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The Reporter's Notebook

Nieman Fellow Arrested

Harvard's Nieman Foundation is racking up an impressive list of former fellows who have been arrested.

Earlier this year, former Nieman fellow Nicholas S. Daniloff '56 became a cause celebre when he was detained in the Soviet Union on espionage charges.

This weekend, Zwelakhe Sisulu, a fellow from 1984-1985, was arrested by South African security forces during a sweeping new wave of round-ups of journalists, opposition and union leaders and community activists.

The Nieman Foundation runs a prestigious program for mid-career journalists from the United States and for international journalists.

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Sisulu is the editor of the bi-weekly newspaper New Nation which is closely tied to the Catholic Church. He is regarded as one of the nation's leading Black journalists.

Shelling Out the Bucks to Harvard

Harvard may have the biggest endowment and lots of Nobel Prize winners, but the federal government doesn't seem to be paying that much attention, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

During fiscal year 1985, Harvard didn't even make the top 10 list of universities receiving money from the national government. Weighing in at number 11, Harvard took in $103.5 million. The top university was Johns Hopkins with $367 million from the government.

In terms of research funds spent overall, Harvard ranked 14th, with universities such as MIT, Cornell, Stanford, Johns Hopkins and Texas A&M spending more on research. In 1985, Harvard spent $137.6 million on research. Most of the money was derived from the federal government while only $380,000 came from state and local government.

A Prof Stumper

Even Harvard professors can be stumped by their students sometimes, especially when the students use the professor's own textbook to do it.

Students in Computer Science 121 were so perplexed by a problem in their most recent problem set that they took it to a teaching fellow. He was stymied and took it to another teaching fellow who was equally confused. Then they all went to the source.

McKay Professor of Computer Science Harry Lewis wrote the book but found himself scratching his head when challenged by the problem. So he called the co-author at MIT and after a half-hour meeting of minds, the solution was devised. But at least the problem was excised from the set.

Harvard Divestment Noticed

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