Posted on Apr 12, 2002

It turns out that what comes naturally to most of us
bipedal hominids – walking – isn't so easy after all.

Just ask Nick Krouglicof, assistant professor of
mechanical engineering, who spends a good deal of time
researching, designing and building machines that can perambulate.

Krouglicof, whose credentials include organizer of a
walking machine contest sponsored by the Society for
Automotive Engineers and advisor to the newly-formed Union
walking machine team, has been contacted by producers of the
TV show Junkyard Wars about the possibility of being an
expert advisor for an episode this fall.

So this week, Krouglicof was producing an audition tape
in which he describes and demonstrates various types
of walking machines, with footage from an SAE contest.

Junkyard Wars, which airs on the Learning Channel, seems
to appeal to those who love to create things from, well, junk.
A typical show pits two three-member teams in a
10-hour contest to design, build and test devices ranging from trucks
to cannons to torpedoes. Materials come from a huge pile
of discarded stuff that each team may use. There's lots of
cutting, welding, drilling and agonizing. Check out their Web site at http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/junkyard/junkyard.html.

If he is selected (And we like his chances; how many
walking machine experts are there, anyway?), Krouglicof would
be an expert advisor to one of the teams.

“I told the producer that this is really hard to do,”
Krouglicof said. “I'm not sure they can do it in 10 hours.”

Posted on Apr 11, 2002

Let the bidding begin.

Recent steps by the country's elite colleges will reduce the financial tug-of-war over top students. Last summer, 28 schools — including Duke University, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania — decided on common rules for allocating financial aid in an effort to reduce variation from college to college. The solution: a “consensus” approach for valuing family need. For example, some colleges heavily penalized families that had savings in the student's name. Now those savings will be treated the same as any other family assets.

The result of the common approach, the colleges say, will be more financial aid for those students who really need it. But experts say the net effect is it may be tougher for more affluent students to negotiate aid at colleges that can cost as much as $36,000 a year. The effect will be to “reduce the student's ability to play one off against the other,” says Sandy Baum, a professor of economics at Skidmore College and an expert on college financial aid.

But because the new approach doesn't affect students entering college this fall, more affluent parents can take advantage of one last season of serious horse-trading. (It starts with kids graduating from high school next year.) And this year's haggling has already begun. “The phone is ringing all day long,” says Jim Belvin, director of financial aid at Duke University, Durham, N.C.

Some $74 billion in financial aid was distributed nationally in the last school year, roughly $6,600 per full-time student, according to the College Board. The bulk of that money — some $42.8 billion — came in the form of loans.

The practice of discounting tuition to attract top students dates back to the 1970s in the Midwest. It moved East about 10 years ago and made its way into the elite schools in the past five years. Today, says Dan Lundquist, vice president of admissions and financial aid at Union College, Schenectedy, N.Y., “nobody is immune.” He notes that even Ivy League colleges invite accepted students to submit competing financial offers for review.

For parents looking to negotiate, the first rule of financial aid is that it never hurts to ask. Start by collecting better aid offers from competing schools, then document factors such as declining family income, a recently lost job, or increasing medical expenses that don't always show up on the financial forms.

A face-to-face meeting with the financial-aid director never hurts. “Sometimes they see you there and they will even throw a thousand or two at you just to get you out of the office,” says Marie Ruggiero, financial-aid adviser at Mamaroneck High School in Mamaroneck, N.Y.

Parents often have more success at second-tier schools, which are seeking to upgrade their reputation by attracting top students.

Mr. Lundquist of Union College says his school will sometimes boost grants to snare students with bigger aid packages from a number of more prestigious institutions. “If someone can go to Williams cheaper, they are going to,” he says.

Some schools openly use merit scholarships to attract desirable students. The University of Denver, for example, offered Stephanie Miller a $10,000 merit scholarship, even though she never even applied for aid. The Beaverton, Ore., senior is an accomplished ski racer and tennis player who boasts a 3.8 grade point average. Now her mother is talking with other schools that accepted her daughter to see if they will match the offer.

Take It or Leave It

Other schools are less inclined to negotiate. Josh Lynn, now a junior at Emory University in Atlanta, got nowhere when he tried to parley full-tuition merit scholarships from both Emory University and Brandeis University into aid dollars at other schools. Both schools — Dartmouth University in Hanover, N.H., and Tufts University in Medford, Mass. — politely declined.

“”We were told it's all based on need,” says Josh's mom, Ruth Lynn. Understanding a school's aid policy is important. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, for example, gives admitted students a form where they can list better aid offers from competing schools. Carnegie Mellon will usually notify students within 48 hours of its decision, says Michael Steidel, director of admissions.

Last year, 673 students admitted to Carnegie Mellon submitted competing offers; the school ended up offering additional aid to 314 of them. The average package increase of about $4,000 was enough to get 171 to enroll. But Carnegie Mellon sees itself in competition only with private schools. It won't match offers from state schools.

Extenuating Circumstances

Of course, even schools that don't match a merit offer will increase aid packages for students whose circumstances have changed. For example, if a parent has lost a job, colleges will often increase their child's aid award. “We are more than happy to look at any extenuating circumstances,” says Duke's Mr. Belvin.

Moreover, colleges can be creative about interpreting financial data when they really want to attract a student, according to Kalman Chany, a New York financial-aid adviser and author of “Paying for College Without Going Broke.” “Determination of need can be very subjective.”

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says it doesn't match merit offers. However, it will take another look if another school's need-based offer is higher.

“We will certainly pay attention,” says Betsy Hicks, director of financial aid at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, particularly if the offer is from a school that uses a similar method to calculate its aid.

Posted on Apr 5, 2002

Carol Weisse, associate professor of psychology
and director of Health Professions, recently presented three papers
on pain research. At the annual meeting of the Eastern
Psychological Association, she presented a paper with Meredith Chace
`02 and Leah Oliveiri `00 titled “Do male and female surgical
patients respond differently to patient-controlled analgesia
(PCA)?”Also presented at the meeting
was a paper with Kemoy Foster `01, Aaron D'Addario `03
and Elizabeth Fisher `01 titled “The influence of experimenter
gender and race on pain reporting.” She presented a paper, “Does
patient gender or race influence physicians' pain management
decisions?”with Rachel Dominguez `02 and Paul Sorum M.D. at
the annual scientific meeting of the American Pain Society.

Posted on Apr 5, 2002

Daniel O. Mosquera, assistant professor of
Spanish, has been awarded a Woodrow Wilson National
Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship for junior faculty for the
2002-03 year. This grant will support the completion of a monograph
on evangelization and popular religion in colonial Mexico,
a work to be published as a book.

Posted on Apr 5, 2002

Robert Baker, professor of philosophy and director
of Union's Bioethics Center, recently joined a dozen officials from
the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and
the National Endowment for Humanities to recommend collaborative initiatives
between the two federal grants-awarding agencies. Baker served on
the patient safety panel. He was invited as co-director of an
NEH Collaborative Research Grant that supports a 67-chapter
global history of medical ethics being developed through the
collaborative efforts of 50 bioethicists, clinicians and historians
of medicine.