In a Tuesday press release, Travis Blalock '12 introduced Hazing Tours, a daily tour service that will take visitors to Dartmouth Greek physical plants and offer insight on alleged hazing practices in Greek organizations, sports teams and other campus groups. Hazing Tours will also serve as "the first ever psychic witness service" that will provide supposed evidence of hazing allegations in order to allow the administration to take action against fraternities, according to the Hazing Tours website. Blalock is "prepared to summon spirits from the great void to reveal practices dating back to 1842," the press release said. While information indicates that the Hazing Tours endeavor is a joke, the release said tours will be offered daily, will cost $10 and will begin Thursday to coincide with Dimensions at Dartmouth. The tours come in the wake of increased media attention on the College following January hazing allegations from Andrew Lohse '12 against Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, according to the website.
Congress directed $44 million in earmarked funds to support university research centers this year, according to a report by the nonpartisan group Citizens Against Government Waste, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. This sum marks a dramatic reduction from what educational institutions received from Congress in 2008, when over $2 billion in earmarks was allotted to colleges and universities, The Chronicle reported. The group found that over $66 million had been reserved specifically for university research between 1994 and 2010 and that Congress had reserved $3.3 billion in earmarks for 2012 an 80 percent drop from 2010, when over $16 billion was spent, The Chronicle reported.
Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor are collaborating with the for-profit company Coursera to offer free online versions of their academic courses known as "massively open online courses," Inside Higher Education reported. These schools will join Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley in a coordinated effort to make elite college courses more accessible, according to Inside Higher Ed. The participating universities will offer 39 of their courses, including six classes in the humanities and social sciences, through Coursera, which was founded by two Stanford engineering professors. None of the universities plan to offer formal credit for the online courses, and so far no consensus has emerged about ways to recognize students' online achievements, Inside Higher Ed reported.
