March 2002			The Natural Appropriateness of Clouds Extraordinary Activist	Letters Sports E Line Books Alumni Passages Classes From the Field First-Person Huskiana
		Freeland proposes restructuring to improve student experience Highlighting the importance of the student experience on campus, President Freeland last month proposed creating a new division of enrollment management and student life that would be led by a new senior vice president. Currently, both administrative functions are overseen by the senior vice president for academic affairs, who also serves as university provost. “The emphasis [of this proposal] is very much on the issue of student-centeredness and making sure we have an individual at the highest level of administrative responsibility, reporting directly to the president and involved in senior vice presidential council meetings, who is focused on the quality of the student experience outside the classroom,” Freeland said. As part of the reorganization, Freeland said he is recommending to the Board of Trustees that the existing position of vice president for enrollment management be restructured as the senior vice president for enrollment management and student life. If approved, the reorganization would mark the first time in more than a decade that university leadership includes four senior vice presidents. In addition to the provost, the others are in the areas of administration and finance, and institutional advancement. Though the reorganization is driven by a desire to enhance the quality of the student experience, Freeland said, it has the added benefit of permitting the provost to focus even more intently on the educational, scholarly, and research missions of the university. Moreover, the change will bring the responsibilities of the Northeastern provostship in line with those of chief academic officers at many other major universities. Freeland said David Hall’s decision to step down as provost at the end of the academic year made this a “natural time” to consider organizational changes related to the provost’s responsibilities. The search for a new provost began in earnest last month with the hiring of an executive search firm, Baker-Parker and Associates, Inc., of Atlanta, Georgia. Freeland said that if the trustees approve his recommendations, the organizational changes would take effect at the end of the current academic year. Elders urges students to eradicate prejudice Hoping to inspire a new generation of leaders to carry on Martin Luther King Jr.’s lifelong battle for peace and equality, former U.S. surgeon general Joycelyn Elders last month urged students to make the most of their education and join the fight to stamp out prejudice and intolerance in America. “Education is the great equalizer,” Elders said during her keynote address at the university’s annual King convocation January 17 in Blackman Auditorium. “We may not be born equal, but education can make you more equal. You’re here to learn so you can go out into this global community and make a difference and bring about change.” Drawing on her experiences as the first African-American woman to lead the U.S. Public Health Service and reflecting on King’s legacy of activism, Elders urged students to embark on careers as principled leaders. “Dr. Martin Luther King was a real leader,” she said. “Other leaders go out and find which way the wind is blowing, and they jump out in front. I hope that’s not the type of leaders you will be.” Elders, whose one-year tenure as surgeon general during the first Clinton administration was notable for her advocacy on behalf of the poor and underserved, implored students to dedicate themselves to eradicating poverty, health-care inequities, and teen pregnancy. Her speech was the centerpiece of an hour-long celebration of King’s legacy. In his opening remarks, President Freeland urged students to honor King’s memory by working toward a diverse community on campus. Though circumstances in America have changed greatly since King was assassinated nearly thirty-four years ago, the tragic events of September 11 show his message of peace and unity is still relevant, Freeland said. Curry writes new crime novel For those who thought Jack Curry’s foray into the world of crime-novel writing two years ago was a momentary diversion, think again. The former Northeastern president has released his second novel, "Two and Out"—and has almost finished writing a third. Published by 1stBooks in Bloomington, Indiana, Two and Out tells the story of four professionals-turned-thieves who plot to hit the jackpot with two robberies, then leave the criminal life entirely. Unlike Curry’s first novel, "Loyalty," "Two and Ou"t has a distinctive Northeastern flavor; the gang’s mastermind, for instance, is a “brilliantly arrogant” criminal justice professor. "Two and Out" costs $22.50 at the Northeastern bookstore or may be ordered from Barnes & Noble, Borders Books, or Amazon.com. The novel is also available through the publisher at 888.280.7715 or on the web at <www.1stbooks.com>. Take a bow! Sheila Puffer, professor of human resources management, was recently acknowledged as the leading contributor of academic articles to a group of twelve business journals during the period 1986 to 2000, according to researchers at Ohio State University and Copenhagen Business School. Associate professor Daniel McCarthy, professor of general management, was determined to have been the next-highest contributor. Northeastern University Alumni Magazine recently received four national awards for excellence in design and photography. Last month, the magazine won Excellence Awards for single illustration, series of illustrations, and single photograph in the University & College Designers Association’s thirty-first annual design competition. Both illustration awards were for Jordin Isip’s works in “Success/Excess” in the May 2001 issue. The photography award was for Tom Kates’s photograph of a prison, which appeared on the cover of the January 2001 issue. In December, that same cover received an honorable mention in the fourteenth annual Ozzie Award design competition, sponsored by Folio: magazine. Eson Chan served as art director