Q & A
Scott Harshbarger began work in January as a visiting professor in the
College of Criminal Justice and the School of Law. Harshbarger, who served
as Massachusetts attorney general from 1991 until last January and was
the Democratic nominee for governor last year, will teach courses in criminal
law and professional responsibility and work with N.U.'s Center for Criminal
Justice Policy Research and the Tobacco Products Liability Project. A graduate
of Harvard Law School, Harshbarger has taught at Boston University Law
School for the past eighteen years.
The press has made much of the supposed hard
feelings between the Harshbarger and Cellucci camps. Fact or fiction?
In terms of the governor and me, it's fiction.
Obviously, it was a hard-fought campaign and there certainly were a lot
of edges as a result of the campaign. But I've known Paul Cellucci for
a long time, and I have a great deal of respect for him. There clearly
remain edges among campaign aides, but I was very pleased to see that Paul
stepped up and addressed that issue very forthrightly. Let me be very clear:
I'm not going to be a shadow government here. I'm focusing on the next
phase of my life; I hope to speak about issues that matter to me, but I
want to be very careful not to turn them into political issues or in any
way appear that this is a continuation of the campaign.
You've enjoyed a relationship of almost two
decades with Boston University. So why Northeastern?
Northeastern has been a very special place for
me. My wife graduated from the law school here. My son is a graduate of
the College of Criminal Justice. And I've had more interaction as [Middlesex
County] district attorney and attorney general with the faculty of the
College of Criminal Justice and the law school than with any other university
in the state, if not the country. When I had this opportunity, both President
Freeland and [criminal justice Dean] Jamie Fox were very aggressive in
urging me to come here. I was flattered by that and I appreciated that.
Education has played an important role in your
family's life. Your father was a chaplain at Penn State, your mother was
a schoolteacher, and your brother is a college dean. Any chance you'll
leave politics and make education your career?
I've enjoyed teaching-I think I'm a good teacher-and
this is a wonderful opportunity for me to stand back and reflect and hopefully
help contribute a great deal here. I don't know what the future holds.
But the nice thing about this opportunity was very clearly stated by President
Freeland: that this would become a place I use as a platform for whatever
else I do-and by that, I don't mean a political platform.
What are you most proud about during your tenure
as attorney general?
One general thing and two specifics. First, I
kept my promises when I ran for the office of attorney general. I said
I would try to make it an office that was relevant to the issues that affect
people's lives every day and that I would do everything I could to prevent
it from becoming a political office. And I did that. Specifically, there
were two things that symbolize most what I wanted to do. First was the
tobacco litigation. It was a classic example of [using the powers of] the
attorney general's office. It was about kids, it was about the public health,
it was about dealing with a product that caused more deaths than anything
else in the state. Second were our efforts in reducing crime and violence,
and violence prevention, in particular.
What's the biggest myth we should know about
the tobacco industry?
I think people are still not aware of how concerted
the pattern of deception has been by that industry. They set out over a
forty-year period to systematically suppress research about safer cigarettes
and engaged in a very concerted conspiracy to deceive people about the
nature of nicotine, its addiction, and how they make their product.
How do you explain that the overwhelming majority
of Americans support the death penalty-something you strongly oppose?
I think it's symbolic of a desire for appropriate
punishment and retribution. My answer to that is, "You're absolutely
right." That's why life in prison without parole in Massachusetts
is the appropriate punishment for somebody who commits these terrible crimes.
They should never see the light of day. On the other side, we do make mistakes
and the death penalty is applied discriminatorily.
You're an outspoken critic of casino gambling,
which seems to have new life today in Massachusetts. Why?
It's not a moral position for me, it's one of
values. We see all the benefits of gambling, but we never see the costs.
It's not good economic policy, it's not good public policy, and more importantly,
it's not the way we ought to go in terms of trying to provide jobs and
dealing with hard-hit areas in the state.
You're a die-hard Elvis Presley fan? Ever meet
him?
I never met him and I never got to an Elvis concert.
I know he was no pillar [of society], but he was a great singer.
