Dartmouth, working with the RAND Corporation and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has launched a new center dedicated to increasing Americans' financial literacy. The U.S. Social Security Administration will funnel more than $3 million to the center over the next year to fund programs that teach the public about savings and retirement strategies, according to a RAND press release. Dartmouth economics professor Annamaria Lusardi, who will direct the program, said in the release that Americans currently lack the skills and resources needed to make informed decisions about saving money.
Samuel Rauch '10 will receive the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum's third annual "Student of the Year Award" for his work with the institution this past summer, the museum announced on Sept. 25. Rauch volunteered at the museum during the summer after his junior year, using his fluency in German to translate Holocaust-related German documents and researching the historical relevance of the documents, according to a statement released by the museum. Rauch, in an interview with The Dartmouth, said he originally became interested in translating documents from German to English after traveling to Germany through Dartmouth's Foreign Study Program his junior fall. Rauch said his work allowed him to trace the lives of Jewish families during and after the war, through the museum's archive of photographs and documents. "It becomes very personal," he said.
The American Political Science Association and other social-science organizations are mobilizing against a proposed Senate appropriations bill amendment that would slash funding for the National Science Foundation's political science program, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on Wednesday. The amendment, proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is likely to be voted on next week. Dan Tatro, Coburn's press secretary, told The Chronicle that federal dollars are better spent on medical or engineering research. Micahel Brintnall, executive director of the American Political Science Association, said the research is crucial to national security and understanding the United States' position in the world, according to The Chronicle. Others argue that redirecting funds for political science research will have little impact, as only $9.4 million of the NSF's $3.7-billion budget is allocated for political science.
