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NEW YORK (AP) — Pioneer photojournalist Cornell Capa, who used his pictures to illuminate social and political causes and also founded the International Center of Photography, died Friday. He was 90.

Capa, who had Parkinson's disease, died peacefully at his New York City home, the center said.

Cornell Capa was a Life magazine staff photographer from 1946 to 1954. He later joined the Paris-based Magnum agency founded by his brother Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and others. He served as president of Magnum for four years.

Cornell Capa was best known for his empathetic photo coverage on social topics, including the destruction of native cultures in Latin America, mental retardation in children, the aging of the U.S. population, Jewish heritage and youthful Wall Street entrepreneurs.

During the 1960s, Capa produced notable picture essays on the Russian Orthodox church, Moscow Ballet School, Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, and the political campaigns of Adlai Stevenson, John and Robert Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller.

Credited with coining the term "Concerned Photographer" to define the concept of using the craft to illuminate humanitarian issues, he also came up with the idea of business firms publishing annual reports, which opened up new work opportunities for Magnum's freelance photographers.

The pinnacle of Capa's creative thinking was International Center of Photography, founded in Manhattan in 1974 as a repository for his brother Robert's archives, and to collect, preserve and exhibit the work of others.

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http://www.ted.com - Sherwin Nuland, the surgeon and author, talks about the development of electroshock therapy as a cure for severe, life-threatening depression. Midway through, his story turns personal. It's a moving and deeply felt talk about relief, redemption, second chances.

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La Trobe cutbacks alarm staff

Farrah Tomazin
May 21, 2008

LA TROBE University will stop hiring non-academic staff, force senior executives to fly economy class and slash administrative spending in an emergency bid to lift itself from financial despair.

Staff at the Bundoora university fear job losses are imminent as the institution moves to "regenerate" and become more competitive.

Vice-chancellor Paul Johnson yesterday warned that La Trobe had an "inadequate financial foundation" to advance properly over the next decade.

The university will spend the next 18 months reviewing, and "where appropriate" restructuring, academic, administrative and committee areas in a bid to boost revenue for teaching and research.

Spending on administrative functions such as human resources and financing will be cut by 12% by the end of the year, and the university curriculum will be revamped with a focus on teaching.

Hiring of non-academic staff will be frozen as the university invests in at least 17 new academic positions this year.

The changes come after a period of financial difficulty at La Trobe, which had an operating deficit of $7.4 million in 2006, and a surplus of only $1.46 million — or 0.3% of total income — last year.

"We need to act now to reduce La Trobe's costs and to grow revenue," Professor Johnson wrote in a paper outlining the changes to staff yesterday. "Change in the core academic activities of the university must be planned and implemented with a clear sense of urgency."

Other changes include:

■Reducing the university car fleet from 130 to 80 vehicles to generate a one-off saving of almost $1 million and a further $144,000 in subsequent years.

■Suspending overseas graduation ceremonies, which last year cost $271,000 and 186 days of lost time.

■The creation of new research institutes to make the university more competitive.

■Changes to staff roles in a bid to make them more efficient.

■Making all staff travel in economy class when flying overseas.

In a discussion paper last year, Professor Johnson painted a picture of a university in steady decline: fewer people wanting a La Trobe degree, falling entrance marks, below-par scores on student satisfaction surveys and a dwindling proportion of national research funding.

Staff fear the changes will pave the way for job losses. "The only purpose for the exercise is to ensure that we are leaner than we are now," said Bill Deller, La Trobe's National Tertiary Education Union president. He said the university community was paying the price for decades of poor management.

Professor Johnson said an immediate rethink was needed on how the university delivered its core teaching and research activities.

"If we are to avoid a continuing cycle of cost-cutting we will need to increase revenue, and this can be done only by increasing tuition fee income and by increasing research income," he said.

Professor Johnson — the former deputy director of the prestigious London School of Economics — took over at La Trobe in April last year.

His appointment followed the controversial tenure of vice-chancellor Michael Osborne. Professor Osborne resigned in 2006 following revelations by The Age and MPs that he spent more than a third of 2003 overseas. La Trobe spent more than $620,000 on his 32 international trips from 2003 to 2005.

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