N.U. acquires recordsof Latino agency
The story of La Alianza Hispana,
hailed as an important institution in the fight against poverty and discrimination
in Boston, will forever be preserved at Northeastern. In January, the university
held a special celebration and panel discussion marking the acquisition
of the community agency's historical records and documents.
The acquisition is part of a two-year university
initiative, funded by the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission, to preserve the history of four of Boston's underdocumented
communities-African Americans, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, and gays and lesbians-whose
records have either been lost or are inaccessible, university archivist
Joan Krizack said.
"The reason this is so significant is that
this is the university's first collection documenting a Latino community
in Boston," Krizack said.
The documents, acquired one year ago, chronicle
nearly thirty years of La Alianza's legacy of advocating for equal access
to basic resources for Latinos in Boston and promoting self-reliance, competence,
and community participation.
Krizack and Assistant Professor of History Felix
Matos Rodriguez facilitated the acquisition of the papers and last year
taught a course on them, called "Community History and Archives,"
which helped students gain firsthand knowledge about the process of collecting
historical documents
Officials support new School of Education
Clearing the path to drastically revamp Northeastern's teacher education
programs, the Faculty Senate has approved a plan to establish a School
of Education in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The new school will merge into one unit the Department of Education,
the Master of Arts in Teaching program, and the Center for Innovation in
Urban Education. Officials said the school will draw on the expertise and
leadership of faculty in arts and sciences and will be organized to improve
co-op opportunities and student-faculty collaborations in the Boston public
schools.
James Fraser, the plan's coauthor and interim education chair, conceded
the new school would not solve all of the problems with teacher preparation
education at Northeastern, but he said the plan is a step in the right
direction.
"I don't hear anyone saying that education at Northeastern is just
fine right now," Fraser said. "Everybody agrees there is a need
either to say Northeastern doesn't need a teacher education program or
we are going to need something new, something different, and something
much better. This gives us the tools to move forward and do something much
better."
Northeastern's teacher education programs have come under scrutiny ever
since recent graduates scored poorly on the first state teacher certification
exam given last April. During the fall quarter, the university sponsored
special workshops to boost student competency in the communication and
literacy portion of the mandatory state exam.
The proposal to form the school was opposed by some members of the education
department, who worried their unit would lose its autonomy in governance
issues.
"Programs of the education department will now be subject to votes
by people with joint appointments directly, without any shielding, without
any protection," Professor of Education Maurice Kaufman said.
Take a BOW!
Donnie Perkins, dean and director of affirmative action and diversity,
was named recipient of the 1998 Mary Jean Cherry Recognition Award by African
Americans in Higher Education in Connecticut. Perkins is a former administrator
at Central Connecticut State University.
Robert Case, associate professor of mathematics, received the
Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for distinguished university teaching
of math at the Mathematics Association of America/American Mathematical
Society joint awards ceremony in San Antonio, Texas.
David Sonnenschein, associate professor of music, won the Award
for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology at the ninth International
Conference on College Teaching and Learning, in Jacksonville, Florida.
He was recognized for his work in distance education.
Law professor on Patriots deal: "Block
that move!"
Why is a mild-mannered N.U. law professor trying
to block the New England Patriots' move to Hartford? Is it Massachusetts
chauvinism? A lawyerly vendetta against Connecticut? A fan's existential
terror at the thought of autumn Sunday afternoons with nary a football
game in Foxborough?
None of the above, says Peter Enrich. He's just trying to uphold the
U.S. Constitution.
In December 1996, Enrich published an article in the Harvard Law Review
titled "Saving the States from Themselves." In it, he argued
that state governments' recent use of tax incentives to attract companies
has set off precisely the kind of economic war among the states that the
Constitution's interstate commerce clause was intended to forbid.
That opinion-increasingly supported by both other Constitutional scholars
and the courts-may now be causing locker-room jitters for New England Patriots
owner Robert Kraft and his fellow nabobs in the National Football League.
With a $374 million deal between the Patriots and the state of Connecticut
on the line, Kraft's patrons in the Hartford statehouse are facing the
possibility of a lawsuit based on Enrich's reading of the Constitution.
Far from just sipping Gatorade on the sidelines, Enrich has been working
with both Ralph Nader and Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly
to develop grounds for possible suits against Connecticut. He claims no
patri-otic motives, so to speak, stating, "Football's not a big interest
for me."
