Despite recent debates concerning the role of the Town Manager of Norwich, Vt., Peter Webster '71 was unanimously voted to the position Wednesday night. The tenure of the previous Town Manager, Stephen Soares, was marked by controversy, according to the Valley News. Webster has worked in town management for several years and has held various municipal manager positions since 1995. He "impressed Norwich officials with his background in strategic planning and leadership" and was chosen for the position by the Selectboard without discussion or comment during the vote, according to the Valley News. The town rarely holds a vote without some dissent, according to board chairman Gerard Chapdelaine.
In a news report released by the National Association for College Admission Counseling this week, the Association encouraged colleges to seriously consider the relevance of the SAT Reasoning Test. Some colleges have already decided that they will no longer require applicants to submit SAT scores, according to Inside Higher Education. Many of these colleges have been satisfied with their admissions results, and have seen an increase in minority applicants. Though the majority of these schools are small liberal arts colleges, which traditionally focused more on an applicant's personality, Wake Forest University, a larger school, also recently eliminated its SAT requirement, according to Inside Higher Education. Jill Tiefenthaler, the provost at Wake Forest, stressed, however, that this change will mean candidates will be more scrutinized, not less. The school has hired two more admissions officers to handle the expected increase in the number of applications.
Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, announced Wednesday that he would be stepping down from his position at the end of October, The New York Times reported. While there has been speculation that Zerhouni will assume the role of president at Johns Hopkins University, where he formerly served as executive vice dean of the School of Medicine, Zerhouni told The Times he was still deciding on future plans. During Zerhouni's six years at the NIH, he handled a budget crunch and implemented strict conflict-of-interest reforms after congressional investigations revealed that some researchers were receiving undisclosed payments from biomedical companies whose products they were studying, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Zerhouni was a critic of President George W. Bush's policy on stem-cell research and told The Times he chose to step down before the current election in order to bring the NIH to the attention of the presidential candidates. Raynard Kington, current deputy director of the NIH, will likely serve as interim director for the remainder of Bush's presidency, The Times reported.
