Harvard University professor Paul Farmer was tapped to succeed Dartmouth President-elect Jim Yong Kim as chair of the department of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School on Wednesday. Farmer, however, is still being considered for an unspecified senior position in the Obama administration, according to The Boston Globe. HMS Dean Jeffrey Flier said in the announcement that Farmer will take a leave of absence from the medical school if he is offered the administration position. Farmer will assume his new position at Harvard on July 1, the same day that Kim begins his tenure at the College. Kim and Farmer co-founded the global health organization Partners in Health.
Institutions participating in the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment must submit climate action plans by Sept. 15, according to Inside Higher Ed. Participants in the initiative, which began on Feb. 23, 2007, pledge to take concrete steps to achieve climate neutrality. The ACUPCC's annual report found that 78 percent of the institutions are making acceptable progress, while the two participating Ivy League institutions, Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, are "in good standing," according to the report. To join the ACUPCC, an institution must have "an annual greenhouse gas audit" and take two or more immediate steps to control greenhouse gas emissions. Dartmouth has yet to sign on to the commitment.
California state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Franciso, introduced legislation on Thursday that could give state officials the ability to form policy and regulate salaries for the University of California system, according to Inside Higher Ed. In a formal response, university officials said they wanted to maintain the system's autonomy, calling the senator's legislation "absurd." Yee introduced the legislation after the UC Board of Regents approved salaries over $400,000 for two chancellors, while undergraduate fees were increased by 9.3 percent for next year, according to the Los Angeles Times.
