ABC News On Campus reporter Xorje Olivares blogs:

You don’t need garlic, a cross, or even holy water to talk to University of Texas professor Thomas Garza -- just an open mind.

Chair of the department of Slavic and Eurasian studies, Garza specializes in vampire culture, a craze sinking its teeth into much of the population. Since 1997, Garza has taught a class that looks at the history of the vampire in Eastern Europe, and examines its portrayal in literature, art and film. 

With films like “Twilight” and the HBO series “True Blood” injecting new life into vampirism, Garza says he has gone from having around 30 students to well over 150. The two classes on the topic he has scheduled for the fall semester have both reached capacity enrollment.

"Part of what we do in teaching our subject area is try to get students as interested or at least as engaged in this region as we are with it,” Garza said. “So that is the coolest thing about what we get to do is to try and bring these texts and these films and these myths, if you will, to a group of students in the 21st century.”

But it has not been hard getting these modern-age students to cooperate. Garza says every year, students come into his class with preconceived notions about the vampire, a creature returned from the dead that sustains itself by taking the life of another. Countless images have been showcased in film, television, literature, and in our own imagination, Garza notes.

“So I think what’s really great about film, pulp fiction, and graphic novel interpretations of the vampire, is that we’ve gotten lots of different views and visions,” Garza said. “You can pick and choose, and what I like about it is that different individuals will pick different favorite vampires.”

It seems as though these blood-suckers are everywhere nowadays, regardless of the time of day. Prominent series like “Twilight” and “True Blood” have become enormously popular over the past year, a tumultuous time of war and economic strife, which Garza suspects may have prompted the fascination.

“People turn to these stories of an unusual nature, as both a way of escape on the one hand, and also on the other hand, as a way of a sense of coping with the hard times that are right now,” Garza said. “And we’re in one of those periods.”

Hard times or not, Garza said people have always been intrigued by this fantasy world—a world that he believes we can either choose to observe or even participate in.

UT student Angel Vega is one of those participants. She has read the “Twilight”  books, seen the movie and watches “True Blood” religiously. She’s even getting a poster of the HBO series to hang in her living room.

“If all these vampires came, I’d be like, ‘Okay, you can turn me,’” Vega said, as she began laughing. “That’s the main idea for me, is that it would be nifty to live forever and go everywhere and see everything, not just in my lifetime, but years of lifetimes.”

Although Garza believes the series resonates most among teenage and pre-teen girls, “Twilight,” has definitely left its mark on people of all ages.

Vega said her 38-year-old boss has read all four books, as has her co-worker’s 46-year-old mother. Book People in Austin, Texas, has sold more than 7000 copies of the series since its release to a wide range of customers. A few hundred extra books are stacked atop shelves loaded with the books.

“It caught a bit of a flame and a spark,” manager Paul Benson said of the “Twilight” saga. “Even before the film came out, that was a constant best-seller here.”

With more stories on the way, including Guillermo del Toro’s much-anticipated “The Strain,” it looks as though the vampire won’t be kept underground for long.

“The vampire myth is just one of those long-lived stories that keeps getting built onto and added to,” Garza said. “I really do believe it will live on for centuries from now.”

With ‘True Blood’ receiving some of HBO’s highest ratings since the series finale of “The Sopranos,” and a new “Twilight” film currently in production, the myth is definitely leaving people thirsting for more.

ABC News On Campus reporter Loren Grush blogs:

At around half past noon today, a momentous occasion occurred that only happens once a century: the numbers aligned.  At exactly 12:34 and 56 seconds, the date and time read 12:34:56 07/08/09.

Technically, it can be argued the event happened twice today, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  But if you want to get picky, 12:34 a.m. is 00:34 a.m. in military time.  And we can just ignore the people who write the date 07/08/2009, claiming the event happened 2000 years ago.

So how did people celebrate?  With one very short cheer.  University of Texas student Jon Everett created a Facebook group to honor the event.  Over 700 Facebook users had signed up to participate. 

