Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin said she was not concerned about a recent federal civil-rights lawsuit that could expose the town to potential liability in a case involving a 2006 regional SWAT team raid, The Valley News reported last Friday. The incident involved Hanover Police Sgt. Brad Sargent and Master Patrol Officer Richard Paulsen, who were responding to a call for service of an arrest warrant for Michael Rothman in Bristol, N.H. Griffin said it is still unknown if there was any merit to the lawsuit involving accusations of unreasonable search and seizure and excessive force. In addition, both officers were insured for up to $2 million of liability. Two other police officers from the Upper Valley -- one from Enfield and one from Lyme -- are among the 16 facing the lawsuit.
Education Conservancy presented an early version of its college ranking system last week, Inside Higher Ed reported last Friday. College Speaks, the web site for the group's ranking system, asks students searching for a college to answer a list of questions about themselves and then compiles a list of suggested colleges for the student to consider. The list is based on the questionnaires, as well as data-driven factors such as grade point average and other information. Lloyd Thacker, the leader of Education Conservancy, said the site would replicate the values of college admissions counseling for students. Critics of the annual U.S. News and World Report college rankings, such as Jeff Brenzel, dean of admissions at Yale University, believe Education Conservancy's ranking system offers a better alternative. The group, a non-profit organization that seeks to reform the college admissions process, demonstrated the ranking system at the annual meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
A growing number of college and university dining halls are adopting local-food programs as part of campus sustainability initiatives, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last Friday. Dean Koyanagi, sustainability coordinator at Cornell University, said local-food programs are a boon to regional farms and would be an important source of food to colleges in case of an emergency. Cornell purchases 30 to 50 percent of its total food from local farms. Emory University plans to have 75 percent of all its daily meals feature local or sustainable sources of food by 2015. Major challenges facing colleges hoping to implement local-food programs include changing established contracts with food distributors and offering a diverse selection of food to the student body.
