Members of Students Stand with Staff held a march on Parkhurst Hall on Wednesday in an attempt to attract attention to staff contract negotiations and present a letter voicing their concerns to administrators. The group, many of whose members are involved with Occupy Dartmouth, is concerned about stagnant wages and health benefit cuts for campus staff, according to member Aimee Le '12. Protesters entered the building singing and chanting and went into first and second-floor offices, trying to deliver their letter to College President Jim Yong Kim, Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson, Provost Carol Folt and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Steven Kadish, Le said. While marchers were speaking with Kadish, Safety and Security entered the building and warned them that they could be arrested by Hanover Police for "disturbing work" unless they left promptly and silently, according to Le. The march on Parkhurst was the group's third this year, according to member Nathan Gusdorf '12.
Chris Navas, who initially dropped out of high school and later worked as a secretary at a refrigeration company, will attend the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth next year, with the help of a scholarship from the City University of New York, The New York Times reported. Navas earned a degree in psychology from Queens College while simultaneously working full-time at a boiler company. Originally an exercise science major, he took his first psychology class, about behavioral neuroscience, by accident, signing up for the course because it aligned with his work schedule and distribution requirements, according to The Times. He developed an interest in the subject under the guidance of teacher and graduate student Giuseppe Cataldo. Navas, along with several other graduates, was awarded a Jonas E. Salk scholarship to attend medical school and received the first $8,000 installment on Wednesday, The Times reported.
L. Rafael Reif, who served as the provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for seven years, will replace Susan Hockfield as the university's president on July 2, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Reif, an electrical engineer, said he believes that higher education is evolving toward a combination of classroom and online instruction, according to The Times. During his time as provost, he was involved with the creation of the online initiatives MITx and edX and also worked on international projects and budgetary restructuring. He has worked at MIT since 1980, having chaired the electrical engineering and computer science department before becoming provost, The Times reported.
