Emmanuel Kim '15 was elected 2015 Class Council president, according to an email sent by the Class of 2015 Election Committee on Oct. 7 and obtained by The Dartmouth. Justin Sha '15 will assume the position of 2015 Class Council vice president while Megan Blanchard '15 was elected treasurer. The three officers who delivered their final speeches along with the other candidates at the final pitch event organized by the Election Committee and held in Collis Common Ground on Oct. 4 will be responsible for planning classwide events, according to committee member George Najjar '15. Over 50 percent of the members of the Class of 2015 voted in the election, which took place online from Oct. 5 to 6, Najjar said. The committee, composed of three members of the Class of 2015 and one faculty supervisor, ensured that each candidate received the requisite 50 signatures and created a website posting his or her platforms, Najjar said.
Amid cuts to other areas of public funding, three European university clusters the University of Bordeaux, the University of Strasbourg and the University of Paris Sciences et Lettres have received funding to establish an Ivy League equivalent in France known as the Sorbonne League, Inside Higher Ed reported. The Sorbonne League, heavily promoted by President of France Nicolas Sarkozy, aims to eventually combine five to seven universities able to attract high-caliber students from across the world. The project, known as the Initiatives d'Excellence, totals 7.7 billion euros, or over $10 billion, according to Inside Higher Ed. Member universities who receive funding will also be required to collaborate with businesses in order to increase profits from research and promote the establishment of spin-off companies, Inside Higher Ed reported.
Harvard University fell from its spot as the number one university in Times Higher Education World University Rankings, marking the first time Harvard is not in the top slot since the rankings began eight years ago. The list, released on Oct. 6 in Britain, ranks the world's top 400 universities according to variables ranging from teaching to research to international outlook. The California Institute of Technology stole the number-one listing, and Harvard finished tied for second with Stanford University. Harvard fell due to a difference in research volume between the two schools, a factor weighted more heavily in the Times rankings than in those published by U.S. News & World Report, in which Harvard tied with Princeton University for first, The Washington Post reported. The top four American public universities the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles also dropped in the rankings. Dartmouth placed 90th in the Times rankings.
