News Briefs

Seniors Apply For Fellowships

With fellowship applications due at the end of this week, Harvard's advising system is kicking into full-gear to help seniors meet the deadlines.

"This is the worst part of the year," said Lisa M. Muto '79, director of fellowships at the Office of Career Services (OCS). "With the Rhodes and Marshall due Thursday, it is a heavy period."

Last year, more than 230 Harvard seniors applied for the Rhodes, Marshall and Fulbright scholarships. But Muto said she is wary of predicting the quantity or quality of this fall's pool.

Harvard students have traditionally done very well in fellowship competition. Last year, seniors won five of the 32 Rhodes scholarships awarded nationwide and three of the 30 national Marshall grants.

Martha P. Leap, director of OCS, said she thinks that the College's powerful advising system is central to Harvard's graduates'high success rate.

"I think the most impressive thing is that we have fellowship advisors in each of the 13 houses literally available to the students right at the dinner table," Leape said. "I don't know of any other school which offers that kind of support."

New Delivery System Will Stay

Despite some student complaints, house superintendents say the University's new policy for first-week pack-age distribution has reduced hassles at individual houses.

For the first week of this semester; all packages were delivered to the Winthrop House Junior Common Room or to Currier House. Some students complained that the Winthrop JCR was not always open during the posted 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekday hours.

Kirkland House Superintendent Kevin B. Higgins said the change was motivated by space problems in some of the houses.

"In past years, nobody had any room, there was no control, packages piled up and then were reported missing, and the superintendent couldn't operate correctly," Higgins said. "This year, we went through about 3200 packages in a one-week period."

Higgins said he did not know whether the superintendents would decide to maintain the centralized system for package delivery.

"I think the new system was more efficient, and I think it can work, It just needs fine-tuning," Higgins said. "If we do it next year, I would look for a few different people to help with it and even more storage space."

Leverett House Superintendent Paul W. Nugent said, "I think it's terrific. The only problem is that students never pick up their packages in time."

Union Members Approve Bylaws

The Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) voted last Thursday to approve its bylaws, opening the way for elections to be held later this fall, union organizer Marie Manna said yesterday.

More than 900 of the 1600 support staff members who have officially joined the union turned out for the vote. Of those 900 an "overwhelming" 94 percent voted to approve the bylaws, Manna said.

The nomination process for approximately 250 elected positions will begin next week. Union members will have the opportunity to serve on the executive board, on 25 "joint councils" across campus, as campus-wide officers and as representatives to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), HUCTW's parent union.

The last step in completing HUCTW's internal organization is to ask the president of AFSCME to approve the bylaws, which Manna said she is confident he will do.

Although the union has yet to finalize the formal language of its contract with the University, Manna said she is generally pleased with the progress of the negotiations and expects them to conclude "within the next few weeks."

QRA Enrolls 180 Sophomores

The Quantitative Reasoning Requirement (QRR) program has successfully accommodated the more than 400 sophomores who returned this fall on academic probation, after failing one or both parts of the exam, students and administrators said yesterday.

And, although an unprecedented number of undergraduates--180 in all--have enrolled in Quantitative Reasoning A (QRA), a class for those who repeatedly fail Harvard's requirement, Barbara Peskins, the program's director, said there have been no complaints about overcrowding.

The QRR can be fulfilled by passing a computer exam and a data test or by successfully completing QRA or one of its substitute courses.

"The course is definitely larger than in previous years," Peskins said, adding that while students can still pass the requirement this week, those who do not may still enroll in the class.

But while the class may be cumbersome, many of the sophomores who have yet to fulfill the requirement said they have developed a sense of camaraderie in the face of an increasingly bothersome obstacle.

"The class is ridiculous," said T.C. Haldi '92, a student enrolled in QRA. "By now, most people see the test and the class as a joke."

Asbestos Removed From Library

Small amounts of asbestos have been removed from pipes in Houghton Library to facilitate renovations of the building's climate control system, according to Facilities Maintenance Project Manager Thomas M. Melvin.

Facilities Maintenance, which supervised the operation, plans similar projects in the library during the next week, Melvin said.

"There are two locations where we're going to remove about two or three feet of asbestos on two pipes, in order to cut into some valves," he said.

Because asbestos has been shown to cause cancer, health regulations require that it be removed from buildings before any renovations or construction can begin.

"We routinely remove asbestos in lots of places," said Michael N. Lichten, director of physical operations at facilities maintenance. "It's not a big deal."

Earlier this fall, the University spent about $350,000 to remove hazardous asbestos materials from the walls of the Faculty Club in order to continue its multi-million dollar renovations that began this summer.