Yale president testifies for greenhouse legislation
Yale President Richard Levin called on the federal government to enact legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions as part of his testimony before the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works last Thursday.
In a hearing entitled “Examining Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions at U.S. Colleges and Universities,” Levin argued that Yale is a “model of responsible environmental practice for other universities and business organizations” and added that the university is big enough to “demonstrate that greenhouse gas reduction is feasible and affordable.”
During his testimony, Levin discussed Yale’s efforts to encourage sustainability, including its pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) applauded efforts to further sustainability but insisted that the federal government not play a legislative role in this matter.
Craig also complained that the hearing was little more than “an alumni gathering for Yale,” making reference to the four committee members who graduated from the New Haven institution. Craig also made sure to point out that all four were Democrats. Committee chair Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) ended the meeting by noting that President Bush, a Republican, also attended the Connecticut Ivy.
Columbia student killed by car while fleeing muggers
The 24-year-old Minghui Yu was hit by an SUV on the Upper West Side around 8:50 p.m. Friday, and responding police officers believe he was attempting to escape a robbery. Yu was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital, where he died from head trauma.
A native of China and graduate of the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, Yu was a Ph.D. candidate in statistics at the Graduate School of Arts and Science and a statistics teaching fellow. He was a department chair for the Columbia University Chinese Students and Scholars Association.
Yale researchers win $5.6 million in stem-cell grantsYale researchers associated with a dozen research projects have received $5.6 million in grants from the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee. The money is from the state’s 10-year Stem Cell Research Program, established in 2005 to fund projects ineligible for federal funding. The 12 winners from Yale, and 10 researchers at the University of Connecticut who won $9.8 million in grants, were selected from a pool of 87 applicants seeking a total of $40 million.
Three of the grants include $1.8 million for the Yale Stem Cell Center to expand resources, $1.1 million for professor Eugene Redmond to explore embryonic stem cell treatment for Parkinson’s disease, and $450,000 for professor Flora Vaccarino to examine the differentiation of neutral stem cells.
Roughly $20 million in grants were awarded in 2006 to Yale, UConn and Wesleyan University. This year’s grants to Yale and UConn were the second year’s installment.
Princeton, Harvard top ‘dream schools’ list
In a recent survey by The Princeton Review, Harvard ranked as the top “dream school” of high school students, while Princeton ranked first as the school that parents would want their high school child to attend. The survey, titled “College Hopes & Worries Survey,” was featured in the 2008 version of the Review’s “Best 366 Colleges” and asked students and parents to name the college they would like to attend — or see their child attend — if chance of admission or cost were not an issue.
Stanford took second place among student responders, followed by Princeton, NYU, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, USC and UCLA. After Princeton, top choices among parents were Stanford, Harvard, NYU, Notre Dame, Cornell, Duke, Yale, MIT and Brown. Penn and Dartmouth did not make the top 10 list for either students or parents, while Columbia did not make the list for parents. In the same survey, 84 percent of 8,776 students interviewed said financial aid considerations would be “very necessary” in determining their college choice, and half said the greatest factor in choosing an institution was finding the school with the “best overall fit.
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