While You Were Away...

Ah, summer. Professors go on vacation, administrators take long weekends and most undergraduates are either out of the area or absorbed in jobs.

But there's always news, which the strangers in the Yard, a.k.a. the summer school students, and other Harvard students still here can enjoy. Here are some of the items that kept them interested as they sweated through the season in Cambridge.

Rent Control: To the People

After months of legal wrangling and years of unsuccessful lobbying of the state legislature and various city councils, rent control opponents won the right to send the issue to a statewide referendum.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled on July 14 that a rent control referendum does not violate the state constitution's protection of "home rule," or the right of localities to make decisions for themselves.

The city of Cambridge, as one of only three Massachusetts municipalities where rent control is legal, argued that it would be unfair for the entire citizenry of Massachusetts to make a decision that would impact just three cities.

But the court ruled that a rent control ban is not simply a local issue. In its nine page decision, the court noted that it is "within the power of a municipality to enact a rent control program only when the [State] Legislature has explicitly delegated that power to the municipality."

If Massachusetts voters outlaw rent control in November, the ban would affect 16,000 Cambridge households--half its rental stock--and a quarter of the city's population, according to the executive director of the city's rent control board.

Out of Town News Sold To Out-Of-Towners

Out of Town News, a landmark Harvard Square newsstand, now has an out-of-town owner.

Sheldon Cohen, a newspaper-selling fixture in the Square for about half a century, announced the sale of the newsstand to a New Jersey-based firm, Hudson County News, earlier in early July.

Cohen, known as the "Unofficial Mayor of Harvard Square," has been battling financial problems for the past several months.

He said in court papers filed in March that his debt was too great to handle with Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and was forcing him to sell the newsstand.

Controversial Frosh

Harvard generally has one or two big-name first-years. But this summer, two previous unknowns managed to get national media attention as well.

Paul Siemens '98 of Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., sued his alma mater, Spring Valley High School, for using a ranking system that left him out of the valedictory spot. Siemens' lawyer compared the school's ranking system, which double-counts the first semester of senior year, to the injustices suffered by Black slaves and disenfranchised women.

The school's lawyer said the ranking policy had been in effect for 30 years.

Meanwhile, in the warmer climes of Miami, Raymond L. Cummings '98, the salutatorian of his high school class, was making enemies with his graduation speech.

After Cummings deviated from his pre-approved text to a frank discussion of race, his school's activities director wrote to Harvard criticizing the student for a lack of character.

The move quickly backfired. Harvard expressed its support of Cummings, and the high school stripped the activities director of his post.

Levenson Winner Investigated

A former Levenson Award winner is the target of a police investigation and has been banned from Harvard's libraries.

A letter distributed by the police to several university libraries showed a color or picture of William D. Cole, who earned a Ph.D in French literature from Harvard in 1991.

The letter urged checkers to call the police if he was spotted.

The letter did not discuss specific charges against Cole, but Police Chief Paul E. Johnson said the case is still open.

University Wins Battenfield Case

A jury awarded no money to a former Extension School student who sued an adviser and the University for sexual harassment.

M. Delise Battenfield alleged that Donald Ostrowski, who coordinated students' research, sexually harassed her three times in 1988 and once in 1991. Battenfield also charged that the University was negligent in responding to several complaints she lodged.

In a decision handed down in late June, the jury ruled that Ostrowski "internationally cause [d] a harmful or offensive physical contact with" Battenfield. But the jury also established that the physical contact did not cause injury to Battenfield.

Research Funding Slashed

The House of Representatives approved a 60 percent cut in university research sponsored by the Department of Defense as a part of wide-scale cuts in defense spending.

The Senate restored some of the funding later in the summer, and a conference committee will likely cut less than was originally anticipated.

Harvard would have lost nearly $7 million in research funding if the bill went through. The Division of Applied Sciences would have been especially hurt by the cuts, according to division members. If the bill went through, applied sciences would have lost up to 20 percent of its research budget.

"It would be a disaster for the division," said Van Vleck Professor of Pure and Applied Physics Paul C. Martin, who is dean of the division, after the house vote.

Crib Dies

The Crib, a Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) convenience store located in the Freshman Union, shut its doors forever on August 19.

Unable to compete with several local 24-hour stores, the Crib was long the most unprofitable of HSA's agencies, said HSA President Shani D. Lester '95.

On the former site of the Crib, a Freshman Dean's Office service will help first-years who want to connect to the computer network, according to store manager Nancy L. Williams '96.