The Tucker Foundation hosted a dinner to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Olga Gruss Lewin Post-Graduate Fellowship on Tuesday night. Over 120 Dartmouth students, faculty and staff attended the event, which featured an address by Chloe Schwenke, senior advisor on democracy, human rights and governance and LGBT policy at the Africa Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Four fellowship alumni Peter Bastian '98, Dailan Long '07, Alejandro Borquez '09 and Amma Serwaah-Panin '10 also spoke at the event, according to Kara Quick, Tucker's coordinator of fellowships and internships. The fellowship, endowed by Andrew Lewin '81 in 2000, awards between one and three recent graduates up to $15,000 to work full-time with a non-profit organization for 10 to 12 months, according to the Tucker Foundation's website. Last year's Lewin Fellows, Joceline Fidalgo '11 and Alexandra Heywood '11, worked with BORNEfonden in Santiago, Cape Verde and Children's Hope-Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine, respectively.
Decreases in state funding for higher education pose challenges for members of the middle-class "Millennial" generation for whom postsecondary degrees are a necessity, according to a report issued by Demos, a think tank that aims to encourage public debate. Despite financial obstacles, the current generation of applicants and students at institutions of higher education is more diverse than previous generations, according to the report. As a result of increasingly expensive tuition, the total amount of student debt from private and federal loans increased by a factor of 4.5 over the past 20 years, the report found. Demos cited increases in tuition, income stagnation and relative decreases in state funding as causes for the decrease in postsecondary degree affordability. While many state-sponsored financial aid programs have expanded since 1990, most of the money is merit rather than need-based, so the neediest students are not necessarily receiving the most aid, according to Demos.
The annual crew race on the Thames River between Oxford University and Cambridge University was interrupted on Saturday when a man jumped into the water and swam in front of the boats in protest of the event's perceived elitism, The New York Times reported. The wetsuit-clad Australian was not injured but caused a half-hour delay in the races, according to The Times. The event has been both celebrated and criticized as a symbol of exclusive upper-class society since its 1829 inception, and less aggressive protestors have complicated the race in previous years. This year's offender was arrested and charged with disturbing public order, according The Times. Participants said they felt the protest was unjustified as it targeted a harmless show of sportsmanship, The Times reported.
