Tuesday, May 30, 2006

UFC awards $825,000 to student groups

By Katy O'Donnell, The Dartmouth Staff

The Undergraduate Finance Committee finalized its allocation decisions for student organizations in the fiscal year 2006-2007 last Thursday after deliberating for three weeks. More »

Portman ‘78 confirmed by Senate

By Marina Agapakis, The Dartmouth Staff

The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Rob Portman ‘78 as director of President George W. Bush’s Office of Management and Budget on Friday. On April 18 Bush nominated Portman, who is replacing the recently-appointed White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten. More »

Folt ends first term as permanent dean

By Phil Salinger, The Dartmouth Staff

Carol Folt’s first term as permanent dean of the faculty is coming to a close, and many of the same initiatives she set out to accomplish two years ago when Folt assumed the position as interim dean are still underway. Since Folt became interim dean, her priorities as dean have included alleviating class and departmental overcrowding, improving faculty compensation and furthering Dartmouth’s status as an elite liberal arts institution.Folt said that her appointment as permanent dean did not change her agenda since she had approached the interim deanship by focusing on the College’s future without being influenced by her uncertain future. Indeed many of her goals, especially with regards to faculty hiring and compensation, would have continued had she not been named permanent dean and will now continue under her leadership. More »

Association of Alumni halts imminent elections

By Rebekah Rombom, The Dartmouth Staff

In the latest twist of the ongoing discussion over the Alumni Governance Task Force’s newly proposed alumni constitution, the executive committee of the Association of Alumni has announced that it will postpone its annual fall meetings as well as the accompanying elections. More »

Study calls for medicare reevaluation

By Mary Katherine Flanigan, The Dartmouth Staff

More medical care does not result in better outcomes for chronically ill patients, according to Dartmouth Medical School researchers. Dr. John Wennberg and his co-author, Dr. Elliott Fisher, published a study calling for a complete reevaluation of how the nation manages chronic illness. More »

UC Irvine’s Granger appointed Neukom Institute director

By Taylor Hedrick

Dr. Richard H. Granger Jr., a professor at the University of California, Irvine, was appointed as the first director of the Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth last week. More »

Daily Debriefing

By Compiled by Cathy Wu, The Dartmouth Staff
  • Edward Van Dyk threw his two sons, aged four and eight, and himself off a 15-story balcony of the Loews Miami Beach Hotel Sunday morning. More »
  • Although an investigation has not turned up a suicide note, he appeared to have been suffering from a mental breakdown before he left for South Beach to celebrate his and his wife’s 10th wedding anniversary. More »
  • Director of the thoracic oncology program at DHMC James R. Rigas, described Van Dyk as a “respectful colleague” but also admitted to the Herald that, “some of the staff had voiced that they had difficulty working with him. More »
  • According to his wife, Qinuo Van Dyk, the couple had also suffered from marital problems for six months prior to their vacation. More »
  • Dartmouth students, through the support of the Tucker Foundation, went in vans to see the performance “Telling My Story” at the Windsor Prison for Women on Thursday and Friday evening. More »
  • As in Hernandez’s previous prisoner performance production in the Newport Prison, stories from this event were brainstormed, written and performed by the inmates themselves. More »
  • In conjunction with the University of Arizona’s Department of Natural Resources in Sonora, Mexico, Dartmouth researchers from the Dartmouth Medical School published an article in the Environmental Health Perspectives Journal outlining their discovery that the existence of arsenic in drinking water is correlated with a decrease in the body’s ability to repair DNA and exacerbates the effects of carcinogens. More »
  • According to Angeline Andrew, research assistant professor of community and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and lead author on of the paper, “this work supports the idea that arsenic in drinking water can promote the carcinogenic effect of other chemicals. More »
  • The study sheds light on the heightened dangers from high arsenic levels found in wells in rural regions of the country such as New Hampshire. More »