On Friday morning, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith sent an email to the Harvard community to offer what he called “a few final, general words” on the academic integrity investigation that has rocked Harvard’s campus for the past five months.

Smith’s email concerned the Administrative Board’s investigation of about 125 students in last spring’s Government 1310: “Introduction to Congress” who were accused of cheating on the class’s take-home final. He was writing, he said, “to shine a bright light on the important issue of academic integrity and what we are doing on this issue.”

In his announcement, Smith reported that more than half of the implicated students—a figure that translates to approximately 70 undergraduates—were forced to temporarily withdraw from the College following the Ad Board’s investigation. Smith wrote that of the remaining investigated students, half received probation, while the other half received no punishment.

Even so the email did not name the class and provided no precise numbers about how many students were disciplined.

One investigated student, whose case resulted in probation, said he was disappointed by the contents of Smith’s message.

“I think that it was a bunch of fluff, had absolutely no significant content, and trivialized how unfairly every student involved was treated,” said the student, who was granted anonymity by The Crimson because he was worried about retaliation from administrators.

Smith provided the details about the distribution of punishments nearly 800 words into his email, following a lengthy explanation of the general purpose and procedures of the Ad Board. Some students said they did not immediately realize Smith’s email concerned the cheating scandal.

“I didn’t even read all the way through the email because I thought it was just another administrative announcement,” said Emily J. Reese ’14, who took Government 1310 last spring and was not investigated by the Ad Board. “I deleted it right away.”

Several accused students said the email also failed to address lingering questions about the scandal, the way it was handled, and what criteria were used to reach their decisions.

The father of a varsity athlete implicated in the scandal said he was frustrated that the email did not acknowledge the mistakes that he believes Harvard made over the course of the investigation.

“I find the whole letter insulting and offensive,” said the man, whose son lost NCAA eligibility after he was forced to withdraw late in the fall term. “There’s been no acknowledgment of [Harvard’s] responsibility.”

In his email, Smith wrote that due to the “unprecedented number and complexity of cases,” some students did not receive their verdicts until December, more than three months after the investigation was announced.

Delays in the investigation also caused concern among implicated students about tuition payments. According to the student handbook, students who withdrew from the College for any reason this past fall were required to pay tuition in increasing increments up to $18,788 after the Sept. 11 study card day. But to “create greater financial equity” for students who received their decisions later than others, Smith announced in his email Friday that anyone who was asked to withdraw after Sept. 30 would be issued refunds for all tuition paid past that date.

The father of the accused varsity athlete, as well as another implicated student, said that while they appreciated Harvard’s gesture, they questioned its timing, saying that the move seemed like a last-minute public relations effort.

The latter student, who was notified in late August that his case would go before the Ad Board, said Smith’s email came too late for him. Last fall, he decided to withdraw even before his case was heard so that he would not be a financial burden on his family.

“I had to make a hard decision with my family and withdraw, which included implicitly admitting to something I did not do, because I couldn’t be sure when my case was going to be heard,” he said. “My biggest consideration in terms of withdrawing was the tuition increase.”

That student said he was dismayed when he learned of Smith’s email, which was sent to the Harvard community around 11 a.m. Friday morning. He had been notified of Harvard’s decision to reimburse his tuition earlier that morning, just hours before Smith sent his message to the Harvard community, according to a copy of the student’s letter obtained by The Crimson.

In an emailed statement, Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesperson Jeff Neal declined to comment on when Harvard made its decision to partially refund tuition for students who were required to withdraw.

“Communications about tuition, fees and financial aid are between the College and students and their families,” he wrote.

The student newspaper’s board of directors — composed of alumni of the paper and local journalists and business leaders —drafted a memoWednesday detailing new responsibilities for the paper’s professional staff, which has grown over the past few months.

The paper has always had a professional adviser to give the editorial staff guidance, but The Red & Black’s editors maintained final editorial control. But, under the restructuring, editorial adviser Ed Morales’ title was changed to editorial director, and he was given final say over all editorial content.

In response, the paper’s top editors and many reporters left the paper in protest, many in a formal walkout on Wednesday. They created a new website, called The Red and Dead.

Among other requests, the memo said the paper should be doing more “good” stories about positive events at the school, and less negative, critical stories.

Referring to the “bad” stories, the memo, which was written by board member Ed Stamper said, “I guess this is journalism.”

Though no students remain at the paper, according to the staffers who quit, a statement from the board of directors says the paper continues to be an “independent student media organization.” It encouraged interested UGA students to apply for editorial posts.

The board’s statement said the changes were made in the students’ best interest.

“The changes reflect our board’s optimism and the recognition that we must maintain pace in a rapidly changing world of news delivery beyond our traditional print format,” the statement said. “The board is a volunteer group comprised of former The Red & Black staff and other journalists and business leaders, who have a passion for its heritage and wish to see it remain strong and independent for decades to come.”

The former staff said in a statement Wednesday that approval by an editorial director prior to publishing is not an option.

“It inhibits the teaching process, preventing student journalists from learning from both their successes and mistakes,” the staff’s statement said. “But it is the opinion of The Red & Black’s board that allowing students to make these mistakes as learning journalists will drive away readers. We disagree — and it is our hope that these issues are resolved quickly so that student-driven and student-approved content can continue to be the priority of The Red & Black Publishing Company, as it has been for more than a century.”

Polina Marinova, the paper’s editor-in-chief, said in a statement Wednesday that she wasn’t notified of the board’s changes. In fact, it wasn’t until Marinova e-mailed a board member that she understood the gravity of the situation.

“Even then, nothing was solidified, and I still do not even know what the print product will look like in a week,” Marinova said. “I’ve worked at this paper since I was a freshman and held multiple leadership positions throughout. This semester, we have a really talented, smart and dedicated staff that had no voice in these changes. It all came from the top, not from the students.”

UGA Senior Evan Stichler — a former chief photographer at the Red and Black who is now running the Red and Dead’s Twitter and other social media accounts — said in an interview Thursday that the board has recently taken an aggressive top-down approach, where the students have little say in how the paper is run.

“It used to not be this way,” Stichler said.

“We used to be a seriously-run student newspaper, and as the past couple of months — and especially days and weeks — have progressed, it has gone into a marketing newspaper, where they’ve been trying to get clicks on the website, and to get people to like it on Facebook.”

Stichler said the board wanted student journalists to write specific stories and even instructed the paper’s photographers to take posed photos — a practice that is considered questionable in photojournalism.

He added that the board was unreasonable in suggesting that the paper wasn’t delivering balanced coverage. He said the paper’s coverage was “50-50” between positive and negative news stories.

Though much of the conflict revolves around the role of Morales, the editorial director, Stichler said the conflict is not about his personal behavior.

“I have been a fan of Mr. Morales. He’s been a great adviser; he does a great job when the newspaper is produced,” Stichler said, noting that Morales has simply been caught in the middle of the conflict.

Morales could not be reached for comment Friday morning.

The student journalists met with the board in a closed meeting Thursday. The board refused to speak with the students on-the-record, meaning the students would not be able to report anything that occurred during the meeting.

“Our goal is to return to The Red & Black as a student-sourced, student-written, student-designed and student-approved publication, as the paper has been since it broke from the University,” the Red and Dead staff said in a statement after the meeting.

Until negotiations are settled, Stichler said the Red and Dead staff will continue to write stories regarding campus events, UGA sports and other topics on the Red and Dead blog.

The Red and Black’s website is still being updated with staff reports and newswire stories, and an advertisement for a recruitment open house at the paper was posted this morning. Stichler said it’s likely that the board’s editorial director, Ed Morales is posting the content.

According to the release, the warning came as a result of the findings of former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s investigative report and the binding consent decree between the university and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Accreditation is the act of granting credit or recognition, especially regarding an educational institution that maintains suitable standards. The Middle States Commission is recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, according to the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs website.

The Commission’s warning states there is “insufficient evidence that the institution is currently in compliance with the Requirements of Affiliation 5 (compliance with all applicable government policies, regulations and requirements) and 9 (institution’s governing body responsibility for the quality and integrity of the institution, for ensuring that the institution’s mission is being carried out and for making freely available to the commission accurate, fair and complete information on all aspects of the institution and its operations) and with Standard 4 (Leadership and Governance) and Standard 6 (Integrity).”

“We must be clear about what this warning means so there are no misunderstandings,” said Blannie Bowen, vice provost for academic affairs, who also is the University’s accrediting liaison officer, according to the release. “This action has nothing to do with the quality of education our students receive. Middle States is focusing on governance, integrity and financial issues related to information in the Freeh report and other items related to our current situation.”

The Commission has required Penn State to submit a monitoring report no later than September 30, and Erickson said he is “confident” Penn State will meet that deadline.

“We are a University that is fully committed to its core values of honesty, integrity and community. We are a University that will rebuild the trust and confidence that so many people have had in us for so many years,” Erickson said, according to the release.

According to its website, the Commission is an association “that defines, maintains and promotes educational excellence across institutions with diverse missions, student populations and resources. It examines each institution as a whole, rather than specific programs within institutions.”

The Commission has been a voluntary, non-governmental membership association since 1919.

Erickson has said that Penn State is already working toward implementing the 119 recommendations that the Freeh investigators outlined for Penn State.The Penn State Board of Trustees hired Freeh’s group of investigators in November to look into how some university officials handled reports that former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was abusing boys.

Kim’s appointment marks the end of his almost three-year tenure as the College’s 17th president and the first Asian-American president of an Ivy League institution. Kim will take leadership of the international financial institution, designed to reduce poverty through loans to developing countries, after current Bank president Robert Zoellick, steps down on June 30, according to the Associated Press. Zoellick announced his resignation in February.

The Board of Trustees will announce the College’s interim president on Tuesday, Chairman of the Board Stephen Mandel said in a statement to The Dartmouth. The head of the search committee that will select Dartmouth’s 18th president will be announced on Thursday, according to Director of Media Relations Justin Anderson.

In a White House press release, President Barack Obama called Kim “an inclusive leader who will bring to the Bank a passion for and deep knowledge of development, a commitment to sustained economic growth and the ability to respond to complex challenges and seize new opportunities.”

President Obama announced Kim as the United States’ nominee for the position on March 23, citing the need for a “development professional to lead the world’s largest development bank.” Since then, Kim has embarked on a worldwide “listening tour” in Latin America, Asia and Africa to meet with World Bank stakeholders and rally support for his candidacy.

Kim stressed the importance of private sector growth and job creation worldwide in an interview with the Wall Street Journal during a stop on his tour in Lima, Peru. He said he will prioritize laying the groundwork for “rapid economic growth” and hopes for “very strong consensus” once he begins his presidential duties on July 1.

Kim said he will need to “hit the ground running” to be effective at the Bank, and that the Bank itself needs work toward becoming more responsive to the needs of developing countries and efficient in its responses. “Decentralization” and “simplification” will be key in making the bank a viable tool for countries in need, he said.

Kim’s appointment is a “great thing” for the institution, according to Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Development.

“He’s far and away the best president they’ve ever had, and it’s unprecedented for someone like him to lead the World Bank,” Weisbrot said in an interview with The Dartmouth. “He’s a very different kind of person than everyone they’ve ever had before. He’s spent most of his adult life trying to help poor people, while the previous presidents were getting rich and maintaining their connections.”

On Friday, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced that Kim’s “considerable professional qualities, as well as his experience and knowledge,” made him worthy of Russia’s endorsement for the position, as well as the nation’s support during voting by the Bank’s board of directors, according to Reuters. Russia joined the United States, Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Korea and European nations in publicly backing Kim’s candidacy.

The third candidate for the position, Columbia University professor and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo, dropped out of the race on Friday.

Kim’s election to the position comes despite criticism from some observers that his relative lack of economic experience made him an inferior candidate and amidst pressure from leaders in many developing nations that the Bank’s head — who has always been American since the Bank’s inception in 1944 — should come from amongst their own ranks.

Because the United States has the largest percentage of the vote of any single country and Europe represents the organization’s largest voting bloc, the World Bank has always been led by an American, drawing complaints from economists and leaders in the developing world. In 2010, the United States joined other Bank shareholders in pledging to uphold transparent, merit-based processes in the selection of the next president, according to CNN. Part of this transparency involved interviews between the candidates and the Bank’s board, but many said the interviews remain more of a formality than a vetting process to determine the best nominee.

Okonjo-Iweala congratulated Kim on his new position but told reporters that the Bank’s decision was not based on merit and instead relied on “political weight and shares,” according to the Associated Foreign Press. While she expected Kim to get the job, Okonjo-Iweala said her “credible and merit-based” candidacy has provided “food for thought” and set a precedent for candidates from developing countries.

The United State’s traditional monopoly over the Bank presidency is “ridiculous,” and Obama was “lucky” that he picked a worthwhile candidate in Kim, Weisbrot said.

“The developing countries will have to move earlier on this in the future because this time they didn’t have anybody nominated until a couple days before the deadline closed,” he said. “It’s going to take effort for them to come to a consensus and agree on a candidate. They couldn’t win the battle this time, and we just got lucky that Kim is a great candidate.”

Both Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo were announced as candidates after the deadline for nominations to replace Zoellick had passed.

Kim’s work prior to assuming the College presidency in 2009 was largely in the public health sector. He graduated from Brown U. with a major in human biology in 1982, earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1991 and completed his doctorate in anthropology at Harvard University in 1993. He served as the chair of the department of global health and social medicine at HMS and has worked extensively on research about treatment for drug-resistant HIV/AIDS.

He is the co-founder of Partners in Health, a non-profit organization that works to improve health care access in low-income communities worldwide. In 2004, the World Health Organization chose Kim to head its “3 by 5” initiative, which aimed to treat three million HIV/AIDS patients by 2005.

Kim’s departure after just three years may present difficulties for his colleagues, especially those at the Center for Health Care Delivery Science, according to Forbes Magazine. Experts said they hope Kim will be able to leverage his unique experience in health policy and his anthropological understanding of local cultural dynamics to help the world’s poorest communities.

His comparative lack of economic experience concerned some experts, leading a group of 39 former World Bank managers to write a letter to the Bank’s board endorsing Okonjo-Iweala, according to Bloomberg News.

In his interview with the Bank’s board, Kim tried to assuage concerns about his readiness for the job, insisting that he would “ask hard questions about the status quo” and “challenge existing orthodoxies,” according to a U.S. Treasury Department press release. Kim said his “global orientation” gained from work with PIH and the WHO will make him attuned to the needs of developing nations.

South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the decision shows the need for reform to both the Bank and the International Monetary Fund in order to increase transparency and lessen the control of the “established powers” over the organizations’ decision-making processes, according to the AP.

Kim will need to focus on the global future of health care and education, as well as reducing “some of the harm” that the Bank’s policies have caused when he assumes his presidential post, according to Weisbrot.

“The World Bank often gets it wrong when they intervene in the area of economic policy, and that’s not their strong point anyway,” Weisbrot said. “The more they stay out of it, the better. The Bank also tends to follow the International Monetary Fund’s lead on economic policies. Hopefully he can put an end to that or at least reduce it.”

Weisbrot said Kim should strive to put an end to the Bank’s “procyclical policies,” whereby it cuts government spending in countries experiencing recessions or weak economies.

Psychologist Alycia A. Chambers’ report, obtained by NBC News, was penned more than a decade before the former Penn State assistant football coach was charged with 52 counts of child sexual abuse involving boys he met through The Second Mile, a charity he founded for underprivileged children.

In an interview with NBC News, Chambers said there was very little doubt in her mind that Sandusky was “a male predator.” She said she believed her 1998 report was “strong enough” that police would know Sandusky was “somebody who should be watched.”

Chambers was the psychologist for the man labeled in the grand jury presentment as “Victim 6.”

According to the report obtained by NBC News, the mother of “Victim 6” called Chambers to tell her about an incident involving Sandusky and her son showering together.

After questioning the 11-year-old boy about the shower incident, Chambers gave the report to University Police Officer Ronald Schreffler on May 7, 1998, NBC News reported.

Investigators asked psychologist John Seasock to meet with “Victim 6.” Seasock concluded that “all the interactions reported by (the boy) can be typically defined as normal between a healthy adult and a young adolescent male,” according to the report obtained by NBC News.

Sandusky continued to call and visit the apartment of “Victim 6.” Police monitored two confrontations between Sandusky and the boy’s mother, NBC News reported.

The mother asked Sandusky if his private parts touched her son when Sandusky hugged him. Sandusky replied, “I don’t think so. …Maybe.” Sandusky told the mother that he has done the same with other boys, according to the report obtained by NBC News.

Schreffler and Jerry Lauro, who worked in the state Department of Public Welfare, interviewed Sandusky as part of their investigation, NBC News reported.

They could not conclude if “a sexual assault occurred,” so the case was dismissed.

Sandusky has maintained his innocence through his attorney. Joe Amendola told NBC News that during Sandusky’s trial he will call other psychologists to counter the conclusions reached by Chambers.

Amendola released a statement today reacting to the releasing of the information in the report, saying “we are troubled.” Amendola said the Office of the Attorney General has only provided him with parts of the 1998 police reports, not including the reports from Chambers and Seasock. He said he is now left to speculate “on what other critical information the Attorney General has failed to provide to the defense team.”

Penn State University Police deferred all comment to the Office of University Relations. Penn State Spokeswoman Lisa Powers wrote in an email that she could not comment on issues related to Sandusky investigations, past or present. The university is fully cooperating with the United States Attorney General, the Pennsylvania Attorney General and Judge Louis Freeh, who is conducting an independent investigation, she wrote.

The Associated Press reported on Saturday that as recently as 2007, the NYPD monitored the websites of Muslim student groups at universities including Columbia, Yale, U. Pennsylvania, and New York U., and embedded undercover agents in Muslim groups at several other schools.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger and Barnard President Debora Spar both expressed opposition to the NYPD’s actions on Tuesday. Bollinger told Spectator in a statement that the University neither knew about nor took part in police surveillance of its students.

“We want to be sure our Muslim community knows that we support everyone’s right to carry on their lives and their studies without the feeling of being watched by a government that exists to protect us all,” Bollinger said.

Bollinger also emphasized the importance of students’ rights to free speech and worship as “essential values of any great university.”

“We are deeply concerned about any government activity that would chill the freedom of thought or intrude upon student privacy, both of which are so essential to our academic community,” he said.

In an email to Barnard students, faculty, and administrators, Spar said that Barnard’s Department of Public Safety “does not participate in or condone unlawful surveillance or monitoring of any kind, with any law enforcement agency, including the NYPD.”

“The College is firmly committed to protecting the civil liberties of our students and stands by the Muslim Students Association in its concerns about the actions of the NYPD and its calls for further explanation,” Spar said.

Muslim Religious Life Advisor Khalil Abdur-Rashid, who works out of the office of the University chaplain, said he was pleased with Bollinger’s statement, adding, “I’m happy it came out and that he stepped up.”

“The president of NYU is having a town hall meeting about the issue … we got amazing statements from the presidents of Yale and NYU and from President Spar,” he said. “This isn’t a Muslim issue. It’s a student issue.”

Columbia’s Muslim Students Association released a statement on its website Tuesday expressing frustration and disappointment with the NYPD.

“We are disturbed by the fact that Muslim students are targeted and profiled based on their ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs alone without any evidence or suspicion of wrongdoing,” the statement read.

The MSA added that it has contacted administrators about working together to ensure the safety of Muslim students.

“We hope that President Bollinger, President Spar and the University will stand with our community … and protect the student body from any violation of our civil rights,” MSA said in its statement.

Abdur-Rashid said that he’d like to put together a small group of representatives from the MSA, Hillel, and other student groups to meet with Bollinger.

Students “need continued reassurance that he [Bollinger] understands their grief and that he’s working 100 percent,” Abdur-Rashid said. “They can thank him for his leadership directly and allow him to reinforce the points in his letter about ensuring their safety on campus.”

He added that he is concerned about Columbia’s image in the wake of the reported surveillance.

“As a parent, I’d be concerned about my Muslim child coming to this campus,” he said.

Not all reactions to the reported police monitoring have been negative. Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the NYPD’s actions on Tuesday as legitimate efforts in the fight against terrorism, the New York Times reported.

“The police department goes where there are allegations, and they look to see whether those allegations are true,” Bloomberg said.

Abdur-Rashid is concerned that the news of police surveillance could adversely affect Columbia’s Muslim students.

“You can’t miss the fact that they have a lot of pressure on them already,” he said. “There is an entire population of immigrant students who don’t understand what it means for NYPD police officers to come into a prayer space.”

The hope is that this new policy will make it so that Connecticut teachers are constantly evaluated to ensure that students are receiving a high standard of education year after year. Malloy has taken great measures to make it clear that he is pro-teacher. However, this decision could potentially represent a huge change in the way that the Connecticut education system is looked at. The commitment must always be to the students’ education first and foremost, and if a tenured teacher is not providing an adequate education, then there is a need to make a change. Less stringent tenure rules in the state is a step forward for that philosophy.

Adults who devote their careers to teaching the state’s youth deserve a lot of respect. However, simply devoting your heart to education isn’t enough anymore. Students are growing up in an increasingly competitive world. The hope now is that what Malloy uses to evaluate teachers on to earn their tenure is a realistic test of their abilities in the classroom. Education is a system of relative growth, and it’s important that any teachers hoping to gain tenure understand that their performance needs to reach a certain level of excellence and maintain it. The hope is that the governor’s process for evaluating teachers holds to this philosophy and takes a more personal approach to the issue than what exists in other aspects of the Connecticut education system.

Education cannot be an automated process dictated by the state government. It needs to be about effectiveness in the classroom and not just scores on a test or numbers on a page. While those things can be useful and important, the fact of the matter is that Connecticut owes it to younger generations to do everything necessary, including the awkward revisit of teacher tenure laws, to ensure that the people who are educating them are up to date, continually effective and not complacent in their tenured position.

So it was. The housing market soon crashed. Now, looking at the costs of private higher education, typically in the range of $40,000-$50,000 per year, it seems clear that they, too, have become unsustainable. Like the housing market, the market for higher education — already undercut by online education factories — is headed for collapse. For a long time, both markets were propped up by debt, but that has reached a saturation point in education as it did in housing. Student loans, once mainly confined to pricey medical and law school programs, have now become the largest single source of private indebtedness in the United States. That isn’t just impossible to sustain. It’s an outrage and a disgrace, and it points to a general systemic crisis that transcends the academy. Affordable housing, health care and education are the three prerequisites of a functioning society. At present, we provide none of them to a growing segment of our population.

In each of these areas, costs have been rising in excess of the general inflation rate for decades; in health care and higher education, they still are. When a product costs more on the market, it is supposed to be the result either of a scarcity of supply or a surplus in demand. Neither is the case in academia. The national population is growing only very modestly, and there is no shortage of universities. The principal cost factor in higher education — productive labor — is actually declining. In real dollar terms, my own salary is less than it was when I came to Drexel U. 25 years ago, and I am sure my situation is not unique among the faculty. But labor costs have been driven down far more radically by the transformation of the academy itself. Whereas a quarter century ago it still consisted largely of tenured faculty, a majority of courses are now taught by a nontenured proletariat whose salaries and benefits (if any) are sharply lower than those of their older and fast-disappearing tenured colleagues, whose classroom workloads are higher and who are, for the most part, subject to dismissal at pleasure. This means, in bureaucratic terms, a cheaper and more disposable workforce. Add to this the proliferation of online courses (particularly popular at Drexel), which require next to no investment in physical plant and support services, and you have a lean and very mean academic delivery system whose costs should be going down, not up.

There is no single explanation for the actual rise in college costs, but there is a single driving force behind them. Lest you distrust me as a source, I refer you to Mark G. Yudof, who, as president of the U. California system, is the preeminent bureaucrat in academia today. Yudof, interviewed recently on PBS, offered one flat reason for the price explosion in higher education: “Administration.”

This will, of course, come as no surprise to anyone who has spent time in academia. In 1975 there was one administrator per 84 students and one nonacademic staff member per 50. By 2005 these ratios were 50 and 21, respectively. At the same time, faculty-to-student ratios remained constant while per-unit costs, as explained above, declined. Put another way: In 1975 there were 178,000 more faculty than administrators and support staff. In 2005 there were 181,000 more administrators and staff than faculty. That, to put it mildly, is crazy. It is also expensive.

The American university was not underbureaucratized in 1975; it is superbureaucratized today. The explanation lies in the corporatization of the modern university. It is not simply that corporate values have come to dominate the academy, but that a corporate management structure has replaced the older system in which administrators, typically drawn from and ultimately returning to faculty ranks, shared governance responsibilities with faculty representatives and senates, with whom they negotiated faculty salaries, benefits and working conditions (though not their own). This model, while far from perfect, did function after a fashion. It has almost completely vanished today. A professional administrative class has grown up with no experience of teaching or research and scant respect for accomplishment in either, except as it can be quantified as contributing to “profit centers.” This class has feathered its nest handsomely and redefined the work of the university in terms of what it does — compile reports, attend meetings and engross itself in mission statements and five-year plans, which always entail the need for more administration.

Not only has the number of administrators grown exponentially, but so have their salaries, particularly at higher levels. Drexel made national headlines recently with the revelation that it paid out $4.9 million in compensation and benefits to the estate of President Papadakis. This kind of Caesarean largesse was not long ago inconceivable in higher education, but of course, it is only modest compared to the payouts of other corporate executives. Welcome to the world of what one observer has called “the all-administrative university.”

Academia has become, in fact, a sweetheart racket for its beneficiaries. Universities have partnered with private businesses in profit-sharing enterprises while they themselves retain tax-exempt status. The corporatized university has also become the commoditized one, as we witness the chastity belt of businesses and private apartments growing up around Creese and MacAlister on our own campus. And, of course, universities that specialize in sports programs, like a certain neighbor in Happy Valley, reap neofeudal profits from athletic serfs who get room, board and emergency medical attention but are barred from earning a penny off the millions their labor generates. Like the Egyptian military, American higher education has branched out into areas of civil activity it was never designed for and — so far — enjoys privileges and exemptions denied to others with whom it competes. That state of affairs cannot last indefinitely. Nor should it.

President Obama has fired a shot across the bows of higher education in warning that if college costs continue to go up, government subvention will go down. This may not be an idle threat, and it signals that public patience is wearing thin. The problem is that education for participation in a democratic society has been so weakened, disenfranchised and compromised that it is hardly up to the task of defending itself, let alone engaging a wider community. That has been the tragedy of academia in my generation. When the reckoning comes, though, faculty and administration may find themselves in the same boat. They will then have no one to blame but each other.

Brown anticipates that California will face a $9.2 billion deficit through June 2013 in the state’s general fund. In order to help mitigate the deficit, he hopes to raise the sales tax and certain income taxes through putting a nearly $7 billion ballot initiative before voters.

Should the November ballot initiative fail, the plan’s $200 million cut to the UC would follow a year in which the system saw its budget hammered by $750 million in state budget cuts. But if voters approve the initiative, the plan provides an ongoing $90 million General Fund increase to the UC for base operating costs — funding which the plan states could be used for retirement program contributions.

Patrick Lenz, the university’s vice president for budget and capital resources, lauded the operating cost increase in a statement Thursday.

“We applaud the governor’s willingness to grant UC leadership maximum flexibility in navigating these fiscal times,” Lenz said in the statement. “The administration’s focus on protecting higher education from further budget reductions is a welcome relief, and the governor’s stated desire for a long-term state investment is encouraging.”

Lenz said in the statement that the university will continue to use administrative efficiencies to cut down on costs and is currently seeking alternate sources of revenue to bolster its income. He added that the university intends to work with Brown and the state legislature on developing a long-term plan “that would give the university much-needed financial stability.”

In the past, the university has relied on large tuition increases to offset the impact of cuts from the state.

But UC spokesperson Steve Montiel said in an email that it is “too early to speculate” whether the university would see tuition increases should the cuts occur.

Though Brown’s office had originally intended to release the budget Jan. 10, he held a press conference Thursday after the budget was erroneously published on the Department of Finance’s website, according to major media outlets.

“I’m not saying (the budget plan) is perfect, I’m just saying this is the best that our finance department and myself could come up with,” Brown said at the press conference.

The plan also proposes that both the UC and California State University — which would also be cut $200 million under the plan if voters do not approve the ballot initiative to raise taxes — begin budgeting for capital improvement projects as part of their overall fiscal plans. State appropriations for such projects were formerly budgeted and adjusted for separately.

Additionally, various budgetary set-asides for specific UC programs and purposes such as AIDS research and the Summer School for Mathematics and Sciences are removed in Brown’s budget plan.

The plan calls for $4.2 billion in base-level state cuts, including reductions in welfare and child care services. If voters reject the tax increases, state K-12 schools and community colleges would be cut $4.8 billion.

“I can tell you that the best thinking from the executive branch is this budget is a good road map to get us through a solid fiscal program we can live with,” Brown said. “If there’s a better way to do it, I’m totally open to it.”

Alisha Azevedo of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.

The conference said it will “reserve the right to impose sanctions, corrective or other disciplinary measures in the event that adverse findings are made in the areas of institutional control, ethical conduct and/or other Conference related matters.”

Here’s the statement in its entirety:

Park Ridge, Ill. – The Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors (COP/C) held its regularly scheduled meeting this week with several items on its Agenda, including the series of events recently unfolding at Penn State University.

With regard to the Penn State matter, the Big Ten office issued the following statement on behalf of the COP/C:

The Big Ten Presidents and Chancellors express their sincere concern for any harm done to innocent young victims and their families. Protection of our children is one of society’s most central responsibilities and institutions of higher education should be particularly vigilant. We are committed to examining our own institutions to assure that effective measures are taken to assure the safety of children on our campuses.

It has been approximately one month since the initial release of the Grand Jury report in the Penn State matter and a number of federal, state and institutional investigations have been launched. While it is premature to reach any conclusions regarding civil or criminal liability arising out of these events, there does appear to be sufficient information to raise significant concerns as to whether a concentration of power in a single individual or program may have threatened or eroded institutional control of intercollegiate athletics at Penn State.

As a result, the COP/C has determined that:

· It will gather and review the facts arising out of the allegations in the Grand Jury report that pertain to matters of institutional control, ethical conduct and/or other compliance related issues;

· It will request from Penn State University and the NCAA that Big Ten legal counsel be allowed to participate in the investigations or reviews, as the case may be, being conducted by Penn State and the NCAA as pertain to these issues; and

· It will reserve the right to impose sanctions, corrective or other disciplinary measures in the event that adverse findings are made in the areas of institutional control, ethical conduct and/or other Conference related matters.

In addition, the COP/C discussed the imperative of maintaining the public’s trust in the integrity of its member institutions and, in earning and deserving this trust, the importance of asserting each institution’s control over its intercollegiate athletics programs. The COP/C recognized and acknowledged that from time to time its institutions have failed to maintain the proper control of their athletics programs and that whenever this occurs at one institution in the Conference, due to the common bonds and shared values of the members of the Big Ten, each other member of the Conference is impacted. Accordingly, the COP/C has directed the Conference to initiate an immediate review of the fundamental issues and systems affecting intercollegiate athletics, including the serious issues relating to the institutional control of athletics. It intends for this review to lead to the consideration of a common set of “stress tests” or other criteria that could be applied by the Conference to its member institutions (a) to insure that each member is responsible and accountable to the collective membership of the Conference for the control and operation of its intercollegiate athletics programs as well as (b) to prevent anyone, whether a trustee, administrator, faculty member, athletic director, coach, booster or otherwise, from eroding the effectiveness of an institution’s practices and procedures designed to protect the institution’s integrity and control over its intercollegiate athletic programs. The COP/C intends for the review to be completed and for the proposed standards, stress tests and other criteria, along with the proposed enforcement procedures and penalties, to be presented to it for consideration at a special meeting to be held in spring 2012.

In addition to prompting Fine’s firing, these developments caused the university’s head basketball coach Jim Boeheim to apologize for comments he made earlier this month in which he said one of Fine’s accusers was “lying” and that “the kid behind this is trying to get money.” Although a police investigation of Fine’s conduct is still ongoing and he should be presumed innocent until proven guilty in accordance with due process, the response that the allegations elicited from Boeheim is a sad follow-up to the recent revelation that Joe Paterno failed to notify law enforcement authorities about allegations of child molestation lodged against Jerry Sandusky, one of his assistant football coaches while at Penn State. These two situations are evidence that major institutions such as colleges and universities need to offer better guidance to employees about how they should handle allegations of sexual misconduct that are filed against their colleagues so as to ensure that accusations are properly investigated and victims are not intimidated into silence.

Chief among the recommendations should be that employees refrain from publicly commenting about allegations of which they lack direct knowledge out of deference for the potential victims of abuse. One of the greatest hurdles to successfully bringing child molesters to justice is that victims often are unwilling to come forward because of the backlash they fear from friends, family and other members of their communities. This concern is amplified in cases such as the one at Syracuse, where the alleged perpetrator is a person of prominence who has a strong public reputation and many resources available to defend himself. Institutions should make clear to their employees that while they are entitled to defend themselves as Boeheim did when accused of knowing about Fine’s alleged misconduct, it is wholly unacceptable to impugn the motives of those who accuse their colleagues.

Moreover, institutions should make clear that employees have a duty to report any credible complaints of sexual misconduct to law enforcement officials in addition to their superiors within the organization. Even when the proper internal procedures are in place for handling such accusations, those charged with carrying them out may be influenced by personal desires to protect their friends or institutions. These shortcomings were on vivid display at Penn State, where members of the athletic department are alleged to have covered up the accusations against Sandusky in the interests of sparing the university a potential scandal.

They are evident to a lesser extent at Syracuse, where Boeheim demonstrated a significant bias in favor of his assistant coach by immediately calling into question the character of those accusing him of abuse. Although no evidence yet exists to suggest that Boeheim had knowledge of the allegations beyond what the university and police investigated in 2005, his attitude suggests that had complaints been brought to his attention alone he might have viewed them with skepticism and been hesitant to take action.

Fortunately, U. Virginia has already indicated a willingness to review its own approach to addressing allegations of misconduct in light of these scandals. “I want U.Va. to learn from negative events that happen at any university … and to model for our students how we can continue to learn and improve,” President Teresa A. Sullivan told the Board of Visitors shortly after Paterno’s firing at Penn State. Although it is far too late to rectify the injustices done to past victims of child sex abuse, Sullivan should follow through on her pledge to engage in institutional self-reflection so that members of the University community will know how to react should such distressing incidents occur here in the future.

PHILADELPHIA – Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Louis Freeh will lead Penn State’s newly created Special Committee in an independent investigation of the university’s actions surrounding the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case.

Chairman of the committee Ken Frazier, president and CEO of Merck and Co., announced at a press conference Monday that Freeh was chosen to lead the probe based on his “unimpeachable and unparalleled experience in law and criminal justice.” Frazier later added Freeh has no previous connection to Penn State or Pennsylvania.

Freeh will investigate the facts that have arisen after the grand jury presentment of Jerry Sandusky was released Nov. 5, and the investigation as a whole will include a review of events dating back as early as 1975. Since the grand jury presentment was publicized, the Board of Trustees announced the end of both former Penn State President Graham Spanier and former head football coach Joe Paterno’s careers at the university. Former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Interim Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Gary Schultz have resigned – in Curley’s case, temporarily. Schultz returned to retirement.

The investigation’s findings will be used to make changes to university policy with a heavy focus on how to report criminal behavior to law enforcement, Frazier said.

“I am committed to ensuring that our independent investigation be conducted in a thorough, fair, comprehensive manner, leaving no stone unturned, and without any fear or favor,” Freeh said. “We will examine all the relevant records, evidence, information, facts circumstances. We will attempt to interview all necessary and appropriate witnesses.”

Freeh said he initiated the investigation in the last 48 hours with the review of the grand jury presentment. Other documents are next in line to be reviewed that date back to 1975, he said. In 1977, Sandusky founded The Second Mile and took over as the defensive coordinator for the Penn State football team.

Freeh has also contacted the Attorney General’s office, but has yet to contact Pennsylvania State Police or University Police. The cooperation of both law enforcement agencies will be requested in the upcoming days, he said.

Though police assistance in the investigation is essential, Freeh emphasized he isn’t conducting a “criminal investigation.” But if any criminality arises, he said it will be reported to law enforcement.

“If our investigation identifies any additional victims of sexual crimes against, or exploitation of children, we will immediately report this to law enforcement authorities,” Freeh said.

Freeh said there won’t be scrutiny as to who is investigated and questioned. Every trustee and university employee is fair game, he said.

Freeh also requested the assistance of the public in the investigation. Those who wish to communicate any information to the committee can do so via a phone hotline, (855)-290-3382, or via email at PSUhelp@freehgroup.com.

Neither Freeh or Frazier could specify how long the investigation will last. Frazier also couldn’t specify how much the investigation is costing the university financially.

The Board of Trustees announced that a special committee would be created after Schultz and Curley, who have each been charged with perjury and failure to report, resigned. Frazier and Ron Tomalis, the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and trustee, were respectively named chairman and vice chairmain at the trustee meeting Nov. 11.

The Special Committee is comprised of nine members, including:
- Chairman Ken Frazier, CEO and president of Merck and Co. and trustee
- Vice chairman Ron Tomalis, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and trustee
- Mark Dambly, president of Pennrose Properties, LLC and trustee
- Jesse Arnelle, attorney and trustee
- Keith Eckel, sole proprietor and president of Fred W. Eckel and Sons Farms, Inc., board chairman of Nationwide Insurance and a trustee
- Karen Peetz, vice chairwoman and CEO of Financial Markets and Treasury Services, Bank of New York Mellon and a trustee
- Dan Hagen, chairman of Faculty Senate and a professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences
- Rodney Hughes, graduate student and former student trustee

A former student trustee whose term just ended this year, Hughes (graduate-higher education) represents the lone student voice on the committee.

“The decision was made to choose one student, Frazier said. “We didn’t at the outset decide whether that would be a graduate student or an undergraduate student. We wanted to have one representative of the student body and that’s what we’ve done.”

Hughes, who earned his undergraduate degree at University Park and is now pursing a Ph.D. in higher education, said he hopes he’ll be able to represent the student body on the committee.

“It’s hard to think of the situation in positive terms,” he said. “But I’m going to do the best I can.”

The Pennsylvania State U. is without its longtime president and iconic football coach, effective immediately.

The Penn State Board of Trustees announced its unanimous decision to fire former University President Graham Spanier and former head football coach Joe Paterno Wednesday night.

Executive Vice President and Provost Rodney Erickson and assistant football coach Tom Bradley will serve as interim university president and interim head football coach, respectively.

The decision — which trustees said was made in the best long-term interest for students — comes five days after the release of the grand jury presentment describing alleged incidents of sexual abuse of children by former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

The Penn State Board of Trustees met at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. Board of Trustees Vice Chairman John Surma read the announcement and then fielded questions for twenty minutes.

