College News of Note

In Canada, they say university, not college. But I cannot shake the habit.

Anyhow, two stories today that are intriguing and one could wonder how they might be related.

• First, the numbers of Americans going to school in Canada is increasing. This should not be surprising since Canadian schools are far cheaper than American ones, even with the CA$ near the US$. With Americans losing much of their savings to the market crashes of the past few years, the choices are either go to American public schools or Canadian ones as US private colleges and universities are pricing themselves out of the market.
• Second, Tufts has found it necessary to make the following rule: do not have sex with your roommate in the room (assuming that the roommate is not your partner, I guess). Apparently, they have had more complaints the past few years by students that their roommates are, well, rude. It used to be the case that a person would signal to their roommate that the room was occupied for extracurricular activities. Sounds like a coordination problem to me, and not one where a rule is really required. What happens to those who break the rule? Enforcement will be interesting--police patrol or fire alarm? Hmm, perhaps not the place for metaphors from the principal-agency literature. The more I learn about the lives of undergrads these days, the less I want to know, I think.
  

Perhaps would be Tufts students will come to Canada instead since Canadians have a rep for being polite, and/or Montreal has a rep for being a city with few inhibitions. So, we might see both the student who is upset at the rudeness of their roommate and the randy roommate both moving north, and repeating the dynamic here. Perhaps the rule should be that Americans have to room with Canadians? Hmmmm.