In Brief

The University’s GENDER-NEUTRAL HOUSING program, implemented in 2010, is expanding to allow 278 students to participate next year. The program, which was instituted in seven of the ­four-person suites in Spelman Halls, will add rooms in Scully, 1901-Laughlin, and Foulke halls for juniors and seniors. The expansion will allow students to choose from a variety of room types, including doubles and triples. 

DAVID BOTSTEIN, professor of genomics and director of Princeton’s genomics institute, is one of six researchers to share the 2012 Dan David Prize, which recognizes innovative and interdisciplinary research. Botstein shares the $1 million prize in the “future” category with Eric Lander ’78 (see page 35) and J. Craig Venter for their contributions to genome research; Botstein was cited as “the intellectual leader of genomics since its inception.” The prize is endowed by the Dan David Foundation and based at Tel Aviv University. 

Former students of Civil War historian and professor emeritus JAMES M. ­MCPHERSON have paid tribute to him by writing a collection of essays titled The Struggle for Equality: Essays on Sectional Conflict, the Civil War, and the Long Reconstruction (University of ­Virginia Press). The editors are Orville Vernon Burton *76, a history professor and director of the CyberInstitute at Clemson University; Jerald Podair *97, a professor of history and American studies at Lawrence University; and Jennifer L. Weber *03, an associate professor of history at the University of Kansas. 

The University’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer for 11 years, BETTY LEYDON, will retire June 30. Provost Christopher Eisgruber ’83, who described Leydon as “a nationally ­recognized leader in her field,” will lead a committee to find her successor.

TIMOTHY DONNELLY, a visiting professor of creative writing who is teaching advanced poetry in the Lewis Center for the Arts this semester, has been awarded the $100,000 Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Award for his second collection of poetry, The Cloud Corporation. 

JILL DOLAN, professor in English and ­theater and director of the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, has received the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for her blog, The Feminist Spectator. The $10,000 prize, awarded annually by Cornell’s English department, recognizes an outstanding work of drama criticism.