Mr. Husky claws his way to the top
The national cheerleading championships went
to the dogs last month when Northeastern's own Mr. Husky was named the
nation's best mascot.
Mr. Husky, aka Brad Lyon, a sophomore international
business major, beat out ten other school mascots for top honors at the
National Cheerleaders Association championship in Daytona Beach, Florida.
His winning skit? A ninety-second fanciful reenactment
of the President ClintonMonica Lewinsky scandal, featuring cheerleaders
sipping champagne in a hot tub, a sexy cheerleader wearing a black beret,
and an angry Mrs. Husky (aka Menina Rascionato) chastising Mr. Husky outside
their white doghouse at "1600 Husky Avenue."
"I was confident going in," Lyon said.
"But winning was great. Everyone pitched in to make it a success."
"It's incredible," cheerleading coach
Lorrie Wright added. "He was up against the top mascots in the country.
We were psyched."
Meanwhile, the cheerleading squad was celebrating
its tenth-place finish at the nationals-its fifth time placing among the
top ten. Wright was named a "Who's Who Coach of the Year" for
the Northeast region by American Cheerleading Magazine, the nation's top
cheerleading journal. The publication is planning a feature story on Wright
and the N.U. squad in its June issue.
The politics of commencement
A trio of political heavyweights has been tapped by President Richard
Freeland to address graduates at the university's three main commencement
exercises this spring.
Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union and winner of
the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, will deliver the keynote speech at morning
commencement on June 20 in the FleetCenter; Ann Richards, former Democratic
governor of Texas, will address afternoon grads; and Massachusetts Senator
Edward Kennedy will give the main address at the law school commencement
on May 22 in Matthews Arena.
A key player in the ending of the Cold War, Gorbachev is now chairman
of the Moscow-based Gorbachev Foundation, an international think tank with
North American headquarters at Northeastern. He spoke before an overflow
crowd in Blackman Auditorium in 1996.
Richards served as governor of Texas from 1990 until 1994. She rose
to national prominence in 1988 when she delivered a roof-raising keynote
address at the Democratic National Convention.
Kennedy, the third-ranking member of the Senate, currently serves as
the ranking Democrat on the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.
Gorbachev and Richards will receive honorary Northeastern degrees. Kennedy
already holds an honorary doctorate from the university, having delivered
commencement addresses at the 1965 and 1977 morning exercises.
Centennial Campaign raises record $268M
Northeastern's most successful fund-raising drive in its history has
netted $268 million, exceeding the $225 million goal by nearly twenty percent
and outpacing the university's previous record-setting campaign total by
more than $80 million, development officials reported in March.
The Centennial Campaign, which officially ran from July 1, 1991, to
December 31, 1997, received record levels of support from all sources,
including $118 million in private gifts, $135 million in research funds
and grants, and $15 million in government funding.
"It's a great triumph for Northeastern," President Freeland
said. "People perceive that this is a campus on a great upward trajectory
with a wonderful future, and they want to be part of that."
The campaign's chairman, Robert Marini, E'54, H'97, chairman of the
board of Camp Dresser & McKee, added that the success of the fund drive
"reflects Northeastern's growing stature as a national research university
and its widespread support from many foundations, corporations, alumni,
and friends of the university."
The largest individual gifts to the campaign came from benefactors Richard
Egan and Roger Marino. Egan, E'61, H'95, chairman of EMC Corporation, gave
$6.7 million toward construction of the Egan Science and Engineering Research
Center, and Marino, E'61, H'96, chairman and chief financial officer of
Golf Technologies, gave $6 million toward construction of the Marino Recreation
Center and the Egan Center.
Program targets sexual assaults on campus
In an effort to reduce the risk of sexual assaults
on campus and to provide victims with the help they need, university officials
have begun the first phase of a campus-wide sexual assault prevention effort
that targets both women and men.
The university's sexual violence prevention committee
has distributed a list of suggestions and strategies to enhance prevention
programs and promote more effective collaboration between campus offices
that provide assistance to rape victims. Recommendations include appointing
a coordinator of sexual-assault prevention programs at Northeastern, developing
educational programs directed toward men, and presenting a more consistent
university message against sexual violence.
"This indicates the commitment of the university
as a whole to provide both prevention and education as well as our commitment
to provide effective response, whether it's counseling, legal [advice],
or medical [help] to persons who have been assaulted," said Edward
Hattauer, director of the counseling center and chair of the sexual violence
prevention committee.
Committee members said they hope their efforts
will encourage students who are sexual assault victims to seek aid. They
are also working to ensure that everyone at Northeastern knows where to
go for help.
"We hope to encourage people to seek help
and support as well as to avoid putting themselves in at-risk situations,"
Hattauer said.
Take a BOW!
Kathryn Waldo, who persevered in the face of a
life-threatening illness to help lead the women's ice hockey team to the
1996 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship, was named one
of six Giant Steps Award winners by N.U.'s Center for the Study of Sport
in Society. The Cross Plains, Wisconsin, native, who was born with cystic
fibrosis, was honored as one of the country's courageous student-athletes
at a private White House ceremony last month.
Don Rich, assistant professor of finance, won
the Institute for Quantitative Investment Research's 1997 first prize for
his presentation, "Disaster Insurance: Cost-Containment Strategies
for Investors with Multivariate Utility," which he delivered at the
institute's fall seminar in Italy.
Fraya Kaufman, a senior and honors student from
Marblehead, Massachusetts, was named National Co-op Student of the year
in the engineering division of the Cooperative Education Association.
Campus mourns slain football player
More than 500 mourners packed the chapel of St. Ann University Parish
last month to bid an emotional farewell to twenty-two-year-old Christopher
Midgett, the Northeastern football player who was shot to death in a Virginia
gas station in early March.
