News in Brief

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Posted: 12/4/08

Hopkins News

University to host World Stem Cell Summit next fall

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley announced on Wednesday that Hopkins will host the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit next September.

More than a thousand scientists, government representatives and companies will converge in Baltimore to discuss the field of stem cell research. Topics of discussion will include research funding, ethics and regulation.

Researchers hope that President-elect Barack Obama will undo current restrictions on government funding for stem cell research implemented by the Bush administration.

Hopkins will co-host the summit with the University of Maryland.

- Marie Cushing

Brody to become trustee at Stanford

Outgoing Hopkins President William Brody will join the Stanford Board of Trustees.

Brody will become the 33rd member of the Board, and will serve for a five-year term that begins in June.

Brody is an alum of the school, having earned both his medical and doctoral degrees there.

- Marie Cushing

Hodson Trust awards Hopkins $3 million

The Hodson Trust has awarded Hopkins $3 million to be used for expenses that include scholarships, construction and research. The gift was down from last year's $3.5 million because of the faltering stock market.

Three other Maryland colleges - Hood College, St. John's College and Washington College - were awarded the same amount. The trust has given a total of $210 million since it was started in 1936.

- Marie Cushing

Harvard loses $8 billion from endowment

Harvard University has lost $8 billion from its endowment fund, a decrease of 22 percent over just four months, because of stock market downturns.

A letter sent to University deans by Harvard President Drew Faust warned that the endowment could decline by as much as 30 percent by the end of June.

Thirty-five percent of Harvard's operating budget comes from its endowment.

Faust said the University plans to transfer funds into bonds that are not as susceptible to market fluctuations.

The letter did not address any potential changes to financial aid, including the extensive grants to underprivileged students.

- Marie Cushing

California State University system to cut enrollment

The California State University system is currently suffering as a result of state budget cuts. These government cuts directly impact the ability of the California universities to continue providing the same quality of education to all students in its system.

The University system's network, which has about 460,000 students currently enrolled, cannot support the same number of students on a lower budget. As a result, Chancellor Charles Reid has announced plans to reduce enrollment by 10,000 students next year.

The students who will be most affected are out-of-state applicants and out-of-region California applicants.

This cut in student enrollment comes during a time when the number of applications to the California State Universities for the fall of 2009 has increased approximately 20 percent.

- Sarah Capponi

Peru and Yale move closer to court battle over Incan artifacts

Yale University and the country of Peru have been locked in a disagreement over Yale's appropriation and continued retention of certain Incan artifacts.

The Peruvian government wants the artifacts, which were discovered at Machu Picchu, to be returned to their country of origin.

The artifacts were uncovered by Hiram Bingham III, an explorer who brought many of his discoveries back to the University between 1911 and 1915.

The Peruvian government has been discussing taking legal action against Yale since April 2008, but only recently has the reality of a court battle emerged.

In September, the Peruvian foreign minister visited Yale to discuss the fate of both the artifacts and the legal situation, but the meeting did very little to alleviate tension.

Though Yale would prefer not to engage in any legal battles, Peru has taken steps towards a trial, including hiring an attorney.

- Sarah Capponi

UPenn attempts to make financial aid, admissions bilingual

The University of Pennsylvania is currently spearheading an initiative to print admissions and financial aid materials in both Spanish and English.

The initiative is targeted towards parents of Penn students who do not have a proficiency in English.

The Latino Coalition, as well as Dean of Admissions Eric Furda, are committed to following through with the new initiative, which includes hiring a translator, implementing Spanish-speaking phone hours, and ultimately, translating the materials into multiple other languages.

The results of making admissions and financial aid bilingual through translated material will not be ready until the spring of 2009.

In a survey of 233 Penn students, about 65 percent were of the opinion that bilingual materials were not necessary.

For those who responded to the survey, financial aid materials were the most vital things, if any, to be translated.

- Sarah Capponi

Fines for illegal downloads keep students from attending college

Some students, faced with piracy charges from illegal downloading music, have fines of such magnitude that they are prevented from returning to college by financial distress. The Recording Industry Association of America settles many potential lawsuits through payments.

In certain cases, such as those documented by Jodi Thesing-Ritter, associate dean of Student Development at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, of 26 students charged with piracy by the RIAA, two could not return to the University as a result of their fines, which exceeded $3,000.

Several students at the University of Wisconsin told the Wisconsin Daily that they are angry about the prevention of students from returning to school as a result of financial distress. They said that they do not believe that piracy charges should affect students' lives to the extent of prohibiting them an education.

- Sarah Capponi

Yale surveys its drug culture

Drug use at Yale University was recently measured in a poll of its undergraduates. A poll found that Yale's drug culture is approximately on par with other universities: Thirty-five percent of the responding undergraduates reported experimenting with illegal drugs during their time at the University, compared to the 36.6 percent of students nation-wide.

Students who admit using drugs recreationally perceived a double standard between the use of so-called "harder" drugs and alcohol.

Those interviewed directly felt alcohol was a drug with the capability to cause more destruction than most other drugs.. These students believe that the drug culture at Yale is a safe one, where "drug nerds" use chemicals with full knowledge of all their effects, in the hopes that whatever drug they use will expand their mental capacity.

- Sarah Capponi

MIT center plans to experiment with new media

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) signed a contract with a new television studio that will allow them to experiment with several new forms of media. MIT will collaborate with Plymouth Rock Studios in order to create the Center for Future Storytelling.

The contract calls for three MIT professors and certain graduate students to collaborate with the production studio, which calls itself Hollywood East.

The group met recently to begin brainstorming ideas for new types of storytelling. Those who want to work on the project have been discussing technology for television such as holographic images and individualized programming - programming that would be intelligent enough to tell whether or not the viewer has seen the show before.

The intensity of the program has surprised some people; all those who are currently working on it are committed to creating new media for a new, interconnected world, according to several faculty administrators at MIT.

- Sarah Capponi