Around the Ivies
Brown University: A proposal for a winter term of classes was presented by the deans of Brown University to its faculty this past Tuesday, the Brown Daily Herald reported. According to Dean of College Maud Mandel, the winter session will feature “a handful of intense, creative experimental courses in January” spanning three weeks and will “allow for intensive and highly focused courses, like studio classes in art and music or deep training in the usage of some sort of particular scientific or engineering instrument or method.”
Columbia University: In a similar vein to national campaigns working to raise the federal minimum wage, students at Columbia are pushing to raise the minimum work-study pay has been raised to $15 an hour. The group, called the Student-Worker Solidarity, is also working to give work-study students the option of receiving a grant to cover unpaid internship opportunities. Previously the range for work-study positions ranged from $9 to $20 an hour.
Cornell University: Cornell students have been banned from participating in what used to be widely considered a rite of passage — throwing stones onto Olin Library’s musical steps — the Cornell Sun reported. The musical terrace is a fire exit, and the accumulation of stones on the surface made the path dangerous. Over the summer, student stone-throwers shattered a 10-foot by seven-foot glass window of the second floor of Olin as a result of this ritual.
Harvard University: Harvard Square now offers a complimentary rapid phone charging station that also solicits donations for a local Y2Y Harvard Square, a student-run youth homeless shelter that is scheduled to open this fall, the Harvard Crimson reported.
Princeton University: Arthur B. MacDonald, a former physics professor at Princeton, was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in physics for an experiment he began developing during his professorship at the University from 1982 to 1989, the Daily Princetonian reproted. McDonald won the prize for leading an observatory that revealed that neutrinos — small particles — oscillate as they travel through space.
University of Pennsylvania: This past week, Penn’s Singh Center for Nanotechnology was granted $5 million to establish the Mid-Atlantic Nanotechnology Hub for Research, Education and Innovation, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported. The hub is focused on increasing access to the nanotechnology center and making the technology accessible to students, professors and researchers.
Yale University: The Yale College Council, Graduate Student Assembly and Graduate and Professional Student Senate have united to eradicate Styrofoam food containers from their campus, including from businesses on campus that are not owned by the college, the Yale Daily News reported. The three groups had united previously to request an on-campus student center, which led to the construction of Schwarzman Center.