Lacrosse player charged with rape, assault of fellow student

Brian Carcaterra, 21, a senior majoring in political science and a two-time All-American lacrosse player, was arrested Sept. 20 and charged with the second-degree rape and second-degree assault of a female student.

According to the charging document filed by the Baltimore City police with the District Court of Maryland, the alleged crimes occurred early the previous Saturday morning at the student's off-campus apartment near the Homewood campus. The victim told the police she believed she may have been drugged. The glass from which she was drinking white wine contained an unknown sediment, which was undergoing toxicology tests.

Carcaterra was jailed with a $25,000 bail and released Tuesday. A preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 21.

If his victim pursues a complaint with Hopkins, Carcaterra could also be subject to simultaneous disciplinary action from the university. The maximum penalty for a student found to be in violation of the Student Conduct Code is expulsion.

The university takes allegations of assault very seriously and has numerous resources in place to help women and men who have been or think they have been a victim of a sex crime, said university spokesman Dennis O'Shea. Guidance and assistance are available to the Homewood community at all times from the Homewood Security, the Student Health and Wellness Center, the Office of the Dean of Students and the Counseling Center.

A Web site on relationships is located at http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/reports/violence/relationships.

'A Woman's Journey' to offer 44 seminars on women's health

Health discoveries improving women's health into the next millennium will be the theme of Johns Hopkins Medicine's fifth annual symposium on women's health and current medical controversies. This year's A Woman's Journey will be held Saturday, Oct. 23, from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency in the Inner Harbor.

Forty-four seminars covering new medical treatments for headaches, cancer, osteoporosis, depression and arthritis will be presented by nearly 50 faculty members of the schools of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing. Alternative therapies and estrogen and less conventional options for meno-pause also will be discussed. More than 1,000 attendees from 15 states are expected.

Local anchorwomen Sandra Pinkney of WMAR, Donna Hamilton of WBAL and Debra Weiner of Fox 45 will host luncheon panels for registered guests.

The conference costs $50 per person ($35 for full-time matriculated students), including a continental breakfast, lunch, breaks and handouts. Organizations that send 10 or more of their members will receive a 10 percent discount; reservations should be made through the organization.

To reserve a place or for more information about group discounts or continuing education credits, call 410-955-8660. The registration form also can be downloaded from the Web at

The deadline for registration is Oct. 15. For those who can't attend, InteliHealth plans to make selected sessions available live on the Internet at www.intelihealth.com.

Humanities and technology focus of new lecture series

John D'Arms, president of the American Council of Learned Societies, will give a talk called "Humanistic Scholarship in the Digital Age: Prospects and Projects," at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 30, in Homewood's Mudd Hall Auditorium. His talk is the inaugural lecture of the Paula U. Hamburger Lecture Series on Technology and the Humanities, established by the Hamburger family to advance discussion about the future of the humanities at the research university.

D'Arms, adjunct professor of history and classics at Columbia University, has been a spokesman for the humanities on a national level for years, and was appointed to the National Council for the Humanities in 1994 by President Clinton. His scholarly work focuses on the history and archaeology of ancient Rome and the Bay of Naples. Prior to his appointment at the ACLS, he held several positions at the University of Michigan and also served as director of the American Academy in Rome and as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in its School of Classical Studies from 1977 to 1980.

The event is free and open to the public. A reception with D'Arms will follow the presentation. To R.S.V.P. or for information about the event, call 410-516-8327 or e-mail shodges@jhu.edu.

Johns Hopkins eye surgery shown live on the Internet

Eugene de Juan, professor of ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute, performed live on the Internet the macular degeneration repair surgery he perfected. Taking advantage of advances in telemedicine and continuing medical education, De Juan performed and discussed the macular translocation, done Sept. 23 in his operating room in Baltimore, for the benefit of colleagues attending the international Vitreous Society meeting in Rome. He also answered questions from Brazil, Sweden, India, Rome, Australia, and Baltimore. Soon after the surgery, he flew to Rome to continue teaching the course.

Macular translocation is intended for patients who are in the very early stages of macular degeneration, in which abnormal blood vessels grow and bleed underneath the retina. The surgeon moves the most light-sensitive tissue of the retina away from the underlying diseased areas. De Juan has performed more than 200 of the operations.

Creator of 'Julius Knipl' to talk at Homewood

Cartoonist Ben Katchor, creator of "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer," has been invited by the Humanities Center, the Homewood Art Workshops and The Writing Seminars to share his view of the world at a lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 20, on the Homewood campus.

Katchor, whose comic strip runs each week in the City Paper, is also the author of The Jew of New York, published last year by Pantheon Books.

His "amusing and arcane" (in the words of Craig Hankin, director of Homewood Art Workshops) slide talk will begin at 8 p.m. in Mudd Hall Auditorium. Its title is "Urban Navigation & A Plan for Carfare City."

Admission to the talk is free and open to the public.