Student Assembly voted to fund a memorial for Dartmouth students who passed away before graduating in its weekly meeting Tuesday night. The memorial will consist of a tree with a plaque that will commemorate all such students, as well as another plaque indoors specifically commemorating the five students who have passed away since Fall 2007. Some members said they worried that memorializing only those five students unfairly excluded all other students who have died. Others, though, said honoring every student who has died before graduating since the College was founded is impractical. The Assembly ultimately voted by a wide margin to list only the five students' names on the indoor plaque, but kept open the option to add the names of students who died before 2007 should their families request their addition. The memorial will cost $2,500 and will be maintained for at least 15 years by the College.
Dartmouth sent two mock trial teams to compete in the American Mock Trial Association's Greater New England Regional Qualifying Tournament this weekend at Roger Williams University. Eight of the 13 teams at the tournament, including one from Dartmouth, qualified to compete in the Open Round Championship in South Carolina next month, from which the top six teams will move on to the national competition, according to Mock Trial Society President Brenna Jenny '09. Other qualifying teams came from Brown University, Brandeis University, Villanova University, Tufts University, Princeton University and Boston College, according to The Providence Journal. Dartmouth also sent two teams to the regional qualifying tournament in Baltimore, but none of the College's squads at that competition advanced to the next round.
Congressional Democrats introduced an appropriations bill to increase funding for education, science and research for the current fiscal year on Monday, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The proposal increases funding for the National Institute of Health by $938 million and allocates $19.2 billion for student financial aid through the Pell Grant program, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education and the Gear Up program, which assists students from low-income families in preparing for college. The House of Representatives could vote on the bill as early as Wednesday, The Chronicle reported.
