On Wednesday, April 16, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Heights Room, Dr. Richard Kearney of the philosophy department and editor of Interreligious Imagination: Journey to the Heart, will moderate a panel discussion between Dr. Catherine Cornille, Dr. John Makransky, and Dr. James Morris of the theology department and Dr. Edward Kaplan of Brandeis University. The panelists have respective specialties in the study of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism, and all contributed to Interreligious Imagination. A reception is scheduled to follow the event.
UNIVERSITIES Colleges work to confront difficult sustainability issues The Smart and Sustainable Campus Conference drew some of the people most involved in the movement toward sustainable campuses to the University of Maryland. Colleges that have taken important steps in the direction of making their campuses more environmentally friendly have not found the process to be an easy one. Colleges and universities that have made a commitment to lower their carbon emissions with the objective of carbon neutrality have found it particularly difficult to offset the emissions generated by students who commute to school. Laboratory buildings that consume disproportionate amounts of campus energy are prime culprits as well.
Part-time faculty have adverse effects on first year students A new report suggests that students who are taught by part-time faculty in first-year courses are more likely to drop out of school than other freshmen. The report relied primarily on the transcripts of 30,000 students between 2002 and 2005, and found a consistent trend indicating that students who are in courses taught by part-time adjuncts and fellows are less likely to return to that university in the next year. Audrey J. Jaeger, an assistant professor of higher education at North Carolina State University, is the lead author of the paper. "We're not blaming part-time faculty. We're actually putting the onus on institutions of higher education to support part-time faculty," Jaeger told reporters.
ON CAMPUS Program pairs student mentors with elementary school girls The "Strong Women, Strong Girls" project, which pairs undergraduate mentors with elementary school students, has expanded to include three schools in the Allston-Brighton area. "The feedback that we are getting on this program has been fabulous," Maria DiChiappari, director of the Boston College Neighborhood Center in Brighton, told reporters. "Strong Women, Strong Girls has been part of our community-building effort. We get the schools to help recruit the girls - all third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, who would really benefit from being mentored by college students."
UNDER REPORTED World to end this month, Visa is Satan, says Russian cult leader
Followers of doomsday preacher Pyotr Kuznetsov have barricaded themselves in a bunker, awaiting the apocalypse that they believe will come either later this month or in May. Alexander Yelatontsev, an official from the region, has had the closest contact with the group since the cult took refuge in the abandonded convent last October. Officials are negotiating for the release of the four children among the 30 or so followers in the bunker. "They have burned their passports and say that all plastic (credit) cards and strip codes on food packaging are the work of Satan," Yelatontsev told reporters.
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