An unidentified "college-aged" male was shot in Kirkland House at Harvard University shortly before 5 p.m. on Monday, The Harvard Crimson reported. A Harvard School of Dental Medicine student found the victim bleeding but conscious, and authorities transported him to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Witnesses said they heard three sounds similar to gunshots, and one female said she later found bullet casings in the building, The Crimson reported. House Master Tom Conley told the police that two to three suspects fled the scene at the time of the shooting, according to The Crimson.
To reduce its budget expenditures by $8.8 million for the next fiscal year, the University of Maine at Orono will lay off 32 employees and will not fill 77 vacant positions, according to a university press release. The university also plans to reduce operating costs by $1.7 million. University President Robert Kennedy cited the reduction of "state appropriations" and "declining returns on investments" as the main cause of the school's financial difficulties, according to the press release.
Despite public perception that many students graduate college with significant debt, the average debt for a graduating student is around $20,000, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The students who graduate with large amounts of debt are often those who want to attend their "dream" college and give little thought to the financial implication of their decision, Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid, a search engine for students seeking information about financial aid, said in the article. A significantly larger pool of students, however, are currently filing for loans than did a decade ago, according to statistics released by the Project on Student Debt, The Chronicle reported. In addition, the average amount of debt has more than doubled, from $9,250 in 1993 to $19,200 in the 2003-2004 academic year, The Chronicle reported.
