Harvard Parent Thread

Colleges & Universities Harvard University
2121

<p>Been in Mass since I was 4 (48 now) and never received a jury summons. Husband gets called repeatedly. But for the only trial my husband ever sat on, he arrived for the usual juror vetting wearing weekend clothing - jeans etc (since every other time he had come, sat, and been sent home). I guess the prosecution liked his attire because he was chosen. The next day, for the trial, he came in in his usual weekday professional clothing. He still laughs about the horrified looks on the prosecution’s faces. It ended up being rightfully so because his opinions ended up pushing the jury towards an outcome that was more friendly to the defense.</p>

<p>Side note - to all the parents posting messages of support regarding my daughter’s mono, Amazingly by last Thursday, at less than a week after the correct diagnosis (one week after wrong), my daughter was basically like new. She says that if she had not been diagnosed she never would have known that she had mono. Crossing my fingers that there is no relapse, but her health seems really great. I am thankful.</p>

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<p>smoda:</p>

<p>I was just going to post to ask for updates on your D! I’m so glad that she is getting better.</p>

2123

<p>Smoda: What good news!
My daughter had it and never knew that she had it at some point in her life. (Blood tests confirmed this; her doctor said this is not uncommon.) Both of my kids were just so happy that they had it before they went abroad!
So glad your daughter is feeling better.</p>

2124

<p>Thanks all - her rebound has been a nice surprise. Her friend that was diagnosed at the same time as her has continued to be sick. Her friend that apparently had it in the fall stated that he had no idea that he had mono until after it was over and was diagnosed. Very thankful that my daughter may have avoided the long term exhaustion.</p>

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<p>My son is actually looking forward to jury duty. It’s not at a bad time of the year so he feels he can manage it. I think it was just a surprise to him (and us) that he would be called considering he’s only a student in Mass. This may turn out to be a great experience for him.</p>

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<p>–Or it may be a real bore. You have to get to the courthouse at 8am and you wait until about 1pm if you are going to be exempted. If he goes, tell him to bring plenty of reading material.</p>

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<p>thanks marite. Yep, I’m sure he will. </p>

<p>Admiral, thanks for the comment, unfortunately my son lives in Ca and is only in Mass during school months.</p>

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<p>I’ve read through all the jury postings, and am curious as to how they get student names. Is it safe to assume no voter registration and no license means no jury duty?</p>

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<p>No, that is a bad assumption. My S had neither.</p>

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<p>Ronsard, We’re just like 1moremom. My son doesn’t have either one in Mass. and he was still called for jury duty. I wonder how they do get the names???</p>

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<p>The colleges have to provide lists of students living in dorms and, I believe, in off-campus housing.</p>

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<p>thanks for the info molliebatmit.</p>

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<p>Interesting:</p>

<p>Accused shooter linked to Harvard bomb plot
Accused campus shooter killed brother in 1986
Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama in Huntsville professor currently accused of killing three colleagues at a faculty meeting, fatally shot her brother at their home in 1986. Msnbc’s Christina Brown reports.</p>

<p>The scientist who is accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama had been a key suspect in an attempted bomb plot at Harvard in 1993, police officials told The Boston Globe on Sunday. </p>

<p>Authorities questioned Amy Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, in March 1993 after a bomb-laden package was delivered to a Harvard professor and doctor at Boston’s Children’s Hospital, the Globe reported. </p>

<p>The plot was the latest revelation linking Bishop to past investigations. Bishop is accused of shooting to death three colleagues during a faculty meeting on the University of Alabama’s Hunstville, Ala. campus on Friday. </p>

<p>Bishop, who has four children, was arrested soon after the shooting and charged with capital murder. Other charges are pending. Her husband was detained and questioned by police but has not been charged. </p>

<p>In 1986, Bishop shot and killed her 18-year-old brother with a shotgun at their Braintree, Mass., home. She told police at the time that she had been trying to learn how to use the gun, which her father had bought for protection, when it accidentally discharged. </p>

<p>Authorities released her and said the episode was a tragic accident. She was never charged, though police Chief Paul Frazier on Saturday questioned how the investigation was handled. </p>

<p>Bomb sent to doctor
In the Harvard plot, a police official told the Globe that Bishop’s name surfaced as a suspect because she was allegedly concerned about getting a negative evaluation on her doctorate work from Dr. Paul Rosenberg. </p>

<p>During the initial investigation, Rosenberg told police that he had received a thin, long package addressed to him and soon discovered that was filled with wires and a cylinder, according to the Globe. </p>

<p>The package had contained two pipe bombs, which were hooked up two nine-volt batteries, the Globe reported. </p>

<p>During a search of Bishop’s computer, investigators discovered a draft of a story that Bishop had written about a female scientist who had killed her brother and was hoping to find redemption in life my becoming a great scientist, the Globe reported. </p>

<p>Bishop and her husband were never charged in the Harvard plot. </p>

<p>‘It was just a normal day’
Back in Alabama, some of Bishop’s colleagues, including William Setzer, chairman of the department of chemistry, told The Associated Press they did not know about Bishop’s past. </p>

<p>Alabama police said the gun she is accused of using in Friday’s shooting was not registered, and investigators don’t know how or where she got it. </p>

<p>Just after the shooting, her husband James Anderson told the Chronicle, she called and asked him to pick her up. She never mentioned the shooting, he said. </p>

