Student groups were billed $27,000 in unexpected charges for phones and network in June, covering the fiscal year from July 2007 to June 2008. The MIT administration has agreed to cover the charges this year, but plans for who would pay similar charges next year remain uncertain.

Associate Provost for Faculty Equity Barbara H. Liskov became an Institute Professor, achieving the highest faculty rank at MIT, on July 1.

More than four weeks after Michael P. Short G was arrested after being found in an off-limits location in NW16, felony charges are still pending against him. Despite silence from officials at MIT, Short’s lawyer seems optimistic that the charges will eventually be dropped as in previous hacking-related cases.

Lecture hall 10-250, closed for renovations in the spring, will be bigger and brighter when it reopens for the first day of classes in the fall.

Eight buildings were without MIT Cable service from June 23–26. The outage was likely created by power surges related to electrical work that was being done in Next House (W71), according to the Information Services and Technology Web site 3DOWN.

Joshua S. Persky ’81, an out-of-work investment banker, has been hunting for a job on Wall Street for more than six months. Recently he got so frustrated he decided to get a little creative.

The faltering U.S. dollar, which has steadily lost value against major currencies around the world, has produced a silver lining for foreign students and the American universities that recruit them.

A prominent education professor at Harvard has begun leading “reflection” seminars at three highly selective colleges, which he hopes will push undergraduates to think more deeply about the connection between their educations and aspirations.

Jane McNabb, a 47-year employee at MIT’s Department of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography — a precursor to the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences — died on Saturday, May 24. She was 84.

Joseph F. Kuchta, who spent almost 40 years with MIT as a safety officer and later golf coach, and who was renowned for his work with Alpha Phi Omega and other charitable organizations, died on Monday, June 23. He was 88.

Robert C. Seamans Jr. ScD ’51, an MIT alumnus who was a leading NASA administrator during the Apollo program, the ninth secretary of the U.S. Air Force and the dean of MIT’s School of Engineering from 1978–81, died on June 28. He was 89.

Laura Capone, senior associate dean for the Division of Student Life, passed away on Friday, July 4, at Addison Gilbert Hospital after a battle with cancer. She was 47.

Jack B. Howard, a professor emeritus in the Department of Chemical Engineering, died on July 7 after a battle with brain cancer. He was 70.