Harvard University will lay off 275 employees and alter the work hours of approximately 40 others, according to The Harvard Crimson. The layoffs, announced on Tuesday, will primarily affect administrative and professional personnel and eliminate many clerical positions. The layoffs are one of several cost-cutting measures Harvard has implemented in the past months in response to a projected 30-percent decrease in the University's endowment. Other budget-cutting measures include cutbacks in student services and the implementation of an early retirement incentive program for the university's staff, which has contributed to the retirement of over 500 employees, The Crimson reported. Employees affected by the layoffs will be notified over the next week.
In a study published in The American Economic Review, Dartmouth professor of economics Jonathan Zinman and Victor Stango, an associate professor at the University of California Davis, found the average American household pays hundreds of dollars per year in credit card late charges and other fees that could be avoided, the Daily Democrat reported. Zinman and Stango conducted a study of 900 American homes from 2006 to 2007 and found that of the $500 the typical household spends on fees including bank overdraft fees and fees for late payment and exceeding credit card limits more than half could be avoided with better planning. The top 10 percent of households pay approximately $3,084 in fees, according to the Daily Democrat.
Renowned health care administrator Robert Derzon '53 Tu'54 died on June 17, according to the Marin Independent Journal. Derzon was appointed by former President Jimmy Carter as the first administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, which combined Medicare and Medicaid into a single agency for the first time. Derzon worked for the Health Care Financing Administration from 1977 until 1979 when he left the organization because of disagreements with then-Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano. Derzon also served as first deputy commissioner of New York City's municipal hospitals, and later became the UCSF Director of Hospitals and Clinics. For the last twenty years of his career, Derzon worked for Lewin & Associates, a firm specializing in health care research and management consulting. Derzon was 78 years old.
