No crackdown on assaults at colleges – Area schools reported 240 attacks, 4 ousters
By Maggie Mulvihill and Joe Bergantino – New England Center For Investigative Reporting / February 25, 2010

Officials at the University of Massachusetts Amherst this week acknowledged that they allowed a student who confessed to raping a friend on campus last fall, a felony, to remain enrolled and avoid significant discipline.

The decision to give the student a deferred suspension was an error that has led to a change in the flagship university’s disciplinary procedures, according to Jean Kim, vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life.

The case is symbolic of what victims and the advocates and lawyers who represent them in the college disciplinary process contend is a widespread failure of schools to issue tough sanctions against perpetrators.

Newly obtained Justice Department data show that reports of sexual assaults on college campuses rarely lead to serious sanctions. Ten New England universities and colleges provided the data as part of a campus grant program overseen by the Justice Department’s Office of Violence Against Women.

Of the more than 240 alleged assaults the schools reported between 2003 and 2008, four led to expulsions. The grant recipients in Massachusetts included Salem State College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern, Tufts, and UMass Amherst.

Doctors group to focus on 1 hospital – Harvard Vanguard cites improved care
By Liz Kowalczyk – Globe Staff / February 25, 2010

The state’s largest independent doctors group is curtailing referrals to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a move it says is designed to better coordinate care of patients and reduce costs.

Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates said it has started sending many of its Boston patients to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, unless the patients have a prior relationship with a doctor at the Brigham, where Harvard Vanguard doctors have referred nearly 100 percent of Boston patients for years.

Dr. Gene Lindsey – chief executive of Harvard Vanguard’s parent organization, Atrius Health – said he felt the organization could better coordinate care at Beth Israel Deaconess, partly because the hospital has agreed to send patients back to their primary care doctor or a specialist at Harvard Vanguard after their inpatient stay, rather than keep them in the more expensive hospital system.

Confirmed: NU’s endowment drops by 25 percent since June 2008
By Lauren DiTullio/Huntington News Staff – February 25, 2010

After a discrepancy between Northeastern’s reported endowment figures in The Boston Globe and the Boston Business Journal, Senior Vice President for External Affairs Mike Armini confirmed that Northeastern’s endowment decreased between 2008 and 2009 fiscal years.

According to the University’s records, obtained for The News by Armini, Northeastern’s endowment on June 30, 2008 was at $676,987,000. One year later, it had dropped by $169,641,000, or 25 percent. The university’s 2009 endowment total was $507,346,000.

These numbers closely resemble those reported by The Boston Globe last week. The document originally containing the numbers, from the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute, disclaims that they are subject to change based on expenditures and other factors.

On Wednesday at a forum for College of Arts and Sciences students to express their concerns about the newly announced four-year co-op option, some students raised concerns the option was for financial motivations.

Dean Bruce Ronkin pointed to endowments as being a valuable part of the university’s funding.

Former students create MBTA iPhone app
By Emily Cassel/Huntington News – February 25, 2010

A host of new iPhone applications  some made possible thanks to Northeastern graduates – are making it easier to access MBTA schedules and arrival times.

The influx of apps started in September of 2009, when the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) decided to make all of its tra nsportation data available to the public.

Joshua Robin, manager of performance and reporting at MassDOT and a recent Northeastern graduate, said he and colleague Chris Dempsey began planning to repackage MassDOT’s newly-released data after they noticed the success of other transportation agencies that had put out a feed of information to the public.

The two made schedules and routes for the T available to the public in September 2009.

“And literally within a few days people were building iPhone applications or Android applications with that data,” said Robin.

The department held the MassDOT Developers Challenge in September 2009, hoping to inspire local designers to create apps that would make public transit information easily accessible.