Keeping Track...

Architects' blueprints, fundraising efforts and the hopes of a large part of the fine arts community were pushed aside this week when President Bok announced the cancellation of the Fogg Museum of Art's $7.8 million expansion plans. Bok scrapped the project, which had been planned for five years, because of a shortage of construction and operating funds.

Officials had hoped to fund the expansion by selling "redundant" art from the museum's collection, but Bok felt that scheme--criticized earlier in the week by the Association of Art Museum Directors--would be controversial enough to hurt the Fogg in the future.

Several Fogg officials and visiting committee members denounced the decision. "The Fogg has been dealt a blow from which the museum and the university it exists to serve may never recover," Seymore Slive, the museum's director, said.

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A study is ducted this fall showed that Achievement scores are a better predicator academic success than either SAT scores or high school grades. As a result, the Admissions Committee will weigh Achievement test scores more heavily this year in deciding among College applicants.

Two doctors at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital were officially censured and placed on probation by the Massachusetts Medical Society last week, because of letters of recommendation they wrote last June.

Dr. Benjamin G. Covino, head of the Anaesthesiology Department at BWH, and Dr. Aaron J. Gissen, professor of Anaesthesia, wrote highly flattering references for former resident Dr. Arif Hussain without mentioning his prior rape conviction.

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Last Monday's City Council meeting, which set a modern record by lasting only about eight minutes, stunned council observers who have come to expect anything but short sessions from the soliloquy-minded councilors. Balloting for mayor was aborted because of the absence of Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci, but next Monday's meeting will likely find the councilors well-rested and ready to go the distance in the race for the top political post on the council and in the city.

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It seems that $250 million is just not enough in these days of inflation, so the Harvard Campaign may soon raise its fundraising goal to $350 million.

The additional funds will be used to offset cuts in federal financial aid and unexpectedly high costs stemming from inflation and newly planned renovations, Thomas M. Reardon, director of University development, said last week.

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State Police discovered a suitcase belonging to Joan L. Webster last week, the first new lead in the case since the second year Graduate School of Design student disappeared last December. The baggage was discovered in a downtown Boston bus terminal.

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The venerable James Cagney and jazz immortal Elia Fitzgerald were named the Hasty Pudding Theatricals' 1982 Man and Woman of the Year. Between them, the two boast nearly a century of show business experience.

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The ghost of John F. Kennedy '40 was raised once more this week with the reminder that he had secretly taped phone calls and meetings. Though it has been known for several years that the tapes exited, the Kennedy Library released a log revealing the people--100 public officials including Kennedy's two predecessors--and the topics--several domestic and foreign crisis--on the recordings.