This month, Columbia approves a controversial new center in Tel Aviv and students at the Stanford Daily continue to report on allegations of their president’s scientific misconduct. Meanwhile, students across the country are preparing for their own campus music festivals.
College spring music festival lineups
Schools across the country are planning their counterparts to Brown’s Spring Weekend, which will include pop-funk singer Remi Wolf, rapper JID and ethereal pop singer Ethel Cain, The Herald previously reported.
At Harvard, the student-run College Events Board will host R&B singer-songwriter Jeremih for the school’s annual Yardfest. Two student bands — selected via the school’s Battle for Yardfest competition — will open for Jeremih’s April 16 performance, according to the Harvard Crimson.
Yale’s annual Spring Fling will feature rapper Pusha T, R&B artist Ravyn Lenae and dance music producer Dombresky. Like Harvard’s festival, Spring Fling will open with performances from three student performers and bands that won the school’s Battle of the Bands Saturday, the Yale Daily News reported.
And at Tufts, Flo Rida will headline the campus’s annual Spring Fling on April 29, alongside electronic DJ trio Cheat Codes and rapper Charlie Curtis-Beard. The event will follow a carnival open to students, the Tufts Daily reported.
Misconduct investigation into Stanford president’s research continues
At Stanford, President Marc Tessier-Lavigne has faced accusations of scientific misconduct since the Stanford Daily reported in November that a paper co-authored by him was being reviewed for containing altered images.
In February, the Daily reported that a 2009 article co-authored by the president, at the time an executive at the biotechnology corporation Genentech, was facing an internal review after “several unsuccessful attempts to reproduce the research.”
On Thursday, Genentech released a response to the concerns about the 2009 paper. The report acknowledged that the company had concerns about the research before its publication, the Daily reported. It also described other scientific misconduct in the now-president’s laboratory.
Columbia announces center in Tel Aviv despite pushback
On April 3, Columbia announced plans to create a global center in Tel Aviv, the Columbia Spectator reported Tuesday. The center would be the latest in Columbia’s network of 10 existing centers in cities including Beijing, Mumbai and Amman.
The announcement followed an open letter circulated by Columbia law professor Katherine Franke opposing the center’s establishment. As of last week, the letter collected 95 faculty signatures, the Spectator reported, while another faculty letter supporting the center gathered 172 signatures, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
Columbia English professor Marianne Hirsch — an organizer of the open letter opposing the center — told the Times that the announcement raises questions about Israel’s practice of denying entry to travelers based on their political views or ethnicity. Rashid Khalidi, a Columbia history professor, told the Times that both faculty and students — including Franke — have been denied entry to Israel recently.
Professors supporting the center argued that the center would be separate from Israel’s politics and that singling out Israel is unjustified, the Times reported.
Neil Mehta is the editor-in-chief and president of the Brown Daily Herald's 134th editorial board. They study public health and statistics at Brown. Outside the office, you can find Neil baking and playing Tetris.
