News in Brief

Safety group receives over $2 million

Gifts of more than two million dollars have been awarded to the Johns Hopkins Quality and Safety Research Group (QSRG).

These contributions are a result of a matching fund from an anonymous donor and the Sandler Foundation of the Jewish Community Fund.

The gifts are intended to help QSRG continue and expand their efforts to avoid central line-related bloodstream infections that can occur in hospital intensive care units.

Central line catheters are also called central venous catheters and are tubes used to carry drugs or other fluids or collect blood samples through a large vein in the patient's neck, chest or groin.

QSRG has initiated the use of a checklist for doctors to follow that is credited with saving as many as 1.800 lives and $200 million yearly in Michigan, which began using the checklist in 2002.

The recent gifts are intended to enable QSRG to expand the use of this checklist into as many as 20 other states.

The patient-safety research professor Peter Pronovost, who leads QSRG, was named on the world's "most influential people" by Time magazine in 2008.

President William Brody has lauded central line catheter reform during his health care speeches across the country.

Oldest Hopkins alumna dies at age 109

Kathryn Whistler Burch died of heart failure on Oct. 16 at College Manor, a nursing home in Lutherville, just 58 days short of her 110th birthday.

Burch was born in 1898, during the first term of President McKinley and near the time of the Spanish-American War.

She went on to cast her first vote in 1920, the year that women gained suffrage, and could recall living through such significant events as the sinking of the Titanic, both of the World Wars, and the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904.

She graduated from Goucher College in 1921 with a bachelor's degree in political science and earned a master's degree in the same subject from Hopkins two years later.

For the next 10 years she was a social worker with the Henry Watson Children's Aid Society. She stopped working upon her marriage to Charles Combs Burch in 1933.

A service memorial was held on Saturday at St. Andrew's Christian Community Church.

Pope John Paul II prayer garden dedicated in downtown Baltimore

Almost 150 people gathered to see Archbishop Edwin O'Brien dedicate the Pope John Paul II garden near the intersection of Charles and Franklin Streets.

Together with artist Joseph Sheppard, O'Brien unveiled the bronze sculpture of the former pope.

He is depicted embracing two children, an image based on a photograph taken at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport in 1995 when the pontiff visited Baltimore.

The garden was designed in a fish shape, which was adopted by Christians as a symbol during the Roman Empire and has remained in use ever since.

It also features a stone with the symbols for Judaism, Christianity and Islam carved into it, representing the ecumenical beliefs for which John Paul II was known.

According to the Baltimore Sun, O'Brien hopes this garden will symbolize the rejuvenation of "many, many Baltimore street corners."

The archbishop blessed both the garden and the statue with holy water.

Construction crews completed the fenced garden several weeks ago, leaving the statue to be the focal point of Thursday's ceremony.

Built alongside the recently renovated Basilica of the Assumption, the prayer garden cost $1.5 million.

The garden will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day.

Celebration turns violent at Penn State after football win

Penn State students gathered in the State College area Saturday to celebrate their victory over Ohio State in football. This area has frequently been the site of similar celebrations in the past, some of which have ended in disorder and others of which have occurred peacefully.

On this occasion, the celebration led to students pulling down street signs, knocking down parking meters and setting bushes on fire. Police officers from nearby townships arrived on the scene and sprayed Mace cans into the crowds at the scene.

Police on Sunday did not discuss the details of their response, although they did say that there were no major injuries. Some officers and students were pelted with items such as beer cans and shoes thrown from balconies overlooking the street.

The area, known as Beaver Canyon because of its proximity to Beaver Avenue, is often the location for unplanned student gatherings.

Universities help to encourage green living

The University of New England has introduced new programs that will provide several incentives for students to use more environmentally friendly means of transportation while at college.

University Director of Marketing and Communications Kathleen Taggersell claimed programs at Ripon College in Wisconsin initially inspired the idea, which entails encouraging students to ride bikes instead of driving cars while attending the school.

New England gave freshmen this year a free bike, helmet and lock in exchange for these students leaving their cars at home.

They also began using Zipcar, a car-sharing program that runs at college campuses around the country.

Registering for Zipcar at New England can be done before the school year starts. Students receive 28 hours of free service. Students can also register after the year starts, but then it costs $35 and carries a seven dollar per hour fee.

Yet another change has been made this year. New England has raised the price of parking for freshmen from $90 to $300.

Student auctions off kick to his groin as way to pay for college

Michael Linneman, a sophomore at the University of Missouri, recently posted an offer on eBay that was titled "Kick me in the nuts to help me pay for college." The offer entails the opportunity for the buyer to kick Linneman in the groin as hard as possible, while the event is videotaped.

The starting bid is listed as $80,000, but there is a "Buy it now" price as well, listed at $150,000. Linneman has not yet received any bids, although Linneman said he would forgo any right to sue the kicker for damages.

Linneman came up with the plan after he read a book called "Think and Grow Rich," specifically from its chapter on using imagination to gain wealth. Other students sympathize with Linneman's goal of attaining more money for college, citing the growing costs of an education.

However, University of Missouri health care representatives have discouraged the plan.

Recently Linneman removed the ad, citing personal reasons.