The board felt it made the right decision under the circumstances, he said.

“We hope in the long run, students will agree the direction the trustees have taken is in the best interests of the students,” Surma said.

Shortly after Surma’s announcement, Paterno released a statement, expressing his disappointment at the decision, but urged the Penn State community to remain loyal to the university and what it stands for.

“I have been incredibly blessed to spend my entire career working with people I love,” Paterno said. “I am grateful beyond words to all of the coaches, players and staff who have been a part of this program. And to all of our fans and supporters, my family and I will be forever in your debt.”

Paterno was told of the trustees’ decision via phone, Surma said, though he declined to comment on Paterno’s reaction.

“[Paterno] has made a great contribution to the university, we all agree on that,” Surma said.

Earlier Wednesday, Paterno released a statement that he would resign at the end of the 2011 season.

“I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind: To serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care,” Paterno said in the statement. “I have the same goal today. That’s why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season.”

Assistant coach Mike McQueary, the graduate assistant who witnessed an alleged sexual incident in the Lasch Building, remains on the coaching staff, Surma said.

Surma said he did not know if Penn State would be paying the legal fees for former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz.

Curley and Schultz have been charged with perjury and failure to report abuse. Curley remains on administrative leave.

Spanier released a statement following the announcement, saying he felt it was best for him to step aside so that his successor could move forward without distractions.

It has been a “privilege and an honor” to work at Penn State, he said in the statement.

“This University is a large and complex institution, and although I have always acted honorably and in the best interests of the University, the buck stops here,” Spanier said in the statement.

– Collegian staff writers Matt Baumann, Brittany Horn, Anna Orso, Megan Rogers, and Kristin Stoller contributed to this report

Penn State Director of Athletics Tim Curley and former Interim Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Gary Schultz were arraigned and released on $75,000 unsecured bail Monday afternoon in Harrisburg.

Curley and Schultz have each been charged with one count of perjury and one count of failure to report suspected child abuse following the case against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. The charges against Schultz and Curley are identical, Magisterial District Judge William Wenner said.

Though he released the top administrators on bail, Wenner said the charges against Curley and Schultz are troubling.

“The charges at face value are disturbing to say the least,” Wenner said inside a courtroom filled with media.

After the arraignment, Curley and Schultz’s attorneys maintained their clients’ innocence.

Curley’s attorney, Caroline Roberto, of Pittsburgh, criticized the charges brought forth by the Attorney General’s office as “weak.”

“Perjury is a prosecutor’s charge of last resort when they can’t prove the person did anything wrong,” Roberto said.

And Schultz’s lawyer, Tom Farrell, of Pittsburgh, said he’s also disappointed by the charges.

Farrell said both men “did what they were supposed to do” in reporting an incident involving Sandusky to Penn State President Graham Spanier.

Both Curley and Schultz did not speak to the media inside or outside District Court. They left together in a BMW vehicle driven by Schultz.

Curley and Schultz have since requested to step down from their positions — in Curley’s case, temporarily. Schultz will return to retirement.

After news of the Curley asked to be placed on administrative leave, and Senior Associate Director of Athletics Mark Sherburne will serve as interim athletic director.

Before the arraignment, the Attorney General held a press conference in the Capitol Building.

Attorney General Linda Kelly said during the press conference that she was only able to answer questions regarding the 23-page grand jury presentment, and nothing outside of it.

Kelly said football coach Joe Paterno is not a target of prosecution but did not specify whether Spanier is still being investigated.

Kelly did not confirm if the “graduate assistant” named in the presentment is definitively current assistant football coach Mike McQueary, but Farrell did name McQueary as the “graduate assistant” who reported a sexual encounter between Sandusky and a young boy in an on-campus shower to Schultz and Curley.

Kelly said it is not uncommon for witnesses to remain unnamed in grand jury presentments.

Editor’s note: This article contains graphic content.

Former Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky used university facilities to sexually abuse young boys over a span of at least 10 years, and top university officials lied under oath about their knowledge of the events, according to a 23-page grand jury presentment.

Sandusky, 67, of State College, was indicted Friday on 40 counts on seven different charges stemming from incidents where he allegedly sexually abused eight young boys from The Second Mile program — the non-profit organization he founded in 1977 for underprivileged children — in Penn State football locker rooms, his home and other locations.

Additionally, Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and Penn State Interim Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz were each charged Saturday with perjury and failure to report in connection to the case. According to the grand jury’s findings, both men were aware that Sandusky engaged in “sexual conduct” with a young boy in a shower located in the Lasch Football Building and did not notify police.

Curley and Schultz have since requested to step down from their positions — in Curley’s case, temporarily — according to a press release on Penn State Live. Curley asked to be placed on administrative leave, and Senior Associate Athletic Director Mark Sherburne will serve as interim athletic director “until Curley’s legal situation is resolved,” according to the release. Schultz will return to retirement, according to the release.

On Sunday, Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said the university will pay for the legal counsel for Schultz and Curley because the matter concerns how they acted as employees of the university.

Later that day, Penn State posted on its Facebook page that the funding will come from insurance set aside to pay for legal funding.

President Graham Spanier and head football coach Joe Paterno both appeared before the grand jury during the investigation, which began in January 2009. Neither Spanier nor Paterno have been charged.

In a media release issued Saturday from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, Attorney General Linda Kelly called Sandusky a “sexual predator” who used his job at the university to “prey on young boys” on multiple occasions.

She also said high-profile university officials “allegedly failed to report the sexual assault of a young boy” after they were made aware of information related to the incident, according to the release. Kelly also said in the release that Curley and Schultz lied under oath.

How it began

At the start of 2009, a grand jury launched an investigation that would last nearly three years after a 15-year-old Clinton County teen reported that Sandusky had inappropriate contact with him over a four-year period. Some of the encounters occurred at a Clinton County high school where Sandusky volunteered as an assistant football coach.

During the investigation, the boy said he was 11 or 12 years old when he met Sandusky after attending a Second Mile camp at Penn State. Starting in 2007, Sandusky routinely had the boy stay overnight at his home in State College and took him to professional and college football games.

Sandusky showered the boy with gifts like golf clubs, a computer, clothes and cash, according to the grand jury’s findings.

Sandusky began having unwanted physical contact with him at bedtime, the boy said, which eventually escalated into kissing him and performing sexual acts on him.

The boy tried to cease contact with Sandusky in the spring of 2008. Between January 2008 and July 2009, Sandusky made 118 phone calls to the boy’s home phone, according to Anthony Sassano, a Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office agent. In the same time period, four phone calls were made to Sandusky from the boy’s home phone and one from his mother’s cell phone.

The situation was brought to the attention of law enforcement after the boy’s mother told school officials about the incidents, and then school officials reported it to police.

The “quick action” taken by the high school staff members is “in marked contrast to the reaction of top officials” at Penn State, Kelly said in the media release.

Curley, Schultz charged

Both Curley and Schultz face charges related to their involvement in the case. They were made aware of a similar abuse situation seven years earlier in 2002 and did not notify law enforcement as required by the mandated reporting law, according to the grand jury’s findings.

The men’s lawyers say they are innocent.

Spanier released a statement regarding the situation within several hours of the release of the grand jury’s findings, calling the allegations against Sandusky “troubling” and expressing his “unconditional support” for Curley and Schultz.

“I have known and worked daily with Tim and Gary for more than 16 years. I have complete confidence in how they have handled the allegations about a former University employee,” Spanier said in the statement. “Tim Curley and Gary Schultz operate at the highest levels of honesty, integrity and compassion. I am confident the record will show that these charges are groundless and that they conducted themselves professionally and appropriately.”

In March 2002, a graduate assistant — who was not identified in the grand jury’s findings — entered a locker room in the Lasch Football Building and observed Sandusky subjecting a young boy, around age 10, to anal intercourse, according to the grand jury’s findings.

The graduate assistant told his father what he witnessed, and his father urged him to tell Paterno the next day. Paterno testified that he called Curley, his immediate supervisor, the next day and told him that the graduate assistant saw Sandusky “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy.”

A week and a half later, the graduate assistant was called to a meeting with Curley and Schultz where he told them what he saw. The men assured him they would look into the matter.

Weeks later, Curley told the graduate assistant that Sandusky’s keys to the locker room were taken away, The Second Mile was notified about the incident and Sandusky was told he could no longer bring children into locker rooms on campus, according to the grand jury’s findings.

Curley later testified that this ban to bring children into the locker rooms was unenforceable.

Neither Curley nor Schultz ever reported the incident to police and the identity of the child was never sought.

Curley denied before the grand jury multiple times that he was told the incident was sexual in nature.

Schultz — who oversaw University Police as part of his administrative role — testified that what he was told was “not that serious” and that he had no indication that an actual crime had occurred. He acknowledged that he knew of a similar investigation of Sandusky that took place in 1998 that yielded no charges.

In 1998, a mother reported Sandusky was with her son in a shower on campus. The incident was reviewed by University Police and then-University counsel Wendell Courtney.

Courtney was, and still is, the lawyer for The Second Mile.

Former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar decided there was not enough evidence to charge Sandusky after the incident.

The attorney general indicted Curley after the grand jury found that he made a false statement regarding what he was told by the graduate assistant, according to the grand jury’s findings.

Schultz was also charged after the grand jury found that he made a false statement when he testified that he had no indication that a crime had occurred.

Both men were also charged for not reporting the incident to police, as required by Pennsylvania law.

This “failure” to act on reports enabled a “predator” to walk free for years, Kelly said in the media release, adding that this time enabled Sandusky to “target new victims.”

What’s next

Sandusky’s charges include seven counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, one count of aggravated indecent assault, eight counts of unlawful contact with a minor, eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child, eight counts of corruption of minors, seven counts of indecent assault and one count of attempt to commit indecent assault.

He was taken into custody and released on $100,000 unsecured bail Saturday morning under Magisterial District Judge Leslie Dutchcot. Sandusky is set to appear at his preliminary hearing Nov. 9 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, according to court documents. He has the legal right to waive this hearing.

Both Curley and Schultz were charged with one count of perjury, punishable by up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine, along with one count each of failure to report, punishable by up to 90 days in prison and a $200 fine, according to the attorney general’s media release.

Curley and Schultz are expected to turn themselves in today before Magisterial District Judge Marsha Stewart in Harrisburg. They will go through the prosecution process in Dauphin County, and Sandusky will face prosecution in Centre County.

Comments from Pittsburgh lawyer Thomas J. Farrell show that he plans to have the failure to report charges against Schultz dropped, because according to Farrell, the mandated reporting rules only apply to people who come in direct contact with children. He also claims that the statute of limitation is two years, meaning Schultz would have needed to be charged by 2004.

On Sunday night, members of the Penn State Board of Trustees convened in Old Main for what one trustee called an “emergency executive meeting.” Other trustees declined comment.

Paterno and Spanier have not been charged

Since news of the case broke over the weekend, speculation has been flying regarding what Paterno and Spanier did –– and did not –– do.

Paterno, the winningest coach in Division 1 history, was made aware of the situation and will not be charged.

The suspected child abuse mandated reporting law stipulates that if someone is a staff member and is made aware of suspected child abuse, he or she is required to immediately notify the person in charge of the institution or the designated agent of the person in charge.

Paterno’s direct supervisor is Curley.

In addition to Paterno being aware of the situation, Spanier was also made aware of the information received from the graduate assistant and the steps that were taken by Schultz and Curley as a result, according to the grand jury’s findings.

But Spanier, who has a background in sociology and marriage and family counseling, denied that the incident was reported to him as sexual.

Spanier described what he was told as “Jerry Sandusky in the football building locker area in the shower with a younger child and that they were horsing around in the shower,” according to the grand jury’s findings.

Spanier said he did not find this description to be sexual in nature and was unaware a crime had occurred. He was also not charged in the case.

Investigation revealed more abuse

As the grand jury investigation began in January 2009, it was based only on one incident reported by school officials in Clinton County. After the investigation, reports that Sandusky sexually assaulted seven more boys were uncovered, according to the grand jury’s findings. Sandusky met all of them through The Second Mile.

In 1994, a boy — identified as “Victim 7” in the grand jury’s findings — met Sandusky when he was about 10 years old. Sandusky took the boy to Penn State football games and had him sleep over at his home.

The boy reported that Sandusky made him feel uncomfortable when Sandusky would put his hand on his thigh. At one point, Sandusky put his hands down the boy’s waistband, the now 26-year-old man reported.

Sandusky also bear-hugged him, cracked his back and shared showers with him, according to the grand jury’s findings.

The man told the grand jury he was contacted by Sandusky, Sandusky’s wife and a friend of Sandusky’s before he testified. He said he did not return these phone calls.

Another boy — identified as “Victim 6” in the grand jury presentment — met Sandusky at a Second Mile picnic when he was 7 or 8 years old. He estimated this was sometime between 1994 and 1995.

The contact with this boy initiated the investigation by University Police in 1998 after the boy’s mother found out Sandusky had been showering with him. The detective who was assigned to the case testified that he listened in on a conversation between the boy’s mother and Sandusky.

When she asked Sandusky if his “private parts” touched the boy when he hugged him in the shower, Sandusky replied “I don’t think so… maybe,” according to the grand jury presentment.

The detective advised Sandusky not to shower with any child again, and Sandusky said he would not.

No charges were filed after the 1998 investigation.

Another boy — identified as “Victim 5” in the grand jury presentment — testified that he met Sandusky in 1995 when he was 7 or 8 years old. Sandusky took the boy, now 22, to about 15 football games, and the boy was always taken into the locker rooms.

He told the jury that Sandusky was showering with him and when the boy looked over, Sandusky had an erection. When the boy looked away after feeling uncomfortable, he said Sandusky approached him from behind, pinned him up against the wall and Sandusky placed the boys hand on his erect penis.

The boy walked away from Sandusky and dried himself off, according to the grand jury’s findings. He told the jury he didn’t think he was ever invited to another football game.

Between 1996 and 1997, another boy — identified as “Victim 4” — met Sandusky. According to the grand jury’s findings, this boy was repeatedly subjected to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse at the hands of Sandusky.

The assaults took place in several areas including football buildings on campus and the Toftrees Golf Resort and Conference Center, where the football team and staff stayed prior to home football games.

Sandusky also sexually assaulted the boy when he traveled with the team to bowl games, according to the grand jury’s findings.

The boy, now age 27, reported that Sandusky would initiate contact in the shower by having “soap battles.” Over three years, Sandusky would wrestle with him and maneuver him into positions where the boy’s face would be near Sandusky’s genitals. He would then insert his erect penis into the boy’s mouth, sometimes ejaculating, according to the grand jury presentment.

He also testified Sandusky attempted to penetrate his anus with both his finger and his penis, but the boy resisted these attempts.

In 1999, Sandusky threatened to send the boy home from the Alamo Bowl because he was resisting his sexual advances, according to the presentment.

In 2000, another boy — identified as “Victim 3” in the jury presentment — came into contact with Sandusky through The Second Mile when he was between seventh and eighth grade. Sandusky would initiate physical contact with the boy when they would shower together in locker room showers located on campus.

According to the grand jury presentment, Sandusky would bear hug the boy while his penis was erect, he testified. Also, Sandusky would come into the basement when the boy stayed at his house and tickle his inner thigh and touch his genitals.

The last boy — identified as “Victim 8” in the grand jury presentment — never came forth and was never identified by law enforcement. A janitor who was employed at the time by Penn State, Jim Calhoun, observed Sandusky in the showers of the Lasch Football Building performing oral sex on the young boy.

Calhoun, who suffers from dementia and was unfit to testify, according to the grand jury’s findings, told other staff members what had occurred. These staff members testified based on what Calhoun had told them.

The incident was never reported to law enforcement by anyone involved, according to the grand jury’s findings.

The investigation surrounding Sandusky is ongoing and the search for additional people who may have been sexually abused by Sandusky continues.

Anyone with information is asked to contact investigators from the Office of Attorney General at 814-863-1053 or Pennsylvania State Police at 814-470-2238.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sandusky faces 40 counts on charges including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a minor less than 16 years of age, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault of a minor less than 13 years old and endangering the welfare of a child, among others, according to court documents.

According to the report, both Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz were made aware of a sexual abuse situation in 2002 and failed to report it to police, and were subsequently charged today with perjury and failure to report.

A graduate assistant witnessed Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in the showers of the LaschFootball Building in 2002 and reported the information to his father. Head football coach Joe Paterno was made aware of the situation and made both Curley and Schultz aware of the situation, according to the report.

Though Schultz oversaw the Penn State University Police Department as a part of his position, he never reported the incident to police, did not ask the graduate assistant for more information and failed to seek the identity of the child. No one from the university did so, according to the report.

In his testimony, Schultz said there was never any discussion between him and Curley to report the incident to police. Instead, they banned Sandusky from bringing children in the football locker room, according to the report.

President Graham Spanier also testified before the Grand Jury during the investigation and said Curley and Schultz came to him in 2002 to report an “uncomfortable incident” but said it was not reported to him as a sexual matter.

Spanier also denied being aware of the investigation of another incident that occurred in 1998 where Sandusky was questioned on the basis of his involvement with a different boy in showers located on campus.

Spanier and Paterno were not charged in connection with the incidents.

According to the testimony, Sandusky also had access to football locker rooms after he retired as a coach in 1999.

The grand jury reports that parts of Curley’s and Schultz’s testimony were “not credible.”

According to the testimony, Sandusky met eight young boys that he sexually abused through his non-profit organization, The Second Mile — a charity that provides support for underprivileged children.

Sandusky sexually abused at least seven of them in Penn State football facilities such as the Lasch Football Building and the East Area Locker Room, according to testimony.

Normally, the administrative decisions of Linn State Technical College are of little importance to anyone outside of the city of Linn. Though it might seem irrelevant, this policy is a direct infringement on students’ right to privacy.

Under the new rule, LSTC would require every new student to take urine tests at their own expense within the first five to 10 days of the school year, or they must withdraw from the university.

If a student tests positive, he or she is given 45 days to test cleanly to stay at the school. Afterward, the student is subject to random testing throughout the rest of the year, again at the risk of being kicked out of school.

No matter the reasons LSTC gives for testing its students, such as “preparing their students for a profitable future,” mandatory drug testing is too much of an invasion into its students’ lives to be an acceptable rule. Privacy goes out the window when school-wide testing is implemented, and any benefits gained from this testing are overly stained by the precedent it sets about the ability of schools to regulate students’ lives.

How does the university defend this paranoid solution to combat drug use? LSTC insists the consummate college is different from that of conventional universities, in that the vast majority of its programs deal with high-voltage electricity, heavy equipment or caustic chemicals.

Naturally, mixing these types of fields with drugs can lead to very dangerous situations. There is a difference, however, between banning drugs, a perfectly reasonable regulation, and implementing mandatory drug testing upon the entirety of a student body. If someone is careless enough to come to a class that deals with dangerous chemicals while under the influence of other dangerous chemicals, he or she deserves to be severely punished or expelled from the school.

The threat of expulsion certainly seems a more sane deterrent against the dangerous use of drugs while completing school coursework. The administration at LSTC, however, needs to understand the difference between these two solutions.

The American Civil Liberties Union sees the dangers to individual student rights created by this radical approach. The ACLU is suing the university over this rule, citing the obvious disregard for individual students’ right to privacy.

If the lawsuit comes out favorably, this action will hopefully cause LSTC to revert to a more practical approach against drug use by its students.

The university’s concern about the dangers an intoxicated student would pose to himself and his classmates is valid. Still the potential danger of one careless student does not justify the violation of the entire student body’s privacy by testing without any initial suspicion.

Thankfully, this kind of thinking is not ignored by groups like the ACLU, even in institutes of higher education as small as LSTC.

Violation of student rights is something that should not be tolerated in any scale; if it were allowed unchecked in somewhere small like Linn, it would run the risk of setting a precedent that would spread to more immediately relevant areas.

“My friend was recurrently sick and had unfortunate things happen to him, so I just kept his clicker,” said Aslup, a sophomore theater major.

Aslup said he assisted his friend by using his clicker, in addition to his own, to answer quiz questions and report attendance.

Although he had positive intentions for lying for his friend, misusing clickers has grown across campuses nationwide. In his class of about 85 students, skipping was an easy matter for those who wanted to. With the clickers, lying about attendance just requires the goodwill of a classmate.

“In my Geology 101 course, many people skipped,” said Reed Felderman, an undeclared sophomore. “I remember one guy having five clickers.”

As reported in the Sept. 9, 2011, issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, students at colleges across the U.S. have been misusing the clickers to skip class or cheat. Some UNL students have admitted to misusing clickers and don’t see it as a major issue, but UNL administrators can’t tell how widespread the problem is because the issue hasn’t been investigated.

“I’m an adult. I pay for classes,” Aslup said. “I can choose if I want to go to class and deal with the consequences.”

That attitude has faculty like Brad Buffum, an instructor at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, frustrated.

Buffum has dealt with this issue, but has embraced the caveats of using the technology. Buffum said he understands the limits of evaluation techniques such as the clicker and knows students misuse them.

“I know that people know how to cheat with them, I’m not dumb,” he said. “If the student is dumb enough to get caught, they deserve whatever they get.”

In response to this, Georgetown U. has implemented a “5 percent” rule, which means that only up to 5 percent of grades can be derived from clicker attendance and questions. UNL currently has no regulations regarding clickers, but some professors have led the charge against their misuse.

In his classes, Buffum uses the clickers as a way to promote discussion, which he sees as the clicker’s purpose.

Because of his experiences, he altered his syllabus to reward people who come to class, rather than punish those who skip.

After an experience with a student who walked out on his class after using his clicker, he realized he had to change his thinking about the issue.

In that experience, Buffum said he saw no need to use clickers for grading students.

“No matter how cynical I get, it’s never enough,” Buffum said.

Kevin Lee, a research associate professor at UNL, supports the clickers in teaching and uses them for peer instruction.

“Its main benefit comes from students learning from each other by explaining and defending their understanding of concepts,” Lee said. “Often the percentage of correct answers to a projected conceptual question will go from 40 percent on a first vote to 90 percent on the second vote when a vibrant student discussion occurs in between.”

Voting gives both instructor and students good feedback on what is understood by the class and what is not, he said.

Lee said he thinks instructors who use clickers to take attendance and give quizzes are missing the boat, because they’re focusing on the technology instead of the teaching methods.

Even though the University Judicial Board hasn’t heard a case of clicker-cheating, misusing clickers is punishable under academic dishonesty. Offenders could lose credit from a class or face suspension if found guilty, according to the UNL Student Code of Conduct.

Matthew Hecker, dean of students, said he hasn’t dealt with any clicker-cheating students yet. But the attitude that it’s OK doesn’t sit well with him, he said.

“Where do they draw the line, at which act of academic dishonesty do you consider it a big deal?” Hecker said.

The decision was made over a special telephone meeting between the Board of Regents and current president William Powers Jr. The meeting is the beginning of many talks focused on the future of UT Austin football. The University of Oklahoma’s Board of Regents also gave OU’s president the authority to negotiate their position in the Big 12 or begin a move towards entrance into another football conference on Sept. 19.

“There’s been a great deal of movement concerning conference realignment,” Powers said.

Although legal issues concerning their contract with the Big 12 remain, Texas A&M University withdrew from the Big 12 in late August with plans to join the Southeastern Conference. This came as a response to the Longhorn Network, which A&M views as an unfair recruiting advantage for UT, according to the Associated Press.

Powers and UT athletic director DeLoss Dodds reportedly met with Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott in Los Angeles this past weekend, according to a New York Times article.

“We believe it would be helpful to be able to explore options,” Powers said. “Including continued participation in the Big 12 in the interest of our student athletes.”

According to the Big 12’s official website, UT has been a member of the Big 12 since its formation in 1994 when the conference began through a merger of the Big 8 conference with four Texas universities from the now-defunct Southwest Conference. Athletic competition within the conference began in 1996, with UT remaining a consistent football powerhouse in the conference, earning four national championship wins.

The Pac-12 will launch its own television networks in August 2012, according to the Associated Press. If UT applies for entrance into the Pac-12, the future of the Longhorn Network and how it will fit into the possible partnership could come into question.

The Board of Regents must ratify any change in conference membership. Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, both part of the Big 12, are expected to apply for entrance to the Pac-12 if UT and OU make the move.

Last week, Spectator reported that 15 members of the Columbia International Relations Council and Association were invited to a dinner with Ahmadinejad on Sept. 21. Three days later, Fox News incorrectly reported that Bollinger would be joining the students at the dinner. Members emphasize that the dinner itself is also still tentative.

The University has issued a statement denying any involvement in the dinner, and adding that the news stories “fundamentally misstate the University’s role in this unconfirmed possible encounter. Simply put, there never was one. In fact, at no time has there ever been any university event planned or considered involving the president of Iran, nor has there ever been any plan for a dinner involving the Iranian president and President Bollinger.”

In 2007, a firestorm of media attention erupted when Ahmadinejad was invited to speak at Columbia’s World Leaders Forum on campus. Despite outside criticism and threats from alumni to withdraw funding, Bollinger refused to cancel the event but gave Ahmadinejad a notoriously chilly introduction, calling him a “petty and cruel dictator.” Students filled College Walk and Low Plaza to listen to Ahmadinejad’s speech and protest his notoriously dictatorial hold over Iran.

Fox News has updated their story to exclude any reference to President Bollinger’s alleged involvement in the dinner. Members of CIRCA have told Spectator they will not comment until after the dinner has taken place to ensure that their comments to the media do not jeopardize the dinner’s security arrangements or their personal safety.

Following these reports, Shurat HaDin, an Israeli law center, sent Bollinger a letter condemning the alleged invitation in a statement that said, “Hosting Ahmadinejad at a banquet is not merely morally repulsive: it is illegal and likely to render Columbia University and its officers both criminally and civilly liable.”

The Tel Aviv-based law center inaccurately implied that Columbia is hosting the event. The University is not and neither is CIRCA; Ahmadinejad often dines with American students when he is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. In the past he has invited students from Yale, Harvard, and other big-name universities to a private dinner, where they are given the chance to ask one or two questions as a group.

Morton Klein, President of the Zionist Organization of America, also issued a statement condemning what the organization perceived to be the University’s involvement.

“Columbia’s President Bollinger’s invitation to Jewish genocide promoter, Al Qaeda ally and terrorist Iranian Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a private dinner party is a morally reprehensible act and a major affront to decent people, especially the Jewish alumni and donors of Columbia University,” Klein wrote.

Columbia students said they are mostly used to hearing incorrect reports about their school from Fox News.

“Well that’s just Fox News. Didn’t we already establish that they’re biased? I don’t really expect much from them,” Sean Francis said.

“This is a very well-respected university. It’s a community that should foster open dialogue, and it is a misrepresentation that all viewpoints aren’t valued here,” Damien LaRock said.

Alejandra Oliva, Anushka Lobo, and Kandace Fuller contributed reporting.

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported that all 1,200 students at this institution were required to submit urine samples in what might be considered the most extensive drug-testing policy at a public college or university in the United States.

The test was conducted in response to a survey of an advisory council of industry and business leaders.

According to the Chronicle, more than 80 percent of the respondents supported drug testing, saying it might serve to better prepare students for the drug-free work environments they will be in after graduation, according to Richard R. Pemberton, Linn State’s associate dean of student affairs.

Pemberton argues that the process is intended to ensure the safety of the students, given that this particular college provides hands-on training with heavy machinery, high-voltage electronics and even nuclear technology, according to the Chronicle.

“It’s not a matter of catching them doing something wrong and kicking them out of college,” Pemberton said. “The whole process is meant to be educational.”

This new practice is wrong and could create a precedent upon which other colleges decide to submit all of its incoming freshmen to drug testing. Colleges and universities are meant to be institutions of higher learning. Students come to these institutions to better themselves and sometimes seek them out as a final means to get their lives in order. Even if students are not kicked out as a result of this particular policy, it is possible that failure of the drug test could go on file as part of the student’s permanent record at the university.

This is not the first time a university or institution of higher learning has chosen to drug test students. According to the Chronicle, flight students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach are required to submit to random urine screenings and to disclose any citations for driving under the influence of alcohol. Macomb Community College in Michigan screens students in some of its medical programs.

Dan Viets, a lawyer working with the Missouri Civil Liberties Association, says this is the first time he’s seen a public college require drug tests for the entire student body. This includes students taking classes where they do not deal with dangerous equipment, such as accounting and communications courses.

“They seem to be on the cutting edge of violating students’ civil liberties,” Viets said.

There is also an argument being made among civil libertarians that this practice may violate the “unreasonable search and seizure” clause of the Fourth Amendment to our constitution.

There may be certain instances where drug-testing of students is appropriate. To issue a blanket drug testing of all incoming students, as Linn State has done here, raises serious questions about the rights of students. The constitutional questions raised by civil libertarians must be considered.

This incident could also set a precedent, leading other schools to point to this example as a justification for drug testing all incoming freshmen. Many promising students could potentially be rejected outright if this policy were to be implemented at other universities. The practice of drug testing students needs to be examined carefully. We must make sure the rights of students and individuals applying to institutions of higher learning are protected.

Kernel basketball writer Aaron Smith’s media access to a set of men’s basketball team interviews was revoked Monday after he was said to have violated UK Athletics’ policy on interviewing student athletes.

The Kernel, an independent student newspaper, reported Monday morning that two walk-ons had been added to the basketball team — information that Smith had uncovered after looking up the two players’ cellphone numbers in the directory on UK’s website and calling them. The names of the players, Brian Long and Sam Malone, were first released on Twitter Sunday night by UK freshman basketball player Anthony Davis (@AntDavis23) and also reported on Kentucky Sports Radio just after 9 a.m. Monday.

UK Athletics has not officially announced the two players as walk-ons.

Long and Malone confirmed to Smith that they are on the team but declined to be interviewed further.

Smith was to receive access, along with other select members of the media, to one-on-one interviews with members of the basketball team on Tuesday, but lost that “reward” when he attempted to interview the two athletes, said DeWayne Peevy, UK’s associate athletic director for UK Media Relations.

Peevy said that Tuesday’s interviews are “a reward to, basically, a preferred group of people to give them special access.”

He said there has to be “some sort of trust” between UK Athletics and any reporter given access to this round of interviews because information received during them is supposed to be embargoed until Oct. 1.

Peevy, who has been at UK since 2008, said this was the first year the Kernel was invited to these interviews since he has worked for athletics, and no other student media has been involved either, to his knowledge.

Peevy said that he did not have a problem with Smith reporting the news, but once Smith found out Long and Malone were student athletes, he should not have attempted to interview them without first contacting Media Relations. Peevy said UK Athletics’ policy is for reporters to contact Media Relations if they want to talk to a player.

After Smith was alerted to the information on Twitter, Peevy said it was public record that they were on the team, but, “In a perfect world, Aaron should have called me to confirm.”

“I can’t be upset with you because you have that right,” Peevy said, of calling the players using phone numbers from the directory. “Going along with that policy is by choice. But I can choose not to reward you.”

Jon L. Fleischaker, a Louisville attorney who represents the Kentucky Press Association, of which the Kernel is a member, called UK Athletics’ decision “inappropriate.”

“The very fact that they don’t like the way you’re exercising your First Amendment rights does not give them the right to deprive you of an opportunity you would otherwise have,” Fleischaker said. He said the university should not have taken action just because Smith did not contact the players in the way the university preferred.

Adam Goldstein of the Student Press Law Center agreed that UK Athletics officials should not revoke access they had already given Smith, and that since reporters do not agree to a contract with UK regarding media coverage, “The university doesn’t have the ability to punish people for reporting the news.”

When the Kernel asked Monday afternoon if the policy was written, Peevy said UK Athletics officials do not have any written policies saying a reporter must contact them first when trying to access players but seasoned beat reporters know that is the preferred method.

After the Kernel posted this story online, Peevy tweeted a picture of the policy, saying it was “written in every media guide. No one signs it or anything, but it’s real.”

Peevy responded to several journalists and fans on Twitter after the story was posted Monday night.

Smith said this is the first time he has tried to contact a player without going through Media Relations, but at the time he had made the phone calls, it was not confirmed that Long and Malone were student athletes at UK.

Smith was the basketball reporter for the Kernel last season, as well, and is one of this year’s managing editors.

“I had had nothing but a positive relationship for a year, and I feel like this is a minor violation,” Smith said, “and (Peevy) even said that, too.”

Smith said in that sense, he felt like UK Athletics’ action was “excessive.”

In regard to the revoking of Smith’s access being a possible First Amendment violation, Peevy said, “If you see it that way, it’s fine.” He did not say that he was considering changing his mind about his decision.

Smith said he asked Peevy if he could gain access Tuesday to all the players except for Long and Malone, as a sort of compromise, but Peevy denied that request.

UK Athletics might have handled the situation correctly, said Stephen Dittmore, an assistant professor of recreation and sports management at the University of Arkansas.

Dittmore said that from a public relations perspective, one way to issue retribution for a reporter’s action would be to give an exclusive to a competitor, such as the Lexington Herald-Leader.

“I think sports organizations, from a PR perspective, need to be careful about how they issue retribution to organizations that cover them on a regular basis,” said Dittmore, who also co-authored a book on sports public relations.

He said it is important that organizations write down their policies, even if just in the media guides issued each year for basketball and football programs.

Dittmore said also, though, that the situation involving calling students using phone numbers that were publicly available constitutes good reporting.

“I’m not suggesting anyone should penalize a journalistic organization for good reporting,” he said.

The policy exists, Peevy said, in the interests of protecting student athletes’ privacy. For basketball players, he said, “the requests that we receive alone are so much that a student wouldn’t be able to be a student.”

“We give them an opportunity to be a student first, not a professional athlete,” Peevy said.

Kernel Editor-in-Chief Taylor Moak said she understands why that policy is in place, but she still thinks Smith acted appropriately.

“These sources were not confirmed as walk-on players,” Moak said, “and Aaron was just trying to confirm if they were, in fact, walk-ons, and he found the numbers in a public directory, which is open to anyone.”

She said the players were not yet confirmed as UK athletes, and it was not as if Smith was trying to contact directly a known member of the basketball team.

“He was just trying to confirm the story on his own, which is a sign of strong journalistic work,” Moak said.

Peevy said that when bloggers from Kentucky Sports Radio called, he did not confirm to them whether Long and Malone were on the team.

Peevy has gotten into public disagreement over coverage and credentials before.

In July, CBSSports.com’s Gary Parrish published a story saying Davis, the freshman who tweeted about the walk-ons, would have to face questions about his recruitment. Peevy replied to the story on Twitter, saying, “I guess we now know one media seat that will be available at Rupp this year. BBN don’t give them what they want, your clicks! #WeAreUK.”

Peter Baniak, editor and vice president of the Lexington Herald-Leader, said the newspaper had an access issue with UK Athletics officials when they held invitation-only access to events and invited one specific Herald-Leader reporter over another. He said the newspaper declined to attend.

“Ultimately, we determine which reporters cover which stories,” Baniak said. “The newspaper makes assignments.”

A situation similar to the Kernel’s has not occurred with the Herald-Leader before, though.

“UK has never threatened to take away the Herald-Leader’s credentials over coverage,” Baniak said.

The updated list of media allowed to the one-on-one interviews Tuesday includes three print media, five television outlets, five websites and a marketing firm. Peevy said one of the media replaced the Kernel’s spot, and none of the remaining outlets are student media organizations. He refused to name the outlet replacing the Kernel.

Kernel editors have not decided whether they will pursue legal action for violation of First Amendment rights.

Goldstein also said that athletics programs and players have obligations to the NCAA, but reporters do not.

“It’s media relations and the institution that has the obligations, but they can’t seek to enforce those obligations by violating civil rights,” Goldstein said. “They don’t own your civil rights to contract them away to the NCAA.

“Nothing you can do — no contracts the university can enter into with anyone on the planet — can empower it to punish students for reporting the news.”

The meeting addressed some of the effects of statewide hardships on the education system and, consequently, decisions regarding executive positions.

Unlike the meeting that raised tuition and finalized Hirshman’s salary, the audience was sparse and contained no student protesters or representatives.

Chancellor Charles B. Reed began with a presentation that attributed much of California’s education problems to the size and scope of the state, as well as the cost of living.

“It’s getting to be a huge problem,” Reed said.

The criteria for the presidential hiring process include the applicant’s motive for seeking the job, their leadership priorities and a particular institution’s desired qualities.

During the last 33 years, 17 percent of presidents and chancellors were discovered through a job advertisement, while 83 percent came from a nomination by the Board of Trustees or a direct invite.

Following Reed’s presentation, outside corporate consultant Jaime Ferrar answered questions directly from the Board, and spoke about the nature of campus presidency.

“When you’re doing a presidential search, it’s a great opportunity to say to the world, ‘Hey, look at us! Look how great we are!”‘ Ferrar said.

Ferrar said the decision of choosing a campus president speaks not only for the school’s name, but for its donors, faculty and students, as well.

“That’s the impact,” Ferrar said. “It’s not just about the candidate, but about the institution and the community as well. We need strong, effective, viable leaders for higher education.”

Though candidates are screened through an interview, their overall evaluation is based more on their past experience and credentials.

“The interview is important, don’t get me wrong, but there’s no question that it’s the least reliable of all the steps in the search,” Ferrar said. “The greater reliability of somebody’s eligibility is to look up their background information on public record.”

Despite the state’s economic woes, California is still an attractive option for prospective presidential candidates.

Ferrar said campus leadership strategies vary greatly from state to state, and applicants to the CSU system must be aware of what will work in California.

“California has a wonderful reputation for higher education,” Ferrar said. “[Candidates] believe resources are available to help them make a difference and they want to use their skill sets to help out. If a candidate is coming for salary, they’re coming for the wrong reasons.”

Board of Trustees member Roberta Achtenberg said the committee has been very solid in its past decisions when hiring executives.

“We haven’t chosen any bad presidents,” Achtenberg said.

California Faculty Association secretary John Halcon expressed disdain with the points addressed in the meeting.

“The CSU is being run like a corporation,” Halcon said. “We’re talking about corporate level salaries. Working for the CSU is a public service. You work for the public.”

Halcon said that it was irresponsible to award an inexperienced newcomer a significant salary increase from that of his senior predecessor.

However, he believed the complaints about Hirshman’s salary were more about the students than about executive compensation.

“The real issue is not so much if he’s worth it,” Halcon said, “but the rolling impact of additional charges to students, given the current economy.”

Sullivan, a student videographer for the football team, died Oct. 27 after the scissor-lift from which he was filming football practice fell.

