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BOSTON -- The New York Times Co. says it has agreed to sell The Boston Globe to the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox for $70 million, a massive drop from the record $1.1 billion it paid for it.

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy confirms the sale of the Globe and other media properties to businessman John Henry.

The Times bought the Globe in 1993. Newspapers have faced difficulties in recent years as advertisers have moved more ads online.

The Times announced in February it was putting the Globe up for sale. The company's CEO said at the time selling the Globe would help the company focus attention on The New York Times brand.

Henry says the Globe's "award-winning journalism" and "its rich history and tradition of excellence" have established it as one of the most well-respected media companies in the country.

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http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/07/26/dukeengage-haiti-cancelled-due-unprofessional-behavior

DukeEngage Haiti cancelled due to unprofessional behavior

By Sophia Durand | July 25, 2013


DukeEngage Haiti ended earlier this summer due to logistical complications.

The program’s eight students, who left the United States for Haiti on May 28, were informed that their program had been terminated one month early after the in-country coordinator was fired for unprofessional behavior. The University did not publicly announce the cancellation.

“The staff plan in place turned out to not be adequate,” said DukeEngage executive director Eric Mlyn.

For five years, DukeEngage has sent students to work with Family Health Ministries, a Haiti based organization that aims to help Haitian communities sustain healthy families. The in-country coordinator, who has not been named, was an employee of FHM, and the only supervisor present on site. He lived in the same quarters as the students.

Students reported that the coordinator was acting in an unprofessional manner throughout the program. He was described as unreliable and unfit for the job by students.

“It was a bit of an adjustment to figure out how to work with someone who was acting unprofessionally,” said junior Caroline Meade who took part in the program.

After parents began to voice their concerns and apply pressure to the University, the in-country coordinator was fired from FHM, and students found themselves in limbo, without supervision or an organization to work with while in Haiti.

DukeEngage was unable to find a replacement coordinator, given the short window of time. FHM’s executive director, Kathy Walmer—an adjunct professor at the Duke Global Health institute and Duke coordinator for the DukeEngage Haiti Program—could not travel with the students to Haiti and declined to comment at this time.

Mlyn said that the students were disappointed with the decision, but that the cancellation was necessary. The University could not leave the students without supervision or a planned program in Haiti, and thus terminated the program.

Meade noted that DukeEngage was not fully responsible for providing the in-country coordinator.

“Sending us home was a worst-case scenario,” program participant junior Nicole Savage said. “It was unfortunate because we couldn’t complete our DukeEngage experience.”

Meade, along with a number of other participants, gave up other opportunities to participate in the DukeEngage program in Haiti, Meade said.

“I personally don’t think this was well-handled by DukeEngage,” Savage, a photographer for The Chronicle, said. “I did not feel unsafe at any time, but looking back, the circumstances were bad and something had to happen.”

Although many students voiced their disappointment, Mlyn explained that the University offered alternative opportunities to the participants to make up for the cancellation of the trip. The students were given the option of participating in a service trip to Peru this summer, as well as priority for independent DukeEngage programs next summer.

Savage said she enjoyed the four weeks she spent in Haiti with her fellow students, and had hoped for a different outcome, despite the setback with the supervisor.

“If they had given us the chance to stay, I think most of us would have stayed,” she said.

The Haiti program is not the only DukeEngage activity canceled this summer. Students participating in DukeEngage Cairo were sent home July 6 due to safety concerns after Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was unseated. Though the Cairo program’s cancellation was announced by the University via press release, no such action was taken with the termination of the Haiti program. Both programs have been removed from the DukeEngage website

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http://dukecheck.com/

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT DUKE ENGAGE HAITI

The Chronicle did a good job in bringing to light the problems at Duke Engage in Haiti, problems serious enough to cause the University to close down its outpost and bring the students back to Durham. So what really happened?

The lead paragraph says the Haiti program was closed due to “logistical complications.” Whatever that means. (Someone should call UPS, maybe?)

In the second paragraph, we’re told the program was shut because of “unprofessional behavior” by its Duke-paid coordinator.

Third paragraph: “The staff plan in place turned out to not be adequate,” said DukeEngage executive director Eric Mlyn.

Unreliable. Unfit. The Chronicle used those words — but not in quotes — to describe what students in the program felt about their leader. And this direct quote from a student: “I did not feel unsafe at any time, but looking back, the circumstances were bad and something had to happen.”

Come on, Chronicle, the words sexual misconduct are OK!!! The word lurid can be used when you don’t want to fill in the details.

[If that's what it was--(and that's an "IF", since we don't know)--then the prudishness of the Admin. and the Chronicle in refusing to specify the nature of the misconduct is in stark contrast to how the false allegations
against Duke students were handled in 2006.

And if the allegations are true, then were is the open letter from the faculty, the response from women's organizations, the statement from Brodhead about sexual misconduct being unacceptable, etc.? In fact,
why shouldn't Brodhead speak now, even before all the facts are known? (Has he ever been reticent
on that subject before?) (sarc/off)]

Cheers to the paper for noting that the Brodhead Administration did not announce this publicly, as it did the shutdown of Duke Engage Cairo because of civil unrest in Egypt.