On Wednesday, Feb. 22, the University announced that the regalia for this year’s commencement would not include the golden stoles, a decision that surprised many in this year’s graduating class. Stoles, which are a type of scarf associated with graduation attire, became part of the University’s official commencement regalia in 2006.
In 1951, the Johns Hopkins Hospital took cervical cancer cells from Henrietta Lacks, a black Baltimore resident, and developed the HeLa cell line. Her cells contributed to major medical discoveries, including the development of polio vaccine.
For the last six months, the Humanities Center (HC) has defended its right to exist as a department. In January, Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS) Beverly Wendland announced that the University would not close the Center.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s election last November, some Hopkins professors have adapted their courses to address how Trump may change the United States. These instructors encourage their students to think critically about the academic implications of the new president’s rhetoric and policies.
Payton Head, recent graduate and former student body president of the University of Missouri, shared the experiences that led him to become a social activist, at a talk hosted by the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) on Feb. 28.
For the first time in their history, two Hopkins mock trial teams will be competing in the upcoming Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS) at the University of Delaware in late March. If Hopkins places within the top six teams, they will proceed to the National Championship Tournament at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in April.
As part of the first annual Frederick Douglass Lecture Series, author Kiese Laymon led a discussion and read a selection from his upcoming project about black youth and growing up in Mississippi on Feb. 23.
Philadelphia-based poets Perry “Vision” DiVirgilio and Kavindu “Kavi” Ade gave a poetry reading focused on themes of race, religion, self image, gender and gender identity.
Ashley Fiutko Arico, who recently earned her Ph.D. in Egyptian Art and Archaeology at Hopkins, held a talk at the University’s Archaeological Museum featuring objects she identified from pre-dynastic Egypt. Her presentation, which took place in Gilman Hall on Friday, Feb. 24, was based on a project she began in 2012. Her presentation explained that the majority of the objects in the Museum were given to the University by the Egyptian Exploration Fund (EEF).
The Black Faculty & Staff Association (BFSA) hosted its first Black History Month Student Oratory Competition at Arellano Theater on Feb. 23. Four judges evaluated a series of student speeches. They stressed that the purpose of the competition was to give students a voice.
University President Ronald J. Daniels and his wife Joanne Rosen, an associate lecturer at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, announced that they will be establishing a $1 million financial aid endowment for first-generation undergraduate students at Hopkins.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and 2012 MacArthur Fellow Junot Díaz outlined how the current political climate has influenced his creative process at the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS).
Since its founding in 2011, the Hopkins chapter of Camp Kesem has supported children in Maryland whose family members have been affected by cancer by hosting a week-long summer camp.
A panel of students, faculty and administrators gathered on Thursday, Feb. 16 to discuss the University’s updated Roadmap on Diversity and Inclusion, which was released last November.
Fight for $15 (FF$15) Baltimore, a coalition advocating for the city’s minimum wage to be raised from $8.75 to $15 per hour by 2022, held a rally in New Waverly United Methodist Church.
Cynthia Weber, international relations professor at the University of Sussex and the author of Queer international relations: sovereignty, sexuality, and the will to knowledge, gave a talk titled “Sovereignty, Sexuality and the Will of Trump” on Tuesday evening in Mergenthaler Hall.
As part of the Urban Health series on understanding racism and white privilege, the Johns Hopkins School of Education held a seminar open to the general public on Wednesday, Feb. 22 led by Christina Berchini.
The Student Government Association (SGA) passed a fossil fuel divestment resolution, an entrepreneurship funding bill, a bylaws amendment for student groups, and the FIJI Islander funding bill at its weekly meeting in Charles Commons on Tuesday.
Kelli Johnson was named the new director of pre-professional advising at Hopkins in late January, taking over from outgoing director David Verrier, who is retiring. Johnson has spent the last four years as the assistant dean and director for pre-professional advising at New York University (NYU).
The 8:32 Society, which strives to provide a network for Hopkins affiliates to understand their professions in the context of their Christian faith, hosted its inaugural Symposium on Faith, Reason and Vocation last Saturday. Students, alumni, faculty and staff gathered in Levering Hall to discuss the challenges and opportunities that Christians face in different academic disciplines and career fields.
