the mass media [extra]

A meeting March 29 or 30th to decide:

"The search to replace former University of Massachusetts president William M. Bulger now centers on two candidates, interim president Jack Wilson and Democratic fund-raiser Alan D. Solomont, according to search committee members and others close to the process.

[Solomont, left, Wilson, right]
Wilson in particular has enjoyed growing support on the 24-member search committee, the sources said. The committee is scheduled to meet March 30 and could vote then to recommend one or more candidates to the university's board of trustees.

Another leading candidate, former Delta Air Lines CEO Leo F. Mullin Jr., a Maynard native, has not committed to the position and may no longer be in the running, sources said..."

Solomont was quoted in today's Washington Post, on an article on Senator John Kerry's fundraising:

"George Bush promised that he would be a uniter and not a divider," said Alan Solomont of Massachusetts, one of Kerry's top money men. "The one group he has united are Democrats."

A Mass Media article on Wilson can be found here, of a visit he made to UMass Boston last December.

560 lost : Some 560 pairs of combats boots are laid out to represent the more than 560 US troops killed since the start of the war in Iraq (news - web sites) one year ago, at a memorial organized by anti-war groups to protest the first anniversary of the war in Iraq in front of the Federal Building in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. (AFP/Robyn Beck)

Photos from Iraq that aren't safe for work.

Want to know what presidential candidate your neighbor donated to (or, if you're a dork like me, the UMass Board of Trustees...)?

Check out Fundrace.org.

A lot like OpenSecrets.org, it gives a breakdown of who gave what. You can even find out through a city map.

UPDATE:

The UMass Board of Trustees:

Grace K. Fey (Chair): George W. Bush $1,000

James J. Karam: John Kerry $2,000

Robert F. Mahoney: George W. Bush $2,000

Diane Bissonnette Moes: Howard Dean $250

Robert K. Sheridan: John Kerry $500

Wonkette.com did it with the cast of The West Wing.

"Many of the rechargeable batteries that power cell phones, laptop computers, medical implants, and hybrid cars contain some of the same electrode technology that was used in Thomas Edison's day. Now, chemists have come up with a modern alternative that could potentially multiply the capacity of such batteries...."

The article quotes Stuart Licht of UMass Boston's Department of Chemistry. WIRED had a similiar peice last December.

From the Sentinel & Enterprise:

"The study found that FSC and the other eight schools included in the state college system cost roughly 80 percent less than private, four-year institutions in New England. They also, on average, cost $1,400 less than other public, four-year institutions in New England, including the University of Massachusetts' five campuses..."

A recent debate between an assistant U.S. attorney general and an ACLU official discussed the controversial PATRIOT Act, reports the Harvard Crimson:

"I recognize that there are some genuine, if, in my opinion, unfounded fears relating to the PATRIOT Act," [said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Viet Dinh ’90]. "But I disagree fundamentally that we have sacrificed any constitutional rights as a result of the act."

But Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, argued the legislation threatened rights by upping executive power without increasing security.

"They offer what I prefer to call 'pretend security,'" she said of the act’s authors. "The line between terrorism and traditional civil disobedience has been blurred."

Rose recounted a list of anecdotes about citizens who had been investigated under the PATRIOT Act for undertakings that had no apparent link to terrorism. An eight-year-old student, she said, was investigated after gathering information from the library for a research project on bridges.

A new conservative magazine will be hitting the Cornell campus soon. It's been nearly seven years since the last one.

"The Cornell American will be the standard-bearer of conservatism on campus because we champion the traditional, masculine, Christian values of America," Ryan Horn grad, the new publication's president told the Cornell Sun.

Heh.

The Associated Press has the story:

Applications are up 10 percent at the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts this spring, just as the early retirements and other state cutbacks have sharply cut the number of full-time professors.

But UMass is not alone, according to officials at college and university associations.

About 80 percent of the nation's public colleges and universities and 73 percent of private schools are seeing increases in applications this spring, Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers, said Tuesday...

I spotted this on the wires several days ago, of black applications dropping at Ohio State. It mentioned UMass:

"Michigan and University of Massachusetts have reported similar dramatic drops in applicants since they also shifted from points-systems to essay questions," wrote the Telegraph-Forum.

Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr will no doubt need a new TV after he breaks his current one throwing stuff at it this Sunday.

WB56 will be re-broadcasting an half-hour history of the annual St. Patrick's Day Breakfast at 1pm (second item), after a live broadcast of this year's get-together. Former state senate president and UMass president William M. Bulger hosted the event for many years, making it an important date to mark on Boston's political calender. Included in the history is an interview with him. The current host is state Senator Jack Hart of South Boston, who will be interviewed by WB56 political analyst Jon Keller at 8:30am.

The breakfast starts at 10am. WB56 will have a "Live From The Green Carpet" segment at 9am.

Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry will not be in attendence.

Bulger was recently honored at a 70th birthday party held at the Boston Public Library and attended by numerous luminaries in politics and higher education.

The day of the bash, the Boston Herald (can we start calling it Barnicle's Broadsheet yet?) ran an article nick-naming Bulger "Billy Holidays," because of his trips to Ireland and Florida "on taxpayer dime" while president of UMass.

This week is Spring Break for many students (well, UMass students, anyway), so that means no Mass Media in your campus stands and e-mail inboxes this Thursday.

But there are plenty of other papers to take a peek at, like Boston University's Daily Free Press, reportedly one of the nation's best college dailies.

Today's edition has article on the students who stayed on campus during spring break, and also one on those who went on an "alternative" one:

"Hey, I'm going to need to borrow your truck," said Elk and Bison Prairie Manager Scott Ray as he hopped into a tan Toyota and attempted in vain to shoo away about 20 approaching 2,000-pound bison from a group of 11 Boston University students...

But if you are going away on the traditional party hardy bash, the Massachusetts Student Public Interest Group (MassPIRG) has advice on how to avoid a rip-off. MassPIRG recently issued a report slamming textbook publishers on their high prices.

And the American Medical Association will have an ad running in campus papers nationwide March 25 on high-risk drinking, reports the Boston Globe.

Stay safe, everyone. And watch out for wild bison.

The Boston Phoenix has this today, on the Boston Social Forum, scheduled to take place right before the Democratic National Convention in July:

"Say this for the organizers of the Boston Social Forum: they don’t lack ambition. At a press conference in Boston City Hall Tuesday morning, at-large city councilor Felix Arroyo and District Seven councilor Chuck Turner joined local activists to describe their vision for the BSF, which will take place at UMass Boston July 23, 24, and 25, just before the Democratic National Convention rolls into town. Here’s a partial list of they expect to tackle: poverty; health-care access; education; affordable housing; clean air and water; modes of food production; militaristic US foreign policy; discrimination against women, gay men and lesbians, immigrants, and people of color; corporate welfare; and globalization...."

More from The Boston Globe here.