'The Gazette' names new staff writer

Greg Rienzi has joined The Gazette as staff writer, succeeding Mike Field, who moved to the Office of the President in September.

Based in the Office of Communications and Public Affairs at Homewood, he will write news stories and features covering all of the university's divisions.

Rienzi, a native of New York and a Charles Village resident, comes to Hopkins from Patuxent Publishing, where he wrote business news and features for the Howard County Times and the Columbia Flier.

He received his B.S. in journalism from Southern Connecticut State University.

Admitted students arrive on campus for open houses

While high school seniors across the country are anxiously awaiting the arrival of letters from the colleges to which they've applied, the admissions officers who will mail them on Thursday are filled with anticipation as well.

On five days in April, students who have been offered a spot in the Hopkins class of 2002 will be invited to visit; it will be a time for them to explore campus, sit in on classes, stay overnight and decide if this is where they want to spend the next four years.

For the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, which received a record 8,578 applications this year, the visits represent one more step in the process of assembling a strong group.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to meet the next class," says Paul White, director of undergraduate admissions. "We've spent two to three months reviewing their applications, and it's nice to confirm what we have learned about them."

Among the programs offered to prospective students on April 8, 13, 15, 16 and 18 are class visits, tours of campus, academic advising sessions, housing tours and discussions on student life, academics and financial aid.

Students join nationwide affirmative action rally

Hopkins students will join a national rally to support affirmative action in university admissions, to be held on Wednesday, April 1, in front of Levering Hall on the Homewood campus. The rally is to take place simultaneously with hundreds of other affirmative action rallies on college campuses across the country.

Among the speakers at the Hopkins rally will be Paul White, director of admissions; Steven Knapp, provost and vice president of academic affairs; and Matt Schernecke, Student Council president. Scheduled guest speakers are Shirley Parry, director of Women's Studies at Anne Arundel Community College; Fred Pinkus, sociology professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Alan Gilliard, director of the Baltimore Area Community Relations Council.

Then, at 1:30 p.m. in Merryman Hall, the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs will sponsor a teach-in, at which the public is invited to argue the issues of affirmative action. The program will be led by Howard Erlich, director of the National Prejudice Institute, which is based in Baltimore, and Fred Pinkus.

The day's events will conclude with a 7 p.m. candlelight vigil commemorating the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The vigil will begin at Mudd Hall and end in front of Garland Hall, where members of the Hopkins Gospel Choir will perform.

All events are organized by junior Salah Goss, Hopkins NAACP political action chair, and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. For more information, call 410-516-5435.
--Leslie Rice

One-day event to send volunteers into Baltimore

On Saturday, April 4, students, faculty, staff and community volunteers will go "Into the Streets with HOPE in Baltimore."

This one-day "work-a-thon" has been organized to bring volunteers into the community and to raise money for local charities. The event's theme is "Try it for a day, love it for a lifetime."

Volunteers will visit worksites all over the city, among them homeless shelters, soup kitchens, an AIDS clinic and pediatric wards. Money raised through pledges, donations and grants will be pooled to buy specific items for the volunteer sites included in the community service day.

Sponsors of the event are Johns Hopkins service organizations--Hands to the Homeless and Circle K--and the office of former governor William Donald Schaefer.

Those interested in volunteering should call Monica Heuer or Katie Ferrier at 410-516-0491.

Homewood House to train museum guides

Homewood House Museum, a National Historic Landmark and the home of Charles Carroll Jr., son of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, will conduct a training class for new volunteer guides on Saturday, April 4, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the museum, on the Homewood campus. The museum currently has openings for weekend day guides.

The training session will include tours of Homewood House and its grounds; lectures and viewing of videos relevant to the Carrolls; and a presentation of fundamentals of being a guide at Homewood.

For reservations or more information, call 410-516-5589.

Watching TV helps kids put on pounds

This may not be a surprise, but now we have proof: Researchers at Bayview Medical Center have found that as the number of hours watched by American children increases, so does their weight.

As reported in the March 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, analysis completed using the results of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicates that one-quarter of all children in the United States watch four or more hours of television each day. These children were fatter than children who watched fewer than two hours per day.

"The problem stems from the fact that watching television is a sedentary activity--but it's much more than that," said Ross E. Andersen, lead researcher on the project. "Children are watching TV, many times eating high calorie/high fat snack foods and watching commercials for fast food, all of which may encourage more eating."

Of concern was the fact that 42 percent of African American children routinely watched four or more hours of television each day. Rates of television watching were also high among Mexican-American children. Safety concerns were a likely contributor, since nearly half of U.S. adults believe that their neighborhoods are unsafe for children to play in. Other investigators have noted that African American and Mexican-American parents were twice as likely to cite neighborhood safety as a reason to keep children indoors.

Of additional concern is the dramatic drop in physical activity among girls as they age from 11 to 16. While this may be due, in part, to changing interests and social demands, the study shows the needs for parents and health care providers to encourage all adolescents to remain physically active. The fact that American children are getting heavier is a major public health concern because overweight children are more likely to become overweight adults.