College Briefs

Emory University

Full pane glass windows at Emory University’s mathematics and science building, known for its eco-friendly design, created a “bird slaughterhouse,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

According to officials, the windows reflect surrounding trees, confusing birds and causing them to fly towards the panes. During the migration season, about two birds died in this manner per day, earning the building the nickname “wall of death.”

One of Emory’s professors, who began to notice the various species of birds smack into doom, tried to direct the attention of various administrators and architects towards the issue. His initiatives failed—until he brought some dead birds to a meeting.

Now Emory drapes black mesh netting on the building during migration season.

Dartmouth University

Dartmouth University trustee Todd Zywickiis facing harsh criticism after publicly condemning the school’s former president and accusing academics of not believing in God.

Also a professor of law at George Mason University, Zywicki said in his speech, as seen on YouTube, “Those who control the university today, they don’t believe in God, and they don’t believe in country.”

“The establishment within these universities is vicious. They are vicious people. They have their own dogma. ... There is a new dogma that is environmentalism, feminism, and, uh, that is the dogma. And they will enforce it viciously,” he added.

While his speech focused mainly on the orthodoxy of academics, he drew the most ire from officials, students, and alumni when he attacked Dartmouth’s former president, James Freedman, who passed away in 2006.

Harvard, Yale, and Princeton Universities

A developer who borrowed money is suing Harvard, Yale, and Princeton Universities. The suit accuses the schools’ endowments of backing loans at a 42 percent interest rate­—twice the amount allowed by law, Bloomberg News reported.

Along with other institutions and prominent nonprofit organizations, the three schools were named in a suit, which alleges that they violated a law aimed at loan sharks who threaten borrowers with violence after lending them money at extravagant interest rates. According to the allegations, the schools invested in a company that had interest in the loan company in question

The suit was filed by a developer in Massachusetts who had planned to construct a golf-course community by borrowing from a company in which the schools invested. Filings in the case from the nonprofit investors contested the suit, saying that they were not involved in the management decisions of the company accused of making the loan, and that law protects limited partners from suits in such cases.