Quick hits.
- MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has given away nearly $4.2 billion since July to 384 nonprofits — among them more than 30 colleges and universities, including historically Black institutions and tribal colleges — working to aid those hurt by the Covid-19 pandemic. (The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
- Michael Kuenstle, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Florida, has died of complications from Covid-19, according to the faculty union. (The Gainesville Sun)
- Harvard University released the results of an external review of its police department, which was commissioned in June. Among the recommendations in the report were a public data dashboard showing the department’s activity, a diversity and inclusion plan, and engaging the university’s counseling service in responses to some calls. (The Harvard Crimson)
- The University of Kentucky’s athletics department faces a loss of $35 million because of the pandemic. (LEX 18)
- Villanova University will offer a pair of two-day “working breaks” in the spring semester, during which instructors can choose to hold classes but will not give assignments or exams. (The Villanovan via Twitter)
- Purdue University will freeze tuition through at least the 2022-23 academic year, marking 10 years without a tuition increase. (Purdue University )
- Northern Kentucky University plans to leave the state’s pension system. University administrators called its rising costs “a cloud hanging over us.” (Lexington Herald-Leader)
Fauci lauds a scientist’s work developing a vaccine.
Asked at a National Urban League forum about the role Black scientists played in creating a vaccine for Covid-19, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was quick to credit Kizzmekia Corbett. A leading scientist at the National Institutes of Health, Corbett worked on the Moderna vaccine and has been “right at the forefront” of its development, Fauci said, according to ABC News.
Corbett graduated from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, an institution known for channeling people of color into science careers, under the leadership of Freeman A. Hrabowski III. She earned her doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In March, she joined a team of scientists who hosted President Trump at the NIH.
“I felt like it was necessary to be seen and to not be a hidden figure, so to speak,” Corbett told ABC News. “It was important to do that,” because of “the level of visibility that it would have to younger scientists, and also to people of color, who have often worked behind the scenes and essentially done the dirty work for these large efforts toward a vaccine.”
The role of algorithms in college admissions.
It’s widely agreed that college admissions is broken, in part thanks to intense competition for the same group of students. That competition, in turn, has led to the proliferation of “merit aid” — awarding tuition discounts to low- or no-need students in order to persuade them to attend particular institutions — which siphons money away from need-based aid.
In The Chronicle Review, Brian Rosenberg, the president-in-residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has a radical solution to that problem: Adopt a match process for private colleges, similar to the one used to match medical-school graduates with residency and fellowship positions. What if, Rosenberg asks, we used data and algorithms instead of travel, merit aid, and free food to drive college admissions? If done properly, such a system could ensure that applicants are matched with an appropriate college and that most colleges would get an incoming class of students that met their enrollment targets and priorities. Read more from Rosenberg here.
Comings and goings.
- Nathan Utz, senior director for corporate relations at the University of Notre Dame, has been named vice president in the Office of Industry Partnerships at Purdue University.
- Daniel Erb, founding dean of the Congdon School of Health Sciences at High Point University, has been named senior vice president for academic affairs.
- William R. Harvey, president of Hampton University since 1978, plans to retire in June 2022.
Footnote.
The University of South Carolina’s library will soon boast a unique collection: 400 pieces of memorabilia from the rock band Kiss, including 26 guitars used by the band — one of them encrusted with crystals — and artwork created by the guitarist Paul Stanley, The Post and Courier reports.
The trove is a gift from a South Carolina couple who wanted a good home for their collection. The items are worth more than $300,000 and will become part of the library’s 20th- and 21st-century popular-music holdings, where they’ll be used by students, faculty members, and researchers in music, visual arts, modern history, business history, and marketing, the university said in a statement. Starting next summer, the items will rotate into display in USC’s music school, where the donors’ daughter is a student.
Say yeah!
