Baby Einstein Founder Julie Aigner-Clark says she’s stung by a controversy over whether her children’s videos help babies learn or get in the way. She says that the videos were never designed to make infants smarter, only happier.

Ms. Aigner-Clark was put on the defensive following wide-spread criticism stemming from a University of Washington study that suggested her baby videos may hinder infants’ vocabulary development. 

In an interview, Aigner-Clark said she stands behind the videos and that they were never designed to make children smarter. The point, she said, is to make them happier by exposing them to “beautiful things” like art, music and poetry. Along the way, she thinks babies who watch the videos with their parents will probably learn things about words and numbers as their parents talk to them about what they see - just as they do from reading a book with them.

Shortly after she did TV interviews in response to the University of Washington study, Aigner-Clark woke up to find her mailbox vandalized with the words “Baby Dumb” spray-painted on it. She says that she has  also received e-mails from angry parents who bought videos for their children.

Aigner-Clark sold her company to Walt Disney Co. five years ago.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded a five-year grant to the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI), to be used for the develpment of an HIV/AIDS vaccine.  

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley says the $15 million is part of the Gates Foundation’s Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, an international network of research consortia, focused on accelerating the pace of HIV vaccine development started last year with $287 million in grants.

The co-founder of Intel Corp. and his wife are giving what is believed to be the largest gift ever for Nursing education to the University of California, Davis to establish a nursing school.

The gift from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is also the largest donation of any kind ever given to the university.

The amount…$100 million.  The money will be donated over 11 years and will go to create the nursing school at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.Gordon Moore is co-founder and chairman emeritus of Santa Clara-based chip maker, Intel. He is best known for “Moore’s Law,” his 1965 prediction that the number of transistors on a chip should double about every two years.

Ken Moore, the couple’s son, said the donation grew out of his mother’s own poor care during a hospital stay. A nurse gave her a shot of insulin that was supposed to go to the patient in the next bed.  “They nearly had two deaths out of one medical error. That was the start of her really being interested in nursing care,” Ken Moore said.

The Moore School of Nursing is scheduled to open in 2008, offering doctorates, master’s and bachelor’s degrees to 456 students per year.

After Gordon Gee turned down a chance last month to return to Ohio State University as president, trustee chairman Gil Cloyd called and asked him to reconsider.

Gee flew to Columbus Sunday and walked the campus by himself, where memories of his seven years as president flooded back, including how close he grew to his then teenage daughter, Rebekah, after his wife died of cancer in 1991.

“All of that just stirred up in me, and it was that moment for me,” Gee said. “This was a pure and simple spiritual decision for me. And it was the right decision.”

Gee returned Thursday to take back his old job as he gives up the top post at Vanderbilt University, one of the highest-paying college jobs in the United States.

Gee, 63, was offered a 7-year contract paying $775,000 annually, with an additional $225,000 in deferred annual compensation that he would receive if he stays five years.

He would be eligible for additional compensation through bonuses and unspecified benefits. The details still have to be negotiated. He starts by Nov. 1.

Gee, wearing one of his signature bow ties in the scarlet and gray colors of Ohio State, said Thursday that the university had gone from good to excellent since 1990 and now aspired to eminence.

“I am returning to be part of one of the most exciting academic environments in American higher education,” he said. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is Ohio State’s time.”

Gee called himself a prodigal son who had experienced the world in the 10 years since he left Ohio State in 1997, when he earned a $232,000 salary.

“I’m following my heart and returning home,” he said, his voice quivering with emotion.

Trustees praised the private school experience Gee gained while he was away and said he returns to a vastly changed Ohio State, the nation’s largest university. The school has tightened its admission policies and increased its fundraising in recent years.

Gee “is one of the most experienced and highly skilled university presidents in the nation,” said trustee Alex Shumate, head of the board’s search committee. “He is the best person for our job and for the challenges and the opportunities that lie ahead for Ohio’s flagship public university.”

It’s the sixth president’s job for Gee, an unusually high number of jobs in schools’ top posts. He also ran West Virginia University, the University of Colorado, Brown University and Vanderbilt, where he was chancellor. He was Ohio State president from 1990 to 1997.

Gee promised this would be his last job. “I’ve probably said three times, ‘This is it,”‘ Gee said. “This one really is it.”

Trustees said they weighed the wisdom of rehiring Gee but decided his strengths overcame any negative perceptions.

“Gordon’s enthusiasm, his leadership, his vision and his goals for this university far outweighed any baggage that he may have had with him,” said trustee Douglas Borror.

Gee has a reputation as a prolific fundraiser to keep up at Ohio State, which has 51,818 students. At Vanderbilt, he raised record amounts of money - including $1.75 billion in construction dollars. He increased the endowment by almost 50 percent, to more than $3 billion.

“Open your wallets, I’m here,” he said Thursday.

Source: [Cincinnati Post]

Drew G. Faust officially took office as the 28th president of Harvard University on Sunday, becoming the first female to lead the University in its 371-year history.

Faust, the former dean of the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, will be formally installed as the University’s president on Oct. 12 in an outdoor ceremony in Tercentenary Theatre. While the fall inauguration ceremonies are usually full of pomp and circumstance—the new president receives ancient symbols of office including two silver keys, two seals of the University, the earliest college record book, and the Harvard Charter of 1650—Sunday’s official changing of the guard passed with little fanfare.