“Notre Dame has said multiple times publicly that it wants to ensure nothing like Declan’s death occurs again on its watch, and that it wants to honor Declan’s memory,” Department of Labor Commissioner Lori Torres said. “We believe this unique agreement allows Notre Dame to live up to those statements.”

The agreement establishes a nationwide education program directed toward other universities about the hazards of using scissor-lifts outdoors and the importance of employee training in operating these lifts. Notre Dame must launch the program within 180 days of the date of the agreement, according to the press release.

The University also agreed to make a substantial contribution to the Declan Drumm Sullivan Memorial Fund within 90 days of the date of the settlement.

University spokesman Dennis Brown said the University will not disclose the amount of the donation

“Any detail related to contributions by Notre Dame remain a private matter between the Sullivan family and the University,” he said.

The agreement comes after IOSHA found Notre Dame guilty of six violations in March, resulting in $77,500 in fines. The settlement reduces the fines to $42,000, due to the state of Indiana.

The settlement reduced the “knowing” violation, which held a fine of $55,000, to a “serious” violation. However, the fines of several “serious” violations were increased from the amount originally stated, according to the press release.

“We felt that the lack of available national standards on wind-related safety procedures made it impossible to put anyone in harm’s way on a ‘knowing’ basis, as was explained in our own investigation report,” Brown said.

The University will also provide the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (IOSHA) with a list of places where scissor lifts are used at Notre Dame and will complete refresher training for those who operate the equipment. This is to be done within 90 days of the date of the agreement.

The settlement also requires Notre Dame to appoint a liaison between the athletic department and the risk-management division to ensure adequate safety training is provided to all employees.

While Brown said Notre Dame is “pleased” to have reached an agreement, he said the focus should remain on Sullivan and those who loved him.

“What remains ever-present throughout this process is the reality of the loss experienced by Declan Sullivan’s family and friends, all of whom remain in the thoughts and prayers of the Notre Dame community,” Brown said.

Members of a lobbying group that counts Harvard and several other universities among its members were some of the primary opponents of the bill at the hearing that took place in front of the Joint Revenue Committee.

The proposed bill would a bill require universities with an endowment worth more than $10 million to reveal more information about their investments and reveal the salaries of administrators making over a quarter of a million dollars per year.

Wayne M. Langley—director of higher education for Service Employees International Union Local 615, which includes Harvard custodial workers—urged the committee to hold universities more responsible by passing the bill.

“The core of the issue is that Universities are funded by tax payers’ dollars and should be held accountable to the public,” he said.

The University, however, felt that forcing it to reveal its investments more than it already does would provide an unnecessary hindrance on such institutions.

“We share the concerns expressed by [Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts] and other non-profits about this legislation as it is drafted. Higher education institutions are currently subject to stringent reporting requirements both at the state and federal levels. We believe this proposed legislation is unnecessarily burdensome because under current state and federal law, non-profits already make significant financial disclosures,” University spokesperson Lauren Marshall said.

Sandra Y. L. Korn ’14, a member of the Crimson editorial board, who spoke on behalf of the Student Labor Action Movement, told the committee that the bill would ensure the University treats its workers more justly.

Korn said that she was unimpressed with the arguments presented by opponents of the bill.

“Their arguments were not very convincing—they just made me more committed to the cause,” Korn said. “I see no reason why this bill should not pass.”

Other student speakers included William Poff-Webster ’14, a member of the Crimson editorial board who spoke on behalf of the Harvard Democrats, and Serena Y. Zhao ’12 on behalf of the Environmental Action Movement.

If the bill passes in the Joint Revenue Committee, it will then be put to a vote in the Massachusetts State House.

Langly, however, was pessimistic about the bill’s prospects for moving forward, saying that he did not feel it was initially explained well to the committee members and lamenting the fact that the bill was being argued at the same time as other, more extreme bills which would include taxing Universities.

“Harvard’s lobbying budget is millions of dollars. We’re down here on Earth and they’re up on Olympus hurling lightning bolts,” Langley said. “If this were based on an argument, we would win hands down—but it’s based on who has political power.”

“It’s amazing to create something that has real-world application,” Farid said as he stepped away from a computer screen displaying complex code.

Since the advent of the Internet, the distribution of child pornography has exploded, according to Farid.

“It used to be that if you wanted this material you had to go to the seedy part of town,” he said. “There was a huge obstacle and barrier to entry if you will. Now of course it’s much easier, and with demand comes supply, of course.”

Although PhotoDNA cost Microsoft millions of dollars to develop, the company donated the software to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for free in 2009, Farid said. NCMEC has since been contacted by law enforcement officials worldwide expressing interest in the program, and NCMEC plans to administer PhotoDNA to companies that request the software for free, Ernie Allen, Chief Executive Officer of NCMEC, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.

Microsoft — which currently uses PhotoDNA in the programs Bing, SkyDrive and Hotmail — hopes that Facebook’s use of the software will pressure other major web services to follow suit, according to Farid.

“I think it would probably be a little grandiose to think [PhotoDNA] will eradicate [the distribution of child pornography on the Internet],” Allen said. “I think it’s going to send a message to the child pornographers and to the pedophiles that the online world is going to become a hostile place to them.”

The software will help locate thousands of pictures of children, and will hold individuals who are using the Internet for child pornography responsible for their actions, Allen said.

Once images containing child pornography are interdicted by PhotoDNA, the issue needs to be addressed from both a policy and legal standpoint, Farid said.

If an online company using PhotoDNA, such as Facebook, discovers an illegal image, it must report the photo to law enforcement officials. The government already receives more reports of child pornography than it can logistically investigate and the deployment of PhotoDNA will likely inundate law enforcers with exponentially more reports, Farid said.

Beyond reporting images of child pornography to government officials, the action that other online companies take is an internal decision, he said.

Although any company that decides to use PhotoDNA is given all pertinent information regarding how to use the program to identify sexual offenders, Microsoft decided to keep the fundamental technology “as confidential as possible” so as to prevent criminals from discovering a way to evade PhotoDNA, Farid said.

The photos that PhotoDNA identify are “the worst of the worst,” Allen said. These “crime scene photos,” are of prepubescent children under the age of 12 being violently sexually abused, according to Allen.

The software is remarkably accurate, Farid said. At Microsoft, 1 billion images have been scanned and not a single false positive was found, he said.

PhotoDNA circumvents various problems regarding the identification of offensive photos by meeting three criteria, according to Farid. PhotoDNA first extracts a signature that does not change as the image is compressed or altered. Second, no two images share the same signature. Third, the signature takes only four milliseconds to compute, which means that a single computer can extract 20 million signatures per day, he said.

The number of images of child pornography that PhotoDNA has identified so far leads Allen to believe that the sharing of such images is a much greater problem than initially expected, he said.

Before Farid was commissioned to develop his software, the U.S. Department of Justice asked major technology companies including Microsoft, Google, AOL, Earthlink and Yahoo! to develop a solution to address the flow of child pornography circulating on the Internet, according to Farid. These companies banded together to form the Technology Coalition, he said.

“They would dutifully meet in Washington once or twice a week for a few years and do nothing — absolutely nothing,” Farid said. “They kept talking about how hard this problem is.”

The coalition struggled to differentiate between acceptable photos and those containing sexual abuse without obstructing the efficiency of Internet programs, Farid said.

The Microsoft team, then headed by Tim Cranton, had read an article in The New York Times that featured Farid’s work in digital forensics. Cranton. eager to enlist the help of a professional well-versed in photo identification technology, invited Farid to a coalition meeting in Washington, D.C., in early 2008, Farid said.

Before Farid joined the team, the Coalition had been unable to develop software capable of scanning the billions of photos that are uploaded to the Internet each day, Farid said.

Farid proposed that the coalition use images in the NCMEC database to eliminate the redistribution of those same photos. The database currently holds 50 million images of child pornography and adds 250,000 each week, according to its website. Because photos are copied and redistributed to hundreds of computers, the identification of one photo as a match to a photo in the database could incriminate hundreds of individuals, Farid said.

“My idea was, don’t try to go after things you haven’t seen before — go after the things you have seen before,” Farid said. “Go after the images that you know are child porn, that you know are horrible, that you know who the victims are and that you know people keep trafficking.”

The May 5 move demonstrates that liquidity, or the ability to turn investments into cash quickly, is no longer as pressing a concern for Duke as it was at the height of the economic downturn in 2008. The University issued bonds in Jan. 2009 to ensure that it would not have to sell damaged, hard-to-move assets to cover its operating expenses like the payroll, said Executive Vice President Tallman Trask.

The University used $90 million of the funds raised from issuing the bonds to cover its operating expenses for the first quarter of 2010, Trask said. Typically, Duke uses a payout from its endowment to cover part of those expenses, but the economic climate made it difficult to sell investments to raise the money.

“This had served its purpose—I was no longer worried about the liquidity issue,” Trask said. “I’m confident now that if we had to go to the market now to get money, we could do that.”

Borrowing the $500 million did not cost the University anything because Duke invested the remaining $410 million it did not use for operating expenses in low-risk corporate securities, which earned more than enough to cover the 4.7 percent annual interest on the bonds, Trask said.

The University made $6.7 million on the transaction, even after paying a premium of $56.2 million to investors for the right to buy back the bonds early before they expired in 2014 and 2019, he said. Duke also avoided $120 million in interest payments it would otherwise have had to make on the money between now and 2019.

Trask said the bonds gave the University access to money for expenses if the need arose. He added that repurchasing the debt early relieved Duke from having to hope that the returns on the corporate securities continued to pay for the interest.

Although administrators noted that it was fortunate the transaction paid for itself, the issuing of bonds was never a money-making venture. Tim Walsh, who became vice president for finance in April after serving five months in the position on an interim basis, was involved in the discussions concerning the repurchase of the bonds. He noted that the move was purely a “defensive maneuver.”

Duke is a nonprofit institution and therefore it has access to nontaxable bonds, which allows borrowing at a low interest rate. In return for these terms, however, the University is prohibited from borrowing funds with the intent to invest them for a profit, Walsh said. In this case, the University chose to issue taxable bonds as any corporation would, a move more appropriate for this “liquidity backdrop,” he said.

“Tax exempt organizations can get into trouble if they try to profit from something like this, and that was not our intention at all,” Walsh said. “We should not take advantage of our preferred access to the debt market to make money. In fact, we don’t even want to risk the perception that we had taken advantage of our status to make a profit, even though these were taxable bonds.”

The conversation about whether to buy back the debt began in the Fall, Walsh said. Given the current economic conditions in which interest rates on new debt are very low, it no longer made sense to keep the debt, he added.

Similar to the college student who makes prompt credit card payments to build credit, the move also shows Duke’s ability to repay its debt. Moving forward, Duke is more attractive to potential bondholders because it performed well, Trask said.

In order to avoid conflicts of interest in such a large financial deal, Trask noted that Duke officials close to the decision-making process were careful to keep the transaction’s timing confidential. Only the members of the Board of Trustees immediately involved in the decision—Susan Stalnecker, Trinity ’73, and Bruce Karsh, Trinity ’77—were aware of the timing, he said.

“To my knowledge, no Trustees had any financial interest in this transaction,” Trask said, adding that though the bonds are publicly traded securities, any Trustee with a financial stake in the deal would be required to report it. “I can assure you that with the exception of [Karsh and Stalnecker]—who I know had no interest—the other Trustees didn’t know the timing, didn’t know the details. We were very careful on that.”

Between December 2008 and November 2009, at least 15 universities, including six Ivy League Schools, issued $7.2 billion of taxable bonds, Bloomberg reported. Harvard University announced in April that it will repurchase $300 million of the $1.5 billion of taxable bonds it issued during the downturn, but Trask noted that Duke is the first university to buy back its debt from the financial crisis, as Harvard will repurchase its bonds June 2.

“It strengthens us to have less debt, and I think it sends an important message that we were able to pay it off,” Trask said.

By the time of the strike’s termination on May 8, the remaining hunger strikers had not been given any of their demands, which were first stated by the original group of about 12 demonstrators who had sworn themselves to empty stomachs on April 26 to protest the staff consolidations in UC Berkeley’s departments of gender and women’s studies, African American studies and ethnic studies.

The strikers demanded the campus reinstate the full-time staff positions cut in the Ethnic Studies Department as a result of the Operational Excellence organizational simplification initiative, end the current process of Operational Excellence, support a California legislative resolution advocating for ethnics studies in the state and “publicly (acknowledging) the unfulfilled promise of the creation of a Third World College at UC Berkeley.”

But after two groups of five representatives for the hunger strikers met with Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Gibor Basri and Dean of the Division of Social Sciences Carla Hesse and failed to have any of the demands met – and only the last two being deemed by the administration to be the “most feasible” to address – hunger strikers eventually tapered off in front of California Hall.

“To agree to symbolic gestures without solid actions to back up your investment in our departments is to make empty promises,” a May 3 letter from the strikers states. “We will continue striking until we see acknowledgement that all four demands which are both well within reach of the UC Berkeley administration and are acted upon in good faith.”

Campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore said in an email that the campus made itself available for discussion with those involved in the demonstration throughout the duration of the strike.

“We were moved by the concern students have shown for the consequences of the current budget crisis on campus staff and staff in these academic departments in particular,” she said in the email.

Marco Amaral, a student organizer for the strike, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Other protesters that were contacted were not able to comment as of press time.

According to Gilmore, staff reductions and “other efficiency measures” result from cuts in the state’s budget.

“Operational Excellence is designed for our campus to manage the budget challenges in a strategic way that helps us handle these cuts without destroying access, excellence and core services, especially those affecting students,” Gilmore said in the email.

Over the past few years, the campus has faced a deteriorating budget, impacted by severe state cuts to higher education as well as the economic downturn. Though the campus has attempted to combat the budget crises, students have still felt the impacts of the cuts in reduced library hours, reduced class offerings and increases in tuition costs for the UC system.

Most recently on March 24, Gov. Jerry Brown approved a $500 million cut each to both the UC and CSU systems. Brown has warned that more cuts could follow if other measures are not taken to further close the state’s budget deficit.

Gilmore added that so far, only one full-time staff in the ethnic studies department has been laid off and that the individual had been temporarily placed in another position on campus.

Additionally, there has only been one elimination of a part-time staff member, though the person still maintains another part-time job on campus, and there have been some positions that had their working hours reduced, Gilmore said in the email.

Overall, all those affected by the cuts are still employed on campus in other positions, according to Gilmore.

“The (UC) Berkeley campus has one of the earliest and strongest Ethnic Studies departments,” she said in the email. “We value that history and intend to maintain and increase its intellectual stature.”

A trustee from the United Auto Workers Local 2865 – a union which represents graduate student instructors, readers and tutors systemwide – filed the charge with California’s Public Employment Relations Board on behalf of the union, alleging that the university made unilateral changes to its commitment to fund fee remissions and health benefits for union members, failed to meet over a campus benefits decentralization plan and violated the union’s collective bargaining agreement.

UC spokesperson Steve Montiel declined to comment on the charge.

Specifically, the unfair labor practice charge addresses multiple information requests that union members submitted to the Labor Relations division of the campus Human Resources Office Feb. 28, over a campus benefits decentralization policy that was implemented April 1.

“From February 28, 2011 and continuing to this date the employer has refused to provide the information requested despite multiple requests made to the employer,” the charge states.

According to the charge, the union submitted information requests on Feb. 28, April 12 and April 19.

Though the union members and campus labor relations representatives previously had difficulty choosing a mutually agreeable time and neutral location to meet to discuss the grievances filed over the policy, they are slated to meet May 6 in Sproul Hall.

UI anthropology/women’s studies Professor Ellen Lewin’s response to a universitywide e-mail sent by UI College Republicans, which promoted “Conservative Coming Out Week,” has drawn fire for its profanity and what some called a lack of professionalism.

“F*CK YOU, REPUBLICANS,” Lewin wrote in response to the mass message, which provided a list of activities the conservative organization would sponsor this week.

UI spokesman Tom Moore said it is too early to know what, if any, action the university would take against Lewin. But UI Faculty Senate President Edwin Dove said she likely won’t be punished for the comments.

And UI Associate Professor Lyombe Eko, a free-speech expert in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said Lewin’s statement is protected under the First Amendment, noting universities are not enclaves immune from free speech.

“She is within her rights,” he said. “However, in an academic environment where the stock in trade is ideas, such outbursts can leave a lot to be desired.”

Dove agreed Lewin shouldn’t have responded to the student organization with an expletive.

“There’s an expectation that, when you disagree with a viewpoint, that you do so respectfully in every way,” he said. “Certainly wasn’t very wise.”

On Wednesday, Lewin apologized for her remarks.

“I’m afraid I lost my temper and did something very regrettable,” Lewin said in an e-mail to The Daily Iowan. “I responded to an e-mail from the UI College Republicans with a profanity. It was not appropriate, let alone professional, for me to use it.”

Lewin also sent an apology e-mail to members of College Republicans shortly after the head of her department, James Enloe, sent her a message asking to speak with her immediately. Enloe had been forwarded the messages by Natalie Ginty, the 21-year-old president of the Iowa Federation of College Republicans.

But in a follow-up e-mail to the group, Lewin detailed her concerns. She said several parts of the group’s original e-mail “were extremely offensive, nearly rising to the level of obscenity.”

In that latter message, Lewin also noted Ginty’s use of her first name.

“She referred to me as Ellen, not Professor Lewin, which is the correct way for a student to address a faculty member, or indeed, for anyone to refer to an adult with whom they are not acquainted,” she wrote. “I do apologize for my intemperate language, but the message you all sent out was extremely disturbing and offensive.”

Lewin also criticized the student organization for using the term “coming out,” saying it was “appropriating the language of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights movement.” And the group’s reference to the Wisconsin protests suggested the demonstrations were “frivolous attempts” to avoid work, she said.

A Friday event, called the “Animal Rights Barbecue,” also bothered Lewin, who said it was “extremely insensitive to those who consider animal rights an important cause.” The College Republicans have hosted similar cookouts in the past, which have mocked the advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals by grilling a lot of meat.

The UI College Republicans faced some criticism in 2007 for hosting a capture the flag game called “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” as part of its second Conservative Coming Out Week. Two teams — the “illegal immigrants” and the “border patrol” — competed.

In response to Lewin’s thread of messages, UI College Republicans faculty adviser Tim Hagle said her apology was half-hearted.

“Your initial apology, though qualified, was at least a step in the right direction,” Hagle wrote to Lewin. “The ‘additional note’ only served to retract the apology and was an apparent attempt to justify your initial response.”

In the midst of the discourse, UI President Sally Mason sent a campuswide e-mail with the subject line “Freedom of Expression and Civil Debate.”

“Student organizations are sometimes formed along political lines and act on their political beliefs,” Mason wrote. “Even if we personally disagree with those viewpoints, we must be respectful of those viewpoints in every way. Intolerant and disrespectful discord is not acceptable behavior.”

Lewin — who studies same-sex relationships and, in particular, gay fathers — wasn’t the only one upset with the group’s use of the term “coming out.”

Adam Lewis, the manager of the UI Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center, said he supports the organization’s right to free speech. But coming out as gay and coming out as Republican are far from similar, he said.

“By coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, you face the possibility of getting kicked out of your home, your parents’ disapproval, and the majority of religions telling you you’re an abomination for who you are,” Lewis said.

UI graduate student Kristen DeGree said the College Republicans’ use of the term is highly offensive.
“It’s something that’s associated with gay culture,” the 26-year-old said.

DeGree said the methods used by the organization are “quite cynical.”

But John Twillmann, the chairman of the UI College Republicans, said that argument is faulty, because “coming out” is just a term that isn’t copyrighted or owned by anyone.

“It’s being open and honest,” he said. “You can come out, come clean about many things, and we’re coming out about being conservative.”

And Christopher Pickett, 24, said that while there’s nothing wrong with getting the message out, the satirical nature of the Conservative “Coming Out Week” retards the progress of the organization’s efforts.

“By lampooning [the issue], you’re taking away its agency,” he said.

Before last year, UI College Republicans took a two-year break from the weeklong series of events because of the volume of hateful remarks they received.

But on Wednesday, members of the group stood in front of the Pentacrest passing out fake doctors’ notes for students “sick of being stressed,” in an effort to mimic the Wisconsin public workers who used such notes to protest for their collective-bargaining rights.

College Republicans members handed out doctors notes with personalized messages such as “Due to a case of: It’s almost finals,” and “Due to a case of: It’s 4/20.”

“We’re obviously somewhat mocking the union protesters in Wisconsin and how some of them skipped work to go to the Capitol and protest,” Ginty said.

As for Lewin’s remarks, she said, it’s something they’d expect from a student but not a professor.

“When we get an e-mail from a socialist group, do we respond? No, of course not. We delete it,” Ginty said. “When a professor e-mails us some vulgar comments, that’s a little different.”

That wasn’t always a focus, said biochemistry professor Paul Siliciano.

“We were leaving untapped the power of the competitive marketplace,” he said, particularly given the school’s size. He said that when publishing company representatives presented new books to professors, their price was rarely mentioned.

“It’s sort of like somebody buying a really loaded car, except they don’t have to pay for it,” he said. “There’s a disconnect there.”

But Siliciano said that has changed in recent years, helped by a trend of some professors who teach large courses, like chemistry, to negotiate multi-year contracts with publishers in exchange for lower costs.

According to University of Minnesota Bookstore manager Bob Crabb, that strategy seems to be working. Despite publishers increasing prices 5 to 6 percent over the last several years, he said, the average price of textbooks in the University’s bookstore has gone down since last year.

“The only way that can happen is if faculty are making a concerted effort to select lower-price books,” he said.

Still, the profit motive of booksellers can frustrate professors.

Professor Tom Holmes said the substance of the textbook for his introductory economics course changes little year to year, but they update the text with different graphics and examples from current events.

“The edition doesn’t change at all,” he said. “They only things they change are the pictures. It’s shocking.”

While Crabb called publishers “relentless in their pursuit” of higher costs despite the scrutiny of those costs, he acknowledged that publishers need to cover production expenses. He said by the third or fourth run of a volume the sales pale in comparison due to used book sales.

Tom Stanton, spokesman for textbook publishing company McGraw-Hill, said publishers’ revenue comes from the first sale of the print textbook only.

“The largest percentages of the wholesale textbook price,” he wrote in an email, “cover author royalties, paper [and] printing,” among others.

Crabb said the business used and rental books take from new books forces publishers to raise prices, which in turn drives students to purchase more used and rental books.

“It’s kind of a vicious circle,” he said.

Despite the appeal of alternatives, Crabb said cheaper e-books haven’t caught on. “It’s got the whole industry baffled.”

He said part of the reason might be because many e-books don’t add any value, despite the potential of their electronic platform.

“Currently they’re pretty much PDFs of paper books,” he said, adding that publishers are developing interactive features on books.

Until then, he said, “They just don’t stand up to a paper book you can flip back and forth in and mark up.”

“We don’t see e-books as a game changer,” Stanton wrote.

Textbook rentals have proven more popular with students. They accounted for 7 percent of the bookstore’s sales in the last year, but among textbooks available in all forms, that rate jumps to more than a third.

The federal government has also become a force in changing the textbook market. Last summer, regulations requiring publishers to detail information about prices, revision histories and alternate formats went into law, according to a McClatchy report. The law also required publishers to sell multimedia supplements to textbooks separately from the book.

Siliciano said he was pleased with the bookstore’s attempts to keep book prices close to cost. He also said he thinks there should be a “renewed, concerted effort” to bring prices down across the University.

“We haven’t come as far as we’d like to,” he said, citing the difficulty of lowering prices for courses that use multimedia software, website keys and other supplements.

“It’s frustrating because we can’t do anything about tuition,” he said. “But the faculty feels very strongly for the students.

“If we can [help] control textbook costs, it’s a good thing.”

The event, titled “Crisis in Japan: the Way Forward,” focused on long-term reconstruction strategies in response to the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan about two weeks ago.

“Japan is moving out of the initial phase of emergency response,” said Harvard School of Public Health Professor Michael R. Reich, pointing out that coverage of the disaster is “no longer on the front page of The Times.”

Reich addressed possible social risks of the disaster, which could include Japanese citizenry losing trust in their government.

Kotaro Tamura, former Japanese Parliamentary Secretary for Fiscal and Economic Policy and for Financial Affairs offered solutions to concerns about the impact of the disaster on the Japanese economy, including the potentially damaging effect of reduced electric power and potential decreases in overall Japanese spending.

The goal of the event was to move beyond “sensationalist” news coverage and instead focus on an objective analysis of the disaster’s long-term impact, said event organizer Shinju Fujihira, associate director of the US-Japan Relations Program at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

William M. Nehring, program coordinator for the program on US-Japan Relations, said that “a wide variety of voices and experiences were represented” at the event.

Doctoral student Naoko Miake, who has attended recent events at Harvard and MIT about the disaster in Japan, said she was impressed by the “interesting combination of experts” present in the panel, noting that it was good to hear from panelists “with hands-on knowledge of issues.”

But event attendee and Brandeis University student Ryo Morimoto said that he had expected more from the panelists.

“A lot was nothing new,” Morimoto said. “I was hoping for more inside information but at the same time I thought it was an interesting discussion.”

“The panel was incredibly informative,” said Midori Takasaki ’14, who was collecting donations for the student group Harvard for Japan following the event.

“It was interesting hearing [the perspectives of] both American and Japanese representatives,” he said.

Panelists also included Takeshi Hikihara, Boston Consul General for Japan, and Yoji Koda, Senior Fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center.

The event was part of the Harvard for Japan week, a week-long series of fundraising and informational events regarding the Japanese disaster.

During a summit in Washington, D.C., Vice President Joe Biden introduced a “College Completion Tool Kit,” a program that will offer governors ideas on how to enhance college graduation rates through strategies that are “low-cost” or “no-cost” to the state.

“Right now, we’ve got an education system that works like a funnel when we need it to work like a pipeline,” Biden said in a press release. “We have to make the same commitment to getting folks across the graduation stage that we did to getting them into the registrar’s office. The dreams and skills of our college graduates will pave the way to a bright economic future for our nation.”

The plan has seven key strategies including aligning high school standards with college entrance and placement standards, making it easier for students to transfer and targeting adults with some college completion but no degree.

In order for the U.S. to increase the number of college graduates by the goal of 50 percent, the Department of Education claims each state will need to have a 60 percent completion rate by 2020. Currently, about 42 percent of U.S. citizens ages 25-34 have college degrees, according to information at the summit. The state of Texas falls below this target percentage, with an approximately 45.8-percent completion rate.

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research also released a study which ranked UT’s 78 percent as the 11th-highest among U.S. state universities. Ranked first was the University of Virginia at 93 percent, and second was University of California, Los Angeles at
90 percent.

Thomas Palaima, a classics professor, said the problem with the country’s graduation rate is the structure of higher education itself, and that unless the core structure is fixed, the Obama and Biden remedies will not ultimately fix this problem.

“It’s a good goal to have the highest graduation rate in the world, but unless you address the underlying structural problems, this is not going to improve life very much for the people who are going to be literally tricked by this system,” Palaima said.

America once led the world in the number of college graduates it produces, but the country has fallen to ninth, said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who delivered opening remarks at the Summit on Monday evening.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Korea currently holds the No. 1 college graduation rate, with 58 percent of its population finishing college.

“While our educational advancement stalled, other countries have passed us by. We need to educate our way to a better economy, and governors must help lead the way,” Duncan said.

To meet the 2020 goal of regaining the No. 1 spot, the U.S. will have to turn out at least 8 million additional graduates by the end of the decade.

Many university students and parents petitioned for student governments to review Nevada System of Higher Education code and draft legislation that would publicize the evaluations, prompting the graduate and undergraduate governments to explore the idea. But the Graduate Student Association decided against it.

The faculty evaluations students complete each semester are considered part of an instructor’s personnel file, which contractual agreements between professors and NSHE prohibit from being published.

GSA President Matt Smith said there were better ways to improve teaching on campus, such as peer reviews and programs that honor professors for exemplary performance.

Smith also said the initiative would be unwise to pursue during the state’s financial crisis, which is adding pressure to many university professors.

“It just wasn’t the right time,” Smith said. “We all need to be standing together rather than putting (instructors) on the defense.”

One parent disgruntled with the policy, Sheryle Lengdorfer, took her grievances online. She created a website for students to evaluate their professors and have their comments displayed publicly.

Students can also evaluate departments of the university such as the UNR Police Deparmtent.

Lengdorfer, who orchestrated a petition that amassed hundreds of student signatures in support of the survey’s release, said she was unhappy with the group’s decision.

“A lot of their constituents would have liked to receive their backing,” said Lengdorfer, who has two children enrolled at the university.

Although she considered seeking legal counsel earlier this year, Lengdorfer said she is waiting to see what the Associated Students of the University of Nevada does before looking further into the matter.

But ASUN Speaker Brandon Bishop said the group is not looking for new means to evaluate professors, although the Committee on Academics plans to give a report on the idea to the next session.

However, Bishop agreed that pursuing the initiative would send a poor message to instructors.

“While I believe this issue is important right now, students and professors should be together in this tough time,” Bishop said. “However, this issue should continue to be addressed to find a mutually beneficial system.”

Bishop said ASUN has contacted a few students about the issue, but the group’s primary focus has been on maintaining the university’s budget.

The GSA Council will revisit suggestions to pursue alternatives to publishing faculty evaluations once the next council convenes in April, Smith said.

This includes the ledgers of the IU Student Association or any other student organization, so it is not clear if IUSA executives have given money to their own companies this year.

Last year, however, the Indiana Daily Student obtained a non-redacted 2009-10 IUSA ledger, which revealed that two companies owned by members of the executive branch received IUSA funds.

LiveArrive LLC, owned by then-Transportation Chief Ilya Rekhter, received $15,000 and Neil Kelty’s Thrive44 Strategy Group received two checks totaling more than $700.

The document was used in an impeachment petition against Kelty, IUSA’s chief of staff, that recently went before the IUSA Congress and the Supreme Court.

In October, when the IDS requested the ledger for the first time, Assistant Dean of Students Steve Veldkamp said, “All student government records are open to the public.”

But when the IDS requested the 2010-11 ledger last month, IUSA Treasurer Sierra Hsieh said she must work with IU Legal, which concluded that some parts of the documents couldn’t be disclosed due to restrictions in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

FERPA is a federal law that sets requirements and guidelines for releasing student records and information. If a university is found to have routinely violated FERPA, it could lose federal funding.

The full ledgers list recipients of money, how it’s distributed, its amount and when it’s mailed.

The 2010-11 ledger did not list which students were reimbursed, nor which companies received checks. IUSA budgets show what category of money is being spent, but not where the money ends up.

Beth Cate, IU’s associate general counsel, said IU can’t release records it believes could be used to identify a student.

According to the state’s Access to Public Records Act, documents like these should be open record, but the statute also states releases can’t violate federal law such as FERPA.

The IUSA documents not being released include some related to the GPS bus tracking debate, such as disclosures of conflict of interest or commitment.

This means any student organization, including IUSA, could be using money without disclosing the details to the public.

The video has faced a myriad of criticism, prompting UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to release a video message openly criticizing Wallace’s YouTube post.

The original video, titled “Asians in the Library,” was posted by Alexandra Wallace, a junior majoring in political science at UCLA.

Wallace said Asian students talking on their phones lack manners and she blamed them for distracting her from her work.

“In America we do not talk on our cell phones in the library…when I’m about to, like, reach an epiphany, over here from somewhere, ‘Oh, ching chong ling long ting tong? Oh,’ ” Wallace said in the video.

Block said in his video response that Wallace’s YouTube post has “caused a lot of pain.”

“This has been a sad day for UCLA and a disappointing day for me personally,” Block said. “The UCLA described in the video is not the University that I know.”

Since releasing the YouTube video, Wallace has apologized.

“Clearly the original video posted by me was inappropriate,” Wallace said. “I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did, and if I could undo it, I would.”

The death toll for the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, which occurred on March 11, is currently 6,000, but continues to rise.

Union leaders addressed a crowd filled with protest signs and umbrellas to support public education and voice opposition to many of the education bills that have been proposed in the Indiana General Assembly.

The bills the crowd gathered to protest are the same bills that drove many Democrats to leave the state recently, including a bill that would limit teachers’ collective bargaining abilities, a bill that would create scholarships for students to attend private schools and a bill that would change the way teachers are evaluated.

One of the speakers, National Education Association Secretary and Treasurer Becky Pringle, asked the educators in the crowd to prepare themselves to fight for the future of public education.

“Of all of the civil rights for which we are entitled to, the right to learn is the most fundamental,” Pringle said. “Public education is at risk, and this is the fight of
our lives.”

Pringle said the educators in Indiana and across the country could not be silenced by legislatures. The demonstrators agreed by clapping and cheering, making their voices heard from many blocks away.

Scott Bauserman, an IU graduate and a social studies teacher at Decatur Central High School, said he drove for more than two hours to show his opposition to Gov. Mitch Daniels’ education reform agenda.

“We need all the opportunities we can get to improve our practice,” Bauserman said. “But the way to help us reform is to work with us rather than against us.”

Bauserman said he feels disrespected by the bills proposed in the Indiana General Assembly.

He said he encourages everyone to call their legislature and recognize that there is a difference between national and state politics.

Another demonstrator, Jon Beck, wore a Superman costume to represent a recent education documentary, ‘Waiting for ‘Superman.’”

Beck said he agrees that schools are always in need of reform, but he does not think
legislatures are giving teachers enough say in how to go about it.

“These politicians have this misconception that unions are only interested in money and budget issues, but that’s just not the case,” Beck said. “Unions are there for the teachers and for the kids.”

Beck said the way teachers are evaluated is also a cause for concern.

Pete and Susan Holtz, both teachers and the parents of seven children, said they agreed with Beck and that teachers should not be evaluated based on standardized test scores.

“We can document two years of math growth in one year’s time,” Susan Holtz said. “But if the student doesn’t peak on the day of an exam, that’s all down the drain.”

The couple’s voices were drowned out as people driving by the Statehouse honked their horns in support.

“Teachers like to work collaboratively, and many of these bills will put teachers against teachers in a competitive way,” Susan Holtz said. “What kind of environment is that for these kids to be learning in?”

Demands to have student conduct charges dropped and to open a dialogue about the campus Operational Excellence program were partially met, while demands to end budget cuts and to democratize the UC Board of Regents were not.

“True democracy can happen through this method, through our voices,” said sophomore Marco Amaral. “This has to continue because we have two demands that have not been met … There’s nothing we can’t do.”

Soon after an initial nine activists moved to the top of Wheeler by 1:45 p.m., a crowd of demonstrators – whose numbers peaked at about 300 by 4:30 p.m. – flooded the building’s south steps. One of the nine ledge protesters was pulled inside by UCPD and arrested at 2:46 p.m. and booked at the Berkeley Jail Facility for trespassing with intent to damage property.

The crowd was forced off the eastern half of the steps at around 6:15 p.m. by a police force equipped with riot gear that included officers from the Berkeley, Oakland, UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley campus police departments.

Pepper spray was used against some demonstrators, while other protesters reported being hit with batons.

“All of a sudden, I was surrounded by riot police who were hitting me in the stomach and head,” said senior Pourya Khademi. “Just as I was turning away, another one sprayed me directly in the face.”

Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard conducted final negotiations with the protesters’ representative, UC Berkeley School of Law student and Campus Rights Project member Daniela Urban. The conclusion of negotiations was announced at about 8:45 p.m. and protesters began to leave the ledge. They left the building at 9:17 p.m. to a group of about 150 people outside.

According to the terms of the negotiations, protesters from demonstrations at Wheeler Hall on both Wednesday and Thursday will not face student conduct charges. However, three of the 17 arrested Wednesday may still face charges for obstructing a peace officer by the district attorney.

Additionally, students with pending charges from the Nov. 20, 2009, Wheeler Hall occupation will have the option to accept probation through the end of the semester rather than go through with their hearings.

That the student conduct charges – which had a “very chilling effect on student protesters” – were dropped shows that student protesters will not be silenced, said sophomore Abhay Agarwal, who has a pending student conduct hearing for the November 2009 occupation.

“Finally (the administration) got their shit straight,” he said. “They have seen our power.”

While she said she was happy with the outcome of the protest, senior Cristina Urista, who was one of the protesters on the ledge, said that the change had been a long time coming.

“This is my last semester … I refused to give up,” she said. “It doesn’t even feel so much like a triumph, it feels like, ‘Oh, finally.’”

Adelyn Baxter, J.D. Morris and Javier Panzar of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.

“The main focus is prospective students,” said Steve Scott of the Management Office of Information Security. “The U prefers a clean image when prospective students, their families or patients at the U Hospital visit the Web via the U.”

It is classless to purport to have “clean” Internet for prospective students and their families and then drop the pretense after admission. I guess the U not only knows how to educate, but can sell some snake oil on the side.

This rationale is a feeble attempt to deceive, and the deception is not even relevant to the college students who pay for it.

China is the global mascot of censorship today. Yet this is the way the U is going, which gives a whole new meaning to “Go Red!”

Nevertheless, the U is now blocking YouTube and Google Video because that would look bad to prospective students—they’re not ready for those websites, at least not until they’re admitted.

Among others, there’s The Onion, also blocked now. The reason given in this case is that the content is rated R. The only interpretation for this move is that it’s political—and that’s where I lose my cool. The Motion Picture Association of America specifies an “R” rating as requiring children under 17 to be accompanied by an adult. Obviously this has nothing to do with college students.

“It is a mandate from the State Legislature,” Scott said.

It might be a mandate, but the U could push back, which it evidently has chosen not to do. It doesn’t matter how the argument for censorship is made. The rationale fails.

The Salt Lake City Public Library also censors content for some users—the children’s section. Adults, like college students, can browse the Web without bars, according to librarian Mark Rex. Ignorant dialogue yields only more ignorance. Such are the fruits of censorship. So does democracy wither on the vine.

Because part of our education at the U is moral, blocking off parts of the map merely cripples students’ moral development. Now, who would pay for that?

Most of all, the U protects no one by censorship. It cashes checks by selling itself as a research institution, then acts like China to visitors. That’s classic bait and switch. Let’s not put our money there, if that’s all they’re selling.

The university is the one place in society where free thought must be maintained—otherwise education devolves into indoctrination. People are never protected by censorship. It does not further our development, nor does it make us “better people.” It’s a mental version of foot binding.

BYU should be having a good, long laugh right now.

Block child pornography sites—I’m 100 percent for that. Sure, there are many less clear-cut cases, but however fuzzy the standards might be, I trust we can establish standards that successfully discriminate between sites that promote harm, and the rest.

Let’s discuss the other kinds of sites before making moral judgments. My point is, dialogue will win out. Let’s learn from one another before we decide.

