News & Notes

ON CAMPUS BC earns top score for fire safety Boston College received a top score of 99 for fire safety from the 2006 Princeton Review's The Best 361 Colleges: The Smart Student's Guide to Colleges. The rating measures how well prepared a school is to prevent or respond to fires, specifically in residence halls, according to Princeton Review. The average score on a scale of 60-99 was 85. "This top score is a goal we've been striving to attain as we work very hard to keep Boston College students as safe as possible," said Vice President for Facilities Management Thomas Devine. "Now we will have to work just as hard to maintain it." Schools were asked to answer questions about topics including the percentage of rooms protected by sprinkler systems, percentage of rooms with a smoke alarm, and fire resistance ratings on furniture.

C21 leader named adoption 'Angel' Tim Muldoon, director of the Church in the 21st Century Center, and his wife Sue were recently named adoption "Angels" by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, according to The MetroWest Daily News. The couple, who recently moved from Pennsylvania to Natick, was nominated by Sen. John Kerry for their advocacy after adopting two daughters from China. They maintain that they are no different than many other adoptive parents, but their published work has given them more visibility. Tim had an article published in America Magazine and Sue wrote a story in the book "I Love Being a Mom." They attribute their passion to the process and experience of traveling to China twice to adopt their daughters, 5-year-old Grace and 3-year-old Kate.

LOCAL Residents aim to preserve street signs A proposition has been issued to keep Brookline's 1930s cast-iron aluminum street signs from becoming a thing of the past, according to The Brookline TAB. As the town celebrates its 300th birthday, some residents have called for those vintage signs to remain the norm and to re-install those already replaced by the newer metal signs. The street signs are being replaced at a rate of about 10 per week, said Thomas DeMaio, commissioner of the Department of Public Works. Harry Friedman, the Town Meeting member who made the proposition, fears that the remaining signs will be gone before the town has a chance to vote on the issue in November.

Hundreds demand priest's return At least 550 supporters of the recently terminated Rev. Walter Cuenin marched on the Boston Chancery Sunday afternoon to call for the embattled pastor's reinstatement, according to The Newton TAB. In his final address to parishioners, Cuenin said, "social justice is not just for liberals with free time on their hands," and urged them to push for justice after his departure. Some took these words literally and marched for their leader, despite Cuenin's public objections. Upon the protestors' arrival at the Chancery, the archdiocese refused to allow them on the premises, forcing them to spread out along a sidewalk and one traffic lane on Commonwealth Avenue.

UNIVERSITIES Hispanics receving less financial aid Students of Hispanic origin received the lowest amount of federal aid of any ethnic group, according to a report by Excelencia in Education, Inc. and The Institute for Higher Education Policy. Though Hispanics are receiving more aid than in previous years, the average financial aid still lags behind those awarded to other ethnicities, according to The Daily Californian. In 2003-2004, the average amount given to Hispanic students was $6,250, remaining hundreds of dollars short of the $6,890 national average. The report only measured federal loans and grants, not funding from private sources. According to the report, 85 percent of Hispanics were U.S. citizens, compared to 93 percent of all undergraduate students. This left many who were ineligible to receive federal funds, according to the report.

Web site to support conservatives A new Web site, Intellectualtakeout.com, is aiming to give campus conservatives information on a range of current events and issues, according to The Daily Californian. The site, launched Sept. 13, includes views on economics, education, the environment, history, job internships, and the happenings on other campuses. The site was founded by the Center of the American Experiment, a nonprofit group established in 1990 by a former official of the U.S. Department of Education during the Reagan and Bush administrations. "Our goal is to be a resource to conservatives," said Britt Haugland, the center's director of public programs. "We're concerned about the lack of intellectual diversity on campuses."

NATION New Orleans to lay off 3,000 workers New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is laying off as many as 3,000 city employees - or about half its workforce - because of the financial damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, according to the Chicago Tribune. Only non-essential workers will be laid off and no firefighters or police will be let go, he said. "I wish I didn't have to do this. I wish we had the money, the resources to keep these people," Nagin said. "The problem we have is we have no revenue streams." The move, which will take place over the next two weeks, will save about $5 million to $8 million of the city's monthly payroll of $20 million. Nagin described the layoffs as "pretty permanent."

Army to lower bar for recruits Due to recruiting shortages caused by conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has decided to accept more recruits who score near the bottom of military aptitude tests, said the secretary of the Army, according to The Los Angeles Times. In the last recruiting year, the Army fell nearly 7,000 recruits short of its goal of 80,000 active-duty soldiers. The Army will allow up to 4 percent of its recruiting class to be Category IV recruits - those who scored between the 16th and 30th percentile in the aptitude tests that the Defense Department gives to all potential military personnel. Until now, the Army allowed no more than 2 percent of its class to be from the Category IV level for fear that too many low-achieving recruits would dilute the quality of the nation's largest military branch.