“I just like doing unusual things as far as making people aware of interesting events,” said Everett of creating the group.  “It’s a way for people not to take life so seriously, as we tend to do.”

In the event’s description, Everett instructed people to cheer for a second and then sigh once the moment is over.

“I was in my ballroom dance class when it happened,” said Everett.  “So I got everyone in the class to celebrate with me.  Right when the time came, we all went ‘YAY!’ and then when it was over, we all went ‘AWWW!’”

But since the occasion was so short, some people sadly missed out.  University of Texas student Sam Clark was extremely bummed to discover that he had forgotten to cheer. 

“I felt angry at myself that I missed such a huge opportunity,” said Clark.  “I just would’ve been so fulfilled if I had been aware of it as it happened.  That’s all I could have asked for.”

But there is hope for those like Sam.  People in Europe place the day before the month when writing the date.  So if you travel abroad in August, you can celebrate the one-second celebration all over again. 

ABC News On Campus reporter Michelle San Miguel blogs:

Although many industries are downsizing during the recession, the online dating industry appears ready to thrive. 

Online dating and personals are estimated to increase from $900 million in 2007 to $1.9 billion in 2012, according to JupiterResearch.  And online dating is becoming more widely used by college students.

Michael Rotkin, CEO and founder of University LoveConnection.com, says that since the recession began, he has seen traffic to his Web site increase five to tenfold.  Rotkin said the Web site, which is designed for college students, has more than 50,000 college student users. 

Rotkin does not charge students to use the online dating service and believes that’s one of the reasons the number of users has increased.  “You can actually get to know a lot about the person before you actually go on a date so then you know whether you have stuff in common or not,” Rotkin said.  If users don’t have much in common, they can decide to forgo a date and save money they would have otherwise spent. 

Even those who didn’t use online dating sites while in college are turning to it after they graduate.  Lotfi Sariahmed, a 2008 Syracuse University graduate, created an online profile in January.  Although he hopes to meet someone on the site, he admits that he still feels awkward using it. 

“There’s a stigma attached to dating sites because if you’re doing that it means you’re socially maladjusted or something’s wrong with you in some way,” Sariahmed said.

Meena Haque agrees there is a certain perception about using such sites.  Haque, a Syracuse University senior, said other college students might still choose to use it because “they’re just not satisfied with their constituency on campus and maybe they want to branch out and look for a diverse group of people.”

For students who are shy, Rotkin said,  online dating could be a better approach than a face-to-face bar scene.  “I think it’s great that somebody can just go on and meet another student and leave them a message and say ‘hey, let’s meet on campus tomorrow.  When do you have class?’  It’s very convenient and they’re in their own environment too.”

Online dating sites are just one of the ways young adults are looking for love on the Web.  Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook provide another alternative for students to find a romantic connection. 

Joe Tracy, publisher of Online Dating Magazine, doesn’t believe social networking sites and online dating services provide the same function.  “If someone is on an online dating site, they are clearly looking for someone to date.  If someone is on a social networking site, it’s not necessarily because they are looking for someone to date.  It’s because they want to stay connected with friends and make new ones.”

While not all college students turn to the Internet to find love, Haque is not ruling it out as a future option.  “Who knows?  Maybe I might be some 35, 40-year-old woman still single, twiddling my thumbs creating a page on match.com.  You never know what the future holds for you.”

ABC News On Campus reporter Toby Phillips blogs:

Darrell Shandrow is a blind student at Arizona State University who uses computers with speech capabilities on a daily basis.

"I think there's a public perception that we (blind people) don't use technology," he said. "I have a talking computer right here."
 
Yet the avid technology user is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against ASU that seeks to stop a new pilot program that would put Amazon's Kindle-DX book-readers in classrooms as an electronic alternative to textbooks.

This is "not an issue of innovation or technical challenge on the part of ASU or the part of Amazon," Shandrow said. "This is a matter of choice. This is a people issue."
 
In its newest version, the Kindle has a text-to-speech feature. However, there is no way to navigate the Kindle's menu, page turn, note-taking, highlighting, or other functions without being able to see the device. Which means blind or visually impaired people, like Shandrow, have a hard time using the reader.  
 
