UNC alumnus hits students with car 'to avenge deaths of Muslims'
University of North Carolina alumnus Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, age 22, was charged with nine counts of attempted murder Saturday, a day after allegedly driving a Jeep Cherokee through a campus gathering area.
According to a Mar. 4 article from the CNN.com Web site, Taheri-azar, a native Iranian, told investigators he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world."
Chief of the University of North Carolina police department Derek Poarch refused to comment further on Taheri-azar's motive. No one was seriously injured, but Taheri-azar was charged with an additional nine counts of assault.
According to Poarch, he has cooperated with investigators since he surrendered himself via telephone and was arrested two miles from campus.
Five students and a visiting scholar were taken to the hospital following the incident. According to a Mar. 3 UNC press release, hospital officials said that all six were released after treatment for minor injuries.
Three other victims declined treatment immediately following the incident. Taheri-azar is currently jailed on $5.5 million bail.
University of Miami janitors go on strike for higher wages
Unicco Service Company janitors went on strike at the University of Miami on Feb. 28.
According to a Mar. 3 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 50 night shift workers formed a picket line on Tuesday, which grew when an additional 50 janitors in charge of cleaning dormitories and the athletics center joined in.
According to Renee Asher, a spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union, the janitors had voted to strike against what they allege to be Unicco's blocking of their efforts to organize a union.
For the past eight months, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has sought to become the workers' official representation. The union has already alerted university officials that the janitorial workers at the medical facilities will strike next, if necessary.
Unicco employs approximately 430 janitors at the university, most of whom are Cuban, Haitian and South American immigrants. Less than five years ago, students and faculty members voted in support of higher wages for janitorial staff at the university.
Unicco says the average janitor employed by the company at the University of Miami makes $7.53 an hour. The union says the wages are about a dollar lower, close to Florida's minimum wage of $6.40 an hour.
Former Clinton official urges changes in loan policy
According to a March 3 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Robert M. Shireman asked various Congressional staff members to consider changes in the federal policy on student-loan repayment.
Shireman served as senior education-policy adviser in the Clinton Administration. The proposed changes are aimed at easing debt for financially needy graduates.
Some of them include modifying how the government defines "economic hardship" for purposes of loan deferment, and simplifying the application process for benefits.
Shireman was joined at the Congressional briefing by President and Chief Executive of American Student Assistance Paul C. Combe.
- compiled by Marc Raifman from the Chronicle of Higher Education and CNN.
