Commerce Department Names Academics to Panel on Dual-Use Technology
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez announced the appointment of 12 business and academic leaders to the newly formed Deemed Export Advisory Committee. The committee will deal with issues surrounding the transfer of dual-use technology to foreign nationals in the United States. The concern is that the unauthorized release of sensitive technology could contribute to the development of weapons of mass destruction.
Named as co-chairmen of the committee were Norman Augustine, retired chairman and chief executive of the
Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Robert M. Gates, president of
Texas A&M University at College Station. Other academics on the panel are Albert Carnesale, a former
UCLA chancellor; Anthony A. Frank, provost and senior vice president of
Colorado State University at Fort Collins; and Sean C. O’Keefe, chancellor of
Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge...
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Harvard Drops Early Admissions
Harvard announced plans to drop its "early action" admissions round. Under early action, applicants get word by late fall if they've been accepted to a college, but can still apply elsewhere in the spring. Some other schools have "early decision," meaning accepted applicants cannot apply elsewhere. Harvard said such early admissions programs may hurt schools' diversity because poor and minority students are less likely to use them.
Nearly 23,000 people applied to Harvard last year (including about 4,000 in the early round) but the move's broader significance is that it could persuade other elite universities to change their admissions policies. Many other prestigious colleges have acknowledged that early admissions has become a strategy tool for the well-connected, and have tweaked their programs. Harvard, however, is the first to drop their program...
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Microsoft High School Opens
The Microsoft-designed "School of the Future" opened recently in a working-class West Philadelphia neighborhood. The school has a high-tech building (students have digital lockers and teachers use interactive smartboards) and also has a learning process modeled on Microsoft's management techniques.
The city of Philadelphia paid the $63 million cost of the school and approached Microsoft for its help in the development and planning. About 170 teens, nearly all black and mainly low-income, were chosen by lottery to make up the freshman class. The school eventually plans to enroll up to 750 students. Students use smart cards to register attendance and open their digital lockers. They carry laptops rather than books, and the entire campus has wireless Internet access...
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