In tributes filled with tears and laughter, friends described Midgett-a
junior majoring in criminal justice-as a dedicated student, an outstanding
athlete and leader, and a loyal and trustworthy friend.
"He was number ninety on the football field," football coach
Barry Gallup said, choking back tears. "But he is number one in our
hearts. Chris, we're going to miss you."
"Chris was my first friend [at Northeastern] and my closest friend,"
added Uwe Benjamin, Midgett's former roommate and teammate. "Midgett
was always truthful. He told you what you needed to know and not what you
wanted to hear. He meant a lot to our team on and off the field."
Midgett's girlfriend, Uzma Hassan, struggled through her emotional tribute,
describing Midgett as being committed to young people and wanting one day
to teach students. "He was my best friend," she said. "He
was my soul mate."
Midgett was killed along with a friend, James Randolph, also twenty-two,
after stopping at a gas station in Portsmouth, Virginia, where Midgett
was spending spring break visiting his family. A seventeen-year-old inside
the car was also shot but not seriously hurt.
Police officials said they have not determined a motive in the case,
which remains under investigation.
"As we mourn [Midgett's] death, we can also remember how he lived
so beautifully, so powerfully, so lovingly, and so graciously among us,"
President Freeland said. "As we recall [his] kindness and his caring
for others, let us bring even greater honor to his short life by looking
out for each other."
Calling Midgett a "gentle, spirited big brother," student
services dean Keith Motley urged students to honor Midgett's life by reaching
out to young people and keeping the memory of Midgett close to their hearts.
"Right now everybody's here," Motley said. "But next year
when his birthday comes, that's when his family is going to need us."
Criminal justice dean James Fox described Midgett as a dedicated student
and deeply religious person who wanted to protect the public. "This
is the great tragedy of all this, to have him slain in a seemingly random,
senseless act of gun violence," Fox said.
Report: College sport weak on minority
hiring
When it comes to recruiting and
employing people of color, the nation's major collegiate athletics programs
are failing to make the grade, according to a recent report by Northeastern's
Center for the Study of Sport in Society.
In its ninth annual Racial Report Card, released
in February, the center found that college sport employed a smaller percentage
of minorities in all major ranks of coaching and management than did the
National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and Major
League Baseball.
For example, in 199596-the most recent year
for which collegiate data are available-African-Americans held just ten
percent of Division I athletics director positions, compared to seventeen
percent of general manager posts (the professional baseball equivalent),
the report found. This was the first time that the survey included college
sport.
"College sport has a worse record in nearly
every comparable category with professional sport," said the report,
written by center director Richard Lapchick.
Once again, the NBA earned the highest overall
grade-an A-minus-among professional sports for minority hirings of players,
coaches, and front-office employees. The NFL received a B-minus and Major
League Baseball earned a C.
Northeastern, Massasoit forge partnership
University College has formed a partnership with
Massasoit Community College that will allow students at the two-year college's
Brockton campus to earn credit toward a Northeastern bachelor's degree.
Under the pilot agreement, scheduled to begin
this summer, students will be able to complete their associate's degrees
at Massasoit, transfer those credits to University College, then take upper-level
Northeastern courses on the Massasoit campus. The courses will be open
to Massasoit students and others in the Brockton area interested in upper-level
college study.
"This is our first public-private partnership
with a community college in this way," said Arlene Greenstein, interim
dean of University College. "That's what's so exciting about it. If
this model works, we are certainly interested in exploring other relationships
with other community colleges."
Already, Northeastern offers courses in seven
other locations, including Burlington, Dedham, and downtown Boston, and
at rented space, mostly in high schools, in Framingham, Milford, Westwood,
and Weymouth.
Ground broken for new dorm complex
Pledging their commitment to provide more on-campus
housing, university officials broke ground April 14 for the new West Campus
Residence Hall, the first dormitory to be built on campus in twenty years.
"We are determined to do our part to ease
the pressure of the high cost of housing by making it affordable to our
students," President Freeland said at the ground breaking ceremony
at the Tavern parking area between Tavern Road and Parker Street, the site
of the new housing complex. On-campus housing has been a prominent issue
at Northeastern for the past several years.
The $41 million housing complex, slated to be
completed by the fall of 1999, will provide rooms for 600 students in 160
apartment-style units, each equipped with air conditioning, a kitchen,
and living and dining rooms. Distinguished by a thirteen-story tower facing
Tavern Road, the housing complex will include two other sections fronting
Parker and Ruggles streets. More than 200 people attended the event, which
featured the unveiling of a model of the dormitory
Moving On
James Gozzo, dean of Bouvé College of Pharmacy and Health
Sciences, will leave the university in June to assume the presidency of
the Albany College of Pharmacy in New York. He has worked at Northeastern
as both a dean and faculty member for twenty-five years.
Edmund Mullen, LA'63, MEd'68, university registrar for the past
twenty-three years, will retire at the end of the summer and teach part-time
in University College.
Humberto Goncalves, BA'76, university budget director since 1990
and a twenty-two year employee, left Northeastern in February to take on
the post of vice president for finance and treasurer at Simmons College
in Boston.
QuoteWorthy
"It threatens to undermine the very progress that's been made
in fighting AIDS."
Law professor Wendy Parmet, following her cocounsel's argument before
the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Abbott v. Bragdon, on the defendant's
assertion that living with HIV is not a disability under federal law.
"For many people, the Web is a wide-open box where the only
limitation is imagination."
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, in an April campus
lecture.
"What happened in Arkansas, I guarantee you there were warning
signs."
Middlesex County, Massachusetts, district attorney Thomas Reilly, at
a national conference on violence held at Northeastern last month, advocating
aggressive action against young offenders such as the two Jonesboro, Arkansas,
teens accused of killing four classmates and a teacher.
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