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Web Exclusives :Features News from other Ivy League institutions, and Stanford
Posted March 25, 2002 Brown: The Corporation of Brown University has endorsed
a multiyear Proposal for Academic Enrichment under which Brown will
institute need-blind undergraduate admission. The university will
also add up to 100 new faculty members, and the increase to the
university's yearly budget will reach 36 million dollars by 2005. Columbia: Robert Kasdin ’80, executive vice president
and chief financial officer of the University of Michigan, has been
named to the newly created position of senior executive vice president
of Columbia University by President-elect Lee C. Bollinger. Cornell: Hunter R. Rawlings III *70, who has been president of Cornell University since 1995, has announced he plans to retire on June 30, 2003, assuming instead the position of professor in the university's Department of Classics. Rawlings stated that he has announced his plans at this time because it "will allow the board to being a deliverate and systematic search for a new president and will provide time for an orderly transition" Dartmouth: Dartmouth Medical School cancer researchers have identified a gene that triggers the death of leukemia cells, opening a novel target for anti-cancer drugs. This new genetic switch, reported in the March 19 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, turns on a program to destroy certain leukemic cells and possibly other tumor cells. It is activated by treatment with retinoic acid, a vitamin A derivative used in cancer therapy and prevention. Finding a mechanism that sets a cell death program in motion paves the way for developing new cancer-killing drugs, according to Ethan Dmitrovsky, professor and chair of pharmacology and toxicology. He headed the research team that included Sutisak Kitareewan, Ian Pitha-Rowe, Sarah Freemantle, and David Sekula. Harvard: A new discovery by a scientific team headed by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that a group of white blood cells demonstrates previously unrecognized “memory” characteristics that enable them to launch a sustained immune response against tuberculosis bacteria. This finding, described in a study in the March 22 issue of the journal Science, offers an important new piece of information on how the immune system combats infection, as scientists around the world continue to work on developing a more effective tuberculosis vaccine. A highly contagious bacterial infection that primarily affects the lungs, tuberculosis is responsible for two million deaths each year and affects an estimated 16 million people around the world. “Tuberculosis is a huge killer internationally,” says study co-author Norman L. Letvin, M.D., chief of viral pathogenesis at BIDMC and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Worldwide, the major targets for vaccine development are the HIV virus, tuberculosis and malaria. Anything that moves us even a little closer to these vaccines is very important.” *** Rising carbon dioxide levels associated with global warming could lead to an increase in the incidence of allergies to ragweed and other plants by mid-century, according to a report appearing in the March Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology by Harvard University researchers. The study found that ragweed grown in an atmosphere with double the current carbon dioxide levels produced 61 percent more pollen than normal. Such a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to occur between 2050 and 2100. Harvard Business School: A joint effort by Harvard and MIT Business school students results in "Miami Trek," in which the students meet executives of high-tech companies doing business in Latin America. For two days, students met with the leaders of Technology, Telecommunications, Banking and Media in Latin America. The Trek was organized by the HBS Club Iberoamericano and the MIT-Sloan High Tech and Latino Clubs. Pennsylvania: Total undergraduate charges at UPenn are scheduled to increase 4.6 percent during the 2002-2003 school year. These charges include tuition, fees, and room and board. *** Penn's vice provost for information systems and computing, James J. O'Donnell, will become Georgetown's next provost Stanford: "An Evening with Anita Hill" will took place on March 22 in the Memorial Auditorium at Stanford. Vice Provost and special counselor to the president for campus relations, LaDoris Cordell, interviewed Ms.Hill. *** National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will speak at the 2002 Commencemnt. Rice is Stanford's former provost. *** Stanford trustees raise tuition, room and board by a 4.9 percent for the 2002-03 school year. Yale: Yale is investing $500 million in its science and engineering programs in order to add five additional buildings. "Yale researchers have determined the atomic structure of the ribosome's large subunit", a discovery which should help the medical industry find better drugs to fight infection. Thomas Steitz led the study, he is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale. Yale's faculty of engineering is marking 150 years of teaching and innovation this year. Yale president Richard C. Levin urges end to early application process in admissions. For stories, click below. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/education/13YALE.html http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/16/opinion/16SUN1.html?searchpv=past7days
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