Many parents pay for their children’s tuition at the U. This expression of doubt by the U about its children’s judgment is an affront to the parenting skills of these paying customers. That’s not going to sound good at the next shareholders/Regents meeting.

Your money is now going toward censoring a political voice I and many of my colleagues affirm. This is when I see red.

Students are financing the servers and the salaries of those who operate them. Now we’re being told what we can and can’t handle. U visitors are relegated to the children’s section in the public library. The U should abandon this practice or its “university” title.

MU and other state schools that receive federal funding are, under the Returning Heroes Act, required to cap undergraduate tuition to $50 per credit hour for veterans who served after Sept. 11, 2001, in a designated combat zone. In-state undergraduate students typically pay $245.60 per credit hour.

Controversy surrounding the statute has arose due to the question of whether the federal aid should be distributed before or after the addition of non-tuition fees, such as room and board rates. MU does not include costs besides tuition when applying the aid granted veterans from the Returning Heroes Act.

“Our campuses use the methodology recommended by the Department of Higher Education, which is to apply other financial aid first, then the Returning Heroes,” UM System spokeswoman Jennifer Hollingshead said in an e-mail.

Simon Law Firm in St. Louis will represent a group of veterans comprised of MU students, as well as students from other federally-funded Missouri higher education institutions.

Attorney John Campbell said the suit rests on the belief the federal aid should cover not only tuition, which comprises on 40 percent of most college costs, but the costs of attending college as well.

“The primary problem is that right now is that if someone receives aid from the federal government the schools are applying it all to tuition even though that aid is also for room and board, etc.,” Campbell said. “The result is that the school is often paid its full tuition, the same tuition you or I or anyone who is not a combat veteran would pay. Often the aid is completely depleted paying the tuition and the combat veterans’ federal aid is gone.”

MU General Counsel Phillip Hoskins and Vice Provost for Admissions Ann Korschgen did not comment on the situation, as MU’s legal policy does not permit discussion on pending litigation.

The veterans’ charge against MU will focus on the clear intent of the Returning Heroes Act to reduce tuition for combat veterans, Campbell said.

“In the way it’s being applied right, we do not believe (the Returning Heroes Act) is reducing tuition in most cases and even the cases in which tuition reduction occurs the reduction is less than it should be under the law,” Campbell said. “We believe the statute requires that the tuition for combat veterans be reduced in a significant way.”

Campbell said the lawsuit became necessary after conversations involving the law firm and the university yielded no result. In addition, the law firm hopes the decision, whether made by a judge or a court of appeals, will impact Missouri on a statewide level, rather than just MU.

“Once a court of appeals speaks with some authority or we reach an agreement as to what the law means and how it should be applied, all schools should follow suit, and we’ll see uniformity in application,” Campbell said.

Campbell said he considers representing the veterans an honor to himself and his law firm.

“I don’t know if it is necessarily an advantage, but it is a privilege to represent combat veterans,” Campbell said. “To an extent right now the statute helps them less than it should. We argue that it should help them more, and I don’t know who would disagree with that.”

For hours, Statehouse doors remained locked, guarded by Ohio State Troopers. Crowds protesting Senate Bill 5, which would eliminate collective bargaining for state employees, gathered outside, attempting to enter the building.

“It’s outrageous that they would lock people out of the People’s House,” state Rep. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, told The Lantern inside the packed Statehouse. “I’ve been here since 1983; I’ve seen all kinds of demonstrations. Never have I seen people locked out of the Statehouse, highway patrol on the doors, prohibiting them from coming in.”

State Rep. Ronald Gerberry, D-Youngstown, one of three Democrats in the general assembly who were there in 1983 when collective bargaining was passed, had a similar reaction.

“I was appalled this morning, early this afternoon, when I came to the Statehouse and the doors were locked,” Gerberry told The Lantern over the roars of protesters inside the Statehouse. “In my career — this is my 23rd year in the House — I have never seen the doors locked.”

The crowd outside the Statehouse was gathering about 1 p.m., when the doors were locked, and at 3:30 p.m. the doors remained closed as protesters stood outside chanting, “Let us in!”

“We are willing to stand out here to talk,” said Steve Nash, a firefighter from Solon, Ohio, standing in 27-degree weather and light snow. “And if (Kasich is) not willing to come out, then that proves why we need collective bargaining.”

Nash, 46, traveled about 160 miles from Northeast Ohio with others from the Solon Firefighters Association, Local 2079, to protest Senate Bill 5.

State Rep. Denise Driehaus, D-Cincinnati, called the protest “democracy in action.”

“People want to participate in what’s being done,” Driehaus told The Lantern. “They want to have a voice, and so they came to the People’s House to make sure their voice is heard.”

Driehaus said a smaller protest took place at another Senate Bill 5 hearing Thursday and that the chants were so loud it was difficult to hear the deliberations.

Outside, the crowd wielded anti-Senate Bill 5 signs and chanted, “Kill the bill!” The bill they were protesting will, if passed, eliminate the collective-bargaining abilities of state workers and replace them with a merit-based system. Negotiating power of police officers, firefighters and teachers would be restricted. Police and firefighters still would not be able to strike. Teachers could still go on strike — but schools would be able to hire permanent replacements.

One teacher from the Columbus City School District said she became a teacher to serve students but that this bill would make it more difficult for her to do so effectively.

“Class size is one of the things we bargain,” said Diana Turner, 46, a member of the Ohio and Columbus education associations who teaches high school juniors and seniors. “If someone who hasn’t been in a class for years tries to come in and determine that for us, it won’t be in the best interest of the students.”

The protesters dispersed about 8 p.m., said a state patrol officer on duty at the Statehouse. The officer would not comment on why the doors had been locked.

Republicans tout the bill as an effective way to create jobs and “set the table for economic growth.”

Rob Nichols, press secretary for Gov. John Kasich, said only that Kasich supports Republican state Sen. Shannon Jones, who sponsored the bill. But on Monday, Kasich told FOX News, “We have to give local government officials a way to be more efficient and more effective in the delivery of services, and we have to give them the flexibility they need to manage their costs, including labor.”

Repeated attempts to contact Jones and Ohio State College Republicans were unsuccessful.

Democrats, on the other hand, call the bill a direct attack on the middle class, saying it will be a detriment to public servants.

“We, as students, can understand that this affects not only people who we care about,” said Matt Caffrey, president of OSU College Democrats. “If we lose this fight, we’ll be so much worse off when we graduate.”

Sykes said state workers need to keep their ability to collectively bargain.

“I was here in 1983 when we approved the collective-bargaining bill,” Sykes said. “At that time we had a lot of problems with work stoppages, with strikes. … The result was … the collective-bargaining law.”

PROFS President Joe Salmons, a UW German professor, said though this action is not the first reaction to the bill, it will be the strongest and most organized to date and will include faculty members meeting at 10:30 a.m. by the Abe Lincoln statue on Bascom Hill before marching to the Capitol.

He said the organization is not calling for a faculty walkout, but is rather taking every possible action to ensure graduate students and UW staff can retain collective bargaining rights.

Salmons said though he has not discussed with Chancellor Biddy Martin the possible implications of the demonstration of faculty support, the majority of the faculty he has spoken with understand the situation and have been incredibly supportive.

“As things get more serious, we will be more outspoken,” he said. “This is really a major battle for the future of the university, and we have a conflict between working to secure [our] future and holding one discussion section.”

He added though students convey a wide spectrum of opinions on the bill, he views the campus community as unified in the goal of preserving the integrity of UW.

With nearly 2,000 faculty members on staff, Salmons said professors’ decisions will likely have a variety of different responses and PROFS did not instruct professors to cancel or reschedule classes off campus.

He also said faculty members are “energized and galvanized” and understand the announcement of the bill is the beginning of a difficult political time that will require long-term engagement between UW and the state Legislature on crucial issues.

Teaching Assistants’ Association member Magda Konieczna said UW faculty’s support marks a critical turning point in the ongoing fight against Walker’s bill.

“We’re thrilled they’re supporting us,” she said. “It’s certainly significant that faculty are making a bold and public statement to the bill that proposed to gut workers’ bargaining rights.”

TAA voted unanimously to host a third day of moving activity off campus today during a general membership meeting Sunday.

She added a growing number of groups on campus are offering support and PROFS’ endorsement supports the activism of undergraduates and graduate students who have been involved in organizing walkouts on campus.

UW sophomore and student activist Max Love said another student-led walkout is planned for 11:00 a.m. today, an event he said will hopefully garner increased student involvement in the wake of PROFS’ expression of support.

The walkout will highlight the need to continue educating students and will include a greater show of solidarity with the faculty and TAs facing the loss of benefits and collective bargaining rights under the proposal, Love said.

“Missing one class to support workers’ rights is a necessary measure,” Love said. “As much as it may seem contradictory, this is a part of a larger movement about what education really stands for.”

Announced publicly Wednesday morning, the gift is not only the largest philanthropic gift in OSU history, but “one of the largest gifts to higher education in Ohio,” said Tom Katzenmeyer, senior vice president of university communications.

In an event oriented around students at OSU, President E. Gordon Gee and Wexner discussed the significance of the gift with more than 300 people at the U.S. Bank Conference Theatre.

“This is a pure gift, given in love and respect for the university,” Gee said to the attendees. “That type of philanthropy will be transformative.”

Shelly Hoffman, assistant vice president for media relations, said Wexner’s gift will be spread out across a nine-year period, to be completed in 2020, with $20 million being donated this year. Hoffman also said $65 million of the $100 million is a personal gift from Wexner and his wife, Abigail. The other $35 million of the gift is from the Limited Brands Foundation.

Dan Levin, a professor of economics at OSU, said the distribution of the donation over several years gives OSU more time to plan how to use the money more effectively.

Hoffman also confirmed that the donation is the largest donation to OSU by a margin of $70 million. In 2001, Michael and Lou Ann Moritz donated $30 million to the law school and the university and in 1989, Wexner donated $25 million.

After the presentation, Gee and Wexner spoke to reporters about what this kind of investment toward the future of the university really means.

“This is a world-class university. When someone invests that amount of money, what they’re saying is it is not only worthy of my investment, but it makes it so much better by the kind of things that can happen,” Gee said.

Wexner spoke about what OSU meant to him.

“The university has had a great impact on me. But for Ohio State I wouldn’t have gone to college. But for Ohio State the views I have of the world, my views on responsibility, wouldn’t have been formed,” Wexner said.

During a question-and-answer session with students, Wexner offered advice about taking risks and being a leader.

“Whatever you do, you have to have a passion about it, whether you play basketball, or business, or law or medicine. I think you have to pursue your interests with a full heart of passion and curiosity,” Wexner said.

Wexner, 73, is the current chairman of the OSU Board of Trustees. Limited Brands is the parent company of both Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret.

The money will be used primarily for the OSU Medical Center, the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital, the Richard J. Solove Research Institute and the Wexner Center for the Arts, according to the press release.

Gee said Wexner came to OSU in December with the news of the gift. Gee said they finalized the financial details before they knew where the money was going. Hoffman said specifics are still being worked out.

John Kagel, a professor in economics at OSU, said donations like these tend to spark donors to line up and give to the university.

The best way to repay Wexner is by following in his footsteps, said Kyle Pacelli, a second-year in finance..

Steve Winick, a second-year in accounting and finance, said it is hard to understand the full magnitude of this donation.

“It’s obviously historic and something we can look forward to,” Winick said.

Undergraduate Student Government President Micah Kamrass said this donation is important to the Ohio State community for several reasons, including cancer research.

“Cancer research, which a lot of this money is going to, is something that will impact every one of our lives, either directly or indirectly,” Kamrass said.

Wexner said he hopes that with this money, OSU researchers will be able to change the world and find a cure for cancer.

“We can do it here. We can do it now,” Wexner said in the announcement. “There is no utility in saying maybe.”

Jennifer Williams, a second-year in nursing, attended the event celebrating the donation.

“The medical center and jobs in the future will feel the effects of this donation,” Williams said. “I don’t think there is enough thanks we can give (Wexner) to express our gratitude.”

Dr. Steven Gabbe, CEO of the OSU Medical Center, said the gift sends a powerful message to everyone at the medical center.

“(This gift) will enable us to advance even more rapidly our goals to be one of the best academic medical centers and cancer centers in the country,” Gabbe said. “We’re making to create new ways to teach, new ways to care for patients and continue to do the most important research to improve peoples’ lives.”

According to the Forbes 400 list, Wexner’s net worth is $2.9 billion, and he ranks as the No. 119 richest person in the United States. A Limited Brands proxy statement says that in 2008 and 2009, Wexner’s base salary more than $1.9 million per year.

Gee sent an e-mail to the OSU community Wednesday morning informing them of the donation Wexner had made. Gee said working with Wexner has been one of the great privileges in his life.

“(Wexner is) a person whose moral force combines seamlessly with vast intellectual capital, imagination and ingenuity,” Gee said in the e-mail.

Pacelli said this gift is an investment in OSU’s future.

“I think it’s a matter of following the precedent set by Mr. Wexner, learning from people like him and trying to live your live like that,” Pacelli said.

Gee showed appreciation for Wexner’s continued dedication to the university.

“We celebrate Les Wexner’s commitment to this university, to his unwavering optimism in the power of public education and to the unassailable truth that is the American Dream,” Gee said.

The current issue centers on the LDAP server that the University employs to store personal information about Princeton-affiliated individuals. At the moment, any individual with an Internet connection can contact the server and download the information it contains. In the past, the OIT website contained instructions for accessing the server. While OIT has announced its intention to remove those instructions, the potential for anybody to obtain the information on the server remains.

It is obviously necessary for the University to have access to certain personal information about students, such as our dorm rooms, our ID numbers and whether we are enrolled or taking a year off. Since we have to provide the University with this information, though, the University has an obligation to carefully restrict the further dissemination of that information. In certain circumstances, it may be appropriate to share some facts — for example, it is perfectly fine to publish students’ room numbers on The Princeton Facebook. It is not appropriate, however, for all this information to be easily accessible to the public. The University must do a better job of making sure that private information remains private.

Our peer schools have adopted a variety of strategies for restricting the amount of personal information made available through their LDAP servers. Harvard, Yale and Stanford do maintain publicly accessible directories but publish much less information. New York University has the most stringent policy, publishing students’ information only if they choose to opt in. The University should follow the lead of these other schools and take issues of student privacy more seriously.

More broadly, though, this episode suggests that in the future the University must do a better job of maintaining transparency in its policies regarding students’ personal information. If the University must make certain information available to individuals outside of the University community, students should know from the outset; we should not have to find out through an e-mail from a fellow student. We commend Li for bringing this issue to the attention of both the University and the campus community — though perhaps he should have done so in a more formal fashion. The public accessibility of information on the LDAP server represents a failure of the University’s guardianship of students’ information; In the future, the University must both take more care in protecting that information and be clearer about where that information is going.

In the past when schools did not participate, they would not be listed in the report. Instead, U.S. News and World Report Editor Brian Kelly made the decision to list the non-participating schools with an “estimated” rating.

In a letter to the U.S. News and World Report, college of education deans called the change a diversion from the ethical standards of the organization which will cast doubt on the results on the entire evaluation.

“This is contrary to U.S. News practices with every other professional evaluation that it has conducted,” the deans wrote, “We are concerned that such a practice is also inconsistent with professional journalistic practices and will call into question the legitimacy of U.S. News’ reports.”

The letter was signed by 37 different education officials from 36 education institutions including Iowa State University, The University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Many of the schools have mentioned boycotting the rankings all together; MU is not one of them. Jay Scribner, MU Department Chair of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, said he didn’t know why MU hadn’t signed on with the other schools.

Scribner said the College of Education is going to participate in the rankings at this time and the rankings will have an impact on prospective students who are looking to attend MU.

“We live in an era of lists and polls, some students would look to polls and lists to get information and decide schools,” Scribner said. “If one school is ranked higher they might consider that school more than another school.”

The deans also called into question the methodology of the rankings. The rankings are given on the basis of several factors, including selectivity of admissions, how well teachers are trained to teach certain subjects, syllabuses of courses and the quality of classroom management skills.

The NCTQ was quick to respond to the criticisms.

NCTQ President Kate Walsh said in a letter to the education deans that programs are certainly free to reserve the right to not participate in the rankings, but should be prepared to still be included in the rankings.

“Programs are certainly free to refuse to cooperate, but doing so frees us to render our judgment about programs that produce teachers for our country’s children,” Walsh said in the letter. “We feel that the review will suffer if we allow those education schools that fear our review to avoid it, as the public would be left with the ratings of a self-selected group of schools that are not afraid of what our report may say.”

Scribner said he thought that because the U.S. News and World Report is a private institution, they were not accountable to make a change.

“I think that they can do whatever they want,” Scribner said. “They are a private institution, the rankings have never been complete.”

Californians Aware – founded in 2002 “to foster the improvement of, compliance with and public understanding and use of, public forum law,” according to the nonprofit organization’s website – assigned failing grades to seven of the 10 UC campuses for not responding promptly to public records requests. UC Berkeley, UC Merced and UC San Diego were the only campuses to avoid failing, receiving grades of C, D and D, respectively.

“The University of California (has) a section on their website … that really pushes the idea of transparency and timely transparency,” said Emily Francke, executive director of the organization and an author of the audit. “I find that ironic given how the campuses performed.”

The audit tested the UC’s responsiveness to public record inquiries, asking for each campus’s chancellor’s contract, statement of economic interest and recent expense reimbursements, among other documents. Each document was chosen because it is known to be public and thus readily available, according to Francke.

Six of the campuses failed to respond within 10 days of the original request as stipulated by the California Public Records Act, according to the audit.

But UC officials said that while they appreciated the exercise of the organization’s audit, the published results do not accurately reflect the performance of each campus.

“The truth is that all of our campuses have been compliant with the law, and were responsive to the blanket requests from this organization,” said UC spokesperson Steve Montiel. “You have to question the validity and fairness of any report that characterizes an entity’s (Public Records Act) compliance as a failure despite the release of records in accordance with the law.”

Francke said that she still has not received all of the requested documents, and she was told that some will not be available until April.

UC officials said parts of the audit’s methodology made compliance with the organization’s standards difficult.

“A 30-day response period is an arbitrary time frame – there is nothing in the (act) that says you must respond within 30 days,” said Cathy Lawhon, interim executive director of communications at UC Irvine. “Their clock was ticking during the holidays when we had a mandatory 12-day campus shutdown.”

The organization also requested statements of economic interest from each campus individually and graded the campus down when it referred the request to the UC Office of the President. But according to UC Santa Barbara Assistant Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Paul Desruisseaux, these forms are not maintained by individual campuses in accordance with a UC policy. Therefore, campuses should not have been penalized for passing the request on to the office, he said.

However, Francke said that, under the act, requests are not required to be made of the owner of the document being requested. If a campus official has the document on file, the campus is responsible for producing that document – regardless of who the ultimate proprietor of that document is.

The UC receives about 3,000 requests under the act each year, according to Montiel.

Californians Aware also audited the entire California State University system. The average grade for CSU campuses was a B – much higher than the average score of the UC’s campuses.

“The fact that the UC specifically is suggesting that this is going to take much longer than pretty much every other agency out there that we audited is kind of mind-boggling,” Francke said. “If anything, they should be opening up their eyes to take a look around … and try to be open and honest about the fact that if other agencies can do this, then why can’t (they)?”

Damian Ortellado of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.

Obama’s budget would scale back the program’s spending, which had grown rapidly over the past years to $35 billion as more people returned to college during the recession and aid levels were increased.

The Pell program targets low-income students, who can receive two grants per year worth up to $5,500 – one for the normal academic year and one for summer term. The proposed changes would eliminate the summer grant and also cut subsidies on loans for graduate students in an attempt to save $10 billion annually.

Nearly 7,500 students on the University’s Twin Cities campus  receive a total of about $28 million in aid from the Pell, , and Office of Student Finance director Kris Wright called it the “granddaddy of all the financial aid programs.”

The cost structures in the colleges are very different, Provost Tom Sullivan said, and “if you have the same tuition for all undergraduates, then you run into a real problem of ‘How do we pay for extra costs associated with different colleges?’”

The University is considering a new fee that would make students in colleges with higher expenses shoulder some of the costs.

“It’s a policy question,”  Budget Director Julie Tonneson said. “Should those costs be built into tuition and everyone pay for those costs or should they be more refined?”

Schools that run more intensive advising programs or have more expensive faculty tend to have higher costs, Sullivan said.  He pointed to the Carlson School of Management as an example of market forces driving faculty salaries and the school’s costs higher than the University average.

The new fee would be charged on a college-by-college basis and would be added to technology or course fees students already pay.

A new “differential” pricing plan could be in place by the start of the next academic year, Sullivan said at the Board of Regents finance committee meeting Thursday. It’s still in early stages of discussion, as the administration waits on likely state funding cuts.

“Part of the discussion [is] what year does it get started if we were to make a change,” he said.

Student board representative Chantal Wilson said she’s supportive of the idea because it will keep students from paying for things they don’t benefit from.

But the Carlson junior said she’s worried that if fees get too out of hand, they could prevent students from pursuing the majors they’re interested in.

“I worry about this deterring students from choosing some majors that can be fairly expensive simply because the fees are so large,” said Wilson, who’s a marketing and international business major.

Simplifying fees

Students can be charged with more than 2,000 possible fees. The University is working to simplify the system so students know what they’re paying for.

“We had a lot of fees and a lot of structures in place, so it was time to look at them,” Tonneson said.

Fees are charged from the University-wide level all the way down to the course level.  Some, like the $1,300 University fee, are similar to tuition and help cover the cost of education. Other fees cover resources like printing, computer labs and course materials.

Not all colleges charge the same fees, and some have different names for fees that serve similar purposes.

Tonneson said the goal is to standardize what students can be charged by a college and what those fees pay for.  Administrators began reviewing student fees last year, and will present initial policy changes to the regents by the end of the school year.

Students pay thousands of dollars in fees annually, but many gloss over them when keeping track of their finances.

Tonneson said the University is working to provide more information on student’s bills, so they can see exactly what each fee goes to.

Natalie Sokol said she checks what fees she’s paying when she gets her bill each semester, but she doesn’t often budget for them.

“It’s something I usually forget about until my tuition bill is due,” she said. “And then it’s ‘Oh, fees, I forgot about those.’”

Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Jason Furman said that Obama’s visit and plan is part of his overall economic agenda.

“The initiative he’s unveiling is really ‘win, win, win.’ Number one, it’s a win because it will help businesses extend high-speed wireless access to 98 percent of the population within five years, which will create jobs,” Furman said.

Furman said public safety will also benefit from the nationwide interoperable wireless broadband network and will also create jobs because of building it. The third reason is the deficit will be lowered as a whole by 9.6 billion through private investment.

According to Furman, Obama chose NMU because of local companies that have used traditional wired networks to ship their goods and services over the world, as well as the creativity NMU showed in working with Intel, Sysco and other companies that helped bring WiMAX to fruition.

“It was not chosen for any particular government investment because, again, the spirit of this mission is about the private sector,” Furman said.

NMU President Les Wong stated that he is excited for Obama’s visit and his remarks about NMU’s WiMAX technology.

“The president recognized this (technological) need in his most recent State of the Union address and his presence on Thursday stresses the importance he is placing on broadband availability,” Wong said.

Wong also stated that he was pleased Obama wanted to meet with students.

“I mentioned to his staff that we are a small place with big ideas, making it happen,” Wong said.

ASNMU President Courtney Russell was chosen as one of the people to greet Obama.

“As of right now, what I understand is that when the president first walks into the first room … (we) do an official greeting,” Russell said. “Media and the press aren’t allowed to be in there, no one but the two or three official greeters and then the president and his staff.”

The choice was made to include Russell in the list of people who would get to formally meet Obama this past weekend.

“The White House said they needed four different people, and they were going to choose two,” Russell said.

Russell said that she’s slightly nervous about the meeting and didn’t think an opportunity to meet the president would come along during her own presidency.

“I think right before it happens it will set in. I’m really excited,” Russell said. “I never thought I’d be able to do that.”

Those who have visited NMU’s website will have noticed a redesign on the main page. While this was not initially intended to be debuted for President Obama’s appearance, Communications and Marketing Director Cindy Paavola said the website was put out early to see what kind of reaction it received.

“Communications and Marketing had been planning to roll out a new design for the entire NMU website over spring break when there would be less web traffic,” Paavola said.

According to her, the rest of the conversion will happen at that time.

The updates address criticisms of the board’s effectiveness that followed huge endowment losses suffered during the financial crisis.

Harvard’s unique bicameral governing structure consists of the Harvard Corporation, which manages finances and business affairs, and the 30-member Board of Overseers, which sets the university’s academic policies and practices.

The proposed changes — the culmination of a yearlong review process that began in fall 2009 — will nearly double the size of the current seven-member Harvard Corporation to 13, impose formal term limits and create three committees focusing on issues of finance, capital planning and governance.

Experts agree the reforms are overdue and will bring Harvard in line with governance practices at other colleges.

“Harvard was quite anomalous, quite an exception with regard to size and with regard to the frequency at which the corporation met,” Richard Chait, a professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education who advised the review committee, told the Daily. “The changes probably reduced the degree of divergence from the norm and made Harvard more similar, not less similar, to the way other universities operate.”

Merrill Schwartz, director of research at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), agreed that the changes were in line with common practices in higher education governance and emphasized Harvard’s uniqueness

“Most [colleges] don’t have the bicameral structure that Harvard University has,” she told the Daily. “It is interesting that they still need to make this change now and adopt some of the practices that are more common at other colleges and universities.”

Data from the AGB indicates that average board size in 2010 among surveyed colleges and universities was 29, more than half of institutions surveyed imposed term limits on board members and most governing boards reported an average of eight standing committees.

Tufts’ Board of Trustees, in comparison, is required by its bylaws to have a minimum of 28 and a maximum of 41 members, has term limits for trustees and comprises seven standing committees.

“The Tufts governance model is one that is highly regarded by the members of the AGB,” Tufts’ Secretary of the Corporation Paul Tringale (LA ’82) said in an e-mail to the Daily. “Board size and composition practices vary depending on each institution’s needs and its history. The size of our board suits us well.”

The review of Harvard’s board was preceded by questions and concerns raised by critics about the effectiveness and performance of Harvard’s governance structures in light of the impact of the financial crisis.

One of these critics, Harvard Professor of Computer Science and former dean of Harvard College Harry Lewis, co-authored an opinion piece in the Boston Globe criticizing the Corporation’s secrecy and lack of accountability.

“Harvard managed to lose 13 billion dollars in one year,” Lewis told the Daily. “This raises the question as to whether the legal fiduciaries of the university were doing their job well.”

Chait said that the review process was an appropriate response to recent events.

“It was a very healthy self-examination, to ask the question of whether or not the corporation which had existed in this form more or less for the last 360 years served the university’s interests for the foreseeable future and whether this was the time for change,” he said. “I think most importantly the corporation came to realize more clearly what work they needed to do and how they could make a distinctive contribution to the university’s future.”

Chait, Schwartz and Lewis all agreed that the changes marked a significant step toward progress.

Chait explained that increasing the size of the Corporation would grant it the resources it needs to fulfill its duties.

“I think any time you double capacity, that provides an opportunity to add people to the board who have a broader spectrum of expertise, skills and perspectives, and that would leave the board better equipped to address financial issues, issues of capabilities and global markets in higher education,” he said.

Schwartz added that the creation of standing committees also better facilitates the board’s operations given the complexity of a university’s process.

“Being able to divide the work into committees allows members to specialize and gain expertise in certain areas.”

On the extensive time lapse between the last major changes to the Harvard Corporation, Lewis said that Harvard’s achievements overshadowed the problems.

“No one wants to tamper with success and Harvard was very strong…both financially and academically, and naturally there was not the same kind of incentive to change things,” he said. “But when the financial losses were that severe, combined with a fairly rocky leadership transition in previous years, I expect that I was not the only alumnus that expressed worries.”

Schwartz emphasized the importance of regularly evaluating governing boards’ effectiveness.

Tufts evaluates itself annually, as well as after each board meeting, according to Tringale.

“We have put in place a series of processes to ensure that our governance best meets the needs of the institution,” he said. “There is a regular, intensive review process of the governance structure that the trustees conduct and from time to time ask third parties to assist with assessment.”

Tringale also reflected on the significance of Harvard’s changes for peer institutions.

“Harvard is obviously an institution that is held in high esteem and people watch their movements very closely,” he said. “Because of Harvard’s very public review of their board structure, the higher education community will no doubt take note of the process they used and the resulting changes reported.”

Schwartz noted that Harvard’s one-of-a-kind structure limited the influence of these announced changes.

“It’s interesting when Harvard does anything, but Harvard has a very unique system of governance so I don’t see it as particularly being a lesson for most colleges and universities,” she said.

Michael B. Berkman and Eric Plutzer, political science professors at Pennsylvania State University, anonymously surveyed biology teachers at more than 900 public high schools across the nation in order to compile the information.

“We were curious about what was going on in the classrooms,” Berkman said. “We knew that court decisions had regularly said that creationism could not be taught, but we didn’t know how that was translating into classroom behavior.”

The survey found that 13 percent of high school teachers — about 117 out of the 900 surveyed — spend much of their class periods strictly emphasizing creationism. In 2005, a federal judge ruled that teaching intelligent design, or creationism, violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The distribution of these particular teachers is relatively even throughout the nation, Berkman said.

About 28 percent actually follow the curriculum that teaches evolution, while 60 percent remain neutral and avoid advocating either perspective. Those who chose to remain neutral tend to either encourage students to make up their own mind about each theory or stress that they are only teaching evolution because it is mandated by their curricula.

Berkman and Plutzer found that in most cases, teachers who took courses on evolution in college were more likely to teach it rigorously to their students.

“We think this is because they have much more confidence in their abilities to take on a subject that can be troublesome and controversial,” Berkman said.

Berkman and Plutzer said they would like to increase the percentage of teachers who teach evolution-based biology because it is based on facts. The professors suggested screening out creationist teachers who would be averse to teaching evolution.

At UT, many professors focus more on evolution.

“Evolution is a general theme that really underlies and connects every other thing in biology,” said biology lecturer John Batterton. “What I try to convey to the students is that they don’t have to believe what I’m presenting to them, but they certainly have to understand what I’m presenting to them.”

Several UT students said they have not encountered creationist theories in their classes.
“I’ve taken all the introductory biology and genetics courses,” said biology sophomore Kylee Walter. “I haven’t even heard a mention of creationism at all. It’s evolution. That’s the way it is.”

Prior to attending UT, students had varied instruction in biology. Human biology junior Chad Whitley learned biology on a molecular level, while public health sophomore Veronica Perry learned both creationist and evolutionary theories.

“I understand why there is an equal balance in school where you have to teach both, but I feel like it’s outdated,” Perry said. “If students in high school want to learn about things that have to do with religion, that’s what church is there for.”

Richard Falk, a former Princeton professor and U.N. Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the College of Law symposium “Ten Years After 9/11: Rethinking Counterterrorism” on Thursday.

But his upcoming appearance is causing a stir with U.N. Watch, an international human-rights group. The group has requested that UI officials withdraw their invitation.

Falk recently published remarks on his blog, in which he called the lack of media or government interest in an independent investigation into the 9/11 attacks “disturbing.”

“Don’t connect dots without evidence,” Falk wrote on Jan. 11. “Don’t turn away as soon as the words ‘conspiracy theory’ are uttered, especially if the evidence does point away from what the power-wielders want us to believe.”

Hillel Neuer, the executive director of the Geneva-based U.N. Watch, said the group’s request marks the first time his organization has urged a university to reconsider hosting a speaker.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in response to a letter from Neuer about the former professor’s claims, condemned Falk’s remarks as an “affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in the attack.”

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice later criticized Falk in a Jan. 25 press release, saying Falk’s comments regarding 9/11 were “despicable and deeply offensive.”

Falk responded to the comments in a Jan. 27 blog post, claiming he did “not endorse doubts” about the attacks but rather acknowledged an objective examination of the events.

Neuer, who called The Daily Iowan from Geneva, Switzerland, said he became aware of Falk’s lecture after receiving an e-mail from a concerned student at the UI.

Zakir Durumeric, the head of the University Lecture Committee, declined to comment on the issue, deferring all questions to UIspokesman Tom Moore.

Moore said the university welcomes a broad range of ideological viewpoints, even if they’re controversial.

“As a public university, the University of Iowa has the obligation and commitment to uphold the constitutionally protected right to free speech and to serve as a forum for rich and lively open exchange in the civil debate of ideas,” Moore said.

Neuer said he recognized Falk’s First Amendment right to visit the university but said he did not support the decision.

“It doesn’t mean a college of law … has to give the soapbox to someone who has despicable views about what happened on Sept. 11,” Neuer said.

Neuer sent a letter to UI President Sally Mason on Feb. 4 but did not receive a response. Moore said the university received the letter and officials are aware of its contents.

According to a U.N. Watch press release, one of the lecture’s corporate sponsors has withdrawn support.

Michael Ariely, a second-year UI law student, said he became concerned no one on the symposium panel would challenge Falk’s “extreme” views.

Ariely said no one is trying to deny Falk his freedom of speech.

“But at the same time, is it in the best interest of the University of Iowa, in the reputation of the University of Iowa?” Ariely said. “I don’t think it is.”

The dinosaur’s fossilized upper jawbone was found near Green River, Utah, in 2004, when the Suarez sisters were Temple University master’s students working on a summer excavation project for the Utah Geological Survey. While investigating the sediment profile above the dig site, they spotted a gully where dinosaur bones were sticking out of the rock. Three species have been recovered from the site thus far, includingGeminiraptor — now the oldest known member of the dinosaur family Troodontidae and the only one ever found to be present in North America during the Early Cretaceous period (about 145 to 98 million years ago).

Utah Geological Survey paleontologist Jim Kirkland told the sisters the great news soon after the bones were analyzed. But they didn’t know until late last year that the scientific classification of the ancient creature would bear their family name and refer to Gemini, which is Latin for “twins.”

“It was just so exciting. When we were kids, Marina and I thought we’d find a dinosaur in our backyard,” said Suarez, who is conducting postdoctoral research at Boise State while her sister does the same at Johns Hopkins University. “When we first found the Utah site we knew it was significant, but we had no idea we would become part of history.”

Suarez now specializes in geochemical paleontology, analyzing the chemical makeup of ancient bones as it relates to the original biology of an animal and the geology of the environment that became its tomb. Funded through a two-year, $170,000 National Science Foundation fellowship, her work at Boise State is expected to contribute to scholarly publications and research results in the Department of Geosciences.

Using bone specimens from nearby Hagerman and from the Idaho Museum of Natural History, Suarez will examine the chemical and physical processes of fossilization — an area of paleontology that is not well understood. In addition to contributing to a fuller understanding of biogeography throughout time, she said the study of fossils teaches us about past climates and how they may reference current and future environments on Earth.

Suarez is working with mentor Matt Kohn, a Boise State geochemistry professor and expert on stable isotopes and trace elements, which are crucial to unlocking the mysteries of vertebrate fossils.

“I had read a lot of Dr. Kohn’s papers and used them in my master’s and Ph.D. research, and I was excited about the prospect of working with him and learning some new tools,” Suarez said of her decision to come to Boise State. “Once you find these bones they often sit in a drawer in a museum collection, but advances in equipment and technology are allowing us to do a lot more with them.”

Since she started consulting with Boise State’s Department of Geosciences in the fall of 2010, Suarez has been impressed with the high level of scholarship and collaboration. While she and Kohn investigate chemical changes that occur in bone through the process of fossilization, Suarez also will collaborate with associate professor Kris Campbell in Boise State’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to explore physical changes using a laser light technique called Raman spectroscopy.

In addition to her work in Boise over the next two years, Suarez is preparing for a summer trip to China, where she will examine dig sites with scientists from the Chinese Geological Academy of Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania. She also has done research on fossils in Alaska and plans to continue looking for undiscovered species that may give us clues to our own survival.

“There are about 700 named species of dinosaur. There are probably way more than that, but we haven’t found them — yet,” said Suarez. “Contributing to the discovery of the Geminiraptor was really exciting, but more than that, it made me want to go back to the field and discover more.”

In a Jan. 31 “President’s Weekly Address” video, University President Michael Ortiz said Cal Poly Pomona would have to cut $25 million from its budget if Brown’s proposed state budget is approved by the state legislature.

Ortiz said such a cut to the CSU could cause Cal Poly Pomona officials to “redefine” various aspects of the university.

“The hard facts are these,” said Ortiz in the video, “the governor’s proposed budget cut to the California State University system, coupled by the real potential for additional cuts, could ultimately force us to redefine our educational model, affecting the number of students we serve and the quantity of courses we offer.”

Marten denBoer, Cal Poly Pomona university provost, said that despite all CSU campuses facing cuts, Cal Poly Pomona officials will attempt to decrease negative impacts to the university.

“We are all going to experience some budget cuts,” said denBoer. “We don’t know how large they are going to be, but we are going to make every effort to make it possible for students to get the classes that they need and the quality education they need.”

CSU Chancellor Charles Reed has called upon every CSU campus to develop and submit a “first-phase” emergency budget by March 1.

Should the $500 million cut occur, each campus’ revised budget – which will take into account how that campus will bear its share of the system-wide cut – will be adopted.

Although the severity of the proposed system-wide cut is being put into perspective, nothing is definitive yet.

A June referendum, called for by Brown, will allow California voters to decide whether to extend state sales and income taxes that could pick up the cost left in Brown’s state budget and may lessen the blow to the California’s education budget.

California faces a $25 billion shortcoming, which could be halved to $12.5 billion with the tax extensions.

The other $12.5 billion has already been accounted for in Brown’s overall budget.

denBoer said if voters reject the taxes’ extension, the effects would be detrimental.

“If the voters do not vote for those tax extensions, then the governor will have to find another  $12.5 billion in cuts, so things could get worse if that doesn’t happen,” said denBoer.

In an effort to reach a wider audience and potential voters, Ortiz attempted to address not just students and faculty, but also alumni and members of the local community.

“You may be one of our alumni or friends in the community who does not normally receive my weekly video address to the faculty, staff and students of Cal Poly Pomona,” said Ortiz in the video.  “I appreciate the fact that you are taking the time to watch so you can be best informed about our financial realities.”

David Speak, chair of the Political Science Department, said it is not the most popular opinion to support Brown’s budget cuts, but it is time to be realistic about the situation as a whole.

“I believe the only way back to sound financial dealings in California is to try to strip away the smoke and mirrors, and that’s what [Brown] is trying to do,” said Speak.

In the midst of talk regarding budget cuts and taxes has emerged a discussion about which universities are the most cost-efficient.

