Rick Harris, a Rhode Island baseball expert, spoke at the bookstore last week.

Armed with a $5.2 million National Institutes of Health grant, Professor of Community Health and Anthropology Stephen McGarvey will conduct an extensive study of Samoans’ health problems, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

Panelists from around the world will discuss creative solutions to sustainable agriculture, architecture in the developing world and the future of transportation at the second annual “Better World by Design” conference organized by Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students.

When Faunce House re-opens next fall after intensive renovations, the new Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center in Faunce will house an original piece of art by a Brown alum.

A newly renovated Faunce House is on track to re-open by the time students arrive on campus next fall, earlier than originally planned, due to an unexpected surplus in net tuition income, administrators said.

With University Hall as their backdrop and repeated chants of “health care now,” nearly 200 students, Brown Dining Services workers and local supporters rallied Thursday afternoon against proposed changes to the workers’ health care contribution requirements. The protest came as contract negotiations begin between the University and the union representing BDS workers.

A committee charged with reviewing tenure and faculty development policies met for the first time Wednesday, but some Division of Biology and Medicine departments are already hoping the committee will recommend that junior faculty in those departments be given longer to prove themselves before coming up for tenure.

Over 1,000 students have been vaccinated against the seasonal flu since Health Services started offering free shots against the virus on Monday. The number of vaccinations from Monday and Tuesday alone is already approaching the 1,200 to 1,500 students per year who have gotten the vaccine in the recent past.

Due to a temporary lack of funding, the David J. Zucconi Fellowship for International Study will not be offered this year. The fellowship, which the University created in 2003 to honor former admissions officer and fundraiser Dave Zucconi ’55, is one of Brown’s largest scholarships, having included a $25,000 stipend and round-trip airfare in recent years.

A new year-long series will examine contemporary South Asian political issues by hosting seminars in Providence and the Boston area.