So, the junior journalism major filed a lawsuit in conjunction with the National Federation of the Blind and American Council of the Blind.
 
The suit claims that "To advance the role of e-books in the classroom without regard to accessibility has the potential to exclude blind students from this important new technology for the foreseeable future."
 
The Kindle is slated to be used in two sections of a first-year course in Barrett, the Honors College.
And while Shandrow is not in the honors college, he wants ASU to stop the pilot program until a version of the Kindle, with access for blind or visually impaired people, is available so that "everybody could enjoy the progress," he said. "The blind, visually impaired and sighted students."
 
In a statement, Martha Dennis Christiansen, director of counseling and consultation and associate vice president of University Student Initiatives, said ASU is "committed to equal access for all students...focused on providing the necessary tools so that all students with disabilities have an equal opportunity to be successful in their academic pursuits."
 
While ASU says it is committed to equal access, Shandrow hopes Amazon "will see the light, so to speak."
 
In a blog posting, Amazon wrote that it has heard from many of its blind or vision impaired customers. "We want to let those customers know that this is something we are working on and we look forward to making it available in the future,"  the blog reads.
 
Shandrow stressed that he is not opposed to advancing technology on campus. And he doesn't think that filing a lawsuit to stop the Kindle project is preventing progress.

Some may say "why are these blind people taking this opportunity away from sighted college students?," Shandrow said.

"That perspective needs to be balanced with the civil rights of everyone, including the blind and visually impaired." 

The suit, which seeks no damages,  was filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

Justin Kruger, left, and Prof. Catherine Lewis in Hyeres, France. (Kyle Kalotschke)
 
ABC News On Campus reporter Kyle Kalotschke blogs:

A group of students were sitting by the ruins of a 13th century castle in France, panting heavily after the long, steep hike to get there. After catching their breath, they took out notebooks and began to write thoughts about what they observed, be it the ruins or the panoramic view of the town.

These students weren’t there for fun, though. They were there for a creative writing class.

“We met at an old church one day, and we’re meeting at the beach on Monday,” said Kaitlyn Shumelda, a sophomore creative writing major at Purchase College, a SUNY school in Westchester County, N.Y. “They are real hotspots for inspiration.”

Tanya DeNoon, a junior French major at the University of Buffalo, added, “When you’re in a classroom, you’re forced to think. When you’re outside, you have an open mind.”

The group is studying creative writing as part of Purchase College’s Study Abroad program. For each class, Professor Catherine Lewis takes the students to different areas in Hyeres, a small town on the French Riviera. Students then use these experiences to create stories based on different themes, including nature and silence.

Lewis, a professor of creative writing at Purchase since 1997, has taught in Hyeres three times.

I like the way she wants us to use setting as a character,” said Jamielynn Seguine, a junior philosophy major at Purchase. “It shows things in a different light and helps us create better stories.”

Shumelda added, “I like how she takes the time to meet with us individually and help guide us. She’s accommodating to people with different writing styles and different experience levels too.”

The Purchase study abroad program, led by Naomi Holoch, a retired French professor, has been going to France for 10 years. Students spend four weeks in palm-lined Hyeres living with a host family while taking classes. They then spend the last five days visiting Paris. When the program was first offered, only 10 or 11 students came on the trip. This year, 21 students are part of the program and a maximum of 28 were able to go.

“The opportunity to live with a family lets you be more than a tourist,” Lewis said. “The total cultural immersion that takes place wouldn’t be possible in a hotel.”

In addition to creative writing, the students are taking French classes in the morning at ELFCA, a French language school in Hyeres. After taking a short exam, students are placed into classes based on their skill level. In these classes students use different exercises, including watching video clips, listening to French songs and reading news articles, to develop their abilities.

“It’s useful for me,” said Justin Kruger, a recent graduate from the University of Buffalo. “The classes have helped me remember things I learned in French class in high school.”

The program also offers journalism courses this year. Journalism students are taking a regional reporting class and writing stories about social and political topics in France.