In his address, Ortiz highlighted statistics that showed Cal Poly Pomona spends only $13,159 on each full-time student and is ranked 14th in the nation of the most cost-efficient universities in the United States.

While spending less on students means achieving a “cost-efficient” status, it can also translate to larger class sizes, reduced course offerings, faculty layoffs and a reduction in resources available to students.

Gwen Urey, Cal Poly Pomona chapter president of the California Faculty Association, said students have been “bearing the burden” of budget cuts and fee increases for the past decade.

“I think it’s so clear from a student perspective that the main thing students must be seeing is, ‘I’m paying more and getting less,’” said Urey.

As the talks of deep cuts progress, denBoer said one thing is clear.

“From the student’s perspective, this is a lousy deal,” said denBoer.

According to a 2009 study in the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 32.7 percent of the students surveyed admitted to cheating in online classes, usually on a test or a quiz.  Less than three percent were caught.

So how do instructors catch online cheaters? The best way is to know their students. If a student struggles with essays all semester long, then her online paper is a hit, that’s a give-away.

Sometimes, students will take information from an online source or even a friend, and copy it directly onto an online assignment.

Spanish instructor Carole Seror said past students have used Spanish translation websites and the results were often funny.  Either the site completely mistranslated the assignment, or the vocabulary was too advanced for the student to have written themselves.

Instructor of history Blaine Davies said plagiarism is a big problem with his online classes. Students don’t study for the test, so they look up information online during a timed test.

“They will paste in a section and include all the links. So all I have to do is click on the link that they’ve put into a test answer and it shows me the site they got it from,” Davies said.

According to Allan Heaps, the interim director of academic technologies, many instructors just use the online testing center. The OTC runs a software called SecurExam to lock down the system so only the test appears on the screen. No cheating allowed.

Instructors who teach online are given extra training through Boise State’s eQIP program that Heaps said gives faculty methods that sidestep the opportunities for cheating.

For example, they can use writing assignments that require multiple drafts instead of one final product. That would prevent a student from purchasing a term paper or taking responses directly offline. Blackboard also contains software that allows teachers to check for plagiarism.

Davies said students who cheat fail to learn and waste time and money.

“More importantly, for the rest of their lives, they will know they cheated. I wonder how difficult it will be someday to look your own children in the eye and try to teach them good values knowing that you failed to adhere to those values yourself.”

Students, faculty and staff were notified by emergency alert text message, e-mail and with banners on all main NMU pages.

“Campus safety is and will continue to be our prime motive. Upon receipt of a possible threat we activated our emergency response protocol as we took this threat extremely seriously,” said President Les Wong at a press conference earlier in the day. “No one ever wants to confront these types of threats, but we were prepared.”

Local K-12 schools were closed between 10 a.m. and noon, letting students out early in response to the threat. Marquette General Hospital was also placed on lock down, only having five operating entrances all patrolled by police officers.

Students were informed around noon that Public Safety had the situation under control, but buildings remained on lockdown. Students in the dorms were allowed to go to the dining halls but asked not to leave otherwise. Though during the press conference at 3:30 p.m., it was said that because they had not identified a suspect, it was still considered an ongoing investigation.

Rumors were found on various social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook. During the day, some students were afraid there was a hostage situation on campus.

“At no time did we have a hostage situation on campus,” said Director of Public Safety and Police Services Mike Bath during the press conference.

Bath said that police officials were speaking to a couple of individuals, students and nonstudents, but all lived in the county. He didn’t provide many specifics to protect the investigation.

Students received a message again at 8:12 p.m. that there was no longer an imminent threat and that “normal business operations” would resume today, Feb. 3.

Police agencies, who were involved in the investigations, including the FBI, identified that the threat was not made on campus and that a similar threat that had been made to other universities. Though they are continuing investigations to learn more about what happened, the various agencies have concluded that students are safe to attend classes today, though Public Safety patrols will be increased as an added precaution.

“We would never open the campus if we did not feel like it was safe to go to class and to go to work. We just wouldn’t do that,” said Cindy Paavola, director of NMU marketing and communications.

The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education on Friday, APSCU said in a statement.

APSCU filed the suit in order to block portions of regulations that would take effect on Jul. 1 and “impose unlawful and unfair limitation on access to higher education,” the statement said.

The regulations would harm students, slow innovation, limit the amount of information schools share with current and prospective students and have other unintended consequences APSCU spokesperson Bob Cohen said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald.

“We disagree that private sector colleges and universities should be singled out for special regulatory treatment,” Cohen said. “We do a great job educating at-risk students — students underrepresented in other sectors of higher education — and this fact should be recognized by the department and elsewhere.”

Cohen said the rules fall into three different categories.

State authorization changes would make it harder for schools to offer distance learning programs, Cohen said, adding the misrepresentation regulation, imposed to prevent student from being misled upon recruitment, would make schools susceptible to harsh punishments for inadvertent mistakes in the recruitment process.

He added the incentive compensation rule, which could prevent colleges from compensating their admission and recruitment personnel, will leave colleges completely in the dark as to how to compensate individuals in the job functions.

Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Post-Secondary Education, said the rules the Department of Education has developed are necessary.

“I think they are moderate regulations that deal with severe problems that we’re having,” Radomski said.

Radomski said many states, including Wisconsin, have legislation that already regulates for-profit colleges.

He added not all for-profit colleges are problematic, but the outliers — called degree mills — make regulation necessary.

Businesses are beginning to suffer because they are hiring people who have degrees from unaccredited institutions but do not have the skills to perform their jobs well, Radomski said.

“For the United States and Wisconsin, the implications are concerning for our businesses,” Radomski said.

As the only Ivy that hosts all three main ROTC chapters — Army, Naval and Air Force — Cornell never banned the ROTC program despite prevailing anti-Vietnam sentiment among higher education institutions from the late 1960s to early 1970s. As a land-grant institution, the University would lose all public funding from such a move.

With the repeal of DADT, ROTC no longer contradicts Cornell’s Prohibited Discrimination Policy.

Representatives of the University Counsel’s office were not available to comment on the changing legal environment.

Instead, the new dynamic will be the emergence of a possible relationship between the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community and the ROTC program, according to Lt. Colonel Stephen Alexander, professor of military science and head of the Cornell Army ROTC program. Alexander acknowledged that he would be receptive to LGBT cadets serving in Cornell ROTC.

“Support for LGBT kids [in ROTC] needs to be developed over time. It’s breaking out over time and we need to develop new policies,” Alexander said. “We’re down here waiting for the [DADT] implementation plan that’s supposed to come out in February.”

Matt Carcella, director of the LGBT resource center explained the gay community’s new opportunity to reach out to Cornell ROTC.

“I would like to see ROTC reach out to me and the LGBT resource center,” Carcella said. “Most likely in the near-future, I will contact them.”

Due to the discriminatory nature of DADT, it was previously impossible to have a dialogue, Carcella said.

The policy remains on the books until military leaders certify that repeal will not affect combat readiness.

“Ever since the repeal of DADT, LGBT service members, whether they’re cadets on campus or not … have been very wary of coming out. I think people are moving cautiously and don’t want to put themselves in a situation where the policy could be reenacted,” Carcella added.

Matt Danzer, the LGBTQ S.A. Rep. anticipated an outreach on both sides of the fence.

“With the repeal of the DADT policy I hope that a new relationship will emerge before the LGBT and ROTC communities,” Danzer said. “But a lot of the relationship that will form between the ROTC and LGBT communities will take place behind the scenes.”

Program Status at Other Ivies

Brown, Columbia, Harvard and Yale currently bar ROTC from operating on-campus and students at these schools receive no academic credit for coursework completed elsewhere. Of the remaining four Ivy League institutions, only Cornell and University of Pennsylvania offer credit for certain military classes; Dartmouth and Princeton host training programs, but classes are not accredited towards graduation.

Columbia withdrew recognition of ROTC in 1969, so cadets have to travel to Fordham University or Manhattan College to participate in the nearest program, according to the university’s student organization website. A University Senate vote in 2005 and a student referendum in 2008 to bring back ROTC have both failed.

Since the DADT repeal was signed into law, the Student Affairs Committee at Columbia announced a Task Force on Military Engagement to explore the possibility of bringing ROTC back. University Senator Ron Mazor, chair of the new Task Force, said the organization will gather information through surveys and hearings, and report back to the University Senate, Columbia’s policy legislative body, in March.

“From what I understand, [the past failed efforts] were mainly caused by ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” Mazor said. “Since the main focus of discussions were based off DADT, [my] understanding is that if the … policy was to change, that would be a reason to reexamine the issue.”

One Columbia student government representative, Jose Robledo, an ROTC candidate and veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2006, thinks the program’s revival goes beyond the principle of equal treatment.

“Ever since the the 70s … there has been a decline of military involvement at university across the country,” Robledo said. “There needs to be a re-engagement of communities [with the military] … so reexamining ROTC at Columbia goes beyond just the university … it will serve the entire city.”

At Brown–which phased out the military training program in 1971-72–the original decision to drop ROTC was “centered on academic issues,” according to an e-mail statement from Sarah Kidwell, director of news and communications.

The university intends to conduct a review to visit the question of inviting ROTC back to campus.

“President Ruth Simmons is forming a committee to consider how to respond to the repeal of [‘don’t ask, don’t tell’] … [and the committee] will submit recommendations to the faculty and the administration,” Kidwell said.

At Harvard, President Drew Faust has been an active advocate of repealing DADT and formally endorsed the return of ROTC after the repeal was signed into law, according to The Harvard Crimson.

However, the Crimson also reported on Nov. 19 that the military program’s return is, “highly uncertain due to low levels of enrollment, limited Pentagon funding, and logistical hurdles.”

Concurrently, discussions at Yale exude signs that ROTC reestablishment is more likely.

According to Yale Daily News, Yale College Council found that almost 100 students are interested in joining the candidate training program if it was on campus. The Daily News also reported that President Richard Levin had positive talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to establish an ROTC unit.

This statement shouldn’t come as a surprise to most, as it’s  a fact discussed often in recent times. There’s even a movie about it, “Waiting for Superman.” Clearly, the U.S. education system is broken. The question is how do we fix it? Do we even need to fix it?

Students in America go to school 180 days a year. Meanwhile, students in Japan have a 243-day school year. It’s no surprise, then, that so many successful young people come out of Japan. It doesn’t matter how rigorous our school systems are, we can’t keep pace with Japan if our students go to school some 60 days less per year. And Japan isn’t the only country with 200-plus school days a year.

Unfortunately, the length of the school year is not the only problem with the U.S. education system. From kindergarten through high school at least, students aren’t challenged enough to maximize their potential. Courses move only as fast as the slowest student can learn. Therefore, almost every other learner is breezing through the class without challenging his or her brain. Imagine a weight-lifting class where everyone lifts the same amount of weight. The weakest student, Little Timmy, can only bench the bar, but everyone else can lift the bar one-handed. While Little Timmy will increase his strength, no one else will develop any muscle. That’s America’s education system in a nutshell.

By this logic, students should be placed in separate classrooms based on their abilities. Many schools try to do this to an extent by offering advanced placement (AP) classes, but it’s mainly voluntary. On the other hand, obligating students to be in AP classes also presents problems. It would obviously require more teachers and more money. Then there would be the inevitable complaints from parents whose children are at a different level than they believe their kids should be. But the bigger problem for underachieving students is that they would be in an environment where they’re expected to underachieve without any overachieving students to give them an example of how to excel academically. Therefore, low-achieving students would continue to be low-achievers.

So, how does the problem of underachieving students affect Americans in general? Who cares about all the students who don’t have what it takes to go to college? Everyone has different abilities; the ones with less brains can take those jobs at Wal-Mart, while college students get the higher-paying jobs more suited to their abilities. Their failure doesn’t prevent our success, does it?

Unfortunately, it does. The failure of the American education system contributed to the economic meltdown and may prevent the U.S. from continuing to be the world’s top economy. Not that the unemployment rate wouldn’t be high right now if every American went to college — lots of people with college degrees are out of jobs, too — but many industries are being sent to Japan and China because they have smarter people and more of them. It’s not nearly that simple, but education is definitely a factor. We need to send more kids to college while restoring the economy, so that the U.S. can get back to being the most innovative country in the world with the most opportunity. Again, there are many other reasons for the poor economy, but having more smart people surely won’t hurt. And there’s a bonus — more students means more professors, more staff, more of whoever it is that makes this place run smoothly. More jobs.

Forty percent of young Americans have college degrees. That is the same number as Americans over sixty. Meanwhile, 56 percent of young adults in Canada graduate from college. It’s not that we’ve slowed down, we just haven’t kept up with other developed countries.

The point is that young people aren’t getting the education they need in order to live up to their potential. If America is to continue to be the “Land of Opportunity,” the greatest country in the world, it needs to have the best education system in the world. Education reform should be one of the top priorities for President Obama and the 112th Congress. Teachers, as well as parents, need to consistently challenge kids throughout their education. A stronger education system would help fix many of America’s problems.

The $500 million cut constitutes a 16.4 percent reduction from last year’s state general fund support for the UC and an approximately 5 percent reduction of the university’s overall operating budget, according to UC President Mark Yudof’s Jan. 10 open letter to California, in which he opposed the cut, citing potential harm to one of California’s most important public institutions.

“Early and enduring support for the University of California has been critical to the state’s success,” Yudof wrote. “This won’t be easy, and all possible remedies must be considered … With the governor’s budget, as proposed, we will be digging deep into bone.”

If the governor’s budget is approved without changes, the state will contribute $7,210 per student, and the student and his or her family will pay $7,930 – the first time in history that the state’s contribution has been less than the student’s, according to Yudof’s letter.

To weather the proposed cut, Yudof will present each UC campus with specific budget reduction goals for chancellors to meet while the central UC office will identify ways to reduce costs systemwide.

In its assessment of the governor’s budget proposal, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office – a nonpartisan fiscal policy adviser for the state – wrote that the language of the proposal leaves it unclear as to how the UC is going to cope with the reduction in funding.

“Although the administration intends that the segments’ General Fund reductions be achieved primarily through cost reductions and increased efficiency, the proposed budget package includes no language that would ensure such an outcome,” the report reads. “In the past, the segments have responded to unallocated cuts in a variety of ways, including midyear tuition increases, enrollment reductions, and furloughs, as well as some efforts at increased efficiencies.”

UC Vice President for Budget Patrick Lenz identified several of these sources of revenue as potential methods of navigating the funding gap, including increases in student fees.

But Yudof stated in his letter that his preference “is to not seek an additional fee increase,” although he also said he cannot commit to this until he and the UC Board of Regents assess the proposed budget’s impact.

The proposed cut is another chapter in a two-decade trend of declining state support for the UC, representing a 22.5 percent reduction since the 2007-08 fiscal year, according to Lenz, and a 57 percent cut over the last 20 years, according to Yudof’s letter.

UC Student Association President Claudia Magana opposed the cuts in a Jan. 10 statement, saying that the decreasing support – and fee increases it could lead to – “fundamentally jeopardizes” the quality, affordability and accessibility of the UC system.

The budget plan also proposes a $500 million cut from the California State University system, as well as $432.5 million in cuts to the state’s community college system while increasing the price per unit from $26 to $36.

The budget could undergo many changes between now and when it will be voted on in the summer, including any modifications made by the state Legislature. It is also contingent upon state voters approving a five-year continuation of current taxes in a June special election, a prospect that the Legislative Analyst’s Office stated “obviously carries some risk” and that worries Lenz.

“If voters don’t support his tax continuation … this recommendation would come to us so late it would limit the university’s options to respond,” Lenz said.

Brown promised during his campaign to tackle California’s mounting debt and enforce state fiscal responsibility. In his inaugural address on January 3, Brown emphasized the necessity of budget cuts for the recovery of California’s economy.

The proposed budget would cut $500 million from both the U. California and the California State U. systems and $400 million from the state’s community colleges.

Ann Crigler, USC professor of political science, said the cuts to higher education will challenge the ability of state universities to award financial aid and attract esteemed faculty, something that could actually benefit a private university like USC.

“There are ramifications for the number of dollars [those schools] are going to receive for financial aid,” Crigler said. “If faculty in the UC and CSU systems are not getting support in research and salary, then it will be easier for USC to attract the best faculty.”

Although USC is a private university, the budget cuts will still affect the USC community, according toDan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics.

“Students are still residents of California and would end up dealing with budget cuts in a whole range of areas,” said Schnur.

One key way the cuts will affect USC is by decreasing the number of potential transfer students entering the university. As community colleges face overcrowding problems, it is becoming difficult for potential transfer students to find space in the classes they need to apply to USC.

“If our community colleges sustain reductions of this magnitude, we anticipate up to 350,000 students will be turned away next year,” said California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott in a media statement.

In 2010, USC received a total of 9,590 transfer applications, 59 percent of which came from California community colleges and 10 percent from CSU and UC schools.

The state budget cuts are expected to total $12.5 billion and include a 10 percent decrease in state salaries, as well as a $1.5 billion slash in welfare. A final budget solution will be decided on later in the spring.

Under Brown’s plan, student and family contributions to the UC would exceed investment from the state for the first time in history.

“It is a sad day when resources from the state are less than resources from students and families,” said UC Vice President for Budget Patrick Lenz. “It raises the question of what kind of universities we want in the future.”

The cut, which comes only months after more than $300 million was restored to the UC system, was part of Brown’s proposal to the California legislature that seeks to enact $12.5 billion in cuts across the state. California now suffers from a $28 billion deficit. Because of this, Lenz said the proposed cuts were not a surprise.

“This won’t be easy, and all possible remedies must be considered. The cuts the governor proposes will require sacrifice, pain and courage,” wrote University of California President Mark Yudof in a statement released after Monday’s proposal.

Yudof added in the statement that the university is working to streamline administrative operations to save $500 million over the next few years, but said as the budget for the university shrinks, so too must the university. Yudof did not clarify in the statement how this money would be saved.

“Precision is difficult with a reduction of this magnitude, but every effort will be made to protect the quality that has made the University of California – and the state it serves – the envy of the world,” Yudof wrote in the statement. “My intent is to preserve the core academic and research mission as much as possible.”

Yudof has asked chancellors to begin finding ways to meet new budget targets, said UCOPspokesman Steve Montiel.

Some ways to confront these cuts could be eliminating certain programs that don’t have direct educational benefits and potentially getting rid of low-demand courses, Montiel said.

“It’s tough to answer right now,” he said.

At this point, Lenz said it is too early to rule out further tuition hikes, but given the campus climate there probably would not be enough votes to increase student fees any more than they have been in the last year-and-a-half.

Gov. Brown held an economic forum at UCLA over the holiday break in which he met with more than 100 administrators from California to receive input on what cuts should be made.

Lenz said that based on the discussions that took place with the governor, the UC system expected cuts somewhere between 20 and 25 percent. The $500 million cut would constitute 16.4 percent of last year’s state funding for the UC.

The amount that will ultimately be taken out of the UC budget rests on an upcoming vote in which a five-year extension on certain tax hikes will be put to the California electorate.

According to Lenz, cuts to the university could potentially be much higher if the extension, which would bring $8.3 billion back to the state legislature does not pass.

Lenz said the next step in the UC response will be to brief the UC Board of Regents at their bimonthly meeting next week on the magnitude and impact of cuts within the system and across the state. By the March meeting, the regents are expected to have a plan prepared that will provide options in case larger cuts do need to be made.

UCLA received $55 million in extra funding from the partial restoration of state funds to the UC earlier this year, said Steve Olsen, vice chancellor of finance, budget and capital programs.

Instead of spending this money immediately, the excess funding was placed into UCLA’s reserve, and administrators were told to plan as though the funds did not exist in anticipation of cuts for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

“Everyone is worried,” Olsen said, though he added that the shock of the 2009 budget cuts helped the UC brace for future cuts.

He added that no immediate crisis is on the horizon in the form of classes shutting down or enrollment reductions, but the campus is “measuring those things.”

Obama nominated Sullivan for the position of assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction on Dec. 2 after an interview process that began in early 2010.

The position involves observing oceanic and atmospheric patterns, forecasting future patterns and overseeing the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The National Weather Service and National Ocean Service are two of the agencies that make up NOAA.

Sullivan said it will be a “24/7, 365″ job, but is excited for the challenge.

“There’s some big contentious issues and challenging budget problems, but it’s still worth doing,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan was the first American woman to walk in space as a member of three NASA space shuttle missions, has served as president and CEO of COSI and has been serving as a director of the Battelle Center for the last four years.

The center emphasizes the need for improved education in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Sullivan said her career has gone back and forth from oceanography and atmosphere to science education, and “this position is just the next phase” of her work, not a career move, she said.

“You have to bloom where you’re planted,” Sullivan said. “You just have to do what you have to do at that time.”

Charles Wise, director of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, said Sullivan will be missed.

“She’s been an excellent asset,” Wise said. “She’s been a key part of our effort to raise the profile of science and technology education, for developing new methods and for providing information.”

Program manager of the Battelle Center Courtney Heppner, who has worked with Sullivan for the last two years, said Sullivan is “irreplaceable,” but the center will continue in their efforts to educate.

“I have so much respect for her. She’s a brilliant woman,” Heppner said. “I’ve never been around someone so smart and creative.”

Sullivan will return to NOAA after serving as chief scientist from 1993-96. She will be on a fixed senior executive salary between $150,000-$155,000, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Wise said Sullivan will continue to be “a resource in informing the university about broader issues” and “a part of a very significant network.”

Representatives of NOAA declined to comment, and said they are “letting the [confirmation] process play out.”

Sullivan hopes the Senate will complete the confirmation process by the third week of February, but said that is a “wildly optimistic timeline.”

These are protocols that police use when they find themselves in a situation—protocols that are not publicly known.

The protocols in question are not university guidelines or rules but are instead internal procedures that officers use in given situations, said Remi Barron, spokesperson for the U. The U’s firearm policy is public and online, it’s the protocols that are kept private for safety reasons, he said.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the leaked guidelines state that a person carrying a firearm openly who has a concealed weapons permit will be asked by an officer to either conceal the weapon or to leave campus. If the person refuses, they can be cited or arrested for multiple violations.

According to the U’s firearms policy, “The University of Utah enforces state law regulating firearms on campus… the University will consider any violation of state law regulating firearms to be a violation of University Policy.”

It is not unlawful for someone with a concealed weapons permit to openly carry their firearm, as long they are not in a prohibited place—such as an airport or federal building—or they do not brandish the weapon in a threatening manner, said Lt. Doug Anderson, of the Bureau of Criminal Identification. “Open carry is not against the law.”

Rep. Curtis Oda-R of Clearfield, condemned U administration for its actions against the two employees and said that the administration is breaking the law with these protocols.

The men have a great chance for a lawsuit, he said. The U has angered a lot of legislators and will have possible consequences.

“Contrary to belief, permit holders are the most law-abiding group,” Oda said, “More law-abiding than U administration, apparently.”

Oda said he doesn’t want to see the school as a whole be punished, but just the certain administrators who are responsible for the protocol.

“If they continue this behavior than (reduced funding) could be an option,” he said, “but we don’t want to go that direction.”

Despite the alleged contradiction between the law and the leaked police protocol, Barron said the U is following state law. No arrests concerning the firearms policy or the protocol have been made, he said.

Barron declined to further comment on the disciplinary actions that will be taken on the employees.

Summers will also serve as the director of the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Kennedy School. The center focuses on  global policy issues that involve both the public and private sectors.

Summers said in a statement that he is looking forward to teaching public policy in a stimulating academic setting now that the economy has stabilized.

“I am especially excited by the prospect of working with some of the most able students in the world at such a critical time,” he said.

Summers’ teaching at the Kennedy School will focus on how public policy is influenced by current shifts in global economy.

It remains unclear whether Summers will also teach courses through the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, though Dean of the Kennedy School David T. Ellwood said that Summers “will certainly be participating in courses outside of the Kennedy School.”

In the past, Summers taught economics classes both through the Kennedy School and the FAS.

“[Summers] has been at the center of the best economic times and also the most challenging economic times,“ Kennedy School Dean David T. Ellwood said. “He has such an exceptional combination of experience and insight.“

Summers was appointed Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the White House National Economic Council in November 2008. He announced last fall his intention to return to Harvard at the end of 2010 in part to avoid losing his tenured position at the University.

At the White House, Summers served as a key economic counselor to Obama during the economic crisis, advising him on the stimulus package as well as running the Oval Office’s daily economic briefings.

“We will miss him here at the White House, but I look forward to soliciting his continued advice and his counsel on an informal basis,“ said President Obama in a statement last fall.

A letter addressed to Andrea Robinson arrived at her Cleveland Heights home in October, noting that “as the 2010-11 fall academic quarter is underway at (OU), we noticed that someone is missing – you!” The letter also asked her to complete a brief survey about her decision to not return to OU.

Joe Robinson, Andrea’s father, sent a letter to Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi and Associate Provost for Institutional Research and Assessment Michael Williford in early November expressing his confusion and disappointment.

“It has become quite obvious that you have forgotten about Andrea Robinson and her family,” Joe Robinson said in the letter. “… I cannot even begin to tell you how much this not only hurt me but has proven to me how impersonal (OU) is.”

Williford, who signed the letter addressed to Andrea Robinson, said the mistake was caused by “an extremely rare combination of factors in student data processing.” He declined to elaborate further, citing OU policy and student privacy laws.

“Institutional Research does tens of thousands of mailings each year as part of (OU)’s student assessment program,” Williford said in an e-mail. “We plan for every known contingency; each of our studies has a complicated sampling plan.”

Williford also said that Institutional Research has now “addressed this issue so that it will never happen again.”

Typically, after a student dies, the administration marks him or her as “deceased” and stops mailings to the student’s home, Lombardi said. Andrea Robinson was marked as deceased soon after her death, but a coding error caused her name to appear on Institutional Research’s list, he said.

This is the first time in recent memory this type of error has occurred, Lombardi said.

After the incident, Lombardi attempted to contact Joe Robinson via telephone to apologize, and OU President Roderick McDavis sent him a letter to “communicate his profound regret on behalf of (OU).”

In his letter to Lombardi and Williford, Joe Robinson also questioned OU’s efforts to prevent additional cases of bacterial meningitis on campus. Since Andrea Robinson’s death in February, there has been one additional case at OU of Type B bacterial meningitis, which is not prevented by meningitis vaccines.

E-mails sent to students and parents before Andrea Robinson’s death encouraged students with meningitis symptoms to seek medical attention. The messages also linked to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, which provides additional information about meningitis and vaccines.

The CDC came to OU last March to investigate the meningitis outbreak on campus. Investigators concluded that to prevent further cases, students should refrain from “high-risk behavior” such as smoking, drinking, not getting enough sleep, sharing drinking glasses and having multiple sexual partners. Meningitis is spread through bodily fluids.

CDC officials will return to Athens this quarter to test the carriage rate on campus, Lombardi said.

“They’ll do a random sample that is statistically significant … to try to determine how many students carry it,” he said. “At least we’ll know whether we’re right in line with the national average or not.”

Of the 36 executives who signed a Dec. 9 letter to the regents, nine come from UCLA, the highest proportion of any UC campus.

The medical center, a multibillion dollar operation, yielded the majority of the UCLA executives. Signees included David Feinberg, CEO of the UCLA hospital system, and J. Thomas Rosenthal, chief medical officer. Both are also associate vice chancellors.

The letter refers to action by the UC Regents in 1999 to lift a cap on the amount that employees can receive in retirement benefits. The UC calculates retirement benefits as a percentage of salary. Right now, the amount can increase until an employee reaches a salary of $245,000.
Some top UC executives make far more than that. Feinberg, for example, made $725,739 in 2009, according to a database compiled by the Sacramento Bee.

The UC Regents agreed to lift the cap pending IRS approval. Approval was granted in 2007, but the increased benefits were never allocated.
The letter calculates the total cost of the increases to the UC at $50.6 million.

The UC claims the resolution in 1999 was never implemented and the cap was not eliminated, according to a letter to the UC Regents from President Mark Yudof.

Roger Farmer, the chair of the UCLA economics department and a co-signer of the letter, said in a written statement that without the policy change, the UC system cannot compete with private institutions and UCLA cannot maintain its edge as a top research university.

“Maintaining a world-class research university comes at a price that includes offering competitive compensation,” Farmer wrote.

He added that his own retirement benefits are not at stake because the policy only affects employees hired after 1994.

Executives from the UCLA Health System declined to comment through a spokesperson. In the letter, the cap is described as “inadequate to attract and retain the best leadership for UC,” and is said to put the medical centers at a disadvantage to private university medical centers.
Career paths, the executives added, were chosen with the expectation of increased benefits.

But the burst of public outrage over the letter points to ill timing. Four days after the letter was sent, the UC Regents voted to cut benefits and raise the retirement age for future hires.

And in November, the regents voted to increase student fees 8 percent in part because of rising costs associated with the retirement fund.

In a statement, faculty and staff members of the UC task force on retirement benefits refer to the executives’ demands as “highly detrimental” and recommend that Yudof table the issue. A posting on a blog operated by UC faculty called the move “selfish greed” and “total oblivion to the public mission.”

Daniel Mitchell, a professor emeritus at the Anderson School of Management and the UCLA School of Public Affairs, said the executives’ letter was a black eye for UC public relations.

“Doing things that suggest that somehow there are special deals being made for higher paid individuals could look bad,” Mitchell said.

“It could endanger what the university wants to do for the whole entire workforce, not just a relatively small number of high-paid individuals.”

But with looming budget problems crippling public universities across the country, lawmakers are looking at cutting sabbaticals as a way to balance the books.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal cut the state’s higher education budget in November, explicitly including sabbaticals.

In November, Jindal told reporters it will “force professors to actually spend more time in the classrooms teaching and interacting with students.”

Since 2008, U. Iowa cut its number of sabbaticals in half and their newly Republican-controlled legislature is proposing to cancel them altogether for a year. Truman State U. in Missouri has already done this for the next fiscal year, according to the Associated Press.

“Do we compare notes and are we aware of what’s going on in other states? Of course,” Minnesota Sen. Charles Wiger, DFL-Maplewood, said. “But, I think if we were to chip away at sabbaticals, it would be foolish.”

Wiger serves on the Higher Education Committee and is the outgoing deputy chairman of the Education Committee in the Senate.

“I view sabbaticals as very beneficial and it’s in our state’s best interest to have highly qualified faculty,” he said.

At U. Minnesota, tenured faculty apply for sabbatical or semester leave after seven years of teaching.

“Sabbaticals allow for faculty to be renewed and explore new areas,” Vice Provost of Student and Academic Affairs Arlene Carney said. “It’s an intense period of time to focus and produce something extraordinary.”

Sabbaticals grant half-pay and full benefits, while semester leave allows both full pay and benefits.

The number of faculty members determines the number of leaves allotted to each college. Four percent of all faculty within the University system can be on some sort of leave at one time.

“Occasionally, colleges don’t fill the quota they’re given, so if another college asks if it’s possible to grant them another one — and we haven’t reached that 4 percent — then I allow them to have it,” Carney said. “First we want to make sure it’s fair across all the faculty population.” She said this number has been consistent for about 10 years.

Carney said tangible results of sabbaticals and semester leaves include writing books, developing new courses, furthering research and collaborating with colleagues from around the world.

The College of Biological Sciences has about four faculty members currently on leave.

“Typically we want them to develop new courses or really change existing ones,” CBS Associate Dean Robin Wright said. “That’s always been the case.”

More CBS faculty opt to stay on campus, take a semester off from their regular teaching duties and develop new courses and curriculum.

Regardless, some lawmakers view sabbaticals primarily as paid vacations during a time of furloughs and lay-offs.

“Why should the taxpayers … be paying to basically give these folks a year off from teaching?” Iowa House Speaker-designate Kraig Paulsen said at a November press conference.

Carney said opinions like this are a “lack of understanding. Sabbaticals are certainly not vacations and we make sure of that.”

“These things really come back to helping the teaching of our students,” she said. “Faculty becomes inspired and full of new ideas that can be directly passed on.”

Wiger said that intervening and suggesting sabbaticals be cut has never been brought up in either committee he serves on, but “nothing is off the table when we have a $6.2-billion deficit.”

“I would not be surprised if it did come up,” Carney said. “But I think we have a very strong case as to why this helps the University move forward.”

Liebsch remained on ticket office staff after the University of Kansas commissioned an independent investigation last spring into fraudulent ticket sales. The report did not implicate Liebsch in any of the activity.

“We went by the report,” Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director, said.

However, since the investigation began last spring, Leibsch has been named as one of the four former employees and a former consultant indicted for stealing tickets. Each of the defendants face a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison, as well as a $1 million fine per person.

“With a federal investigation ongoing, we have known that indictments, unfortunately, were a possibility,” interim athletics director Sean Lester said in a press release from the Athletic Department. “We strongly support the U.S. Attorney’s search for the truth in this matter.”

Tom Blubaugh, 46, and Charlette Blubaugh, 43, both from Medford, Okla.; Ben Kirtland, 54, of Lenexa; Rodney Jones, 42 and Liebsch, 28, both from Lawrence, are the indicted.

According to a press release put out by the Attorneys General office, Blubaugh began stealing season tickets for KU athletic events in 2005. She gave the tickets to Kirkland, Jones, Liebsch, Brandon Simmons, former assistant athletics director, and Jason Jeffries, former director of ticket operations, to sell to third parties.

Simmons and Jeffries pled guilty to related offenses and are not included in the new indictment. They have delayed their sentencing until March 2011 but possibly face three years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

The report also claims that the officials entered false information into a computer system installed to prevent ticket theft. It also said that they made payments, wrote checks and had ticket brokers write checks to parties not affiliated with Kansas Athletics.

One method they allegedly used was to purchase money orders with cash in amounts less than fund requirements in an effort to keep their personal gains from being traced back to them, according to the Attorneys General office.

This violated University policies limiting staff members to two complimentary season tickets for football and basketball, which are not allowed to be transferred or sold.

Liebsch had been serving as the director of ticket operations at Kansas Athletics since January. She had started working for the ticket office as a University student in 2002.

Efforts have been made in the last six months to ensure donors, fans and students can trust the Kansas Athletics ticket office, Lester said in the press release.

“We have implemented measures to strengthen our ticket protocols and make the entire process more transparent,” Lester said.

Those measures include new controls and restrictions on access to the ticketing system and new transparency regarding seating among other actions.

Simmons and Jeffries, who were also accused of taking part in the ticket scandal, pled guilty to related offenses and are not included in the new indictment.

How would you feel if U. Central Florida decided to charge a flat tuition rate for full-time students no matter how many credit hours they were enrolled in?

Well, this is a plan that is currently being debated by the board of governors. If adopted as early as November, the plan could be enforced at some schools for fall 2011.

I have a problem with this plan for a couple reasons.

A Sept. 19 article in the Orlando Sentinel said, “The system’s board of governors is considering a plan that backers hope would push students to graduate on time or even early.”

Since when is the system striving to get students to graduate early? Is it not enough just to get them to graduate on time?

Not only that, but putting a flat rate on tuition isn’t going to speed up the process. It’s not going to make students think they have to take on a couple more classes every semester to hurry up and graduate.

Therefore, I don’t see trying to push students to graduate early being a tangible reason for having this plan.

I realize the state has high hopes for its students, but trying to persuade us to graduate in less than four years and by these means is not going to influence as many people as they expect.

Another line from the Sentinel article read, “At Florida schools, full-time students need to average 15 credit hours per semester to graduate in four years – the equivalent of five classes. But some full-time students take 12 credit hours and others take 18.”

Yes, this is true. However, they are failing to mention the summer semester during which many students complete classes, which would make up for not taking 15 credit hours in the fall or spring semesters.

They are also not taking into consideration the fact that all courses are not created equal when it comes to how many credit hours they are worth.

For example, two different students could be enrolled in four classes each, but one could only be receiving 12 credit hours and the other 16, depending on the courses they are taking.

Most English courses are only three credit hours, whereas most science courses are four credit hours. It’s not fair to, in a way, punish those students whose majors are composed of courses that are worth fewer credit hours than others.

I feel it best to stay away from this block tuition plan and continue to charge per unit like has been successfully working for years.

There’s no need to bring this new plan into action when the reasoning isn’t really practical and the outcome wouldn’t be fair to all students.

“My own history is not a secret,” said Board Chairman Chris Kennedy, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy. “In this case of emeritus status, I hope that I will act in a predictable fashion and that the people of Illinois and the faculty and staff of this great institution will understand my motives and my reasoning.”

Ayers, whose name might ring a bell to anyone who closely followed the 2008 presidential election, dedicated one of his literary works, “Prairie Fire,” to Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated Trustee Kennedy’s father. Ayers was also involved with the organization “Weather Underground” that the FBI labeled as a domestic terrorist group.

“I intend to vote against conferring the honorific title of our University to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father, Robert F. Kennedy,” Kennedy said. “There can be no place in a democracy to celebrate political assassinations or to honor those who do so.”

Kennedy ended his remarks by asking anyone who questions his judgment: “How could I do anything else?”

Educators may have varied academic interests, but some of the most politically active of them share one thing in common: the habit of donating huge sums of money to federal candidates, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of federal campaign records indicates.

While the recession continues to slash institutional education budgets for everything from collegiate athletics to research and financial aid, political donations from employees within the education sector continue to flow during the run-up to 2010 midterm elections.

Contributions from the education sector this election cycle have come from across the country, and from employees of non-profit and for-profit educational institutions both. And for some students, the partisan leanings of their professors are sources of curiosity — something, they say, that could even affect the way they learn.

Democrats are the primary beneficiaries of educators’ federal political donations. Employees at nine educational institutions or systems have collectively donated $100,000 or more to Democrats. Employees of the University of California public university system topped the list of Democratic contributors, donating $414,351 to Democrats so far in the 2010 election cycle.

Here is a chart of the top 10 universities and educational institutions whose employees have donated the most money to federal Democratic candidates, parties and committees this election cycle:

Consider: Fifteen of out of 20 universities listed on the U.S. News & World Report‘s annual rankings of the top national universities also rank among the nation’s top 50 political donor institutions, based on contributions made by employees. (Nonprofit institutions may not themselves make political donations, although employees may do so individually.)

Three schools — Harvard University, Stanford University and Columbia University — rank in the top 10 of both lists. Employees at all three universities gave at least 75 percent of their collective political contributions to Democrats.

Geography also helps predict whether a school’s employees are more apt to donate to Republicans or Democrats.

For example, several of the top individual Republican donors working in higher education are employed by Southern universities such Alabama, South Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia. Top Democratic contributors tend to appear everywhere but the South, from Ivy League schools on the East Coast to universities in California, Texas and Minnesota.

WHICH POLS ARE TEACHERS’ PETS? AND WHICH TEACHERS ARE POLITICIANS’ PETS?

