Watching the Ivies
BROWN: Law enforcement officials have placed a suspect in custody for the assault of a Brown University sophomore last week, the Brown Daily Herald reported. The student has been in critical condition at Rhode Island Hospital since the assault. Police arrested suspect Tory Lussier at his home in Connecticut, where he is also facing assault charges. Lussier was released on bail, but will face a pretrial hearing on July 22, according to the Daily Herald.
COLUMBIA: Nearly all of the professors at the Teachers College voted to reject the proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 to 2014 upon discovering that senior administrators had been giving themselves bonuses from the college’s budget surplus. The Columbia Daily Spectator reported that although the costs of tuition had been steadily rising for the last five years, and the Teachers College had planned to cut 20 positions in the next academic year, the faculty had not been previously aware of the budget surplus. In the 2012 to 2013 fiscal year, TC president Susan Fuhrman gave herself a $90,000 bonus, while other administrators received bonuses ranging from $35,000 to $50,000, according to the Spectator.
CORNELL: Three years after a string of suicides at Cornell University, which had led to the fencing off of seven of its bridges, the University removed five of the fences on Friday, the Cornell Daily Sun reported. The last two bridges will be removed on May 24 and July 3, according to the project manager. The University plans to replace these fences with mesh nets, which feature “heat-sensitive cameras that can detect when someone has fallen into them,” according to the Daily Sun. The University has also expanded its mental health services, so as to provide a supportive network for students.
HARVARD: Harvard Law School will introduce a pilot program next year that will allow Harvard College juniors to apply to the school, according to the Harvard Crimson. The program, called the Junior Deferral Pilot, will offer Harvard Class of 2015 students to apply to the Law School earlier than other students, and then defer attendance for two years. The program requires that admitted students gain work experience before attending the Law School. Applicants will submit the traditionally required materials, but will be allowed to take a later LSAT and also receive in-person interviews, the Crimson reported.
PRINCETON: Princeton University’s Department of Public Safety and the Princeton Police department have formalized their operating procedures in an effort to increase communication and clarify jurisdictions, according to the Daily Princetonian. The agreement will not result in any visible changes, as it “does not represent a shift in policy.” The goal of the agreement was to ensure transparency and encourage collaboration across departments. The document will not be available to the public, the Princetonian reported.
UPENN: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s commencement address last Monday marked the first time a sitting vice president has ever given a commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania. According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, Biden’s speech focused on the 6,000 graduates’ immense potential for producing change and hope. Both of Biden’s sons graduated from Penn and his granddaughter is a rising sophomore at the school. His speech was generally well received by the nearly 26,000 attendees, including the graduates.
YALE: Two years after the seven-year investigation into Yale University’s compliance with the Clery Act, the Department of Education fined Yale $165,000 for “inadequate reporting of campus crime statistics,” the Yale Daily News reported. Yale will have to pay $27,500 for each of the four omitted incidents of forcible sex offenses and two additional fines for other reporting violations. Although the University fixed most of the reporting issues in 2004, it did not correct a final violation until 2010, the Daily News reported.