Johns Hopkins Gazette | December 15, 2008
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The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University December 15, 2008 | Vol. 38 No. 15
 
In Brief

 

Graveside remembrance of Mr. Hopkins to be held Dec. 24

Everything that Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System accomplish for the world has sprung from the clear vision and remarkable generosity of just one man.

The annual observance in honor of that man — Mr. Johns Hopkins — will take place at his grave in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 24. That day is the 135th anniversary of his death. All are invited.

Mr. Hopkins left $7 million in his will to establish a university and hospital, two small organizations that nevertheless revolutionized higher education and health care and evolved into the worldwide Johns Hopkins Institutions we know today.

The brief informal Christmas Eve ceremony, arranged by university Vice President and Secretary Emeritus Ross Jones, will include remembrances of Mr. Hopkins and a wreath laying.

To reach the gravesite, enter the cemetery at the main gate along Greenmount Avenue, about five blocks south of North Avenue; drive straight up the hill and park near the crest. For more information, contact Dennis O'Shea at dro@jhu.edu or 443-287-9900.

 

Group to present agenda for improving Baltimore schools

A group of university researchers, community members and city school leaders known as the Baltimore Education Research Consortium will present its agenda for improving student performance and lowering the dropout rate at a public meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

Educational research scientists from Johns Hopkins and Morgan State universities, as well as Andres Alonso, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, will discuss the short- and long-term goals of their partnership, which aims to conduct and disseminate strategic data analysis and research for the benefit of children and families of Baltimore. Over the next three years, BERC will conduct eight projects to identify school and classroom practices that equip students for success at the elementary, middle grades and high school levels.

The program will be led by BERC co-directors Stephen Plank of Johns Hopkins and Obed Norman of Morgan State.

The meeting will take place from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. in Room 210 of the Morgan State University Student Center, 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane. Complimentary parking is available in the MSU garage on Stadium Way.

 

Krieger, Peabody students collaborate in musical endeavor

About 50 undergraduates in the Krieger School's Introduction to Western Music History class assembled at the Bunting-Meyerhoff Interfaith Center on Saturday, Dec. 6, to hear six world premieres, all with the same title: "Song of the Darkness."

As a concluding assignment, instructor Andrew Talle, chair of the Musicology Department at Peabody, had asked the students to review six musical settings of a poem written by Decker Professor in the Humanities John Irwin, who writes poetry under the pseudonym John Bricuth. The new compositions, by five Peabody graduate students and one 2007 alum, were sung by mezzo-soprano Diane Schaming, a Peabody graduate student. The instrumentation, specified in the commission, was violin, viola, cello (played by Talle) and vibraphone.

The students were not told which of the composers — Jenny Beck, Douglas Buchanan, John Crouch, Ruby Fulton, Lonnie Hevia and Ying-Chen Kao — wrote a particular setting until the votes for the most successful were counted. Crouch, a graduate of Peabody's master of music program now working toward his doctorate, was named the winner of a cash prize at the "awards ceremony" the following Monday.

"John's piece was among the only entries which was recognizably tonal, had memorable melodies and used the violin, viola, cello and vibraphone to create a thick and supple texture," Talle said. He noted that it combined elements of music by Puccini and Brahms with elements of American popular music from the 1920s, appropriate for a poem dedicated to Zelda Fitzgerald.

 

City gives award to Memory & Alzheimer's Treatment Center

The Johns Hopkins Memory & Alzheimer's Treatment Center recently received the 2008 Barbara Mikulski Award from the Baltimore City Commission on Aging and Retirement Education in recognition of its community involvement.

The Memory Center has worked for five years with the commission to increase community access to care, education and research for Alzheimer's and other memory disorders. In 2008, it hosted several educational programs on the Johns Hopkins Bayview campus, including a research participant appreciation forum and A Journey to Hope, a conference providing information and support to patients and their caregivers.

 

This issue of 'Gazette' is last for semester; next will be Jan. 5

This is the last issue of The Gazette for the semester; the next issue will appear on Jan. 5. The deadline for calendar and classified submissions for that issue is noon on Friday, Dec. 26.

 

Correction

The Dec. 8 story on snow closings contained an incorrect link for the university's policy on weather-related curtailment of operations. The correct URL is www.jhu.edu/~hr1/pol-man/appdxj.htm.

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