The Week in Brief

As the United States military campaign against Afghanistan enters its third week, influential Harvard alumni are pushing to bring the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) back to the Cambridge campus.

David Clayman, Harvard class of '38, founded Advocates for Harvard ROTC and currently is circulating a petition among alumni calling on the university to reinstate the military training program.

Harvard—along with Yale, Dartmouth, and many other elite universities—ended its on-campus ROTC programin response to vehement anti-war protests in 1969. Harvard stopped funding ROTC altogether when the military instituted its "don't ask, don't tell" policy in 1995. The ROTC program is currently available to Harvard students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus, also located in Cambridge.

Harvard President Lawrence Summers responded to Clayman's petition by calling military service "noble" and asserting that Harvard needs "to be careful about adopting any policy on campus of non-support for those involved in defending the country." Harvard has made no immediate move to bring back the program, however.

Many at Harvard are strongly opposed to any return of ROTC. "It would be a huge mistake," Kevin Jennings, a member of Harvard's Lesbian and Gay Caucus, said. "The people making this argument should be ashamed of themselves for taking a national crisis to advance their agenda."

Although there is no ROTC program on campus at Yale—Yalies in ROTC must travel to the University of Connecticut, which is considerably farther from Yale than MIT is from Harvard—it remains doubtful that a proposal to bring ROTC to the Yale campus would succeed. Currently, only 11 students are involved with the program, in contrast to 43 at Harvard.

Some nevertheless believe the elimination of ROTC was a loss for universities. Rachel Withers, SM '04, a member of the Army ROTC, believes an ideological conflict between universities and the military is "an unnecessary political issue [that] stem[s] from liberal political beliefs. The military doesn't tell you what to think."

As for the military, it remains interested in all college campuses. "We want to produce as many officers as we can," Yvonne Sorokin, commandant of Air Force ROTC cadets, said. "We want educated leaders. What better place to find them than a college campus?" — Suzy Khimm

Longtime Doodle owner battles cancer

From the age of 12, Lew Beckwith, Jr. loved nothing more than working at the Yankee Doodle, the eatery his father opened in 1950. Over the years, the Doodle has won the hearts of Yalies and New Haven residents alike with its tasty (and greasy) burgers and breakfast sandwiches.

Still, Beckwith had always planned to retire on his beloved restaurant's 50th anniversary, and so, in July 2000, he handed over the daily management of the family business to his son, Rick. Lew Jr. stayed on to man the grill at night.

Less than four months into his semi-retirement, however, the elder Beckwith began complaining of back problems. The pain became so severe that he could not work his shift. With the younger Beckwith facing a 150-hour work week, the Doodle was forced to trim its hours; last spring, it began closing five hours earlier.

The Doodle is now open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. It no longer is open on Sundays, except during Parents Weekend and a few other special weekends throughout the year. Rick Beckwith works all of these hours, running the Elm Street establishment with the help of his sister, Darlene, and mother, Pat.

Now, eight months after the elder Beckwith fell ill, news is finally spreading about his condition. In February 2001, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a malignant form of bone cancer. There is no known cause or cure for multiple myeloma. "He was devastated," Rick said. "He had thought it was just a sprained back. We were all devastated."

The family has received nothing but sympathy from the hundreds—"if not thou-sands"—of customers who came to know Lew Jr. in his half-century at the Doodle, Rick said. Many students, residents, and alumni have sent their condolences, called him, or even visited him. "The community has been wonderful," Rick said. "[The Doodle] is the only job he ever had, and it's always on his mind." — Amy Wang

Biotech leaves New Haven, report indicates

A new report prepared by the Connecticut Center for a New Economy asserts that over the past 20 years, biotechnology has not come close to creating the estimated 1,800 jobs that it originally projected in 1980.

Today, only 800 jobs have been created by biotechnology, and that number is expected to drop to 400 when the area's largest biotechnology employer, Curagen, leaves the Elm City for the suburbs.

Curagen's move follows a string of departures by other biotechnology companies, including Gene Logic, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, and Cellular Genomics.

New Haven traditionally has been attractive to developing biotechnology companies due primarily to active efforts by both the city's economic development team and Yale's Office of Cooperative Research (OCR). Science Park, an incubator launched in the '80s with Yale funds, and 300 George St., a biotech facility developed by Winstanley Associates, were both designed with developing companies in mind.

But in light of the new report, it is unclear whether these attractions will be enough to keep young biotechnology firms within New Haven.

—Justin Chen and Eve Gutman

Around the Ivies

In response to the nationwide anthrax scare, Harvard has instituted new security measures to guard against dangerous mail.

Employees in the university's central mail facility now don rubber gloves before sorting mail. The university also is educating its person-nel on how to handle suspicious mail. Earlier this week, two suspicious packages were reported at Harvard Law School and at Kennedy School of Government.

Penn

Penn's Ivy Grille closed on Mon., Oct. 15, after a waitress found a suspicious powder on a tabletop. The restaurant reopened after Philadelphia police confirmed the substance was harmless. Later that day, however, police were alerted again when another mysterious powder was found inside a local office building. Officials later determined the powder was coffee creamer.

Columbia

Police briefly closed Barnard's main quad this week because of an anthrax scare. Barnard freshman Margaret Chen called campus security after she noticed a white powder in the folds of her copy of Time. When New York police officers arrived on the scene, they sealed off the quad and took the powder for examination.

Cornell

A Cornell employee is being treated with antibiotics this week after handling a suspicious package. The treatment is considered precautionary, however, as it remains uncertain whether the employee was actually infected with anthrax.

In response to concerns, University officials sent an e-mail to stu-dents and faculty outlining safety precautions and explaining facts about anthrax.

— Compiled by Phuoc La from the Harvard Crimson, the Daily Pennsylvanian, the Columbia Spectator, and the Cornell Daily Sun

1. Number of pieces of pizza consumed by me at PepeÕs this week: 15
2. Number of popes "crusted over" from consumption: 3
3. Total of 10-year contract that Derek Jeter recently signed: $189 million
4. Aid recently promised to Afghanistan by Bush: $320 million
5. Baseball-sized goiters lazed off GeorgeÕs grandmotherÕs neck: 3
6. Afghans my grandmother has knitted for me: 0
7. Base that my grandfather got to with my gÕma on first date: 1st
8. Players on my first baseball team referred to as Ôpizza-faceÕ: 5
9. Years my coach has left on his prison sentence: 4
10. Age of Howie in "L.I.E.": 15
11. LIEs perpetuated by the man, film director, Michael Cuesta: 1
12. Age, in years of the man, highest and most holy, the Pope: 81
13. Future U.S. Senators that went to my high school: 1
14. Total hits my grandfather got for the Washington Senators: 0
15. Other Washington "players" with records: a lot

Sources: 1) Sally; 2) Cardinal Richelieu 3, 4) the internet.com; 5, 6) IÕm George and I would know; 7) the umpire; 8) the noid; 9) the Lady; 10, 11) well the movie, of course; 12) that Internet thing again; 13) Actually, thatÕs just a lie, and not in the good, pederast sense; 14) he was never a real player, he just "crushed" a lot; 15) like a ton of bricks

Compiled by George Weinberg

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