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Preparing to avoid tragedy... so long to Engineering's dean... a stellar season for women's basketball... look who's talking
Report addresses campus
violence The committee, which met regularly for seven months and included faculty, administrators, and two students, was commissioned by interim President Daniel Nathans in the wake of Chao's death in April 1996. Though Chao and his alleged murderer, Robert Harwood, had once been close friends, the friendship eventually deteriorated to the point that Harwood was "bothering and pestering" Chao with e-mail messages and up to 20 phone calls per day, according to Dean of Students Susan Boswell, who twice instructed Harwood to refrain from contacting Chao. Today, Harwood remains awaiting trial, most recently postponed until July. In surveying 13 other peer institutions, the committee determined that Hopkins has experienced comparatively few major violent incidents in the past 10 years: two Hopkins students have suffered violent deaths (including an off-campus murder that remains unsolved), while four have committed suicide. The committee looked closely to see whether there were environmental factors at Hopkins--such as the oft-cited intense academic pressure--that may have played a common role in these incidents, and concluded that "each seemed to involve either random violence or behavior that could not have been predicted." Nonetheless, "the consequences are so serious and tragic that one incident is one incident too many," says committee member Paula Burger, vice provost for academic affairs at Homewood. "What this report said is that we need to have a sensitivity and awareness-- and a level of preparation--so that even one incident of violence might be prevented by our extraordinary vigilance." Among its list of 33 recommendations, the committee called for:
The committee plans to meet again in nine months to assess how
well the recommendations have been implemented. Those interested
in seeing the full report can access it via the Web at
http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/reports/violence/.
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Engineering dean misses research,
students After five years as top administrator of the G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering, Dean Don P. Giddens will be back in the lab and the classroom. On July 1 he will return to Georgia Tech (where he earned three degrees and spent most of his professional life before coming to Hopkins) to join the faculty of the Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences and resume his lab work in cardiovascular fluid mechanics. Giddens says he took on the Engineering deanship in 1992 with the understanding that he would devote "an incredible amount of energy" for five to seven years in an effort to "accomplish something significant." "I think we have done this," the 56-year-old said in April. "Returning now to a faculty position, being more involved with research and with students, is something I will enjoy. While being dean has been wonderful, that's a piece of academic life I've missed." Under Giddens's leadership, the School of Engineering has seen growth in two key areas: the number of faculty has jumped 29 percent, from 86 to 111, and annual research expenditures have nearly doubled to almost $30 million. The dean goes out on another high note as well: this year the Whiting School made its debut in U.S News & World Report's "Best Graduate School" engineering rankings, earning a spot at No. 17. On the undergraduate front, Giddens worked to improve the advising and teaching evaluation programs; initiated a new major in computer engineering; and helped in launching internship programs in central and Eastern Europe and a new minor in entrepreneurship and business.
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Women hoopsters make Elite
Eight The women's basketball team made history in March, when it became the first Hopkins basketball squad--men's or women's--ever to advance to the NCAA quarterfinals. "It was such a significant accomplishment--it really hits you right in the heart," says Coach Nancy Blank, in her 11th year as head of the Hopkins team. The Elite Eight berth was just the icing on the cake in what turned out to be a season of firsts for the Hopkins women. Hot-shooting co-captains Julie Anderson and Angie Arnold became the first female players ever to break the 1,000-career-point mark as juniors. Anderson, who was named Centennial Conference Player of the Year, also set new school records for career points (1,427), rebounds (1,031), and free throw attempts (493). "Julie can rebound the ball on the defensive end and get down the floor and into scoring position before you can blink," says Blank, "and Angie is very good at finding her in traffic--they're a great inside/outside combo." Both women were named Kodak honorable mention All-American. The team finished the regular season with a 25-5 record, recording their first-ever undefeated Centennial Conference regular season (the five losses all came against NCAA teams). In the NCAA Tournament, the Blue Jays knocked off Cabrini College, Elizabethtown, and Western Connecticut State before falling to University of Scranton, 65-54, in the quarterfinals. Given the relative youth of the Hopkins team (two of the starters were freshmen and all five will be returning next year), Blank says there's every reason to expect an even stronger showing from her Blue Jays next season. "The freshmen didn't just get experience, they got quality minutes," says Blank, who was named Women's Basketball Coaches Association Division II, District 4 Coach of the Year. "That places them in a different class as sophomores; they'll be coming in with savvy and confidence. This year we had young depth; next year we'll have experienced depth." --SD
Look Who's Talking
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University-wide Commencement William R. Brody, Johns Hopkins University president
Krieger School of Arts & Sciences and G.W.C. Whiting School of
Engineering Undergraduate Ceremony
Whiting School of Engineering Master's Ceremony
Krieger School of Arts & Sciences Master's Ceremony
School of Continuing Studies Undergraduate and Graduate
Ceremony
School of Hygiene and Public Health Diploma Award
Ceremony
School of Medicine Ceremony
Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Ceremony
Peabody Diploma Award Ceremony
School of Nursing Ceremony
RETURN TO JUNE 1997 TABLE OF CONTENTS. |