Quick Takes | Higher education round-up: March 23

Harvard University

Campus welcomes return of Army ROTC

Harvard will welcome the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps on campus for the first time in more than 40 years, the university announced Wednesday. The move comes a year after Harvard allowed Naval ROTC to return, shortly after the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

Harvard, like many universities, expelled its ROTC during the anti-military sentiment of the Vietnam War. ROTCs were kept off campus on the grounds that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell discriminated against gay students.

Columbia and Yale universities also reinstated ROTC programs after the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Penn’s Naval ROTC program, established in 1940, was never discontinued and Army ROTC is offered through Drexel University.

University of the Sciences

Penn grad appointed new university president

University of the Sciences, the pharmacy-focused university located just west of 42nd Street near Woodland Ave., has tapped Penn graduate Helen F. Giles-Gee as its new president.

Giles-Gee, who received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate from Penn, is currently the president of New Hampshire’s only public liberal arts college, Keene State College. A 30-year veteran of higher education, she will be the university’s 22nd president, and both the school’s first female president and first president of color.

She replaces Philip Gerbino, who was president of the 3,000-student university for 17 years.

Cornell University

Student Health Service to screen patients for alcohol abuse

In a controversial new policy, Cornell’s Student Health Service has begun screening every student patient that they see for signs of alcohol dependency or abuse, The Cornell Daily Sun reported.

The policy was promulgated as an effort to address dangerous drinking on campus and has come under fire from students as an invasion of privacy.

Students are asked if they have had more than five or four drinks, for males and females respectively, and if so are asked to fill out an additional questionnaire. Based on their answers, they may be referred for additional follow-up or treatment.

Brown University

Student chases down and catches mugger

When three men beat and robbed a Brown senior early Saturday morning, a fellow Brown senior chased down the mugger and apprehended him, holding him until the police arrived, The Brown Daily Herald reported Monday.

The victim, who remained anonymous, was focused on his phone when he was jumped by the three men. They punched him repeatedly and asked for his phone, taking it and running off.

Aristides Nakos, a former player on Brown’s men’s rugby team, saw the altercation and pursued the robbers. In the process, one suspect punched Nakos in the face, and the pair broke into a scuffle until the police intervened.

City University of New York

Professors sue school’s administration

Faculty at the City University of New York are suing to prevent the downsizing of general education requirements, escalating an ongoing disagreement with the governing board.

The board approved the new requirements as part of its attempt to standardize core curricula across CUNY schools, which vary widely. The plan was a response to complaints that transfer between CUNY schools — and especially from community colleges to four-year institutions — is overly difficult because of the inconsistent requirements.

Professors assert that the plan tries to improve graduation rates at the expense of the quality of a CUNY degree.

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