At lunchtime, the day after the trip to the castle, Seguine thought more about what she observed at the ruins while enjoying her sandwich. After a brief pause she said, “It was beautiful. A class like that really adds to my learning experience.”

ABC News On Campus reporter Ju'lia Samuels blogs:

    The Fourth of July is very different at the University of Florida this year because the annual Fanfares and Fireworks display, which has been held since 1990, has been canceled because of budget constraints.

   “We weren’t able to raise the money this year,” said Sue Wagner, director of communications for radio station WUFT.

   The show normally brings families out and brings college students together while celebrating the history of the country.  A variety of musical groups and  a family picnic preceded fireworks shows in past years.

It is a staple within the University of Florida culture that is being missed by students. “I thought it was quite disappointing that it was canceled because the event is a UF tradition that I look forward to each year,” health education and behavior major Monica Solomon said.

  The event usually costs about $40,000 to put on.

   While there will not be anything offered on campus there will be other holiday activities. “There are a lot of other events in Alachua County that students can attend like All American Song Fest,” Wagner said.

ABC News On Campus reporter Xorje Olivares blogs:

While most kids are told to steer clear of fireworks, some students from one Texas high school have their hands all over them.

Twenty-one students with Bastrop High’s Naval Junior ROTC program have spent the past few weeks behind the counters of American Fireworks. It is a part of their summer fund-raiser this year, with each of them receiving a percentage of the profits made during a two-week period. Despite working every day, sometimes 12 hours at a time, these high school students, ranging in ages 15 to 18, say they are dedicated and are willing to do everything possible to get them to their field trip destination.

“You work really hard from your freshman year to your senior year and we end up just going to Six Flags, so Hawaii would be a really big change,” said senior Ariel Owens.

The group is hoping to travel to Pearl Harbor by next spring break, something these students from a town of nearly 8,000 had never imagined. Bastrop is a small town located about 30 miles southeast of Austin.
“If we were to raise enough money to be able to go to Hawaii, it would be a dream,” said junior Dalton Duderstadt. “I mean, we’re Naval ROTC—we take pride in everything. I want to look, see and think about what it may have been like several years ago.”

After approaching American Fireworks to help with the fundraiser, the group’s sponsor, Chief David Canales, said they’ve received nothing but support from parents, who have supplied food and refreshments for the group and  served as security. Sales of fireworks are legal in Texas.

 “The kids doing this as a summer fundraiser, it’s been a blast for them,” said Canales. “They’ve enjoyed it, they’ve had fun.”

It’s definitely a new twist on raising money, particularly for students who have relied on selling candy bars and beef jerky in the past. Although these sales brought in a substantial amount of money, the group’s commanding officer, Ryan De Franco said, nothing seems to compare to selling Black Cats and Roman Candles.

 “When Commander-in-Chief [Canales] brought this up, it was definitely the best kind of fundraiser that we could do,” De Franco said. “So as long as we keep doing as well as we have been doing, then I don’t have any doubt right now that we can accomplish this goal.”

De Franco hopes that this trip will spark an interest in students thinking of joining the ROTC program next year, and that it helps with retention. But for Canales, the fundraiser serves as an educational tool, one that many students are not afforded at this point in their lives.

“This also teaches them how to run a small business,” Canales said. “We decided to put another spin to this. So some of them may want to decide to operate small businesses and others may want to do something else.”

It has been a tough lesson for the students. Although they’ve been working since June 24, sales have been slow.Canales said nearly 60 percent of the stand’s overall sales won’t happen until this weekend. He hopes that they can make about half of the money needed for their trip through the stand, a trip that could cost them around $40,000. In a given season, American Fireworks can make up to $165,000.

ABC News On Campus reporter Matthew Nojiri blogs:     

For linguistics professor Arsalan Kahnemuyipour, summer is a season typically spent locked away in his office in Syracuse, N.Y., working for hours at a time on his academic research.

But this summer, Kahnemuyipour says his mind is elsewhere, drifting some 6,000 miles to the streets of Tehran, where thousands of protesters have taken a stand against what they believe are fraudulent election results.

