Lynch announces budget cuts

Study: ‘lol' takes longer to process

Doug Gonzalez / The Dartmouth Senior Staff Doug Gonzalez / The Dartmouth Senior Staff Texting "ttyl" instead of "talk to you later" may not save as much time as one might expect, according to a study conducted by Natalie Berger '09. As part of Berger's psychology honors thesis, Berger and Dartmouth education professor Donna Coch found that the brain is slower at processing text messaging language than standard written English. The study identified similarities and differences between the way the brain processes words in text message phrases and conventional written English. Although participants in the study processed text messages in nearly the same way as they would process any written language, an extra step was required for subjects' brains to process texting language. "The participants in the study were processing semantics of text messages in a way similar to their normal process," Coch said.

Speaker warns of use of implanted devices

Christopher Rhoades / The Dartmouth Staff Christopher Rhoades / The Dartmouth Staff From diabetes to Parkinson's disease, more and more chronic ailments are being treated with implanted medical devices that rely on wireless communication and Internet connectivity to transmit data directly from patient to doctor.

Kim highlights global health past

Jennifer Argote / The Dartmouth Senior Staff Jennifer Argote / The Dartmouth Senior Staff Drawing from his experiences as a leader in global health administration, College President Jim Yong Kim stressed the need to incorporate "health care delivery science" into undergraduate education during a lecture to community members held in Spaulding Auditorium on Wednesday. Dartmouth "definitely needs to get moving" on adapting programs where students can "think creatively about the biggest troubles of our times," Kim said in response to a question asked by an audience member after the lecture. "If we start teaching this at the medical school stage, it's too late," he said.

SEIU files suit over issue at Hanover Inn

Jennifer Argote / The Dartmouth Senior Staff Jennifer Argote / The Dartmouth Senior Staff The Service Employees International Union Local 560 has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations board, alleging that the College has failed to both negotiate with the union about contracts for Hanover Inn employees and be forthright with the union about its intentions for the future of the Inn, according to Earl Sweet, the president of the SEIU Local 560. The College's associate general counsel Kevin O'Leary, however, said Dartmouth administrators have kept the SEIU informed about their intentions and have been willing to discuss contracts. "The College works very hard to keep open lines of communication with the leadership of the SEIU," O'Leary wrote in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.

College proposes benefit changes

Stephanie Han / The Dartmouth Senior Staff Stephanie Han / The Dartmouth Senior Staff In an effort to reduce spending on employee benefits and compensation by $9 million over the next two fiscal years, College administrators proposed changes to the current benefits package provided to faculty and staff on Tuesday.

Talk urges protection of endangered languages

Alice Zhao / The Dartmouth Staff Alice Zhao / The Dartmouth Staff Linguists have both a moral and scholarly obligation to attempt to preserve endangered minority languages in isolated communities that seek to maintain their cultural and linguistic heritage, according to David Bradley, linguistics professor at La Trobe University in Australia and featured speaker at a lecture on Tuesday in Reed Hall. Bradley drew from personal experience working with two Asian communities to explain how linguists should use documentation, interaction between isolated communities and advocacy on behalf of minority groups to help such communities. Linguists must consider the sense of identity of the people, the vitality of the language, the setting of the community, the domains or genres in which the language exists and government policy when examining minority languages, Bradley said. Bradley spoke about his work with the Gong community in Thailand, an ethnic group in which approximately 100 out of the 500 members speak the Gong language.