Two individuals, Stanford University Professor Emeritus Carol Winograd and former New School professor Phillip Munger, have donated more than $100,000 to Democrats this election cycle, the Center’s research indicates.

On the Republican side, Harvard business professor Raymond Gilmartin ranks as the top individual Republican donor, contributing $63,000 to Republicans this election cycle. Gilmartin is a Crimson rarity, as Harvard faculty members overall have this cycle given $327,000 — or 77 percent of total political contributions — to Democrats.

Among school employees, professors and school administrators — in many cases presidents or chief executives — compose a majority of a school’s top individual donors. To a much lesser degree, individual donors associated with colleges and universities may no longer actively teach, but continue to list their schools as their employers in FEC filings.

In an attempt to discover why some educators are this cycle donating five- and six-figure sums to federal political interests, the Center contacted the top 10 individual donors, as well as the top five individual donors to the Republican Party. Eight of them did not return calls and e-mails. The others declined to comment or declined comment through spokespeople.

Employees at universities constitute almost all of the top 50 political donors from the education sector. But a woodworking instructor from Vermont’s K-12 Lake Champlain Waldorf School, Aaron Heyerdahl, is the eighth highest individual donor from the education sector, giving more than $60,000 to Democrats this election cycle.

Here is a chart of the top ten individual givers who have donated the most money to federal candidates, parties and committees this election cycle:

Amy Herdy, who was fired on June 31, said Dean Paul Voakes asked her to read the paper’s editorial content and give him a “heads-up” when the CU-Independent planned to publish controversial material so that he could pass it on to the university’s administration and legal counsel. Herdy told Voakes she would not do so.

The dean’s alleged actions represent a systematic movement of late in some student newspapers around the country toward an overarching private model that, while eliminating conflicts of interest with universities, has brought fears that their First Amendment rights to a free press are being quashed.

Voakes vehemently denied the allegations.

“I never said, ‘I need to see everything before you post it on the website,’” he said, adding that prior review is contradictory to his own journalistic principles and the CU-Independent’s Charter, which he authored.

Voakes said he fired Herdy for “business reasons.” Gil Asakawa, who has 25 years experience in the industry and specializes in social and online media, took Herdy’s place on Aug. 23.

Student journalists at the CU-I said they have been afraid of retaliation for the past two and a half years from school officials after the school sought to prior review material at the top echelons of the administration.

Those talks were spurred by an editorial column by staff editor Max Karson that advocated hog-tying Asian students and making them eat rotten sushi. The piece gained national infamy almost as soon as it hit the paper’s website in February 2008.

Herdy said she offered to look at the copy before it went to print, but student editors refused her help.

In the months following the media storm, former CU-I editors said several staff members came to them and said they felt singled out and were afraid to admit that they worked for the paper. They said they were alienated and “harassed” by faculty in the journalism school. Voakes said it is “unfair to characterize the situation as faculty bullying students.”

The CU-Independent is not alone in its editorial decision-making process concerning controversial material, as student university newspapers nationwide battle for the right to free speech and publication of uncensored content. Administration at the University of San Diego, a private Catholic college, requires prior review of all content before publication following its publication of a controversial advertisement.

“It’s easy to defend the First Amendment when students are uncovering hidden truths in well-researched stories that reveal things some would like hidden,” then-head of the College Media Advisers Kathy Lawrence said in a review of the CU-Independent last year. “It’s not so easy when a youthful misstep produces a product that may embarrass the faculty, though that’s probably when the faculty should defend the student staff all the more vigorously.”

CSU has experienced similar controversy after the Collegian was scrutinized by international media after it practiced its First Amendment rights by publishing a Sept. 21, 2007 editorial in font twice the size of a normal headline that said an uncensored version of this: “Taser this … F**K Bush.”

A variety of public backlash from faculty and readers –– including loss of advertising revenue –– stemmed from publication of the editorial.

Conservative student leaders said despite freedom of speech, Student Media should suffer the consequences of decreases in advertising that are inevitable with such a bold statement.

The student media dichotomy

The CU-I is no stranger to controversy and administrative backlash.

In the 1960s the paper, then the Colorado Daily, was pressured off campus because of its controversial coverage criticizing the Vietnam War.

In the Daily’s absence, CU journalism professor Mal Deans founded the Campus Press, technically a class that printed a weekly paper originally known as The Working Press. The Campus Press was the first online newspaper in Colorado, beginning in April 1994.

The Campus Press model, said Len Ackland, a CU journalism professor, was rife with conflict because, in a class, material is reviewed prior to publication, making the teachers the de facto editors. Students can’t fully exercise their right to free speech.

“How do you have a newspaper where the editors and reporters are being graded?” Ackland said, “It’s a contradiction.”

In 2006, the paper went exclusively online and became the CU-Independent in August 2008. It is now an extracurricular student organization funded by advertising and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

After Karson’s column ran, Ackland said, emotions ran high. He questioned the editorial decision-making process and wondered what kind of advice Herdy had offered her students.

Leading up to publication, Herdy said then-Editor in Chief Cassie Hewlings and Karson were struggling to meet eye-to-eye on whether or not the column should run. Herdy said she offered to meet with the both of them and offer editorial advice, but Hewlings didn’t want the advice.

Herdy suggested that a journalism student of Asian descent read the editorial, and that student found it funny. Herdy read the column for the first time the day after it ran.

Former CU-I Editor in Chief Cameron Naish, who graduated in May, said instead of acting as teachers and mentors, the faculty instead “jumped on the bandwagon of ripping us apart.”

That same day, Herdy wrote Voakes an e-mail in which she requested that he stop the faculty’s bullying behavior. Later in the spring, Herdy and two student editors also met with Vice Chancellor Julie Wong to request moving the CU-I from under the journalism school to Student Affairs. The request was denied.

Naish said that even two years later, Wong still brought up the Karson issue. “It’s been years … and it’s still like yesterday,” he said.

Voicemail messages and e-mails from the Collegian to three current and former faculty and two former and current CU-I staff attempting to gather more input about CU’s student-faculty relationship were not returned.

Voakes said in Herdy’s annual performance review on June 23, 2008, that he wanted to give any controversial stories the newspaper was planning to print to the university’s top administrators and legal counsel.

He said that process “is fairly standard in a publisher/editor relationship in the professional world.”

In the same paragraph, Voakes said Herdy should “be aware of every aspect of editorial planning in every section of the paper, on a daily basis” and that she should be able to “read any copy that is being read by student editors.”

Frank LaMonte, executive editor of the Student Press Law Center, said this language made it sound as if Herdy’s job depended on reviewing all of the copy before it was published, which could violate the First Amendment.

“Any school that tries to exercise control over what their papers try to publish is maximizing its jeopardy,” LaMonte said.

But Voakes said he would never require prior review.

The future of journalism at CU

On Aug. 25, CU announced the end of its existing journalism school and a plan to reopen a program more reflective of the rapidly-evolving media industry.

With the rise of social media and the Internet, newspapers and media entities nationwide have struggled to remain relevant and hundreds have crippled under the strains of a dated business models.

Managers today are looking for employees skilled across multiple platforms –– writing, programming, photography, design and video –– and are willing to pay less for more. Some critics say this model cannot sustain “watchdog” journalism, which keeps government and leaders in check.

People familiar with the situation said they are unsure of whether the school, in its new form, will effectively train future journalists.

Most of CU’s existing faculty is not capable of bringing the school into the future of journalism, according to Herdy and former CU-I Editor in Chief Danielle Alberti.

“It’d be good to see more multimedia emphasis and a little bit less ‘we’re going to play with Woodward and Berstein,’” Alberti said.

Voakes, however, said the faculty are not “young techy wizards” but can “mold with change.”

While on board with the changes to incorporate social media, video and computing into the future of SJMC, Ackland said traditional journalism –– which he said comprises writing well, accurate and fair reporting, research and investigation and watchdog-style stories –– must be a priority.

“If not, then journalism is dead at CU,” Ackland said.

With re-accredidation of SJMC coming up in mid-February, Herdy said the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools would be “horrified” to learn about the school’s atmosphere and treatment of its student media.

Voakes, however, said there is no doubt in his mind that SJMC would receive full accreditation, touting the success of the school’s faculty, curriculum and push toward an new media structure.

Since the August announcement, an Exploratory and Discontinuance Committee has talked with students, faculty and alumni about the future of the school.

On Sept. 1, the Academic Review and Planning Advisory Committee discontinued the current school, though students will still be able to earn their degrees. It will continue to look at ways to integrate the school into other academic programs and determine whether the budget is sustainable.

The Exploratory Committee must report its findings to Interim Provost Russell Moore by the end of the fall semester. In early 2011, DiStefano will then make his recommendation to CU’s governing board, the Board of Regents.

Though supportive of future shifts, Ackland said he believes that there are a lot of agendas floating around and that it would be nice to know what CU’s leaders are planning.

“Ideally, I would feel much better if Chancellor DiStefano and President Bruce Benson would say journalism education is vital, and it is going to remain an important part of the CU campus,” Ackland said.

Donde Plowman took over as the ninth dean of the college in July and is looking to increase the prominence of the business college across the nation.

One way she is working to achieve this is by reaching out to the Nebraska community, both to share with them the quality of a UNL education and to show them how they can help improve CBA.

She has already begun this mission with 44 one-on-one meetings with Omaha business leaders along with countless luncheons and meetings in Lincoln, Omaha and across the state. She also plans to spend, on average, at least one day per week in Omaha.

Along with reaching out to business leaders, she is working to reconnect some of the 31,000 CBA alumni to their alma mater. The college is hosting parties across the nation in cities with strong alumni bases including Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Dallas/Fort Worth. The alumni sources could help increase the college’s private money and be potential employers for current students.

Raising money is an important goal for Plowman, especially with difficult economic times. One place she would like to spend resources is on increasing the number of internship opportunities for interested students by helping businesses fund internships.

Internships are important for students looking to add relevant experiences on their resume and open doors to more opportunities.

Plowman’s deanship comes during a year of transition as UNL moves to the Big Ten. The move to the Big Ten has assisted Plowman in her work to raise the prominence of the college. She said Nebraska’s new peers in the Big Ten are among the most prestigious public business schools and that other land grant schools emulate them. Plowman was invited to a conference of Big Ten business schools about ethics education, which was “an opportunity to be part of the conversation about education with leaders of business education,” she said.

Plowman has a vision for CBA’s future and is working with staff to make it a shared vision.

“My philosophy of leadership is not to impose changes but to work with faculty, students and alumni to bring about change,” Plowman said.

She has met with 99 CBA staff and faculty members one-on-one and is now conducting strategic-vision meetings. She holds office hours Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. for anyone who wants to meet with her.

Because of her meetings, Plowman said, “I have a more intimate knowledge of who our faculty are, their dreams, hopes, worries. While my schedule has been hectic, it’s been valuable. I know the faculty. They’ve poured their hearts out to me. I know the place so much better.”

Plowman is reaching out to students, as well, and plans to have one-on-one meetings with all of the CBA Student Advisory Board members.

“I love that she has voiced her desire to really get to know the Student Advisory Board. It’s her way to show that she really wants to get to know the students,” said Kara Lambrecht, a senior international business major and CBA Student Advisory Board president.

Plowman’s previous position was a business professor and head of the Department of Management at U. Tennessee – Knoxville. Though she has no past connections with UNL, she said she feels a deep connection with the state. She also feels she brings a fresh perspective that benefits the college.

“Colleges really benefit when faculty come from other places. They bring other experiences. That experience informs me,” she said. “A fresh balance of new ideas is good for a university.”

Ultimately, Plowman plans to build on CBA’s strengths so that it will have a strong future. She said CBA has three strengths: a well-trained faculty with international repute, a student body with high test and GPA scores and a loyal alumni base who loved their experience at CBA and their Husker football team.

Lambrecht said Plowman has already made quite an impression on the Student Advisory Board and on her personally.

“She’s full of energy. It’s really inspiring talking to her,” Lambrecht said. “She makes it feel like I’m getting a degree from one of the best business colleges in the United States. It’s the fact that she’s really invested in the students.”

“It’s not about me,” insists Rabbi Joseph, who received smicha from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and a master’s in Jewish Philosophy from the Bernard Revel Graduate School. “It’s about making YU the best YU it could be, to make President Joel the best leader he could be,” he says.

Rabbi Joseph’s other objective as vice president, along with continuing to supervise the President’s office and actively reaching out to deans, faculty and staff, is to reach out to the students themselves.

“I’m feet away from all these batei medrash [and there are] classrooms all around,” says Rabbi Joseph, who spent four years learning at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel, yet, “if I don’t hear what’s actually going on, then how can I make it better?”

In years past, Rabbi Joseph visited the Stern College campus to meet with the heads of the student council committees. “As a small school, we have a chance to work with students to help them figure out who they are and develop themselves,” he says.

“Now Josh is going to go to [YU leadership and students], hopefully, and sit with them in their office,” to listen to their issues, comments Daniel Gordon, presidential fellow to the vice president.

As a senior undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, Rabbi Joseph shared an independent study with Frank Luntz, a famous pollster and political consultant, putting together a survey of all the Ivy League universities that was covered by US News & World Report and The New York Times, among other major media outlets. “Through that process I got to see a lot of campuses and meet many students,” said Rabbi Joseph. In his opinion, none of the student bodies surveyed compared to the YU student body. “I can honestly say that I’ve never been around a more engaged, thoughtful, energetic, creative and talented group,” he asserted.

Rabbi Joseph believes that his previous experience as a community rabbi lends him important personal skills to deal with all sorts of people as vice president and chief of staff. He is also grateful for his experience on Wall Street running a hedge fund, which taught him lessons in organization and professionalism.

“I’ve spent some time both on Wall Street and in the Rabbinate and have worked with amazing people doing fascinating things; but the opportunities, talents and passions I see around me at YU are some of the most breathtaking and overwhelming I could ever imagine,” Rabbi Joseph said.

Above all, Rabbi Joseph considers himself fortunate to work closely with President Joel, whom he describes as, “a president who gets it, whether ‘it’ is avodas Hashem, Torah learning, student life, messaging, corporate culture, customer service, the personal touch, the ‘West Wing,’ and on and on.”

President Joel released a statement in June announcing Rabbi Joseph’s promotion. “All of you who have had dealings with Josh know he is the best of colleagues and an effective leader, valued for his sound judgment, discretion and insight,” he wrote in the statement, which was sent to YU staff. “I know you join me in wishing Vice President Joseph every success.”

Rabbi Joseph’s new position will ensure the best functioning of the YU leadership team. His previous duties as chief of staff were vital to the uninterrupted flow of events within and without the university, requiring him to manage President Joel’s office. “I think an hope that [my activities] helped to the point that I was then able to work with others in the leadership of the university” as vice president, stated Rabbi Joseph.

In addition to working with the YU leadership, Rabbi Joseph hopes to have a more involved role in issues that may arise. “It’s about making that transition from being reactive to people’s questions and problems to being proactive and hearing…first-hand, on the ground, in the grassroots – what’s going on.”

Rabbi Joseph already has a history of proactively effectuating growth at YU. He first became part of the YU administration after meeting President Joel at the Orthodox Caucus – where Rabbi Joseph served as executive director from 2003 to 2004. The two men kept in touch, and eventually Rabbi Joseph was asked to become director of special projects at the Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) in 2004, his first position at the university. There he headed student social entrepreneurship to further the creation of student societies, an initiative that gave birth to the medical ethics society.

During his second position as chief of staff in 2006, he began a government-relations task force along with Vice Presidents Andrew Lauer and Jeffrey Rosengarten, charged with developing and maintaining communication channels between the YU community and the government. President Joel asked Rabbi Joseph to direct the presidential fellowships, and he remains director still with the vision to “encourage and develop the future of the Jewish community, both on the lay and professional leadership side,” he says.

Richard Wood, president of the Faculty Senate, said proposed 3.2 percent budget cuts have departments shaking in their boots and looking for ways to avoid cutting jobs.

“There’s nothing we can do with these budget cuts that will not affect the students, but right now there are strategies being pursued,” Wood said. “We are raising class sizes from 40 students to 60. That really affects the kind of teaching the instructor can do and the type of learning that can happen.”

With possible budget cuts ahead, a tuition hike could be a solution in order to continue funding projects. But when taking any action Regent Jamie Koch said departments should accept proposed cuts and then re-assess the situation.

“I think that we should take the 3.2 percent cut across the board for everybody. I think we should not look at a tuition increase,” Koch said.

Lazaro “Laz” Cardenas, ASUNM president, said a tuition hike should be avoided at all possible costs.

“I hope, personally, that there won’t be any tuition raises or increases this year, but we are facing some pretty tough times,” he said. “Budgets cuts are there, though, and that is what we are facing. I truly and honestly believe that everyone is working together to get things right.”

With the proposed construction of a new $4 million Lobo baseball stadium on south campus, Cardenas said some might question where UNM’s priorities lie, but pitting one department against another does little to solve the problem.

“I look at this as we are all in this together,” he said. “There is no reason to put one person up against another or one department on another. I think out of this meeting the situation that we are in is that students were on the top on this one. They were the priority.”

The bulk of the stadium funding will come from 2010 severance tax bonds, which cover $2 million of the project, while private donors have chipped in $1 million and the remaining money will be raised through fundraising. Approval for the baseball field is still pending and will be reevaluated when final figures are calculated.

“I think that one of the main issues is if it will come from student fees,” Cardenas said. “In these economic times, using the student fees to renovate the baseball field would be inappropriate because other academic programs are being cut right now.”
Budget cut decisions will be finalized Sept. 14th at the full Board of Regents meeting, but until then options will be raised and evaluated, Wood said.

“This is very painful; there isn’t an easy way to do this.” he said. “These are hard decisions, and it’s people of good will — the regents, the administrators and faculty — working on this.”

A six-month survey conducted by Research and Polling Inc. concluded more than two-thirds of faculty is dissatisfied with their role in the University’s shared governance system, and 42 percent of faculty said in the survey that they are “very dissatisfied.”

“The survey represents the feelings of the faculty over the last few years,” Faculty Senate President Richard Wood said. “It shows how strongly the faculty and staff have felt about the University’s need to get back on track to our academic mission.”

The survey, completed online by 719 faculty and 1,627 staff members, found that 79 percent of faculty disagrees that academic interest guides financial decisions at UNM; 81 percent feel they have no influence over budget development and only 5 percent believe an atmosphere of trust exists between the faculty and administration.

“I think there is nothing surprising. The results are somber,” Provost Suzanne Ortega said. “The good news is that we didn’t wait until the results came in to address the issues in the survey.”

Recommendations from the survey include a clearer definition of shared governance, further transparency from the central administration, an assessment of communication mechanisms between staff, faculty and the administration, and overall cooperation between the three groups.

Ninety-one percent of faculty said participation in shared governance is a worthwhile responsibility for faculty, prompting a positive direction for both groups to cooperate change.

One example is the formation of a strategic advisory committee, which met in June to begin deliberating budget proposals for next spring.

“We’ve been very involved in recent months to create a strategic budgeting process that involves the faculty leadership, executive vice president of administration, the deans and the provost, all under the final budgetary authority of the president and the regents,” Wood said.

President David Schmidly said in a statement that the University is doing its part to include all parties in discussions.
“We continue our commitment to maximum participation,” he said. “However, the final responsibility of the budget, as stipulated in regents’ policy, lies with the Office of the President.”

Having a seat at the table during budget talks is one way faculty can leverage the the survey results, Ortega said, and it will be important in figuring out what shared governance actually means.

“We are working to develop a strategic role for clarifying roles of responsibilities that further define shared governance,” she said. “How do we make sure faculty and staff are part of budget considerations?”

The faculty is content to be included during the longer budget timeline period. In previous years, the regents showed a completed budget and the faculty had little or no time to propose changes, Wood said.

“We are meeting regularly with Andrew Cullen of the Office of the VP for Administration to look at how the next budget is put together,” he said. “We haven’t been brought in this early before. We have asked to be part of the budget process from the beginning, and so far that is happening.”

Wood said budget priorities for the faculty are clear: protect students and the University’s research mission.

“The regents are asking the right questions,” he said. “In recent regents’ meetings, they have asked about tenure-track faculty hiring, the strategic budget process, the criteria for evaluating the administration next year, and the academic prioritization of every program at the university.”

Because the budget process takes place at an earlier date, it will be important for the regents and provost to implement a better line of communication with the faculty and staff, Ortega said.

“I think communication is a process you work on and continue to move forward,” she said.

In response to the backlash, Ortega said she has implemented open office hours for faculty and staff, monthly lunch meetings with staff, semi-annual faculty meetings and monthly communication strategy planning with department chairs and faculty leadership, and quarterly newsletters.

In an effort to aid transparency, anyone can leave comments and input on major documents online at the provost website.

But with a bitter history between faculty, staff and administration, Roli Varma, professor of public administration, said old wounds won’t heal easily.

“The survey is embarrassing for the central administration,” she said. “I’ve been depressed with UNM for so long.”

Varma completed the survey and was randomly selected to take part in focus group sessions after the data was compiled.

“Of course, it’s a good sign that the faculty is included in the budget talks, but I want to wait and see,” she said. “Right now, I don’t have much faith.”

Wood said he is optimistic.

“The most important thing is this; What are the decisions coming out of this process? We won’t know until next spring,” he said. “Until then, we are working to inform the process that leads up to those budget decisions.”

Faculty survey, by the numbers

$65,000 – Budgeted cost of survey
1,902 – Faculty invited to take the survey
38% – Faculty response rate to the survey
3,320 – Staff invited to take the survey
49% – Staff response rate to the survey
91% – Feel faculty role in shared governance is worthwhile.
42% – Faculty very dissatisfied with their role in shared governance.
53% – Tenured faculty very dissatisfied with their role in shared governance
13% – Very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their role in shared governance.
80% – Disagree a collaborative decision-making environment exists between the faculty and central administration.
49% – Disagree the role of the provost is clearly defined.
79% – Disagree that academic interests guide financial decisions.
58% – Athletics department staff satisfied with communication with the central administration.

During the same tumultuous year that Cornell’s endowment lost about 26 percent of its value, its chief investment officer received $420,000 in “bonus and incentive compensation,” according to tax documents the University filed earlier this year.

In fiscal year 2009, which ended on June 30, 2009, CIO James Walsh received a compensation package that totaled $888,643. This included $413,680 in base salary pay, $15,000 in other reportable compensation, $49,963 in benefits and deferred compensation, and $420,000 categorized as “bonus and incentive compensation.”

Walsh received this bonus compensation during one of the worst fiscal years in the University endowment’s recent history. Under Walsh’s management, the University’s endowment lost about $1.4 billion of its value during fiscal year 2009, falling from about $5.4 billion in June 2008 to about $4 billion in June 2009.

The sudden drop in the value of the endowment forced Cornell to implement hiring and construction pauses, lay off employees and slash budgets across campus. It also prompted the University to launch a massive restructuring process, dubbed “Reimagining Cornell.”

Asked why the chief investment officer’s total compensation during fiscal year 2009 was more than doubled by bonus payments, Deputy University Spokesperson Simeon Moss ’73 said in an e-mail that “such bonuses are contingent on performance.”

The University takes a comparative approach in measuring performance, Moss said.

“The consideration of such bonuses involves the use of industry benchmarks (including, in this case, the performance of different investment asset classes) as guidelines,” he said.

According to the definition of “bonus payments” that the University provided to the IRS, bonus payments are awarded to individuals “in recognition of accomplishments of specific goals or overall performance.”

The median salary for a chief investment officer at a doctorate-granting institution, like Cornell, is $200,000, according to the 2009-2010 administrative compensation survey from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

The CUPA-HR survey, which sought data from 1,280 colleges and universities nationwide, also found that only 15 respondent institutions awarded bonus or incentive pay to their chief investment officer. At the schools that offered bonuses, the median bonus payment for CIOs was $130,737 and the average bonus payment was $213,957.

Moss declined to provide figures for the compensation of the chief investment officer in previous years, citing the University’s policy regarding disclosure of personnel information.

Walsh, who began his stint as chief investment officer at Cornell in 2006, announced in February that he would be resigning his post in order to return home to the United Kingdom with his family. His employment at Cornell officially ended on June 30. In May, Bloomberg News reported that Walsh was starting a $150 million hedge fund named Cayuga Capital Partners.

The figures for Walsh’s compensation were disclosed on Cornell’s most recent Form 990, which is a federal tax document. The IRS requires Cornell, because it is a non-profit organization, to annually report the compensation of its officers, directors, trustees and other “key employees.”

Although the chief investment officer has historically not been considered a “key employee” for this purpose, Cornell was forced to disclose the CIO’s salary this year under new IRS rules that expanded the definition of “key employee.”

The University’s most recent Form 990, which was filed in May of this year, also includes compensation information for Cornell’s president.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, President David Skorton’s compensation package included $653,545 in pay (an increase from $636,578 the previous year) and $262,368 in benefits and deferred compensation (an increase from $199,804). Skorton announced in January 2009 that he would voluntarily cut his salary by 10-percent in fiscal year 2010 because staff and faculty were not receiving pay raises and students were paying higher tuition.

The University is also obligated to report the names and salaries of its top five highest-paid employees. In fiscal year 2009, four professors of reproductive medicine at Weill Medical College — Pak Chung, Isaac Kligman, Zev Rosenwaks and Steven Spandorfer — and the chair of the urology department, Prof. Peter Schlengel, made the list, with total compensation packages that each ranged from $1.9 to $3.4 million.

As Western Illinois U. has made note of in the past, concern over environmental waste has pushed the administration towards a concerted effort to save paper. Some professors have avoided a printed syllabus to pass out for the first class, instead directing students to where they can view it online.

Avoiding excessive use of paper and toner from the University’s overworked printers is an admirable agenda, but perhaps the method of conservation is a bit backwards.

It is understandable that in a time of economic uncertainty and cost-cutting that a department’s paper budget is subject to review in a world of decimals and spreadsheets. The University is not at fault for working towards solutions, however less paper handouts are not the answer.

In an academic setting students simply require paper. Whether it is books or academic journals, most students who must spend hours reading simply prefer generic paper to a headache inducting LCD screen.

This ushers in a problem that may not have a large statistical study behind it, but any student who has waited ten minutes for their pages to print can understand.

If the professor does not provide a printed copy of online material many students simply decide to do it themselves. The result often being a disgruntled academic realizing they didn’t print in the correct format and blowing through another gallon of toner by the time they rectify their mistake.

If the University is going to impose paper restrictions, perhaps they should take a look at the students before going after organized PhD-laden departments with class lists telling them how many copies they will need, as well as secretaries who understand the technology around them far better than frantic students trying to print out a ten page PowerPoint composed almost entirely of shaded pictures.

Cost awareness and environmentalism have their place, but sometimes the hidden costs of one policy do not become apparent until later.

Not to say that students do not display responsible paper use, but the faculty members are assuredly more adept at understanding precisely how many sheets of paper they will require.

After all, they are the ones who control the courses that require the paper in the first place.

Usually it’s better to give powers to a studied professional, instead of the lonely student sitting next to the printer.

“The ‘S’ Book” — initiated by former University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) President Gavin Keirans — is a glossy, 92-page handbook for all new students, Ragland (senior-political science) said.

The tradition of distributing student handbooks at the university dates back to the 1890s, but the books fell out of print in the late 1990s, UPUA Assembly Chairwoman Jessica Pelliciotta said.

Pelliciotta (senior-political science), along with Lion Ambassadors President David Frankenfield, spearheaded the book’s production over the summer.

Frankenfield (senior-economics) said he was glad distribution of the handbook has begun.

“Just seeing the work that so many people put into it and we gave it to them and 30 seconds later people are reading it and hopefully learning from it [was rewarding],” he said. “I just hope it helps.”

About 800 copies of the handbook were handed out at Sunday’s orientation, and details for distribution to first-year students are still being nailed down, Pelliciotta said.

“We’ll definitely have everything done within the second week of school,” she said. “We’re looking at the different options we have and making sure each student gets one in their hands, so [the book] is not just sitting on a table and making them come to us. It’s us coming to them.”

Along with the history and traditions section, the book will also include letters from the president of the university, the student body president and the handbook committee, Pelliciotta said.

There are also sections on academics, on- and off-campus housing, campus landmarks and buildings, student involvement, student services and fight songs, she said.

Though the exact handbook production cost has not been determined, Pelliciotta said it will be under $15,000 for about 10,000 copies.

Ragland said he has heard “a lot of positive feedback” from those who have already received the book.

“A lot of students really like the idea that pretty much every aspect of student life is touched on, and they like the tradition of it, too,” he said.

Ragland said publishing the book is a “growing process.”

Though it was summer, many University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) student leaders did not take a break.

Ragland (senior-political science) said his main goal this summer was to prepare for the fall.

“The No. 1 goal was to lay the foundation for the assembly — to lay the groundwork in the summer,” he said.

To make sure he was ready for fall, Ragland said he tried to get as many meetings out of the way as possible.

“My goal was to get all the meetings accomplished this summer, so I don’t have to take too much time in the fall, so I can be flexible and act on the things in the fall,” he said.

Ragland held one of the meetings with the State College Borough Council, discussing his proposal to have a non-voting student member on the council.

Though some council members criticized the idea, Ragland said he is now going to work with the assembly to strengthen the proposal.

Ragland wants a non-voting student council member to increase student representation.

“All the council members are non-student, and we make up the majority of the town,” he said. “It’s very unbalanced.”

But council member Don Hahn said he and other council members are concerned the non-voting member would be appointed and not elected.

“Council members are elected by the voters, and I think that all the scenarios that we seem to be presented with involves an appointment by UPUA,” Hahn said.

He said the council would like to see how the concept works in other towns that have a non-voting member on borough council.

“We’re receptive to the idea of a student voice on council,” Hahn said.

While Ragland reached out to the borough, he also reached out to freshmen.

Ragland said UPUA has already received between 50 and 60 applications from freshmen. He said he plans to continue the freshman outreach throughout the year at various events.

Ragland also contacted the Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) to ensure the extended White Loop program — providing late night White Loop service every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night — is still in place.

UPUA has not only been involved with local affairs — Ragland said the student government has also continued its outreach to other state schools. Travis Salters, UPUA director of governmental affairs, said he has reached out to state schools to start a Pennsylvania Student Association.

Salters (junior-broadcast journalism and African and African-American studies) said he was able to connect with a few student leaders at other schools.

“It’s a good starting point,” he said.

Salters said a Pennsylvania Student Association would help student leaders across the commonwealth have a “unified voice” in tackling issues like tuition hikes.

At this summer’s Association of Big Ten Students conference — held at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio — Ragland and other Big Ten student leaders planned a spring trip to Washington, D.C., to talk with congressional leaders.

Overall, Ragland said he is pleased with what UPUA accomplished this summer.

“By far it was successful,” he said. “It was a great opportunity to prepare for the fall and spring, and now we can move forward.”

Hall, who was appointed interim dean on January 1, was chosen to be the next dean by the Penn State administration, Penn State spokesman Geoff Rushton said.

A search committee was formed to conduct a national search for a new dean. But it was not successful in finding a fit for the position, Rushton said.

“Candidates who were interviewed all commented on the job that Dr. Hall had shown as interim dean,” Rushton said.

Hall said he was happy to be dean on a permanent basis, adding that he’s received “broad support” from the administration.

“I think I am pretty ready for the role,” he said. “I’m much more ready than I was eight months ago.”

Hall said he is excited to be working in the ever-changing world of technology.

“IST is a really good college, and it’s in the right place at the right time,” he said. “There’s a rapid evolution of communications technology … and social networking.”

As dean, Hall said it is his job to be a “facilitator that helps understand the needs of the students, capabilities of the faculty, and represent the college externally to parents and donors.”

Tom Bierly, Class of 2010, said Hall is actively involved with IST students. Bierly, who graduated with a degree in information sciences and technology, said Hall held feedback sessions with students each month as interim dean. Hall said he worked hard at making himself easily accessible.

From a student perspective, Bierly said it is the dean’s job to make sure students are getting the education they need.

He said Hall can help bring the college “a fresh perspective” so it can collaborate on academic initiatives at the university.

UOSA President Franz Zenteno said he spent the summer learning how the organization works.

“For the past two years I’ve been involved in UOSA, but as a student body president, you are in charge of everything, and I’ve never had that chance before,” said Zenteno, international studies senior.

He said the first thing he did after being elected was met with the new leadership.

“We all agreed on the importance knowing each other well because we’ll be working closely with each other,” Zenteno said.

Zenteno said he came in strong with his platform and projects, but he knows that UOSA may be unaware of existing student needs. He said he wants to be close with the student body, and he thinks it’s healthy when students question UOSA.

“I don’t think we have to be scared of that,” Zenteno said. “I think the better criticism we can get, the better we can be later. I think one of the mistakes that I saw in UOSA last year was whenever the student body was criticizing UOSA, UOSA closed its door.”

Zenteno said the battle between student government and the student body should no longer happen. He said he no longer wants students to be disappointed in UOSA.

Involvement
Zenteno said both he and UOSA Vice President Cory Lloyd would like to attend other student organizations’ meetings.

He said so far he has attended freshman convocation and the International Student Umbrella organization’s first meeting.

One of Zenteno’s first goals, he said, is to stop by the organizations he was able to talk to during the campaign last spring.

“It’s time for us to go and say, ‘Hey guys, we’ve now got elected. What can we do for you?’”

Lloyd said UOSA is not only working on UOSA-specific projects, but also working on tying UOSA goals with student organizations’ goals through feedback.

Lloyd said UOSA will partner with other organizations to help improve student life and bring people together.

Keeping students Informed
UOSA will write a daily blog to keep students up-to-date about UOSA’s plans.

Zenteno said students will be able to read information and the opinions of his representatives. Students will also be able to give feedback and opinion through comments.

“This is something unique, and we’re telling you we want to be close to the average OU student,” Zenteno said. “We run this campaign with a vision.”

Laptop check out
“We have the laptop check-out program we want to initiate, UOSA provides around 30 laptops students can check out for two days, and we want to increase that number to at least 100. To execute this, we will get sponsorship from companies that are in the city,” Zenteno said.

Zenteno said he’s going to go to companies already in Norman and ask for laptop donations. He said these laptops would provide publicity for the company as well as laptops for OU students without that resource.

Full-time job
Zenteno said working in UOSA is more than a full time job. He said he works 40 plus hours a week and is constantly in contact with people even if he is at home. He said despite the long hours, he finds UOSA to be a great way to enact a vision and leave a legacy for the students.

“Coming as an international student, I never expected to become student body president at this university,” Zenteno said, “So, the reason why we run is to say thank you for that great opportunity we got getting involved in the academic life we have here.”

Lloyd said working in UOSA is not only hard work, but also fun. He said he enjoys meeting new people and that he wants to be transparent about UOSA’s business. Lloyd said the students should keep UOSA accountable and not be afraid to step into their office. Lloyd plans on keeping the office stocked with drinks and food so students can feel at home and be comfortable with coming in and sharing their thoughts.

“We have our platform which is what we’re working on, but if there’s something that comes up throughout the year that is more important. Then you know our platform issues may need to take a backseat to work on things we can get to,” Lloyd said.

Government structure
UOSA is made up of four branches: the executive, congressional, judicial, and the programming board.

Zenteno is a part of the executive branch, which creates the bills that are sent to Congress who decides to pass or not pass. Then the programming board that the Campus Activities Council plays a big part in is the most tangible branch for students to see.

The judiciary is a very important part of UOSA because it provides a neutrality and stability.

“If the judicial branch doesn’t exist then UOSA doesn’t make sense because it’s going to be unstable,” Zenteno said.

All the branches are equally important in order that UOSA can achieve its goals, he said.

Zenteno said leadership conferences play a role in strengthening the UOSA structure which, in his opinion, is the strongest among the Big 12 schools.

Zenteno said unlike past governments, he hopes to take all the main branch representatives to future conferences so they are up-to-date on all higher education issues.

Student expectations
Some OU students-new and returning-shared their opinion about UOSA and what they expect for the new year. Sociology junior Cindy Coffin said she expects student government will accomplish its platform goals.

“I expect student government to interact with all students and get students involved, greeks and non-greeks,” Coffin said.

Coffin said she hopes UOSA will connect with graduates students as well.

Zoology sophomore AJ Berepele said he expects UOSA to set a community example. He said he also expects to see results from Zenteno and Lloyd when it comes to involving exchange students.

PROGRESS AND FUTURE GOALS:

What UOSA has changed this summer:
» Sarkeys Lot: Parking will now be split 50/50 between faculty and students.

What projects UOSA will launch soon:
» UOSA will create blog to update students on student government news
» UOSA will fully update the official UOSA website and student organizations page.
» Possibly UOSA will be create to SafeRide Vouchers which will allow students to call any Norman taxi service.
» UOSA will increase supplies for the laptop rental service from 50 laptops to 100 laptops through sponsorships.

He said the tumor, discovered during a routine checkup in May, would need more attention than previously thought.

“The tests I under went were productive and indicated that I would require further treatment,” he said in a statement.

Schmidly missed several workdays in September 2009 for operations and medical procedures pertaining to an undisclosed illness. Then he missed several days again in May, including the 2010 commencement ceremony, because of the tumor.

Physicians at the UNM Health Sciences Center and UNM Cancer Center have referred him to an out-of-state expert to seek treatment, he said.

Schmidly, who has served as UNM president since October 2007, said he will continue to stay in close touch with UNM administrators while he undergoes treatment.

“During my time on sick leave and through­out my recovery period, I will remain in full communication with the University leadership,” he said.

Paul Roth, executive vice president for Health Sciences, said Schmidly should be back at full capacity after the treatment.

“The report we received in May was very encouraging, and I anticipate a full and rapid recovery following this procedure for Dr. Schmidly,” he said.

To his surprise, U. Maryland officials informed Loh last week they had selected him as the school’s next president.

“The word is shock,” Loh told The Daily Iowan about his initial reaction. “You never sit down and say, ‘I’m going to be a president or a provost.’ “

The head of the search committee initially contacted Loh in mid-June. Though it was tempting to decline and tell the committee to continue the search, he said, he knew the magnitude of the opportunity.

Loh didn’t apply for the job. Rather, he said he an unknown source nominated him, adding he still doesn’t know who recommended him.

And throughout the confidential process, he said he knew nothing of the 300 other applicants being considered.

“It probably would have scared me off,” he said. “What are the odds?”

He said the obstacles he’s encountered during his two years at the UI, including the financial crisis and flood, made him attractive to the search committee.

Loh said he is grateful for his time, however brief, at the UI. He commended the faculty, staff, and students he worked with over the years, especially his collaboration with UI President Sally Mason.

