Four animal-rights activists staged a protest Tuesday against a Dartmouth professor's use of monkeys in his brain research, according to the Valley News. Yale Cohen, an associate professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences, issued a statement to the Valley News via a Dartmouth spokesman saying that animals used in his work "are under constant veterinary care to preserve and foster their health and well-being, and there is also constant veterinary supervision of my work." Cohen said his research could yield results useful to the treatment of autism, schizophrenia and Asperger's syndrome, according to the Valley News. The protesters stood on the southwest corner of the green, near the Hanover Inn. While a small number of passers-by did stop to take literature from the activists' folding table, most did not interact with the group, according to the article. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Dartmouth used more than 900 animals for research in 2007, including 16 primates.
Baylor University gave admitted freshmen financial incentives to retake the SAT last summer, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The incentives -- first reported by Baylor's student newspaper, The Lariat -- included a $300 bookstore credit to incoming freshmen who retook the exam, and a $1,000 merit scholarship each year to students whose composite scores increased by at least 50 points. Of the 861 students who retook the exam, 151 improved their scores by at least 50 points, according to the Chronicle. In addition, The Lariat reported that the freshman class' average score rose from 1200 to 1210 due to the retesting policy. Baylor has explicitly stated a desire to rise in the U.S. News and World Report's annual college rankings, according to the Chronicle. The university has pursued this goal through a strategic plan, Baylor 2012, which aims to improve Baylor's research and academic profile while strengthening the school's Christian character.
National Collegiate Athletic Association President Myles Brand said new data that shows NCAA Division I athletes graduating at the highest rates ever helps dispel "the so-called 'dumb jock' myth," according to Inside Higher Ed. The data also showed that athletes in some high-profile sports -- including football, basketball and baseball -- continue to lag in graduation rates. According to new graduation success"rate data, one of the two ways that the NCAA reports graduation rates for Division I athletes, 79 percent of Division I athletes who matriculated in 2001 graduated with a bachelor's degree by 2007, according to Inside Higher Ed. The second graduation-rate data, developed by the U.S. Department of Education, shows 64 percent of Division I athletes graduating in the same time period, the highest percentage ever according to that metric. Women's skiing has the highest graduation success rate, at 96 percent, while men's basketball has the lowest, at 62 percent.
