Military recruiters banned: Harvard reinstates policy in response to court decision (The Boston Globe)

By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff  |  December 1, 2004

Harvard Law School will once again ban military recruiters because of the Pentagon's policy on gays in the military, the school's dean announced yesterday, the day after a federal appeals court blocked enforcement of the federal law that forced schools to allow the visits.

"This return to our prior policy will allow [the Office of Career Services] to enforce the law school's policy of nondiscrimination without exception, including to the military services," the dean, Elena Kagan, wrote in a brief statement late yesterday. "I am gratified by this result, and I look forward to the time when all law students will have the opportunity to pursue any legal career they desire."

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2004/12/01/military_recruiters_banned/ click url to read

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A Bush binge for Social Security (The Boston Globe)

By Scot Lehigh, Globe Columnist  |  December 1, 2004

Credit the Bush administration with this. It is at least imaginative in its improvidence. The administration's plan to modernize Social Security rests on this novel concept: We should embark on another borrowing binge, this time in the name of increasing national savings."

Indeed, professors David Laibson of Harvard and Brigitte Madrian of Wharton and Harvard graduate student James Choi have shown that if 401(k) plans are designed such that the default (that is, passive or do-nothing) course means an employee is automatically enrolled, and at a recommended contribution rate, most employees will stay enrolled and continue saving at or near that rate. In their study, after three years on the job, 401(k) participation was 20 to 34 percent higher with automatic enrollment."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/12/01/a_bush_binge_for_social_security/
click url to read

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Arts, Briefly: Big Advance for Groopman's Next Doctor Book (The New York Times)

By BEN SISARIO

Published: December 1, 2004

Jerome Groopman, left, the Harvard Medical School professor who has written three books and many magazine articles about doctors, patients and illness, will get an advance of more than $500,000 for a fourth book, "How Doctors Think," to be published in 2008 by Houghton Mifflin. The book will examine how a physician's age, sex, stress levels and educational background affect his relationships with patients and the care they receive."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/01/arts/01arts.html click url to read

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New tech consortium to focus on sensor networks (CNET News)

Alorie Gilbert, Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: November 30, 2004

A group of Boston-area academics is stepping up efforts to commercialize an experimental technology aimed at giving computer networks powerful new surveillance capabilities.

Boston University is leading the charge, forming a consortium to encourage businesses to use "sensor networks." The Sensor Network Consortium, which the school announced Tuesday, has already signed up an impressive member list that includes oil giant BP, thermostat maker Honeywell, chipmaker Intel and defense contractor Textron Systems. Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst are also involved."

http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1033_3-5471817.html click url to read

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Harvard Law to Bar Military Recruiters (Associated Press)

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: November 30, 2004

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Harvard Law School will return to a policy that keeps the military from recruiting on campus in the wake of a federal court decision allowing colleges and universities to bar recruiters without fear of losing federal money.

Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan said the decision, effective Tuesday, will allow the school to enforce its nondiscrimination policy without exception, ``including to the military services."

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Military-Recruiters-Harvard.html click url to read

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Report: Harvard coddled Nazis (United Press International)

Cambridge, MA, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A U.S. historian is challenging Harvard University about what he says is the prestigious school's history of coddling Nazis.

Stephen Norwood of the University of Oklahoma, told a recent Holocaust conference in Boston: "Harvard University helped enhance the prestige of Hitler's regime in the West in the 1930s. This was at a critical period when the Nazis were intensifying the persecution of Jews."

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041130-041016-4076r.htm click url to read