Still, Enrich admits to pursuing his quest with an eye to future glory.
As he explains, "I've got a teenage son who's going to think I'm the
greatest guy in the world if I keep his Patriots in Boston."
Huskies fall short in Beanpot championship
Northeastern's best shot in a decade at a Beanpot hockey
championship came up short last month as the Huskies fell in the finals
to Boston University, 4-2, at the FleetCenter on February 8.
For the Terriers, it was their fifth straight Beanpot title and eighth
of the '90s. N.U.'s last championship came in 1988.
The Huskies, who advanced to the finals with a 4-3 overtime win over
Harvard in the opening round, outhustled and outplayed the Terriers for
most of the game. They peppered BU goalie and tournament MVP Michel Larocque
with thirty-eight total shots-fourteen in the third period alone.
The Terriers jumped on the scoreboard first when Jack Baker beat N.U.'s
Jason Braun at 13:54 of the first period. The Huskies' Ryan Zoller tied
the score 4:40 into the second period before BU's Russ Bartlett put the
Terriers ahead again a minute later by knocking in his own rebound. Zoller
tied the game again with his second goal on a power play.
But BU's Carl Corrazzini slipped a rebound past Braun late in the second
period to give the Terriers a 3-2 advantage going into the final period.
The Huskies rallied in the third period, but couldn't beat Larocque. In
the meantime, Tommi Degerman scored for BU late in the game to give the
Terriers a cushion as time ran out on Northeastern.
Through mid-February, the Huskies had played to a 9-17-3 overall record,
4-13-2 in the Hockey East Association.
A perpetual puzzle
It's a perpetual calendar on one side and a mirror
on the other, but few other details are known about this item that recently
came into the possession of Kenneth W. Henderson, E'53.
"I've never seen anything like it before," says university
archivist Joan Krizack, who's seeking the help of alumni to identify the
piece, which some speculate is a paperweight. "It's interesting, it's
fun, and I'd like to know more about it."
The item was issued by Cruver Manufacturing Company of Chicago, probably
around 1928. The perpetual calendar runs from 1924 to 1944. If you know
what the item was used for, please contact Krizack at 617-373-8318.
Freeland meets with Vice President Gore
President Richard M. Freeland was part of a select panel of two dozen
leaders in business, education, labor, and government who met with Vice
President Al Gore at the White House in January to discuss job skills in
the next century.
The private roundtable meeting was held in conjunction with a daylong
summit on "Twenty-First Century Skills for Twenty-First Century Jobs"
at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
At the summit, about 300 officials discussed new strategies for helping
U.S. workers get the skills they need to succeed in a changing economy
and for helping employers get the skilled workers they need to stay competitive.
In December, Freeland wrote an opinion piece for the Boston Globe on
job training in which he called for a reexamination of state job-training
programs.
"Empowering currently disenfranchised workers to find a place in
the new, skills-based economy is not a one-shot deal," he wrote. "Whatever
infrastructure is devised must be able to keep chugging along, in bad economic
times as well as good ones."
Freeland called on business, labor, education, and state officials to
join forces to "chart a course for bringing out-of-school youth and
undereducated adults into the contemporary workplace that now holds out
such promise for their in-school counterparts."
Kerr Hall takes its place in history
Citing its eighty-five-year history as a place for
nontraditional students to live, President Freeland and William Tyler,
head of the Bostonian Society, dedicated a historic marker on the front
facade of Kerr Hall in January.
Now a Northeastern residence hall and dining center, Kerr Hall was built
in 1914 as cooperative housing for female students in Boston. The university
purchased the building, formerly known as Students House, in 1972. The
sellers used the proceeds to establish scholarships for women attending
colleges in the Boston area.
"It's a happy day for Northeastern, and a day that we remember
the importance of the past," President Freeland said during the dedication
ceremony.
He added that the building should serve as a reminder of two important
social causes of this century: equal rights for women and affordable housing
for the urban population.
Kerr Hall was also recognized last October by the U.S. Postal Service,
which issued a special postal card to mark the inclusion of the building
in the National Registry of Historic Places.
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