report of students chucking pumpkins out of a third-floor window of a Columbus Avenue dorm. Officers found "small pumpkin pieces on the ground" but no students willing to own up to the gourdgeous desecration.

The News reports campus police did take decisive action when they found a student pissing on a car on Gainsborough Street:

The officer reported that they were able to pour a bottle of water over the area on the vehicle and that there was no damage.

Matt O'Connor tweeted around 4:30 p.m.:

South Station: girl, Northeastern Sweatshirt, literally carrying a hamper of dirty laundry.

To which Brian D'Amico, himself of the Huskie ilk, replies:

Well ... how else is the laundry going to get home?

In among the usual reports of students found lying in their own vomit and being surprised that their laptops were gone from the classrooms they'd left them in several days earlier, the Huntington News reports that when a Northeastern student had her phone swiped at the Ruggles T stop, another student swung into action: He got on his skateboard, chased the punk down and got her phone back:

A security officer reported observing a student riding a skateboard down the Egan Access Road chasing another party and yelling "Stop."

The Huntington News reports a Northeastern student who tweeted that he would shoot the university president if he didn't get more financial aid suddenly found himself in a little f2f with campus police:

Detectives checked the student's apartment for weapons and found none.

Most journalism students don't walk right into their dream jobs, but I suspect if they did, most probably wouldn't find a reason to whine about it.

UPDATE, 12:45 p.m.: Power started coming back on.

The same substation where a transformer exploded in March shorted out today, darkening stores, offices and homes across the Back Bay again and causing traffic havoc as signals went dead.

The justice system gave Cornell Smith a second chance. And a third. And a fourth. And now he stands accused of murdering an innocent Northeastern student in a case of mistaken identity.

A Suffolk County grand jury indicted Smith on Friday on charges he murdered Rebecca Payne in her Parker Hill Avenue apartment in 2008 by shooting her in the knees and the chest. The Suffolk County District Attorney's office says Payne, a New Milford, CT resident who had a job at Legal Seafood, did not know Smith. Channel 7 reports police think Smith got Payne confused with another resident of the building, who looked like her - but who had some sort of gang affiliation.

Yeah, whatever happened to that?

The Huntington News has some problems of its own - but theirs are just computer related: The paper kept all its important software and licenses on a single server, and it just died:

Recently, the server hosting all software licenses, archives and fonts crashed. The News no longer has access to its contents, leaving staff to use their laptops and trial software to produce the paper.

Won't you help?

The Huntington News reports student government has given the OK for a proposed Popeyes in the student-center space originally set aside for Chick-fil-A.

The News reports a Student Government Association poll found more support for Popeyes than two competing fried-chicken chains suggested by university officials and that Popeyes business practices gave students nothing to cluck about.

The Huntington News reports some concerned dorm mates called 911 for help with a student who had been vomiting for several hours:

The student told EMTs he hit his head on the floor several hours earlier and said he has had several concussions in the past in which vomiting was a side effect. He also said he drank half a bottle of vodka earlier that day.

UPDATE: The News has updated its report: The university has decided that because of the vote, it won't allow a Chick-fil-A at the school.

The Huntington News reports the Northeastern Student Government Association voted 31-5 last night to denounce the university's proposal to allow a Chick-fil-A in a remodeled student center.

The association spent four years working to get a Chick-fil-A on campus, but voted last night that the chain should be barred because of its contributions to a group funding anti-gay efforts.

The Huntington News reports the chicken chain is negotiating with Northeastern to open a six-day-a-week outlet in a renovated Curry Student Center this summer.

So David Portnoy tells the Globe's Joanna Weiss how he was moved by tales of sexual assault at a rally against his Blackout party:

Portnoy showed up, intending to take the microphone himself and offer a half-satirical, half-serious response: Naming a few comedians, for instance, who have joked about rape, with little consequence. But then he saw that women were sharing real, painful stories about sexual assault. So instead, he stayed silent, and watched.

“It was kind of emotional," Portnoy told me last week. "We're just as anti-rape as they are ... It's not our intent, with jokes, to poke fun at rape victims."

Aw, brings a tear to the eye, it does. Unfortunately, Portnoy's own video shows a different story: He went up front, did some bla-bla-bla hand motions as protesters cursed him out, then finally got shouted out of the rally. Just like organizers of the event described:

The Huntington News reports at least three students got in a touch of trouble before they ever got to Barstool Sports' Northeastern Blackout shindig at the House of Blues, including two found on Columbus Avenue:

At 7:14, Max Voelker tweeted:

BPD Motorcycle Police as well as NUPD patrolling campus already.

At 7:50 p.m., Brian D'Amico tweeted:

7 K9s outside my building, numerous SWAT teams, another spec ops cycle unit down the road. And that's just around campus.

S. Ryder shows all the police forces represented at Northeastern:

UPDATE: Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis says memo is misleading; people can't be arrested just for being outside; a Northeastern official agrees. More in the comments.

Residents of at least a couple of Northeastern dorms got a warning tonight from college Residential Life: Don't even think about going outside during or after the Super Bowl:

Not everybody at Northeastern will attend Barstool Sports' Blackout Party for Northeastern at the House of Blues on Thursday.

A group called Knock Out Barstool plans a protest march outside the House of Blues at 7:30 that night:

The Huntington News reports a Northeastern grad student who parked his car overnight in a college parking lot on Columbus Avenue returned the next afternoon to find both his side mirrors ripped off and a note "criticizing his parking and threatening to vandalize the car next time it is improperly parked."

A Northeastern vice president is warning students to be on their best behavior following the Patriots/Ravens game on Sunday:

A visiting Aussie lass, however, reports that red Solo cups, of the sort routinely used by Northeastern students to get themselves into the campus newspaper, are a rarity down under:

Imagine my glee upon seeing them in action, in real life, being used as pawns in beer pong. It was pretty great – thank you for this, Northeastern.

I'm not going to lie, the cups were kind of the highlight; but Boston has provided me with a raft of other great (and delicious) experiences too. Bagels are pretty cool, and I like your exterior fire escapes.

Will Onuoha, the mayor's liaison for the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Mission Hill and Fenway for the past six years, is moving over to a similar job at Northeastern's Office of City and Community Affairs - where his boss will be John Tobin, who left the city council for his current job as a Northeastern vice president a year and a half ago. In an e-mail message today, Onuha wrote:

Through our steadfast devoted partnerships we have fought many battles to preserve the integrity of our neighborhoods, and through it all we have succeeded in strengthening the fabric of our neighborhoods. We have continued to make a difference for the community and I have learned so much during my time as the Neighborhood Coordinator/ District Representative and for that I am truly grateful.