At his time at the UI, Loh worked to increase the school’s retention rate, particularly with first-year students. He also became a public advocate for preventing dangerous drinking and helped develop a new strategic plan for the university.

When mentioning the strategic plan he helped set in motion, Loh separated himself from it: it’s not the provost’s plan, he said, it’s the UI’s plan.

“I can have a heart attack and die, and the plan will still go forward,” he said.

He also has faith in the continuation of the alcohol-safety program which, he feels, will go on regardless of the fate of the 21 ordinance.

Faculty and staff noted Loh’s effect on the university as positive.

“[Loh] changed the way we think of the educational experience of first-year students,” said Edwin Dove, the president of the Faculty Senate.

While Loh still has several months before he assumes his new position on Nov. 1, he is fully grounded and firm in his current position as the provost of the University of Iowa. He wants the whole process to be as smooth as possible for all involved and especially for the UI faculty, staff, and students.

Loh will not have a say in who is appointed interim provost, which officials have said they’d like to have in place soon.

Loh will make a few trips to visit the University of Maryland and begin helping with tasks which cannot wait until the fall, such as the search for a new athletics director.

He said he’s still waking up in the middle of the night in disbelief.

“I have to pinch myself,” he said. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet.”

DI reporter Hayley Bruce contributed to this report.

]]> http://uwire.com/2010/08/20/u-iowa-provost-maryland-presidency-offer-came-as-a-shock/feed/ 0 http://uwire.com/2010/08/19/an-international-scholar-for-an-international-campus-julian-schuster-shapes-responsibilities-for-his-new-position/ http://uwire.com/2010/08/19/an-international-scholar-for-an-international-campus-julian-schuster-shapes-responsibilities-for-his-new-position/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:01:11 +0000 cipavec http://uwire.com/?p=15299 Julian Schuster, the new senior vice president and provost at Webster U., was presented with a unique challenge upon his hiring.

“This is a completely new position, that needs to be unequivocally clear,” said Schuster, 51, who took the position less than a month ago. “This is a position that (President Beth) Stroble has created. I will serve as provost and senior vice president.”

Schuster graduated with a doctorate in economics from U. Belgrade in his home country, the former Yugoslavia, now known as Serbia. While fluent in five languages, Schuster said he “has knowledge” of all of the languages in Eastern Europe, and is studying Italian and Spanish.

Schuster, who recently visited his family in the former Yugoslavia, has his roots in international education facilities across the globe.

“I always have said Webster has a vision, a vision that we are a U.S.-based premier international university,” Schuster said. “This is good, because I consider myself to be a U.S. based international scholar.”

Schuster will have plenty to keep him busy – he and the other members of President Stroble’s leadership team continue to determine the exact job portfolio of the provost.

“It is a developing issue,” he said. “I will be the chief academic officer and advisor to Stroble. My portfolio is being determined as we speak.”

Part of the provost’s duties will involve consulting deans and department chairs on changes in curriculum and developing new educational programs, Schuster said.

“Do not forget, you know, I am also a professor,” he said. “I joined university not to be an administrator, but to be a professor. That idea did not change in me just because I am not part of the leadership. I have always wanted to teach, it’s something I valued a lot. The career of a university professor gives a lot of maneuvering space for other opportunities.”

Some of the “maneuvering” has afforded Schuster time to write, and he is currently finishing the second edition to his first book, which he calls “a reference book about the political, economic and historical developments of the former Yugoslavia.”

Schuster’s book, which he considers just a hobby, was written out of his “desire to bring knowledge and understanding to the American reader.” Schuster remains calm and optimistic, despite his new workload and the unknown of his new position at Webster.

“I think Webster is poised for a bright future under Stroble,” Schuster said. “Webster will change as environment changes, but it is not going to be a passive player. Webster is going to take an active role in changing the landscape of American higher education, and global higher education. For me, being a part of that is the most exciting.”

After Stroble completed her first year in her current position at Webster, she was honored Aug. 13 by the St. Louis Business Journal along with 24 others as one the St. Louis Business Journal’s 25 Most Influential Businesswomen of the Year. The other honorees represent an array of local businesses, including educational, medical and financial institutions.

Honorees for Business Journal awards receive nominations on the publication’s website. Stroble was presented with her award at a luncheon at the Renaissance Grand Hotel in downtown St. Louis.

“It was a total surprise when I received the call from (Webster Chancellor) Neil George’s office,” Stroble said of her nomination. “I’m very honored.”

Stroble received high praise from her business peers as well. Pat Whitaker, the CEO of architecture and design firm Arcturis, serves on the United Way’s 2010 board of directors along with Stroble, and believes Stroble’s award is well-deserved.

“She is constantly searching out the means to make the Webster experience better,” Whitaker said in an interview with the St. Louis Business Journal.

The award came on the heels of a busy year for Stroble business-wise. In her first year after succeeding George as the Webster’s president, the university has completed a $5.3 million transfer of land from Eden Seminary, furthering a long-term partnership between the two institutions.

Long-term plans for the land include converting the Luhr library into a science building. In the short term, Stroble said the university is looking into using the library space for additional classrooms, and also looks to utilize the seminary’s athletic fields, which would be used for recreation and intramural athletic events.

Webster also acquired the Wehrli Center and “White House” along with the 5.5 acre plot of land. Stroble said she and new provost Julian Schuster are forming a proposal to the City of Webster Groves to receive approval for Webster’s building plans.

The recent activity has Stroble optimistic for Webster’s future as she approaches her inauguration. Stroble has emphasized a desire for the inauguration to involve residents and businesses from Webster Groves, a leading factor in the inauguration being scheduled more than a year into her tenure.

Cunningham comes to WVU from Maryland, where she was part of the compliance staff since 2004. She was Maryland’s assistant athletic director for compliance since 2005.

“We are delighted that Keli is coming home to West Virginia University,” said WVU Athletic Director Oliver Luck in a release. “She is highly regarded in the world of intercollegiate athletics, and will be a great asset for our department. Her expertise in governance and compliance will serve us well.”

Cunningham received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at WVU. She was a graduate assistant in the WVU athletic compliance office.

“I am very excited to return to my alma mater and home state,” Cunningham said. “WVU laid the foundation for my start in college athletics, and I am looking forward to this next step in my career.”

WVU also announced Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance Patrick Hairston will be working full time with the General Counsel’s office to assist in preparation for WVU’s upcoming response at a hearing in front of the NCAA Committee on Infractions in February.

The NCAA alleged WVU committed five major and one secondary violation in its football program earlier this month.

Hauser, the author of “Moral Minds: The Nature of Right and Wrong,” recently retracted an article published in 2002 in the journal Cognition that suggested tamarin monkeys learned rules as human infants did, after an investigation by a Harvard committee concluded that his conclusions were not supported by his data.

Hauser’s lab has been under investigation for the past three years, and Hauser described the inquiry as “painful” in a letter to his colleagues that the Globe obtained.

“An internal examination at Harvard University . . . found that the data do not support the reported findings. We therefore are retracting this article,’’ Hauser and his two co-authors stated in their retraction according to the Globe. The retraction will run in a future issue of Cognition.

Jeff Neal, spokesperson for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, declined to comment on Hauser’s departure, stating that ”reviews of faculty conduct are considered confidential.”

“We take our faculty conduct policy seriously,” Neal added in the e-mailed statement. “We have a robust policy and we follow a well defined and extensive review process.”

Several of the students and graduates working in Hauser’s lab declined to comment on the investigation, but expressed respect for Hauser’s dedication to his work.

Hauser has won numerous teaching awards in his tenure at the University and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship—a grant given to artists and scholars who have proven themselves in their field of study—in 2005.

According to the Harvard student course catalog and his office voice mail message, Hauser plans to return to Harvard next fall. He is slated to teach a new class called “Psychology 1066: Origins of Evil” in the spring.

“I am on leave, working furiously on a book, and thus will only be checking e-mail irregularly,” Hauser’s automatic e-mail reply stated.

The bill, Senate Bill 3447, was passed by the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Thursday and is on its way to the full Senate for a vote.

That vote has not yet been scheduled.

The law would expand the number of veterans eligible for scholarship money under the post-9/11 “G.I. Bill” — a program meant to provide educational benefits for returning veterans — and would broaden the number of career paths they could take under the program.

“I think it’s a positive,” said Brian Clark, director of the Penn State Office of Veterans Programs. “It’s going to allow for students to be able to pursue a greater range of academic opportunities.”

The bill would allow veterans to take classes at institutions other than accredited universities, which Clark said would open up new educational opportunities for veterans, like vocational or professional schools.

Clark said about 2,500 Penn State students are veterans. But only students who have served in the military post-9/11 would be eligible for the benefits included in the bill, he said.

About 80 percent of the Pennsylvania National Guard has been activated for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, Clark said, and the majority of those guardsmen will be eligible for some benefits under the post-9/11 G.I. Bill.

Clark said veterans must serve three years of active duty to receive the full benefits under the law.

John Hench, Class of 2010, is an Iraq War veteran and said any expansion of veterans’ benefits is a step in the right direction.

“If someone’s willing to give that much for the country, it’s definitely nice when the country turns around and gives you that favor back,” Hench said.

Hench said it would be an extra benefit under the bill if veterans could get training outside of universities in careers as electricians or pilots.

“There are career paths that you can take that aren’t necessarily through college,” he said.

The bill would also allow veterans to transfer their benefits to other family members and allow the veterans to spend tuition money on distance learning, according to the bill’s text.

Sen. Daniel Akaka. D-Hawaii, sponsored the bill. His office did not return calls for comment by press time Tuesday.

The plan — which is set to be fully in place by 2013 — is “something that needs to be done to keep a higher education institution on track,” Penn State spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz said.

Mountz listed several of the plan’s goals, including: enhancing student success; realizing Penn State’s potential as a global university; enhancing diversity; serving the people of the commonwealth; and using technology to expand opportunities.

The plan’s goals are listed in a complex implementation matrix, which helps keep track of the plan’s progress, Mountz said.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, said he supports the plan, even though Penn State will have to spend more money during the economic recession. Corman said Penn State is being fiscally responsible by planning for the long-term.

“Any entity should be doing long-range planning,” Corman said. “If it’s not costly and still effective, more power to them.”

The aspects of the plan that require money are funded by private donations, Mountz said.

Each strategy has a specific implementation plan with a name attached to label responsibility for that part, Mountz said.

“We have accountability and we have actionable items and a timetable for when things need to be started,” she said.

One goal of the plan is to reduce costs of Penn State’s health care benefits. Penn State is currently self-insured, she said.

Penn State currently spends more than $180 million on health care benefits annually, Mountz said.

“We’ve cut the fat out of the budget, were into the bone,” she said.

Another goal of the plan is to reshape the scheduling format to maximize the use of facilities, according to a Penn State Live press release.

This strategic plan will not create financial pressure on students, Mountz said. The plan will mostly work with what the university already has rather than spend money on more, she said.

The new Knowledge Commons in the Pattee Library, funded by private donations, will provide new technological resources to students, Mountz said.

Despite other immediate issues the university faces, including a housing shortage and conflict over the West Campus Steam Plant, Mountz said the strategic plan is just as important as any other issue.

“Ideally, you want someone with fresh ideas and knows the business cold,” Gilmour said. “I don’t know if I’ll meet either standard. I know I don’t know the business cold.”

Gilmour said his perspective could be the biggest plus during his presidency.

“Anytime when you get someone from the outside coming in, they have a different perspective,” Gilmour said, referring to Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford, and Ed Whitacre, chairman of the board and CEO at Chrysler.

As president, Gilmour said one of his goals is to remain visible on campus and to remain as transparent as possible.

“There are certain things where we do not wish to be transparent because they’re confidential,” Gilmour said. “Beyond that, we should be transparent. People should know what we’re doing, understand what we’re doing and I hope agree with what we’re doing.”

For now, however, Gilmour will work with now-former acting president Phyllis Vroom to learn the new position, which takes effect Aug. 30. Vroom will resume her position as dean of the School of Social Work.

“We’re going to work together,” he said. “Particularly until the 30th of August, but even then I can guarantee I’m going to be on the phone with her saying, ‘What do you think about this?’”

But the University has less to worry about after this year’s ranking.

In the Princeton Review’s “The Best 373 Colleges 2011 Edition,” which lists 62 categories with surveys of more than 122,000 students, IU placed 15th on the party list, as well as sixth for “lots of hard liquor,” 15th for “best college newspaper,” 17th for “lots of beer” and 20th for “students pack the stadiums.”

Stivers said the party school rating is true but does not reflect IU poorly.

“It is about how you balance your school life,” Stivers said. “You have a great time, and it is also a valuable degree.”

According to the Review’s latest edition, “Although many think of Indiana University as ‘a party school with an active greek population’ — an image students reinforce when they insist that IU is ‘about going to massive parties … and getting the job done, but not being defined by schoolwork.’”

Some students are attracted to the ranking when coming to IU and might be influenced by the University’s greek system, Stivers said. However, she said that image is not the main part of IU.

U.S. News & World Report agreed, ranking, for example, the Kelley School of Business 12th for its undergraduate program this year.

“In any school, there is a social part, and it’s a minority or a majority,” said recent graduate Cody Baldwin.

Baldwin said he thinks the IU community is not focused on partying.

“It is still really productive in some areas, such as the journalism and business,” Baldwin said.

The University is not paying much attention to the ranking, said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre.

“It’s just a gimmick from the Princeton Review to stir publicity, and this whole party school ranking has no meaning,” he said.

Hickenlooper chose Garcia as a running mate because of his ability to solve problems in a party-blind way, according to the Associated Press.

If elected in November, Garcia’s focus will be on the state economy and education – both higher education and K-12 – the AP reported.

Hickenlooper and Garcia will run unopposed in the Aug. 10 Democratic primary and will face one of two Republican candidates – Scott McInnis or Dan Maes – and several other third party candidates, including former presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo.

Chair of the Colorado Republicans Dick Wadhams said in a statement that he thinks Garcia needs to step down as president of CSU-Pueblo if he’s going to run on Hickenlooper’s ticket.

Wadhams said, as a state employee Garcia is expected to carry out the duties of his job at CSU-Pueblo, not travel the state campaigning for votes, “otherwise taxpayers are subsidizing the Hickenlooper-Garcia campaign.”

Garcia earned his bachelor’s degree at CU-Boulder and his law degree at Harvard. Prior to signing on with the CSU system, he served as president of Pikes Peak Community College, worked as the Rocky Mountain States representative for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and spent time as the executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, according to a press release from CSU-Pueblo.

The Colorado lieutenant governor serves as chair of the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs and takes the place of the governor if he or she is absent.

Hogan officially took the reigns as the University’s top executive from interim-president Stanley Ikenberry on July 1. He had been president of the University of Connecticut since 2007, as well as a provost at the University of Iowa between 2004 and 2007 and dean of arts and sciences at Ohio State University,

In addition to the larger totals, the documents detail smaller expenses accrued during the process, which lasted from mid-November 2009 through May of this year. About $30,000 was spent on advertising the position, with invoices showing posts on websites such as Higher Ed Job and Inside Higher Ed. Print ads in publications such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, Insight into Diversity and Women in Higher Education cost $6,002.98 and ran during January and February.

A $20,000 deposit was also placed at the Hyatt Regency hotel near Chicago’s O’Hare airport during March. The money was intended for general “hotel expenses (sleeping rooms, meeting rooms, catering, security, etc.) during March 15-19, 2010 for presidential search meetings.” The final bill included costs for phone installation plus three local and 28 long-distance calls made between March 16-17, totaling $635.34.

Travel costs such as train tickets for committee members (a $71 round trip to Chicago for Trustee Karen Hasara on April 9, for example) and a 15-person van to transport the committee from the Illini Union to the president’s house on Florida Avenue ($159.54), a 1.4 mile trip, were also outlined in the records.

Specifics of the search were ordered to be released Monday by the Illinois Attorney General’s office, more than three months after the search ended. The Daily Illini requested the documents May 17 through the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, and along with a handful of other media outlets, waited for a final determination from the Public Access Counselor on whether the information could be made public after it was initially denied by the University.

While Hogan has been in office for a little over a month, the University has had to deflect some criticism for paying him a base salary of $620,000 in the wake of budget cuts and a 9.5 percent increase in tuition. Hogan’s predecessors, Ikenberry and B. Joseph White (who resigned in September 2009), were paid base salaries of $450,000 per year.

The money spent on the presidential search is about double what was spent on the search for a new provost, according to a Daily Illini investigation published in February. The provost search, costing the University $147,500, was cancelled without finding a replacement for Linda Katehi, who left the University in May 2009 to become Chancellor at UC-Davis.

The Urbana campus is still without a permanent Chancellor, as Richard Herman resigned in October 2009. Former Dean of ACES Robert Easter has been serving as provost/chancellor in the interim role. Hogan said last month that he was in no rush to replace Easter, but that a search committee would most likely start work by January.

The e-mail was sent July 28 to the U. Illinois administration mailing list from Walter Knorr, University vice president and chief financial officer.

“The concern remains that State revenues will not be sufficient to support the overall State budget and we will continue to face uncertainty in the timeliness of the University’s appropriation payments,” Knorr said in the e-mail.

The stagnation in faculty salaries comes amid a presentation by Knorr at the July 22 Board of Trustees meeting, where he told trustees that the University’s three campuses are actually under budget by $16 million. According to board minutes, tuition is generating more revenue for the University than in year’s past. Knorr pointed out in his presentation that tuition generated $730 million in revenue, up 50.2 percent from fiscal year 2006.

But because of uncertainties with state funding, Knorr said fiscal restraint is necessary even as the University stays in the black.

“General pay increases are restricted because of the uncertainty of the State budget and delays in payments to the University of the annual appropriation,” Knorr said in an e-mail to The Daily Illini.

Mrinalini Rao, vice president for academic affairs for the University, said whether the University system goes into the red financially will be contingent upon the state’s ability to meet its promises.

“The University’s FY2011 appropriation has been cut $46 million from the prior year’s level,” Knorr said.

Knorr said he is hopeful not to have any furlough days for faculty and staff in the 2010-11 academic year. A hiring freeze will remain in effect at all three campuses, and only limited replacement hires which require the approval at the Dean or Provost level are being permitted.

Thomas Overbye, professor in electrical and computer engineering, and chair of the campus operations committee in the Urbana-Champaign faculty senate, said faculty retention remains a major problem in academic disciplines where industrial work can offer more competitive compensation.

Overbye said his department lost a faculty member in the power systems area to industry.

“I’m sure salary competitiveness was an issue,” Overbye said of that loss.

Overbye said he is unsure whether a popular course he plans to teach in the fall (ECE 333 Green Electric Energy) will be taught in the spring, due to a lack of available faculty.

“You cannot continue to not give faculty raises, and expect to retain top faculty,” Overbye said.

Rao said the University system recognizes that faculty might decide to leave the University to pursue other opportunities and is working to create attractive retention packages for faculty.

“If these faculty members and their (graduate students and post-doctoral researchers) leave for another state, it is not only a loss to the University of Illinois, but has a negative impact on the state’s economy,” Rao said.

Robert Easter, interim chancellor and provost of the Urbana campus said the University is doing everything it can to retain its world-class faculty.

Lennard Davis, a professor of English and disabilities studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he feels a little unappreciated by the fact that he has not received a pay raise while the University system is in the black.

“I published two books last year. Generally, you get a merit raise; I got nothing,” Davis said.

He also said taking furloughs were synonymous to taking a pay cut.

Davis said what bothers him about the entire University system’s budgeting process is that faculty do not get a larger input.

“The reality is we don’t get to see the books,” Davis said.

Davis is part of a group of faculty involved in the creation of a faculty union at UIC so that faculty members can have more input in University financial decisions.

He added that a faculty union that “had a say in budgetary matters, would be able to determine faculty and staff compensation in a fair and rational way.”

Overbye said he had not heard of any talk of a faculty union being formed at the Urbana campus, and is not in favor of forming a union.

“For the most part, faculty are awarded upon their individual accomplishments,” he said. “I think the current system should stay.”

Some of the Urbana campus’s faculty are members of the Campus Faculty Association. However, this is an oversight organization that does not have the negotiating power of other unions.

Overbye added that he has felt the administration has been very forthcoming with passing information onto faculty about the University’s financial situation.

“I don’t feel that they are deliberately withholding information from the faculty … We as the University have really hard decisions going forward,” Overbye said.

The agreement was signed at the end of a marathon 16-hour bargaining session that began at 9 a.m. Friday morning and continued into the predawn hours early the next morning. By the time it was over, both sides had agreed on all 35 items on the table, including the final four contentious items: health benefits, wages, the right to strike and appointment security.

Details of the agreement will not be made public until after the union votes to ratify the contract, though Norval Hickman, a postdoctoral researcher at UC San Francisco and member of the bargaining team, said the contract represents a “significant improvement” over past proposals.

“We didn’t get 100 percent of everything that we wanted; we had to make some difficult decisions in the end,” said Matthew O’Connor, a former bioengineering researcher at UC Berkeley who represented the campus on the union’s bargaining team. “All in all, I think it’s a very strong contract. It includes very strong economic improvements.”

The contract is the first standalone agreement between the UC and postdoctoral workers, according to UC spokesperson Steve Montiel. Though some postdoctoral workers have union contracts in Connecticut and New Jersey, the agreements are part of a larger staff-wide contract.

“The university is pleased that there’s an initial agreement,” Montiel said in an e-mail. “Postdoctoral scholars are very important to UC and the research enterprise.”

Postdoctoral researchers – who represent about 10 percent of all postdoctoral researchers in the country, according to Montiel – conduct a large potion of the UC’s research.

The researchers voted to unionize in August of 2008, though the union was not officially recognized by the California Labor Board until two months later, and formal negotiations between the union and the UC did not begin until February of 2009.

Over the last 18 months of negotiations, the two groups grappled with the 35 items and negotiations eventually hit a dead end, triggering a congressional hearing by the House Committee on Education and Labor in April to examine the sluggish process.

In June, the union filed charges saying the UC committed 13 violations of the state’s Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act over the course of the negotiations, including regressive bargaining, failing to provide requested information and misrepresenting university policy. Those charges are still pending, according to Hickman.

Union members across the 10 campuses will begin voting on the contract Thursday, with polls closing next Wednesday. Until then, researchers will send out information and hold meetings to discuss details of the contract with thousands of workers.

Hickman and O’Connor both said they feel confident the union will approve the contract.

“We did succeed in getting an experienced-based pay scale, a minimum pay scale for postdocs, including yearly pay increases,” O’Connor said. “Our members have fought really long for this, and while the agreement we came to isn’t perfect, it is really good.”

Tenure is the right to hold an ongoing job at a university in a specific department or program. Some professors are hired on a tenure track, meaning they have a chance to get tenure after being at the university for a few years. No one is given tenure immediately when hired.

In 1975, 57 percent of all college professors in the U.S. had tenure or were on a tenure track. By 2007, that number had dropped to 31 percent.

Western’s percentage has hovered at about 65 percent for the past two years.

Steve VanderStaay, Western’s vice provost for undergraduate education, said Western’s goal is to have as much of its faculty on a tenure track as possible because professors who have the job security of tenure can devote more time and energy to students.

A cheap education

Budget shortfalls have contributed to the shift at schools around the country toward non-tenure-track instructors.

Universities pay tenured and tenure-track professors more than they pay short-term, contracted instructors. Smaller budgets contribute to what Western English professor Bill Lyne calls an assault on tenure.

“[It’s] really about trying to produce our students’ education as cheaply as possible,” said Lyne, who is president of the United Faculty of Washington, the union for college professors in Washington state. “Our students deserve more than a cheap education.”

Instructors who are not on a tenure track make less money and teach more classes. They often have to teach at both Western and another institution, such as Whatcom Community College or Skagit Valley College, to make enough money to support themselves. This means they have less time for students, Lyne said.

Questions of academic freedom

The American Association of University Professors supports tenure, saying instructors need it so they can express controversial ideas without fear of being fired.

Mark C. Taylor, chairman of Columbia University’s department of religion, said in a July 20 New York Times editorial that professors seeking tenure censor themselves so they don’t risk their chances by saying something unpopular.

“Nothing represses the free expression of ideas more than the long and usually fruitless quest for tenure,” Taylor wrote.

That quest is usually not fruitless at Western. VanderStaay said about 90 percent of the faculty members who come up for tenure get it. He said annual reviews help professors improve, so by the time they apply for tenure, they deserve it.

Western associate professor of elementary education Matthew Miller said now that he has tenure, he is more at ease when he does research.

“I think with tenure, there’s no concern about if I find things that are, for example, challenging in our own program or department, that there won’t be any sort of repercussions for those investigations,” Miller said. “I don’t think there necessarily would have been before, but it does give you the sense that the scholarship that you pursue can be done without those kinds of repercussions that might impact your work.”

Tenure’s incentives

Western associate professor of economics Brandon Dupont, who was awarded tenure this year, said vying for tenure gives instructors extra incentive to do a good job at teaching, research and serving their departments.

“But I think most faculty try to do good work whether tenure is on the horizon or not,” he said, adding that his own quest for tenure did not affect the way he did his job.

Dupont said he felt less pressure to be published or do research to get tenure at Western, as opposed to at a larger research school like the University of Washington. However, Western still requires faculty to do research in addition to being successful as a teacher.

Professors at larger research schools typically have lighter teaching loads and have graduate students helping them with research projects. Before coming to Western, associate professor of special education Chuck Lambert was a tenure-track professor at Cleveland State University, where he taught fewer classes and published more articles than he does now. He said he still does research, but works more hours a week at Western and has more contact with students.

Western’s tenure process emphasizes both research and teaching. Faculty senate president Scott Pearce said one aids the other.

“It’s the expectation that people need to have done research – done systematic organizational knowledge within their own minds,” Pearce said. “But we insist on good teaching, so it’s an insistence that people do significant amounts of work within their field and get publication, and then that they translate that into good teaching for the students at Western Washington.”

Even with the amount of tenure-track jobs diminishing, Lyne and Dupont said those jobs are still the ultimate goal of a career in academia because they pay more and come with the potential for job security.

“When you come out of graduate school, you’re looking for a tenure-track job,” Lyne said.

It takes all kinds

Tenure is an important part of an academic career path, Dupont said, but not all faculty need to be on a tenure track. Non-tenure-track positions allow departments flexibility to fill short-term positions. Before coming to Western, Dupont taught at Wellesley College for a year when a full-time, tenured professor was on leave.

Western needs both kinds of faculty, VanderStaay said. Hiring non-tenure-track instructors lets Western add sections of classes if demand for those classes rises. He said it also lets the university hire people who are talented teachers even if they do not have a strong background in research.

Almost all instructors should be on a tenure track, Lyne said. Administrators need the flexibility to add or remove positions from departments as student demand changes or full-time professors take leave, but Lyne said that should account for only about 5 percent of faculty jobs.

Job security and job performance

Taylor wrote that professors’ arguments in support of tenure are out of self-interest because tenure gives them job security. Tenure costs universities too much money because it guarantees professors’ positions no matter what, tying up salary money for decades to come regardless of how well they do their jobs, he wrote.

Dupont said he worries about the possible effects tenure can have on work performance, but most professors he knows continue to work hard despite the job security that comes with tenure.

“Tenure has and can reduce one’s incentives to be a top-performing professor,” Dupont said. “However, most of us get into academia because we really like teaching and/or we really like doing research.”

Miller said getting tenure gave him the sense that his students were having a good experience and his colleagues saw his work as valuable, which made him push himself to improve even more.

“Some people might think that getting tenure pushes a professor to sit back on his or her laurels, and I think that that can happen sometimes,” Miller said. “But the way I see it, and the way I think the colleagues with whom I work see it, is that it really provides even more fire under your feet to do right by the people who are looking to you for learning.”

Pearce, an associate professor of liberal studies, said the institution of tenure builds a culture in which students can be led in new directions and creates a sense of duty among professors to pass on their knowledge.

Lyne said tenured professors, whose jobs are more secure, can act as the faculty’s voice to the administration, especially in the face of budget cuts that can affect academic programs.

Having fewer tenured professors means the faculty starts to lose its say in how the university is run, Lyne said. Year-to-year teaching jobs are precarious because those instructors have to worry about whether their jobs will be renewed each year, he said.

A formal commitment

The tenure process is laid out in the United Faculty of Western Washington’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, a contract between the faculty union and the university that outlines

the relationship between the two.

Tenure ends only if the faculty member resigns or retires. Tenure can also end if a professor is fired or laid off, as long as those actions meet the guidelines laid out in the agreement.

A tenured professor can be fired for the same reasons such as general misconduct as well as scholarly misconduct, which includes plagiarism.  Tenured professors can also be laid off if the university faces a financial emergency or, for example, eliminates a degree program.

At Western, instructors hired on the tenure track work toward tenure during a probationary period in which they are reviewed every year by their peers and department or college heads as well as the provost.

“I think it is healthy both for a faculty member and for a university to take time to get to know and learn about each other. That’s what the probationary period is about,” said Lambert, who came to Western in 2004 and got tenure this year. “But then there comes a point where both parties need to agree to formally commit to each other.  It is like in personal relationships: there comes a point where there needs to be a commitment that you are both in this together. It sounds hokey, but I think it is a good analogy.”

Professors can apply for tenure at any time during this period as long as they apply by their sixth year at Western. VanderStaay said Western is unique in allowing professors to go up for tenure and promotion early on.

Professors applying for tenure must put together a file that includes evidence of how they meet departmental standards in teaching, research and service to the department. The file also contains course evaluations from every class the professor has taught.

“Every time a student thinks, ‘Wow, do these evaluations really matter?’ – that’s when they matter,” Lyne said.

The application file goes through a long process before it is officially approved or rejected. All the tenured faculty in the department review the file, then it goes to the department chair, a tenure review committee composed of other professors in the college, the dean of the college, the provost and finally to Western President Bruce Shepard, who can recommend that the Board of Trustees grant the professor tenure.

If a tenure-track professor’s seventh year at Western does not come with tenure, it is considered that professor’s final year here.

Tenured professors are evaluated every five years using a similar process as the one they went through to get tenure. These standards are just as rigorous.

“I am challenged to think of many other jobs that provide such thorough evaluations,” Lambert said. “My college is evaluated by the state and other accreditation boards to make sure we are producing quality graduates. I am evaluated every quarter by every student I teach. I am evaluated annually by all the tenured faculty in my department, including my department chair, as well as by my dean. Then [once I have tenure], every five years, I have to organize all this work and make a convincing case to my peers why I should be allowed to keep my job.”

Two consecutive poor reviews could lead to a tenured professor being disciplined or discharged.

This protects against professors resting on their laurels, because they still need to prove in evaluations that they are doing their jobs well. However, two consecutive poor reviews, when reviews are done every five years, means 10 years can pass by before anything happens to a professor whose performance has dwindled.

Lambert said many people think tenure is a lifetime appointment and that there are no consequences for professors if they do not do their jobs.

“You can’t just get tenure then quit doing quality work here at Western,” he said.

Although he, Pearce and Lambert all said Western’s non-tenure-track faculty work hard and do a great job, Lyne said tenured professors are more committed to students because they are more invested in the university.

Tenure provides the freedom for professors not to worry that what they say or what they find in their research will be unpopular, he said.

Like any other employer, a university can still fire people for not doing their jobs.

“Tenure protects your work,” Lyne said. “Not your job.”

Examining the system

As tenured and tenure-track faculty continue to be outnumbered by non-tenure-track instructors at Western and across the country, some scholars have taken the opportunity to examine whether the system is working.

“The tenure system, hatched in another era by a generation of mostly white males, does not fit contemporary economic realities, nor does it accommodate today’s faculty,” wrote Cathy A. Trower, a research associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in a July 20 New York Times editorial.

Trower suggests an overhaul of the system, starting with a “constitutional convention” of faculty members meeting to design something more flexible, which might include putting time limits on tenure or changing the lengths of probationary periods.

If it weren’t for its commitment to giving tenure, Western could not attract and keep the quality of teachers it has, VanderStaay said.

Pearce said tenure can be modified, and he would be happy to look at making changes to the system. However, he said he is also wary of starting from scratch.

“Everybody has ideas,” Pearce said. “But sometimes, when you get rid of systems, the alternative that appears is not all that useful either.”

Howell’s salary would now be paid by the University, rather than St. John’s Catholic Newman Center, which had been funding Howell’s teaching position for the past nine years.

Beginning in the fall, the University will be paying the salaries of instructors teaching any Catholic studies classes for credit, University officials said in a press release.

Howell was dismissed from teaching Catholic studies classes in May after an anonymous student sent an e-mail complaint to religion department head Robert McKim, accusing Howell of engaging in hate speech while discussing the Catholic Church’s views on homosexuality.

Since then, hundreds of supporters have been pressuring President Michael Hogan and other University officials, lobbying for Howell’s reinstatement and claiming his First Amendment rights had been violated.

“We’re extremely pleased that Dr. Howell is back in the classroom and will be teaching this fall,” said David Hacker, litigation staff counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which has been providing support for Howell since his dismissal.

Additionally, University counsel Steven Veazie wrote in a July 28 letter to the ADF that the Faculty Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure “will continue its review of the situation surrounding the earlier decision not to offer Dr. Howell a teaching assignment for the fall semester.”

Hackey added that the ADF “will be watching carefully to make sure that Professor Howell’s academic freedom is protected throughout the ongoing process.”

Student supporters on campus also expressed joy and caution at Howell’s reappointment.

Graduate student Eli Lazar said the University’s decision exemplifies what can happen if enough students speak out passionately about an issue.

“I think it really shows that we have a University president that feels the ‘pulse’ of students on campus,” Lazar said.

Lazar also said precautions should be considered to ensure the original decision by McKim does not continue to affect the University.

“Given the amount of negative attention this has brought to the University, it would seem inappropriate just to leave it as a mistake with a hope it will not happen again in the future,” he said.

Howell is currently out of town and could not be reached for comment.

The University said Howell would continue his role as adjunct professor in the fall, which could leave him vulnerable to any future dismissals.

Trisha Tan, a former student of Howell’s who has taken on the role of his press secretary since the controversy began, said numerous unanswered questions remain.

“I don’t think this issue is resolved,” she said. “But for now I’m very happy.”

The payouts total nearly $289,000.

UCF President John Hitt will receive the highest bonus, which totals $143,085.01 according to a 2006-09 Performance Unit Plan Payment document available on the Board of Trustees website.

Other administrators that will receive bonuses include William Merck, the vice president for Administration and Finance, and Robert Holmes, the vice president for Development and Alumni Relations, who will get almost $20,000 each.

Retired Provost and Executive Vice President Terry Hickey will receive $26,572.93, the largest bonus amount after Hitt’s.

Tony Waldrop will replace Hickey this fall.

The bonuses were given to faculty members for succeeding at performance goals set for the 2006-09 period that ended June 30, 2009.

According to the Board of Trustees Compensation and Labor Committee Report and

Recommendations, when that three-year cycle ended, the president and vice presidents requested that any payments due to them be suspended because of current budget restraints.

The Compensation and Labor Committee concluded that the university needed to make the payments due no later than Oct. 1, 2012, but the agreement also stated that the board had the option of making those payments sooner.

The report states that, “The agreement also provided for interest calculated annually on the balance, using a one-year Vanguard Certificate of Deposit rate, which was set at 1.4 percent for the first year.”

That is why Hitt’s initial bonus payout amount increased by $1,650.

According to an article from the Orlando Sentinel, “Trustees on Thursday decided to distribute the payouts to Hitt and the others now rather than wait a few years more and have interest build up on the owed money.”

Administrators may not be the only ones who receive bonuses this year.

According to their website, the UCF chapter of the United Faculty of Florida began bargaining with the Board of Trustees on July 14 for  a one-time bonus amount of $1,500 and a 1 percent pay increase for UCF faculty and professional staff.

Hitt, who became the fourth president of UCF in 1992, is the second highest-paid public university president in Florida, and he is ranked 32nd nationwide, according to a report by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Future reported in February that Hitt’s base salary is $463,500, more than $27,000 more than the median base salary amount which was disclosed in the report.
The report also stated that Florida state law allows taxpayer dollars to cover only $225,000 per institution.

Private donations, namely from alumni, cover most of public university presidents’ salaries and benefits.

The Future also reported that in November, the Board voted to give Hitt a pay increase, but he declined because of the bad economy.

Hitt isn’t the only university president to be deferred from performance bonuses.

The St. Petersburg Times reported in December that USF President Judy Genshaft was set to relieve nearly $94,000 in bonuses but her payment will be deferred until the economy improves or she reaches the end of her contract in June 2012.

USA Today reported that University of Florida President Bernie Machen received his bonus and donated the entire amount of $285,000 that he relieved in 2008 to  a scholarship program he founded for low-income students at risk of losing their chance at a college education.

The next Board of Trustees meeting is scheduled for Sept. 23 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Live Oak Center.

With University President R. Bowen Loftin’s statement July 20, 2010 that the University is preparing for a $60 million budget reallocation affecting approximately 485 jobs, the overall feeling around campus is an uneasy one.

University’s plan

For the biennial budget of 2012-2013, the Texas Legislature has asked institutions of higher learning to prepare a preliminary plan of the budget if a 10 percent budget cut passes in the legislature.

“The state has asked for 5 percent increments to come up with what we need to do. We have a 5 percent plan, and we have a 10 percent plan,” said Konrad Johnson, student body vice president and senior finance major.

Texas A&M has asked each department and auxiliary to submit preliminary plans of how each department would cut 10 percent of spending.

The 10 percent budget cut is not a choice coming from the University but from the legislature and will affect all public institutions of higher learning.

“All types of businesses, people and industries have to change or modify the way their daily business is run due to the state of the economy,” said state Rep. Fred Brown. “It is not an easy task but one that is necessary to continue.”

State money is allocated toward specific areas of the University.

“Eighty-nine percent goes to paying people directly on our faculty and our staff, 6 percent funds scholarships and 5 percent funds operations, mostly utilities,” Loftin said.

Loftin said that because so much of state funding goes to faculty, the University could not avoid such a large cut in that area.

Faculty and staff cuts that have been planned include 275 vacant positions and 210 filled positions.

“The basis of [the] cuts will mostly be unfilled positions, and hopefully the University will be able to get by without having people lose their jobs,” Brown said.

Colleges across the campus are preparing plans to handle the cuts, and most hits will be taken in the nontenured faculty and graduate teaching assistant areas, said Joseph Newton, dean of the College of Science.

“What we have been doing is getting each college and each division, going through and planning what they would do to cut their budget by 10 percent,” said Jacob Robinson, student body president and senior leadership studies major.

If a 10 percent budget cut is passed, $39 million will be asked back from the state, and $21 million will be gathered by the University to reallocate to departments that will be cut the most, totaling $60 million in planned budget cuts.

