Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center named Alan R. Weston, former vice president and corporate manager for human resources at Liberty Mutual Group, as its chief human resources officer on Wednesday, according to a DHMC press release. Weston will supervise human resources programs for almost 9,000 employees in Lebanon and at the Community Group Practices in Concord, Manchester, Nashua and Keene. Weston has worked in human resources for over 30 years, having served as senior vice president at Creditek, and at other organizations such as Burger King Corporation and Data General, according to the press release. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire and received an MBA degree from Northeastern University.
President Barack Obama called for the exemption of education and research investment from his proposed five-year freeze on domestic spending during in his State of the Union speech, Inside Higher Ed reported on Wednesday. Although Obama did not outline specific details regarding the programs he would protect, he emphasized the need for the United States to rebuild its economy and out-perform rising economies like India and China in education and innovation. He also called on colleges to "open their doors to our military recruiters and ROTC" following the end of the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy," Inside Higher Ed reported. Obama did not specifically mention if Pell Grants or financial aid programs would be subject to further cutbacks, according to Inside Higher Ed.
The Common Application rejected a proposition to include an optional check-box for applicants' sexual orientation and gender identity, Inside Higher Ed reported on Wednesday. In a statement explaining the decision, the Common Application said its 414 member colleges already have mechanisms in place to support homosexual students and those who don't conform to traditional gender identities. The Common Application's board also said that the proposed questions might make applicants anxious about how to respond. Proponents of the change had argued that this proposal was similar to optional questions on ethnicity and economic background, Inside Higher Ed reported. The Common Application recently added a category for applicants to indicate if they had been involved in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups while in high school and will add an additional information section where applicants can share personal information on these issues, according to Inside Higher Ed. The board of the Common Application said it would re-evaluate its decision "later this decade" based upon any changes in cultural norms, according to Inside Higher Ed.
