Daily Debriefing
By Tom Owen, The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
In a campus-wide email on Tuesday, Director of Safety and Security and College Proctor Harry Kinne announced multiple laptop thefts in recent weeks. The majority of the thefts occurred in the evening in Baker-Berry Library, and the computers were typically unattended MacBook Pros, according to the email. Both Hanover Police and Safety and Security are investigating the thefts and are requesting more information from students. Kinne also stressed the importance of paying attention to personal belongings in public areas.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider the appeal of Fisher v. University of Texas on Tuesday, which will determine whether or not the university has the right to consider race or ethnicity in admissions decisions, according to Inside Higher Ed. The lower court previously ruled in favor of the university. The appeal stems from a lawsuit by a former applicant to the University of Texas at Austin, who claims that the university’s “10 percent plan,” which automatically admits the most successful 10 percent from every high school’s graduating class regardless of racial composition, prevented her admission to the university, Inside Higher Ed reported. Justice Elena Kagan announced that she did not participate in the consideration of the appeal, and Inside Higher Ed reported that many commentators believe she will recuse herself from the case due to her previously filed brief in support of the University of Texas during her work as U.S. Solicitor General. Affirmative action supporters worry that if Kagan recuses herself, one less justice will vote to reaffirm the 2003 decision, according to Inside Higher Ed.
In 2009, the percentage of funding allocated to academic libraries decreased for the 14th straight year, according to new findings by the Association for Research Libraries cited in Inside Higher Ed. The study found that library funding in 2009 dropped below 2 percent of university budgets for the first time in history, according to Inside Higher Ed. Allocations for libraries peaked in 1974, when libraries received 3.83 percent of university budgets, but in 2009 reached a new low of 1.95 percent, Inside Higher Ed reported. Some commentators believe that the shrinking budget may be due to more efficient library systems, such as the outsourcing of cataloging services, which minimize operating costs, Inside Higher Ed reported.