<p>Anderson said his wife had an attorney but would not say who it was. He declined further comment to The Associated Press on Sunday. However, he told the Chronicle of Higher Education earlier in the day that he had no idea his wife had a gun — nor did he know of any threats or plans to carry out the shooting when he dropped her off at the faculty meeting Friday. </p>

<p>Even in the days and hours before the shooting, Bishop’s friends, colleagues and students said she was acting like the intelligent — but odd — professor they knew. </p>

<p>UAH student Andrew Cole was in Bishop’s anatomy class Friday morning and said she seemed perfectly normal. Kourtney Lattimore, 19, a sophomore studying nursing who had Bishop for anatomy and physiology courses, said she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. </p>

<p>“She was fine. It was a normal day,” Lattimore said. </p>

<p>Bishop had worked closely for three years with Dick Reeves, who had been CEO of BizTech, which had been working with her to market a cell incubator she invented to replace traditional equipment used in live cell cultures. Bishop often mentioned the issue of tenure in their discussions, Reeves said. </p>

<p>“It was important to her,” he said. </p>

<p>Tenure denied
However, the two had spoken as early as Wednesday, and Reeves said she showed no signs of distress. </p>

<p>Tenure — a type of job-for-life security afforded academics — is often a stressful process for anyone up for review, Setzer said. Bishop was up front about the issue, often bringing it up in meetings where the subject wasn’t appropriate. </p>

<p>“That was another thing that made her different,” Setzer said. “In committee meetings she didn’t pretend that it wasn’t happening or anything. She was even loud about it: That they denied her tenure and she was appealing it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” </p>

<p>Some have said the shootings stemmed from Bishop’s tenure dispute, though authorities have refused to discuss a motive. Andrea Bennett, a sophomore majoring in nursing and an athlete at UAH, said a coach told her team that Bishop had been denied tenure, which the coach said may have led to the shooting. </p>

<p>Killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and professors Adriel Johnson and Maria Ragland Davis. Three people were wounded. Two of them — Joseph Leahy and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo — were in critical condition early Sunday. The third, Luis Cruz-Vera, had been released from the hospital. </p>

<p>Sammie Lee Davis, Davis’ husband, said in a brief phone interview that he was told a faculty member got angry while discussing tenure at the meeting and started shooting. He said his wife had described Bishop as “not being able to deal with reality” and “not as good as she thought she was.” </p>

<p>Bishop was calm as she got into a police car Friday, denying that the shootings occurred. “It didn’t happen. There’s no way. 
 They are still alive.”</p>

2134

<p>Do any of the upper classman parents have any thoughts, suggestions, or tips on the blocking process for the upcoming freshman housing lottery? Freshman son apparently has two separate groups of people that he is considering blocking with–his entry way mates and another group that is more concentrator oriented with some overlap with one of his extracurriculars. Both of these groups would like very much for him to join them, and he, in turn, greatly enjoys being with the people in both groups. Accordingly, he is in the process of considering what to do.</p>

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<p>my son’s blockmates are all from the Christian Impact group that they are in. It’s working out nicely. Different concentrations, different classes, but 1 major common interest.</p>

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<p>Unless one’s freshman year has naturally evolved into a table for eight, blocking is always stressful and angsty. It’s a necessary evil wrought by the practice of housing freshmen on the Yard, but the good news is that once the angst subsides, all’s usually well that ends well.</p>

<p>I just got back from campus last night where we spent the weekend with our two daughters. D1 is a senior who was initially distressed to be Quadded. She and her two roommates had planned to tolerate the Quad for a year and then be reassigned, before they found out that you can only be reassigned as a pair. Rather than break up the trio, they relaxed and have learned to love Pfoho. The distance from the middle of campus becomes normal and commonplace, and in fact, it’s about the same as the farthest river house. </p>

<p>D2, also in the Quad, went through a variety of iterations of a blocking group in which some people were in, then some bolted, new ones came in, some had a falling-out, etc. Again, it’s all worked out just fine. The members who were closest seem to move closer together over the years, and those who have any alienation between them find that the House is usually large enough for them all. Those who were assigned to remote houses usually find, if they’re active on campus, that they have numerous opportunities to visit and experience other locations frequently, and inter-House friendships can stay alive if they’re maintained.</p>

<p>I was stressed in each of their cases over blocking groups and housing assignments, but when the dust settled it seemed to work out. One thing I can recommend is going to the Wikipedia site for the assigned house and checking out the famous alumni of that house. Then you think, “well if it worked out for them, it’ll probably be OK for my student.”</p>

2137

<p>There is an opportunity for one blocking group to “link” with another, if both groups agree. Linked blocking groups will not be put in the same house, however, they will be put in the same “neighborhood.” I believe the river houses are divided into three neighborhoods and the quad houses are one neighborhood (for these purposes) but I’m not certain about that.</p>

<p>My daughter was extremely lucky. She was also torn between two groups and worried that they would be placed far apart. She blocked with one group and wound up with just about all of her friends in the same river house (by coincidence) or in the houses right next door. </p>

<p>It is stressful but it generally does work out in the end.</p>

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<p>ws59,
He could block with one group and link with the other if everyone is amenable. That way, he stays connected with both groups.</p>

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<p>DS lived with the same three suite-mates all four years; I think it was a no-brainer for them. They blocked with a group of women, two of whom were originally S’s friends from a HS summer program. I think the co-ed aspect worked out well for the guys as the women would do things like organize a blocking group holiday gift exchange, something the men never would have thought of/bothered with.</p>

2140

<p>I am doing turbo tax which asks 1098-T
 but I have not received it from Harvard. Anyone has received it?</p>