Much of the student body may have taken a vacation this summer, but Boston University figures continued to make headlines.
BOMB SCARE SENTENCING
The BU graduate student charged with making a false bomb threat at Mugar Memorial Library during final exams in May was ordered to avoid the campus for the duration of a two-year probation sentence handed down June 12 at Brighton District Court.
Jennifer Douglas, 28, admitted to evidence pointing to a guilty verdict in the case, and she waived her right to a trial that could have resulted in two and a half years of prison time. If she follows the terms of probation, which include undergoing mental health treatment, the case will be dismissed in two years.
NEW MANAGEMENT
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Fiedler took the top position in the College of Communication, replacing interim Dean Tobe Berkovitz. Fiedler, a former executive editor of The Miami Herald, received a master's degree in journalism from COM in 1971 and served on BU's Board of Overseers for the last two years.
Gail Steketee was appointed as the permanent School of Social Work dean after three years in the interim position. Two nationwide searches had failed to secure a dean for the school, and Steketee, an obsessive-compulsive and anxiety disorders researcher, agreed to take on the permanent role.
The School of Theology appointed Mary Elizabeth Moore as the school's first female dean in July. The director of the Women in Theology and Ministry program at Emory University, she will officially assume her duties as dean on Jan. 1, 2009. Moore will be taking over for Ray Hart, who has been interim dean since 2003.
The Goldman School of Dental Medicine appointed interim dean Jeffrey Hutter as its permanent dean on Aug. 22. He had assumed the temporary role after Dean Spencer Frankl died in October 2007.
FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO FIGHT
A School of Theology student was arrested on May 30 for his involvement in a protest of the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell policy," which prevents open homosexuals from serving in the military.
New York City police arrested Shelby Condray, 32, after he refused to leave a military recruitment center in Times Square. The protest was one of four arranged by the Harvard Right to Serve Group during the last week of May.
AFTER UNEXPECTED DEATH, BMC POST FILLED
Erwin Hirsch, Boston Medical Center chief of trauma surgery and professor of surgery at the BU School of Medicine, died on May 23 in a boating accident off the coast of Maine. Hirsch, who was 72, was chief for 25 years.
Surgeon Peter Burke, a BUSM associate professor of surgery, replaced Hirsch beginning July 1. He had been the chief of surgical critical care.
IN MEMORIAM
BU School of Law professor and former Disability Services Director Allan Macurdy died June 23 at age 47, after a life-long battle with muscular dystrophy. An advocate for disability rights, he ensured BU complied with disability laws and mentored students in wheelchairs.
BU trustee emeritus Gerald Tsai Jr. died July 9 of multiple organ failure at age 79. Tsai, a fund manager and financier, is remembered for donating the Tsai Performance Center to the College of Arts and Sciences.
Jim Thistle, a broadcast journalism professor, died July 29 from throat cancer. He was 66. Thistle spent more than 40 years in the broadcast field, serving as newsroom director for WBZ, WCVB and WHDH. At BU, he was the journalism department chairman twice and served as the director of broadcasting journalism until his death.
Be the first to comment on this article!