for all four awards. Roberts appointed v.p. for development Elizabeth Roberts, former director of individual gifts for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has been named Northeastern’s new vice president for development, a post that will play a pivotal role in the university’s current fund-raising effort, the Leadership Campaign. The appointment reunites Roberts and her boss at Northeastern, senior vice president for institutional advancement Robert Cunningham, with whom she worked in the Harvard Law School development office during the late 1980s and early 1990s. She has also held fund-raising positions at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Dartmouth College, her alma mater. Roberts succeeds Ronald Schiller, who left Northeastern last fall for a similar post at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. In her new role, Roberts will be responsible for directing strategic planning and development operations, supervising department directors and other development staff, managing development programs and activities, and working with high-level prospects and volunteers to develop strong relationships and build support. She will also play a major role in managing the $200 million Leadership Campaign, which is expected to be publicly launched this spring. Despite the softening economy and sense of uncertainty arising out of the tragic events of September 11, Roberts said she is optimistic the university will meet its ambitious fund-raising goals. “Even during times of national crisis, people still have a lot of money” to contribute to campaigns, she said. “They just tend to hunker down and narrow their focus on what they give money to.” NU researchers awarded $750K Keck grant Northeastern researchers have received a two-year $750,000 W. M. Keck Foundation grant to develop a 3-D fusion microscope, a device that would permit new ways of obtaining three-dimensional images of biological specimens. Once developed, the microscope would have many medical and biological applications, including helping to determine the health of an embryo, which could lead to breakthroughs in in vitro fertilization. A team of Northeastern professors—Charles DiMarzio, Carol Warner, and Donald O’Malley—was awarded one of only a handful of Keck grants issued nationally this year. Not only is the award an “enormous achievement” for the interdisciplinary group of biology and engineering professors, said Patricia Denn, director of foundation relations, but it furthers the university’s overall research reputation. “This validates the work being done by the Northeastern team, who are working together on cell-differentiation research that is truly revolutionary,” Denn said. The award also lends even greater strength to Northeastern’s growing national reputation as a preeminent research institution, said Ronald Hedlund, vice provost for research and graduate education. “A Keck Foundation grant is the gold standard of awards in science and engineering,” Hedlund said. Electrical and computer engineering professor DiMarzio called the Keck grant an exciting boon to the optical science laboratory, an Egan Research Center facility that is dedicated to optics research related to subsurface imaging. The facility attempts to find new ways of “looking into” the hidden recesses of many different objects of study: the human body, a cell, the earth, and the ocean, he said. “This is the biggest, most significant project we have had at our lab in our fourteen years at Northeastern,” he said. If all goes according to plan, the new microscope will combine five different types of microscope into a single prototype, allowing researchers to examine specimens in far greater detail than previously possible—and preventing having to move specimens from microscope to microscope, a trail that frequently involves shipping specimens to other university laboratories, DiMarzio said. DiMarzio, working with graduate students, intends to start building the 3-D fusion microscope this spring. Once it’s complete, Warner, a Matthews distinguished professor of biology, will use the microscope for embryo-viability research that aims to improve infertility treatment. Biology professor O’Malley will conduct neural stem-cell research related to spinal cord injuries. NU group to promote democracy worldwide To head off future events of the magnitude of September 11, the world community must encourage and foster democratic governments in poor and unstable nations, say members of the Northeastern-based Gorbachev Foundation of North America. As a first step, the foundation late last year formed the Club of Madrid, which will serve as a sort of clearinghouse for democratization efforts worldwide. “What September 11 did was to show us how fragile the international situation is and how quickly everything can change,” said Anthony Jones, vice president and executive director of the Gorbachev Foundation. “This makes the need for an organization such as the Club of Madrid even more necessary.” When fully functional, the club will provide expert assistance to nations with emerging democracies. This may involve helping to research and write a new constitution, or developing laws that would protect religious and press freedoms. “Our international experts could provide any number of models for these countries, and educate them as to what particular trends seem to occur [in each of those models],” Jones said. The Club of Madrid differentiates itself from other pro-democracy organizations by working with officials at the highest levels of government, according to former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell, who serves on the group’s executive committee. The group hopes to recruit twenty to twenty-five former heads of state from throughout the world to join the organization. The Gorbachev Foundation of North America was formed nearly five years ago to serve as a center for international research and debate on a range of issues, including world peace and global trade. Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev serves as the foundation’s president, and former Northeastern Board of Trustees chairman George Matthews is its chairman.