Monday, March 7, 2011

Lichtenstein to be Young Trustee

Sam Lichtenstein, international relations major, is to be the Young Trustee for the class of 2011, Hopkins Underground has learned.

The senior from New York will be one of four Young Trustees on the Johns Hopkins Board of Trustees and serve a four-year term. Only one graduating student is selected each year. Sources say Lichtenstein was one of four finalists considered for the position.

Lichtenstein, among other things, is an editor at JHU Politik, the undergraduate political newsletter, co-chair of the Seniors for the Hopkins Fund, and a board member of the Blue Key Society (campus tours) and Admissions Representatives (admission interviews).

Abhiram Bhashyam '10, Christopher Louie '09, Michelle Brown '08, and Sarah David '07 whose term ends in this year are the other Young Trustees.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Hopkins Shows No Ties With Libya

After some research by Hopkins Underground, no ties between the Libyan government, Qadhafi family and Johns Hopkins University has been found. This comes amidst allegations that universities in the United States were involved in training "future leaders" of the Libyan government.

Cables released by Wikileaks in January show Libya's desire to send members of elite to foreign universities in the United States and the United Kingdom for leadership and management training.

"Two hundred and fifty additional Libyan 'future leaders' would also be trained in Libya. Likewise, the NEDB is working with universities in the United States (Michigan State and elsewhere), the UK, and France to manage exchange programs for 90 young Libyan diplomats (30 Libyan diplomats are currently being trained in each country)." Source: Wikileaks. The NEDB is Libya's National Economic Development Board.

One of those UK universities is the London School of Economics. The director of the LSE announced his resignation Thursday amid a scandal involving the school and the Libyan government's efforts to send 400 "future leaders" of Libya to the school. The "future leaders" were to be trained in leadership and management skills at LSE. At the same time, LSE accepted £300,000 from Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi, the son of the embattled Libyan leader Colonel al-Qadhafi. On Tuesday, the school diverted the money to a scholarship fund for Northern African students.

Upon reading that an American university may be connected with the Qadhafi family and the regime, Hopkins Underground looked into any possible ties between Johns Hopkins and Libya.

As of our writing this post, no such link has been found.

Hopkins Underground searched Saif's charitable foundation, Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, the Carey School of Business, and Johns Hopkins as a whole. No obvious ties appeared.

However, the chances of a link are still very possible. Hopkins is notorious for not publishing a comprehensive list of donors and other financial support it receives. In the past, Hopkins has be hesitant to divest its endowment from Sudan. The may well be information in the University's records that indicate some link between Libya and Hopkins.

We will keep digging and ask University officials if such a connection exists. Fortunately as of now, Hopkins and Libya remain unconcerned with each other.

If anyone in the Hopkins community knows anything on this matter, you can send us a confidential tip via email at jhuunderground @ gmail.com. Anonymity guaranteed.