“The results of the presidential election have basically paralyzed our lives in a sense,” said Kahnemuyipour, a Syracuse University professor who grew up in Iran.  “I have to figure out how I can get back to work, but I’m just constantly checking the news.  My wife and I are constantly talking about it.  It has just basically taken over our lives.”

Citizens of Iran who have since emigrated say the dispute about the legitimacy of the June 12 presidential election has created a heavy burden in their lives, forcing them to live in one country while worrying about another.

“In the past three weeks, I’ve done maybe a day’s worth of work,” Kahnemuyipour said. “I’m trying to readjust myself, but it’s hard when you see what’s happening.  I’m constantly in touch with friends and family in Iran who are scared and horrified about what is going on.”

The announcement of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election with more than 62 percent of the vote has created a firestorm of controversy in Iran, leading to accusations of vote rigging, the detainment of oppositional figures and journalists, and the deaths of an estimated 17 protestors. 

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, the director of the Middle Eastern studies program at SU, recently conducted a study on Iranian elections from 2005 and 2009.  He said he reviewed the 2009 presidential election results and doesn’t believe Ahmadinejad could have won.

“There was massive rigging going on,” Boroujerdi said.  “The election results are not consistent with previous electoral behavior.  The tallies do not add up.  The idea that Ahmadinejad could win 28 out of the 30 provinces is an unbelievable claim.”

Boroujerdi said it’s unlikely that there will be a full recount or a second presidential election.  The two Iranian institutions responsible for certifying the election, the Guardian Council and the Supreme Leader, both declared Ahmadinejad the winner. 

Boroujerdi predicts the protestors will be put down in the days to come, citing the jailing of the opposition’s key figures and the escalating violence.  He said the presidential elections and the subsequent protests have opened the doors to a new era in Iran.
 
“If the government manages to put down the opposition, which I suspect will be the case, I’m afraid we are going to enter a dark phase in Iranian history,” Boroujerdi said.  “We’re going to see more repression by the state, a greater sense of distrust from the Iranian people toward their government, and an even higher level of censorship.”

It is this fear of a more repressive state that drove Firouz Daneshgari from the country more than 25 years ago.  As a first-year medical student at the University of Tehran, Daneshgari said he saw the goals of the 1979 Iranian Revolution slipping away and decided to flee. 

“I left Iran solely for political reasons,” said Daneshgari, the chair of the urology department at SUNY Upstate Medical University.  “What happened with this election did not surprise me, because it’s never been an election. It’s a selection by the few people who are in power.”

 Daneshgari renounced his Iranian citizenship more than 15 years ago and said he’s left part of his Iranian identity behind. 

“I’ve become, in my thoughts, more American than Iranian,” Daneshgari said.  “My wife is an American. We have children who grew up here.  It’s been our home for quite some time.”
 
While Kahnemuyipour, Boroujerdi and Daneshgari say they are concerned about the future of the Iranian government, they are also pondering another question: whether they will ever be able to return home.

Daneshgari said he’s hopeful the protests will lead the overthrow of the old regime.  He said it’s the only way he will ever return to Iran.

“I don’t want anything to do with this government until I die or this government is gone,” he said.

Boroujerdi hasn’t been to Iran in almost 10 years. In 2000, he worked on a public opinion poll asking Iranians whether they were interested in reestablishing ties with the United States.  A few days after the results were released showing 78 percent of the public answering “yes,” Boroujerdi was banished from the country and deemed a counterrevolutionary figure.

“It’s very hard,” Boroujerdi said.  "It’s my country of origin.  I have lots of friends and relatives there.   And in moments like this, you feel homesick because you want to be with the country folk.”

 And as Kahnemuyipour sits in his office, watching clips of the protests and reading countless Persian news sites, he wonders if it will ever be safe to go back home.

“In the past two weeks I’ve started thinking, ‘ If this doesn’t go the way we hope, am I ever going to go back?’” Kahnemuyipour said. “The answer is probably not.  I’m still hoping things might change, but I don’t know if I can ever go back.”