Si Newhouse's legacy will include more than reinforcing women's unhealthy body images and getting celebrities to cry for the cover of Vanity Fair. It also includes his namesake journalism school at Syracuse University, which I attended. And graduated from. (As did Stereohyped's Lauren Williams.) Walking the halls of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, you'll see the walls lined with framed photographs of famous alma maters: Bob Costas, Bill Safire. (Sen. Joe Biden graduated from SU, but not from Newhouse.) And beginning October 14, magazine journalism students (that was me) will have their very own … clubhouse! This is sort of big news to the students there, and it comes on the heels of the unveiling of Newhouse III, the school's third building, which has the words of the First Amendment etched in glass and running the circumference of the building — a giant "Yes, we're hypocrites!" when compared to news of SU wanting to ban gossip site JuicyCampus.com. So why is the unveiling of a new lounge for magazine degree candidates such big news? Because it's a sign that the Newhouse School is investing in, rather than backing away from, the field, even though all signs point to it dying. Or at least changing dramatically.

Also: Because New Yorker editor David Remnick, a Newhouse alum with chiseled cheekbones, will deliver the keynote at the ribbon cutting.

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Having graduated from Syracuse University and, while there, tried my hardest to make a mockery of its j-school (the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), it brings me great sadness to learn the home of the Orangement might ban sex and slander site JuicyCampus.com from its network.

JuicyCampus, you'll recall, picked up traction at the start of the year when the gossip-obsessed media turned the college sex chatter forum into a national news story and, rather than wilt under the pressure of lawsuits and investigations, JC blossomed into a revamped site boasting pages for students of hundreds of school to slag on each other. It was, in sum, the most exploitative exercise of the First Amendment to hit college campuses. And it was awesome.

But now Syracuse — whose newest just-unveiled j-school building, Newhouse III, has the words of the First Amendment etched in glass around its exterior — is considering banning the site, meaning anybody in a dorm room or campus computer lab will have to log on from Starbucks or a friend's off-campus apartment to tell everyone about their slutty roommate who lifted her legs for the football team. The administration will tell students that blocking JuicyCampus is for their own good, because it'll keep undergrads from spreading salacious gossip about each other. But SU will also make the site the forbidden fruit, which means students will take to their iPhones to post items and skim through the chatter. There's also the matter of the snowball effect: Will this just be the first of many sites and services the university will block, all under the guise of self policing?

Maybe.

So consider this:

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To deal with obnoxious students who text message during his class, Syracuse University prof Laurence Thomas has a strict policy: If he catches a student doing it, he will end the class immediately and walk out. He's been making good on his playbook, staging brazen walk outs on his own course after catching students SMSing.

Naturally, parents and students aren't digging his policy, complaining about the $30k they spend to be consumers of education, and how Thomas has a duty to pay up. The scandal has even reached the student newspaper! (Where we used to work!)

To Thomas, it's a matter of respect; students need to show some.

So when he caught a student in the front row of a large lecture hall sending a "where r u?" last week, he up and left, and then sent students, the chancellor, and his dean an email about the incident, where he noted the offending student is Cuban and that last year, two Latino students started a game of tic-tac-toe during his class.

You see, white students are also mischievous, but to Thomas, who is black, minority students should have a better understanding of respect. Even if their cell phones are 3G and tricked out with 5 megapixel cams.

GO 'CUSE Syracuse is down to two candidates to become their new j-school dean. [Syracuse.com]

Today In Thompson is our semi-regular report on Syracuse University pop culture professor and professional quotation Robert Thompson — and the press' endless appetite to engage him in soundbite. Multiple times a day, you can find Thompson expounding on this celebrity or that TV show, ad infinitum. More to the point, it shows how lazy we can be in showing how lazy journalists can be when it comes to getting "insight" from "experts."

Oh no, it's been over a month since our last Today In Thompson. But fret not, concerned Syracuse University trustees: It's not for lack of material. On any given day, you'll find Bobby T. making the press rounds. Like today, for example.

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When CanWest News Service's Misty Harris contacted us for a story she was doing about Robert Thompson, declining the opportunity to run our mouths had about as much chance as Mischa Barton's The O.C. character being resurrected. To revel in the irony of giving a soundbite about Mr. Soundbite? And the guarantee that all of our professors and peers from Syracuse University's Newhouse school would read it? Too much to pass up.

But more so, Misty's pitch gave us validation: We're not the only ones so fascinated by Thompson, who claims the title of "director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television" at Syracuse University. While a naive undergrad at Newhouse, happily punching out editorial for the student newspaper, we oft happened upon Thompson — but like most Americans, our encounters usually took place in the press, reading his musings on American Idol or Michael Jackson. Thompson maintains the most luxe office of all esteemed Newhouse faculty, meanwhile, putting even the dean's digs to shame. And what's he do all day? Watches TV, and answers the phone. If you're a reporter in need of a soundbite, whether for an article on Survivor or YouTube, Thompson is your man. And that's why Syracuse University loves him: he's their best PR marketing tool, shaming New York University and Columbia with his ubiquitous press mentions.

So while we continue to doubt Thompson's ability to do much more than deliver skillfully worded Best Week Ever-isms, we do bow our heads to the fella: He's celebrating his 25th year of teaching — and the 20th anniversary of his pop culture expertise.

The professor of pop culture punditry: Syracuse prof has found fame as media expert [CanWest]
Robert Thompson Faculty Profile [Newhouse School]
Related: All Robert Thompson coverage