Departments
In the News
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Week of 12 May 1998 |
Vol. I, No. 31 |
In the News
Encouraged by the rising stock market, investors are looking for ways to make even higher returns and are willing to fund new ventures, according to the May 3 Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. Young entrepreneurs and financial types are fueling an economic boom some are comparing to the Gilded Age, the period after the Civil War when a revolution in technology led to the accumulation of great fortunes. In the article, Regina Blaszczyk, College of Arts and Sciences assistant professor of history, says, "I think that one of the great parallels between the Gilded Age and today is that there were these new high-tech industries taking off, so to speak, and providing opportunities for creating a generation of new wealth."
"[Webster] Hubbell, who served 18 months for bilking his clients, said every lawyer overbills. This is an exaggeration . . . but all too many do," writes Susan P. Koniak, School of Law professor, in the May 2 New York Times. Koniak explains that many lawyers know they can get away with overcharging clients and are under pressure to bill a certain number of hours to compete with their colleagues. "We are in the age of lowest-common-denominator morality," she writes. "So long as someone else is doing it, we, too, are free to indulge. To act better, to demonstrate principle, might be to lose power, money, or office to the unscrupulous. . . . It's no surprise that Webster Hubbell is no moral hero. The shock is that our national stage is filled with people whose actions portray no greater moral vision than Mr. Hubbell expressed from his prison cell."
On May 8 and 9, the Dalai Lama visited Brandeis University to speak on environmental issues, demonstrate the improved status of women in Tibetan society, meet privately with a group of Chinese and American scholars, and renew and deepen ties with the American Jewish community. In a May 8 Boston Globe article, Merle Goldman, College of Arts and Sciences professor of history, says of the Dalai Lama, "There is no exile leader in the world who has such respect and support. He has genuine charisma, and there is great sympathy with the Tibetan people and their culture, which many people think, quite correctly, is being crushed." In the article, Goldman also discredits the Chinese claim that Tibet has historically been a part of China, a fact the United States and most other governments have accepted as part of normalizing relations with the communist regime. "At times, Tibet had large parts of China under its control," Goldman says. "Only in Qing [dynasty] times [1644-1911] did Tibet really come under Chinese control." When the dynasty fell, she says, "Tibet regained its independence until 1950," when the new Chinese Communist regime invaded the country.
"Most companies, especially in this region, are strapped for IT professionals," says Edward Van Sickle, director of computer career programs at the Corporate Education Center, in a May 1 Boston Business Journal article. Certificate programs such as those offered at the Corporate Education Center are trying to meet some of the demand by offering skill training in Windows NT, client-server technologies, C++, and LAN administration. "We are actually working with industry professionals, updating our curriculum to coincide with the needs of the industry," Van Sickle says. The Center has an 85 percent placement rate for graduates who take advantage of the job placement service offered to them.