Daily Debriefing
By Greg Berger
Published on Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The number of applications for undergraduate admission to the Class of 2013 at all eight Ivy League institutions increased over last year's record numbers, according to The New York Times. Applications to Dartmouth increased by 7.5 percent from last year, with a record-low 12-percent admission rate. Other top institutions also received large application increases, with Stanford University seeing a 20-percent increase, according to The Times. Several small liberal arts colleges, including Amherst, Williams and Middlebury, though, saw their application numbers decline, The Times reported. Of the 350 colleges and universities that use the Common Application for undergraduate admission, slightly more than half reported increases in the number of applications compared to last year, while the remaining institutions reported decreases, according to The Times.
Two campus police officers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were suspended this week for trashing several hundred copies of The Tech, MIT's student newspaper, according to The Boston Globe. The issue contained coverage of the arrest of another MIT police officer, Joseph D'Amelio, as well as D'Amelio's mug shot. The Tech had reported that D'Amelio and his cousin, Anthony Cristallo, were arrested for allegedly trafficking prescription painkillers and could face at least seven years in prison if found guilty. MIT remains dedicated to free and open publishing and does not approve of actions taken by the campus police officers to block distribution of The Tech, university spokeswoman Patti Richards told The Globe. The newspapers, which were placed in recycling bins, were retrieved by Michael McGraw-Herdeg, executive editor of The Tech, and redistributed throughout campus, The Globe reported.
President Barack Obama nominated Cathy Zoi Th'85 to be assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Department of Energy on Friday, according to The Boston Globe. Between 1993 and 1995, Zoi focused on environmental and energy issues while serving as the chief of staff at the White House Office on Environmental Policy in the Clinton administration, The Globe reported. Zoi then spent 12 years creating sustainable energy programs in Australia, The Dartmouth previously reported. In 2007, Zoi became the first chief executive officer of the Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization founded by former Vice President Al Gore and dedicated to helping Americans understand issues related to global warming, according to The Globe.