“Here is the problem. If you look at your university, you have your services and you have your academics. Now academics comprise, say 80 percent of what a university is, and state money goes primarily to academics. So if you pull $39 million out of academics, then you have a sudden drop in academics,” Johnson said. “Your other services that run on their own still have their $21 million. We are trying to figure out a way to balance the scales so that we can remain strong as a whole.”

Administration and student government officials said these plans are only preliminary and will not take effect until fiscal year 2012.

“Right now all this is saying is this is what Texas A&M would do if we were asked to cut the budget by X amount. So that’s all this is,” Robinson said.

Although some departments have already been told which staff members will be let go. The department of continuing education will have to cut five staff members, two of which are retiring, by Aug. 31, 2010.

“I think we owe people the ability to tell them as soon as we know,” Loftin said. “We should be able to begin to identify specific staff positions we are going to be able to reduce to meet budget requirements, there is no game to be had to wait a whole year to be told about that.”

Cuts will affect students

If the budget cuts are passed, students will notice a decrease in the faculty-to-student ratio.

“They will be in a couple of areas; the most important area is instructional. We will do everything we can to maintain the highest-quality instructional environment for the students,” Loftin said. “But because we are going to have to lose some people, that means a little larger class size and that always has an impact on the students.”

Other differences students will notice are changes in access to student services and tangible items. Many student worker positions will be eliminated, and hours for the Student Recreation Center and Open Access Labs will be reduced.

“We have fewer staff people to help with advising, fewer staff people to help with student affairs. Some of the tangible things like toilet paper in residence halls may be a problem here. You will have to chip in to make a difference on yourselves if you live on campus,” Loftin said.

However, deans said they will try to maintain student options for courses in their colleges.

“Our first goal is not to lower how many students, how many seats will be available in the courses. But because the number of the faculty will go down, the size of the classes will go up,” said Newton.

Although the University will be cutting faculty, Loftin said he plans to maintain student enrollment.

“We don’t have a lot of capacity to increase our enrollment a lot. I don’t want to decrease it though, so I don’t anticipate having any fewer students coming to the campus,” Loftin said.
Some areas will be affected more than others, but the goal is to minimize the impact on the students and maintain high quality of education, said the deans.

“I do not anticipate that the budget reduction plan in the College of Liberal Arts will lead to an elimination of core curriculum courses, although there may be an increase in the size of some classes and a decrease in the number of sections offered. The same holds for courses required for majors in the college,” said José Luis Bermúdez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

Accompanying changes to the University’s budget is an increase in tuition for the upcoming fiscal year. Although it is the lowest of any state’s flagship university, Texas A&M will see a 2.8 percent increase in overall tuition and a 2.2 percent increase in mandatory fees.

“Right now the Board of Regents has set tuition with a 2.8 increase, with a promise of a zero percent increase the following year,” Robinson said.

Administrators said they are working around the clock to create plans that will help soften the blows that are taking place throughout the University. Still, students are expressing their concerns.

“I think the quality of the work will suffer because of the quantity of students. It’s the same with public schools in the elementary schools. The bigger the class size, the harder it is to get the lesson out there,” said Reed Williams, sophomore political science major.

Due to the elimination of several teaching assistant and graduate assistant positions, students will not receive the same individual attention in the classroom that they have grown to expect.

“I think it will definitely affect the lower-level classes, more of the freshman courses because you rely on your TAs more than in your upper-levels. You rely on your TA more than your professor, actually,” said Eric Kuusisto, senior civil engineering major.

However, Brown and other members working with the University said they are optimistic that they will not have to make the ten percent cuts and that by the time session starts in January, financial conditions will be better than they are now.

Vision 2020

To continue on the path of achieving the goals Vision 2020 has outlined, the University created a focused mission for 2011-2015.

The preliminary mission statement of 2011-2015 reads, “Texas A&M University contributes to society by being both a selective, top-tier research university and renowned service-oriented university serving the public good of the State and the Nation.”

Although the economy is suffering, administration officials said they were striving to stay on track to attain the goals expressed by Vision 2020.

“We will continue to have Vision 2020’s goals in front of us. I am planning on having a large group of faculty students and staff work with me over the next nine months to examine some of the approaches,” Loftin said.

The Executive Budget Summary for the fiscal year 2012, beginning in September, outlined the budget for the University and listed goals to help the stay on track for the future. Loftin created new guiding principles to help Texas A&M move forward toward Vision 2020.

Finally, Loftin said decisions must consider the restricted revenue streams that are characteristic of a comprehensive, land-grant flagship university.

“I am hoping we will not lose our momentum at all. I think we will have the opportunity to redeploy some of the money that we are going to save across the University into very focused areas,” he said.

Funding A&M
Fund groups included in the Texas A&M University annual operating budget:

Education & General

• Appropriated sources of revenue
• General revenue
• State minimum tuition and lab fees
• Available university fund distribution

Designated funds

• Accounts designated for a specific purpose by the Board of Regents
• Serve an educational purpose such as field trips, computer access fees, seminar fees or service departments
• Purpose is not restricted by an outside source

Auxiliary enterprise accounts
Provide services to students, staff, faculty and the general public. Must be self-supporting.

• Dining Services
• Transportation Services
• Recreational Sports
• Student Center
• Residence halls
• A.P. Beutel Health Center
• Athletics
• Airport, golf course, sports camps

Restricted funds

• Restricted to a specific purpose by donors from outside A&M
• Scholarships and fellowships
• Research gifts, grants and contracts
• Gifts from corporations or individuals

As the budget cuts for the fiscal year of 2012 become a reality, Texas A&M is appropriately preparing for the worst. Although the Texas Legislature told universities to prepare for budget cuts in five percent increments, statements from administration and legislature indicated the state will cut funding by 10 percent.

The cuts may have a larger effect on faculty, because 89 percent of state funds support their salaries. Although cutting faculty while keeping a large freshmen class may not seem like the best option, it is the lesser of two evils to allow students from the state of Texas to attain the best education possible with given Educational and General funds.

University President R. Bowen Loftin and his administration are making the best of a terrible situation while planning for the future. These cuts are inevitable, and the $39 million in state funds the university could lose has to come from somewhere.

The plan in place to address this situation has come from both faculty and student input, and is the best way to keep students from feeling the effects of the cuts as much as possible. Cutting faculty positions and different departments on campus will keep the University from passing these costs onto students through tuition increases. Loftin has chosen the best option in this balancing act by keeping education and students in the forefront instead of cutting admissions, raising tuition, and treating the University as simply a business.

Before its meeting Friday, the Board of Supervisors members listened to each chancellor from the system give a detailed plan of how a budget cut this great would affect that particular university.

“These projections are all the result of our discussion with the legislature,” LSU System President John Lombardi said. “We’re trying to be very clear to ourselves and our constituents about the consequence of the reduction of state revenues.”

Of the $133 million deficit for the entire system, $46 million will come from LSU.

Chancellor Michael Martin presented his three-level outline of how cuts of such magnitude will directly affect students.

Level One reductions, about $9 million, are those indirectly related to the core functions of teaching and research.

Level Two reductions, about $16.6 million, are those directly supporting teaching and research but not actively engaged in delivering those core functions.

Level Three reductions, about $20 million, are the units delivering core functions of teaching and research.

“The cuts we’re suggesting will be felt among our students,” Martin said. “Gone will be writing programs. Gone will be research facilities like CAMD [Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices]. Gone will be the Louisiana Geological Survey, which is vital to the state of Louisiana.”

Martin spoke of how the University has grown to top tier status in the past 10 years and is currently listed in U.S. News and World Report’s top 100 universities.

“LSU has risen to be a national player, not just on the sports field, but in the labs and classrooms,” Martin said.

The budget cuts LSU is planning for will cut from every department on campus.

It is unclear how many faculty members will be terminated, but it will affect all colleges, all departments and will lead to the reduction, consolidation or elimination of programs, according to Martin’s proposed plan.

“As a 40-year veteran of higher education, it will be a devastating blow that will not be recovered from in my lifetime or in the lifetimes of our grandchildren,” Martin said.

Among the other chancellors who spoke, Paul M. Herbert Law Center Chancellor Jack Weiss reported as the only university with a surplus after the 23-percent budget reduction.

“We are ranked in the top 100 U.S. News and World Report. It has a tremendous impact on recruitment of students and faculty,” Weiss said.

With enrollment above the average and only 30 percent of the budget relying on state funds, Weiss said he can’t “overemphasize the success that we’ve enjoyed.”

Even so, he said cuts to the Law Center would have “an adverse impact on a variety of outreach and reputational initiatives,” according to his letter to the Board.

Agriculture Center Chancellor William Richardson spoke of the difficulties he will face because the Ag Center has no students and therefore no increased tuition.

“What we do is in research and extension,” Richardson said. “We will eliminate 184 positions. That will devastate many of our research programs.”

Lombardi spoke about budget difficulties in states across the country, but how none are as restrained as Louisiana in increasing tuition.

“Almost every other state which we compete with in any way has had much higher funding over a long period of time,” Lombardi said.

Although no cuts have been made, the plans were created to approach budget cuts in a smart way and to give employees termination notification far in advance.

“This is gruesome. It is painful. It is extraordinarily serious,” Lombardi said. “There is nothing here that is easy, nothing that is good.”

The reduction cuts back approximately $3.5 million from Western’s budget and leaves the University with $56.2 million.

Governor Pat Quinn announced the state will reduce its expenditures to higher education in Illinois by $100 million on July 1 as part of an attempt to reduce the state deficit by $1.4 billion in the 2011 fiscal year.

A significant factor in Illinois’ higher education cutback is due to the abatement of the federal stimulus funding, which was only available for the state during the 2010 fiscal year.

“A part of the $100 million cutback for all the universities, that essentially was comprised of the federal stimulus money that went into the FY 2010 budget. That was a one-year shot and that was eliminated,” said Director of Government Relations Dave Steelman of Western Illinois.

Western is further hampered with the presence of uncertainty.

Gov. Quinn signed into law the Emergency Budget Act, which grants the governor broader control over state spending. This act may have a detrimental effect on state appropriations to universities as state spending is even more determined by his administration.

“The other thing that has us concerned is one of the bills that passed this recent session, the Emergency Budget Act which gave Gov. Quinn significant powers in terms of the state budget including a reserve,” Steelman said. “Basically what it means is that at any point during the remainder of the fiscal year, there could be additional reductions as part of that reserve.”

Furthermore, the state currently owes the University $17 million for the 2010 fiscal year.

Because of the state’s shortfall in funding for the last fiscal year along with possible cutbacks in the near future, Western will have to ration its spending even more.

“There’s essentially going to be a rationing of FY’11 dollars because of the uncertainty,” said Steelman. “The idea was we need to exercise a lot of caution in FY’11 spending, so there will be reductions in travel, commodity purchases, office equipment, etc.”

Western has only released 25 percent of its departments’ FY’11 budgets for travel, commodities, equipment and other contractual departmental obligations, as stated by University Relations on July 7. Furthermore, all spending has been limited to immediate operational needs only.

According to Steelman, University president Al Goldfarb has made an effort to avoid furloughs and layoffs, but new hires will be limited.

“President Goldfarb has specifically stated his intent to avoid layoffs and/or furloughs,” Steelman said. “Now in terms of new hires, there will be greater scrutiny. But for existing employees, we don’t expect any cutbacks at this point.”

Tuition may rise for future incoming freshmen only if further reductions are made by the state as well.

“If the governor or the state legislature cut back too far in the area of higher education spending, we don’t have any other option other than to raise the tuition,” said Steelman. “I think by and large the universities have tried very hard to keep tuition increases down, but the fact is that state support levels for higher education have decreased dramatically over the past few years.”

The state government has allowed all of Illinois’ universities, such as Western, to borrow from the state due to the state not providing adequate funding, where it has fallen short $17 million for the University for the 2010 fiscal year.

“It’s not something we want to do,” Steelman said. “It’s all based on how much the Comptroller’s Office or the state owes the University at the time, so the borrowing limit is a function of how much they owe us.”

Western may borrow up to 75 percent of the $17 million owed by the state for the 2010 fiscal year, according to Steelman.

Because Western and other universities have to borrow from the state to cover its payments, Steelman believes the recovery process is going to be even slower for the state and its universities.

“It’s just not going to be a matter of one fiscal year,” said Steelman. “If we borrow funds, we have to pay them back. So it’s going to be a slow recovery process.”

The lack of funding by the state has also become a drag on the state’s ability to currently provide proper funding for its pension systems for all of its employees, which includes university employees.

“The problem exists virtually with all of the pension systems in the state of Illinois,” Steelman said. “What essentially has happened for one reason or another, the state hasn’t fully funded those pension systems. They’ve put off funding for later dates and the gap in the availability in pension funding and what’s due has continued to grow throughout the years, and we’re at a point where it’s threatening the entire state budget. The debt is several billion dollars that the state needs to make up to fully fund all the pension systems. I think that’s going to continue to be a problem.”

Although positive indications have been made by the state in maintaining its backing for higher education as seen with the continuation of the Monetary Award Program for students in the 2011 fiscal year, much uncertainty still persists for all of Illinois’ universities.

“I know people aren’t going to be happy about the university’s budget or the state’s budget, no one is. I’m certainly not,” said Steelman. “But the operative word for all of us is uncertainty and because of the uncertainty, it’s difficult to plan, it certainly has a negative impact on budgeting. I just hope people are aware of why this is happening.”

What was formerly known as Simkins Hall Dormitory — named for a U. Texas Law professor and a Ku Klux Klansman— is now Creekside Residence Hall.

The UT Board of Regents decided to implement President William Powers Jr.’s suggestion to rename the dorm Thursday.

University officials, students and media personnel shuffled into the conference room of the Ashbel Smith Building to hear the verdict on the residence hall’s renaming. Board of Regents Chairman Colleen McHugh moderated the meeting, and the dormitory was the first item on the list. McHugh said that regents ought to question the effect their decisions will have in both the present and the future.

Regent Printice Gary proposed the motion to rename the dormitory, which was subsequently unanimously supported by the board.

“In my opinion, the process was thoughtful and expeditious and included input from all the key stakeholders — students, faculty, administrators, alumni and community representatives,” he said. “Particularly, I salute the students and their participation through the leadership of their student government organization.”

With that, the Simkins Hall debate was over.

Powers said after the meeting that the regents’ decision was in line with what he expected.

“To be honest, this was an easy decision,” he said. “I think from the start, we knew where this was headed, [and] it’s the right thing to do. I approve of what the board did today.”

The controversy began when former UT law professor Tom Russell released his academic paper at the 24th annual Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights. In the paper, Russell referred to former UT law professor William Stewart Simkins’ involvement with the KKK, which led to a firestorm of media coverage. Student Government, along with the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, held two forums for students, faculty and the public to give input on whether the University should rename the dormitory.

“Well, I think process matters,” said Gregory Vincent, vice president of diversity. “I think it’s important because this name was first approved by a faculty vote that we needed a process to think about renaming it. It’s very important on our campus to get input.”

Some students were not convinced that holding the meetings during the summer was the best way to get a holistic view of student opinion.

“I think that they should have waited to make the recommendation and to do the process until the student body was back so they could have gotten a full understanding of what the general feel of the campus was,” government sophomore Garrett Fulce said. “Right now, it kind of seems like it was just rushed.”

Although Fulce doesn’t think the outcome would have been different, he wishes students could have been involved more in the process.

Vincent said that the cost of removing all the vestiges of Simkins’ name from the dormitory was “minimal.” The sign was removed from the building Thursday and is being stored in the Facilities Services Complex.

In light of the renaming of the dormitory, UT faces the task of moving public opinion forward on issues surrounding race and diversity on campus.

“One of the many great things about working at the University of Texas at Austin is that we are the pacesetter in many things, and I do hope that this does set the tone for other universities to look at their history,” Vincent said.

A complaint voiced at the forums was that by removing Simkins’ name, the University is attempting to avoid its history and ignore that it involves racism. Russell believes that by shedding light on the issue, the exact opposite was achieved.

“People talk about erasing [and] whitewashing history, [but] the history is now more evident than it ever has been. People now know so much more about William Stewart Simkins than they did in early May before this all broke,” he said. “People say, ‘Don’t take away my history, even though I didn’t know about it.’”

Vincent said that renaming the dormitory was not erasing history but rather removing the aspect of honoring a person whose character is out of line with University standards. He added that Simkins’ picture is still in the law library along with other professors’ and he remains in history books.

“The way to move the campus ahead is [to say that] history is history,” Powers said. “This was the right decision, but you move ahead. And we need to keep fixed on moving ahead by putting programs in place that help diversify the campus.”

According to an e-mail exchange obtained by The Daily Illini between one of the boycott’s organizers and President Michael Hogan, students will be dissuaded from taking classes in the Department of Religion until Howell, an adjunct professor in the department, is reinstated.

“I am contacting you let you know that I represent a large number of students that I am organizing to boycott enrollment in the Dept. of Religion courses until Prof. Howell is reinstated and academic free is upheld at this university. For most students, Dept. of Religion courses are elective courses. If Prof. Howell is not reinstated we will be encouraging students to drop religion courses for the Fall and not enroll in them for the Spring,” said Eric Martin, who e-mailed Hogan on Wednesday night.

Howell’s contract was not renewed for the fall after a student complained on behalf of a friend who felt uncomfortable in the class. The case is being reviewed by the Urbana Champaign Faculty Senate, Hogan said Monday.

Martin later told The Daily Illini he estimated 1,500 students are committed to Professor Howell’s cause, but he could not verify exact numbers.

“We are not trying to threaten the University of Department of Religion; we are just trying to defend what professors have taught us as priceless, our freedom to think and speak,” Martin said in an e-mail.

Martin is in Chicago through the end of the week distributing flyers to inform people about the situation

Hogan responded to Martin’s original e-mail, thanking him for his concerns, but saying he is reserving judgement until he has all the facts of the situation.

“Academic freedom is at the core of our teaching and research missions. It’s vital to our ability to explore new ideas, educate our students, and promote the civil and free exchange of alternative viewpoints in a democracy,” Hogan wrote.

Hogan wrote that he learned of the situation late last week and was briefed by interim Chancellor/Provost Bob Easter.

“We do believe it’s important to fully investigate all of the details related to this situation. As I’m sure you’re aware, it is sometimes the case that public reports may convey only part of the story. I think it important to reserve judgment until I have all of the facts and I hope you’ll agree.”

Hogan added that Howell has not been fired from the University, but still holds an appointment as an adjunct professor, but that he could not discuss the details further.

The following flyers are being distributed and hung up around campus and Chicago by students who disagree with the University’s decision.

Dr. Kenneth Howell said he was dismissed by department head Robert McKim at the end of last spring after a student e-mailed McKim, accusing Howell of “hate speech” in an earlier May 4 e-mail discussing the Catholic Church’s views on homosexuality in the context of utilitarianism and natural moral theory.

The complaint, made by an anonymous student on the behalf of a friend who was in Howell’s Introduction to Catholicism class, said Howell “would preach (not teach) his ideology to the class” and accused the professor, who had been teaching the course since 2001, of trying to indoctrinate students with his own Catholic beliefs.

Howell was also dismissed at his position at St. John’s Catholic Newman Center, since he no longer works for the University.

Some members of the Champaign-Urbana community disagree. Ed Clint, who had previously met with Howell in religious forums, said he supported Howell despite their natural differences.

“As an atheist, I really agree with almost nothing in such a class as Dr. Howell taught,” said Clint, junior in Psychology and president of the registered student organization Atheists, Agnostics and Freethinkers. “But I didn’t feel that anything that he did solicited termination as a result.”

Chancellor Robert Easter said he hopes to have a decision from the Faculty Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure by the time classes start in the fall.

The review is to determine whether Howell’s academic freedom was violated by his firing.

“We want to be able to reassure ourselves there was no infringement on academic freedom here,” new University President Michael Hogan told members of the Faculty Senate on Monday. “This is a very, very important, not to mention a touchy and sensitive, issue. Did this cross the line somehow?”

A former student of Howell’s, Brian Miller, who graduated from the University in 2009 and is currently a law student, expressed disappointment over the fallout.

“I took both of his classes, and honestly, both would rank in the top five or 10 classes I took in undergrad,” Miller said.

“At the time, he would talk about controversial issues,” he said. “But he was making it very clear that we don’t have to believe this.”

Others think Howell went too far with his e-mail.

“I think he was usually careful. He lost some of his restraint in that e-mail, got caught up in his own thought,” graduate student Nathan Fredrickson said.

A movement to reinstate Howell to his position at the University as well as at St. John’s Catholic Newman Center has been surging in the wake of Howell’s dismissal. More than 2,000 people have already joined the Facebook group “Save Dr. Ken” to show their support for Howell.

One member wrote on the group’s wall, “They fired him for teaching what he was hired to teach. Catholic Ethics.”

Since his firing, Howell has been working with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Christian-based organization that provides First Amendment legal support and resources, to defend his position. On Monday, the ADF sent an official letter to the University demanding Howell’s reinstatement.

“We are gravely disappointed that the University would succumb to such a ‘heckler’s veto,’” the letter said, claiming that Howell’s First Amendment rights were violated when he was relieved of his teaching duties.

Clint said he believes Howell should not have been punished for stating his beliefs.

“We feel that what’s happened is a breach of academic freedom and speech on this campus,” he said.

The Division of Operations faces employee cuts as part of Loftin’s plan to restructure campus infrastructures.

Texas A&M U. laid off 66 employees Tuesday morning to realign the Division of Operations and to enhance University President R. Bowen Loftin’s goal to restructure campus facilities and physical plant operations announced in February.

“Addressing the condition of existing buildings and infrastructure have been ongoing since I returned to Texas A&M as an administrator in 2005, and these areas were the focus of a recent audit conducted by the Texas A&M University System,” Loftin said in a university wide e-mail.

The 66 people that were let go Tuesday is another step in the process of Loftin’s plan. The Division of Operations is primarily made up of two groups: the repairs and maintenance group and the construction group. Through the realignment, focus is being shifted to the repair and maintenance group. The majority of the cuts were from the construction crew.

“The construction services can be handled as efficiently and effectively outside the community, and focusing on the repairs and maintenance is at the core of our business,” said Lallah M. Howard, executive associate vice president in the Division of Operations.

The savings from the layoffs will be reinvested into the facilities on campus. It will give more opportunities to do more repairs and maintenance of the buildings that already exist, Howard said.

“Changing the buildings on campus takes a different level of expertise, and we are focusing on maintaining the buildings that we have to be better stewards of the assets of the state,” Howard said. “We are focusing on the core mission of repairs and maintenance and keeping the buildings in good shape.”

Howard said the realigned organization that will be created in the Division of Operations will be a flatter organization structure, which will enhance communication and help with customer service. The funds will be used to hire new positions and additional IT  web enabled systems.

Working toward Loftin’s goal of streamlining the Division’s functions by increasing effectiveness as well as financial and operational efficiencies will be an ongoing dialogue, said Jason Cook, vice president for marketing and communications.

The lives of students at George Washington U. just got a little more difficult. In a belt-tightening move that conjures images from “The Grapes of Wrath,” GWU administrators lowered their heads, and, with newsie caps clutched tightly to their chests, humbly and tearfully announced that one of the nation’s most expensive universities would no longer provide in-room dormitory maid service. While this amenity might have seemed extreme to some when it was offered, this utterly nonacademic extravagance is indicative of a nationwide trend of colleges devoting tremendous resources to student comfort.

Last week, The Delta Project, a nonprofit that analyzes higher-education economics, published a study about financial trends in higher education over the past decade. One of the most-discussed findings is a significant rise in funding for student services, which are “noninstructional, student-related activities” such as admissions, registrars, student organizations and intramural athletics. The increase in funds for student services grew nearly twice as much as the increase in the funds for instruction.

The cause of the discrepancy may seem apparent — more students are going to college, so schools need more money to hire people to handle the logistics.

But there is another underlying reason that funding for student services at state schools has increased so dramatically compared to instruction: Public universities increasingly rely on tuition for a bulk of their funding, and quality student services are key to attracting tuition-paying students.

After the 2001 recession, government allocations for higher education dropped to all-time lows, so public universities needed to look elsewhere for funding.
Because tuition is a stable and reliable flow of funds, budgeting around tuition became an attractive option.

A student’s education at a public university is funded by both government subsidies and yearly tuition. Since 2003, in Texas, the percentage of a student’s education funded by tuition has risen about 3 percent.

Over the years, tuition continued to become more of a factor in a student’s education, and many students began treating a college education like a product — and college administrators started marketing it as such.

Instead of adhering to the mission of public universities to educate the citizenry and maintain the republic, it became a traditional exchange of goods and services.
Because the benefits of college are intangible and often do not reveal themselves until much later in life, colleges started advertising the lifestyle experience, which is immediately tangible — unlike the education.

With student quality of life a primary selling point, colleges began catering to students’ comfort and tried to make them as happy as possible. A well-funded student services program helps lure in potential students.

This led to what Ohio University professor Richard Vedder refers to as the “country-clubization of the American university,” according to The New York Times. Vedder says the services increase occurred because schools prioritized recruitment by stressing amenities, such as student unions and recreational centers, instead of the actual educational quality.

This is apparent in college advertising, where schools tend to market themselves like a cruise vacation. A typical college brochure has pictures of young, attractive coeds, which are supplemented with literature lauding “student life” and the college experience. UT campus tours always stop at recreational spots such as Gregory Gym and the Union, two of the campus’ most attractive student centers. Shuttling hordes of prospective students to recreational centers emphasizes the University’s brand.

The problem comes when schools need to deliver on their promises of fun and enriching student life — and that comes with a price tag: a 20-percent average increase in spending for student services nationwide, according to The Delta Project.

While there is nothing wrong with a college investing in an active and vibrant experience for its students, the cost of these services might have been better spent on academic resources.

With UT and universities throughout the country on the verge of unprecedented budget cuts that will require difficult choices, it is necessary to remember that the most important student service is instruction.

During the SIU Board of Trustees meeting Thursday in Springfield, SIU President Glenn Poshard said the state still owes SIU more than $82 million in appropriations for the Fiscal Year 2010, which ended on June 30. He said via telephone, that it is a possibility the university would not receive all of the $82 million. If that were to happen, both the Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses were to prepare plans for layoffs and furloughs, he said.

“We have told the Chancellors to have a furlough or layoff plan in place to meet with our situation during the fall, if it comes to that,” Poshard said.

SIUC Chancellor Rita Cheng, who has already told all university units to prepare for a 4 percent cut, said it was becoming hard to determine where to make more cuts. However, she said layoffs and furloughs remain the last resort.

“So we are beginning planning for potential for furloughs, but we will only do that if we absolutely have to,” Cheng said.

The board also authorized the university to establish a line of credit in case it needs to borrow money in place of what the state owes SIU.

The state passed a bill last month that allows state universities to borrow money to pay their bills. The bill allows universities up to 75 percent of what it owed to them in state appropriations.

Poshard said the university would decide soon on whether it needs to borrow money to make payroll after mid-October.

Hogan addressed the media Thursday morning after a meeting with his leadership team where he said he is working to get up to speed on the the problems facing the University.

Hogan comes to the University in a time of extreme budget crisis and as it is in the middle of series of projects aimed at identifying cost-saving measures across campus, collectively called Stewarding Excellence at Illinois.

“There’s no end to the issues UI faces,” Hogan said. “But I prefer to be optimistic and remind myself what a great University this is.”

Hogan said he is still learning about the budget and doesn’t want to seem like an expert until he knows more.

Hogan said that one key to emerging from the budget crisis will be to think strategically about where the University’s strength lie and how to pursue those strengths in the future.

Although Gov. Pat Quinn recently signed a bill allowing University borrowing, Hogan said he needs to learn more about the situation and talk to leaders in Springfield before commenting further.

“We have to pay our bills, and if we have to borrow to pay our bills, we’ll do that,” Hogan said.

Hogan added he doesn’t expect any big decisions out of Springfield until after the November election.

Many have questioned Hogan’s high salary, as he will be paid a base salary of $620,000 and will also receive a house, car and country club membership – among other perks. Former president White was paid a base salary of $450,000.

Hogan said he doesn’t feel a need to defend his salary and that he intends to earn his salary both through his leadership at the University and fundraising campaigns.

Hogan was president of the University of Connecticut since September 2007, but his ties to the midwest region include a position as executive vice president and provost at the University of Iowa and a 17-year career at Ohio State University in which he progressed to executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, according to a University press release.

The incoming president also thanked his predecessor, interim-president Stanley Ikenberry, calling him a “legendary” figure in higher education. Ikenberry will stay on as a senior adviser and continue working on restructuring and budget issues.

One tactic employeed by Ikenberry was to institute furlough days during the Spring semester, an idea Hogan said he does not agree with. He added that furloughts are bad for staff morale and that he hopes not to use them in the future.

Although the top leadership position at the University has been filled, Hogan said he isn’t in a rush to fill the Urbana chancellor position, now held by interim chancellor/provost Bob Easter.

Easter, former dean of ACES, has been serving in the interim since former chancellor Richard Herman resigned in October. He has also taken over the position of interim provost since Linda Katehi left the University in May 2009 for the job of chancellor at UC-Davis.

Easter has said he doesn’t want to stay in the position permanently, but Hogan said there is “no compelling need” to start a search immediately.

Hogan is embarking on a “listening tour” around the state to meet with important legislators, board members and leaders as he prepares for the fall.

He added that he will try to adopt a leadership style of being transparent, open and visible.

“It helps if people know who the president is,” he added. “It can help make a big university seem smaller.”

We are graduating into the depleted job market of our unstable economy with massive student debt. We cannot allow our investment in higher education to be polluted by the hidden agendas of university staff. As students, we entered college trusting that our education would be useful. The university is making a huge mistake, sacrificing the trust of their students for financial gain.

While WSU President Elson S. Floyd was not responsible for permitting Royer’s retire and rehire, his response to the situation was untimely and seemed prompted solely by media inquiries. He announced in April that the university would stop rehiring retirees without an open and competitive job search, but Royer did not announce leave from his position until this week — after the Times article was published.

From an administrative standpoint, this loophole saves the university the high cost of a job search, but from a student perspective, Royer’s double dipping means we will be indebted to him for cutting the quality of our education. We will have to pay both as students managing a financially strangled university education, and as taxpayers to a pension plan currently underfunded by an estimated $4 billion, according to the Times.

The situation reeks of irony — the man overseeing our budget cuts has so horribly abused the financial trust of the students he represents, and he is not alone. The Times identified 58 state employees who retired and were rehired within three months.

This exploitation of financial power seems reminiscent of the Wall Street banking crisis — another cost that will fall to current students and future taxpayers. We must take control of our institution — the only institution that promises to prepare us to break patterns that have left us with this pile of national and global issues — before it becomes too big to fail.

U. Texas President William Powers Jr. announced Tuesday that the University would be scrapping permanent pay increases, but would continue to award merit-based bonuses in fiscal year 2010-2011.

Powers said the University would disperse the one-time bonuses in November. Powers wrote in an e-mail sent to UT staff that all employees are eligible for consideration but not all employees would receive the bonus. The bonuses will amount to 2 percent of total compensation for faculty and staff.

“In light of this additional directive from the state [referring to the additional 10-percent budget reduction] and the increasing uncertainty about its implications for our financial future, the University Council reached a decision that UT cannot afford to commit to the permanent salary increases for 2010-2011,” Powers wrote in the e-mail.

House Appropriations Committee Chair Jim Pitts, R-Ellis County, projects that Texas is facing an $18 billion budget deficit over the next two years.

“It’s the best effort [Powers] can make to provide merit-based increases in this austere budget year,” government professor Bruce Buchanan said.

UT spokesman Don Hale said the University couldn’t afford the permanent increase in cost that the scheduled raises would have demanded.

“We’re addressing potential cuts demanded by state budgets,” Hale said.

He also couldn’t identify which criteria would be used to determine who would be awarded merit-pay bonuses by the University.

“The criteria for merit pay is determined on a department-level basis,” Hale said. “There’s no central criteria for how the merit pay is awarded.”

The decision was made in light of requests from Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Texas House Speaker Joe Straus that state agencies reduce scheduled spending by 5 percent over the current budgeting period and by an additional 10 percent in fiscal year 2011-2012.

As part of his re-election platform as elucidated at the Texas Republican Convention in Dallas, Perry has pledged to solve the budget deficit without raising taxes and proposed to freeze college tuitions to prevent further rate increases.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White has proposed a budget review to identify and eliminate inefficiencies in state bureaucracy before considering either significant cuts. White told KERA Radio in Dallas that he would exempt public education and higher education from funding cuts.

UT Chief Financial Officer Kevin Hegarty could not be reached for comment at press time.

Collective bargaining will allow faculty members to provide more input toward salary benefits and class sizes.

Instead of holding a hearing in Columbus, both sides entered into negotiations and the administration agreed for the potential bargaining unit to include all full time faculty members.

“Its no longer a debate,” said David Jackson, president of the Faculty Association. “The procedures and discussions are over and we set a date for the election.”

The administration and Faculty Association selected September 28 through October 12 as the time period for the election on collective bargaining, according to a statement made by the Faculty Association. Full time faculty members will vote via a secret mail ballot and must return their vote to the State Employment Relations Board by the election deadline.

“Collective bargaining is not a miracle solution, but it will definitely help us to listen to and understand our colleagues better,” Jackson said.

In preparation for campaigning, the Faculty Association will be compiling reasons why they believe collective bargaining is beneficial. Faculty Association members will campaign this fall by distributing flyers, posters and giving speeches in favor of collective bargaining.

“We are going to do anything we can to reach the 800 plus faculty members,” Jackson said.

The Faculty Association is also currently working on two campaigns called “Vote Yes” and “I Am The BGSU Faculty Association.”

The “Vote Yes” campaign will help explain the positive effects that collective bargaining can have for the University and its faculty. The campaign “I Am The BGSU Faculty Association,” which can be see on Faculty Association t-shirts, will aim to educate people on collective bargaining.

“Between now and the election we are going to continue to talk to faculty members about why it can bring change,” Archer said about collective bargaining. “Part of it is just educating people.”

The administration originally argued for two separate units, one including full time tenured and tenure-track faculty members and another with non-tenure track members. The administration presented a similar argument against collective bargaining back in 1993, said Karen Craigo, director of communications for the Faculty Association.

Tenure track faculty include professors and assistant professors, while non-tenure track members include lecturers. The Faculty Association began fighting for a single unit in March of 2009, when they distributed election cards for faculty members to sign.

Members of the Faculty Association said they hope collective bargaining will allow the University to move away from a corporation based model of education toward a more personalized student experience.

“We are really happy that we were able to get tenured and non tenure members in the same unit,” Archer said. “The faculty is one piece of the University that you cannot do without.

While the board did not explicitly place blame on any single body for the intermittently violent nature of the protests, the report highlights a lack of communication both internally – among members of the administration and the police – and externally with the protesters. The report further criticizes UCPD for not reviewing the event both promptly and effectively.

On Nov. 20, the day after the UC Board of Regents approved a 32 percent increase of student fees, protests on campus escalated dramatically with the occupation of Wheeler Hall and violent clashes outside between demonstrators, the campus police department, Berkeley Police Department, Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

Several students and faculty decried what they saw as the police’s use of excessive force, prompting Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to instruct the board with evaluating the day’s events and formulating recommendations for improving police conduct.

The eight members of the independent board – including faculty, students, police and community representatives – issued a total of eight recommendations for the campus administration and 20 recommendations for UCPD in order to facilitate a more cohesive and effective response to demonstrations on campus in the future.

The 128-page report also provides a detailed narrative of the day’s events, describing several violent encounters between protesters and police and confirming that one student was “shot in the stomach with a rubber pellet or projectile.”

A ‘Center-less’ Response

According to the report, administrator and police response to the protest suffered from both a lack of planning as well as a failure to properly communicate strategies and objectives throughout the day, further exacerbating tensions and possibly adding to the day’s violent encounters.

“(The administration’s) planning for the three-day strike was far too generalized to be helpful,” the report states. “Even though there were reasons to worry that protestors might occupy a building, the planners prepared no specific strategies for responding to such a development.”

During the protest, administrators received inaccurate information, leading decision-makers to believe “labor agitators” held significant roles in the protest despite contrary evidence, the report states.

According to the report, Associate Chancellor for Government, Community and Campus Liaison Linda Williams, who has experience managing protests and crises, was not sought for advice or input on how to deal with the demonstration.

The report also indicates that the lack of communication between officials and protesters further increased the protesters’ angst.

“The efforts to communicate with the crowd outside Wheeler by student leaders, the few faculty on hand, and the Administration were sporadic and visibly ineffectual,” the report states.

Communication problems also plagued inter-police agency discourses, causing confusion between several of the agencies involved, the report states.

According to the report, UCPD Captain Margo Bennett conflicted with state policy when she requested mutual aid from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office – omitting several key pieces of information about the size and intensity of the crowd and the equipment needed to respond.

“When Captain Bennett placed the call to the mutual aid coordinator she did not specify the number of officers that would be needed, the kind of equipment they should bring, the gear they should wear or how they would be deployed,” the report states. “Nor did she indicate that any particular kind of equipment or gear should not be brought or used.”

When Sheriff’s Officers arrived on scene they were equipped with “less lethal weapons” including “FN303s guns” that could shoot rubber balls or bean bags and resemble machine guns, as well as “37 mm launchers” for deploying smoke or chemicals.

No Follow-up

The report fields several criticisms of UCPD’s actions following Nov. 20, emphasizing the absence of a comprehensive debriefing session and the failure to conduct an internal “Operational Review” of the day’s events in a timely fashion.

Debriefing sessions were held among UCPD command staff and UCPD sergeants more than a week after the protests. A month later, command staff from the multiple police agencies held debriefing sessions, but no session was held that included all the officers present during the protests.

“(UCPD) had a great deal to teach itself from what happened on the 20th,” the report states. “That teaching would have been more effective, and the learning richer, if it had been undertaken shortly after the 20th.”

The report reprimands UCPD for acting slowly to complete its operational review of the day’s events, which had to be completed before the board could begin its own analysis. Much of the evidence from the department’s review forms the basis of many of the board’s conclusions.

The report states that while the deadline for the review was the end of January, it was not completed until seven weeks later, “compromising” the information on which the board based its review due to “fading” memories.

‘Reasonable’ Recommendations

The report makes several recommendations to both police and administrators to rectify the deficiencies in both parties’ response to the day’s protests.

The report’s recommendations for UCPD focus mainly on planning, organization and correspondence between the police and other bodies, with four of the 20 recommendations explicitly mentioning some form of the word “communicate.”

Other recommendations for UCPD range from urging the department to engage its officers in some form of attitude training to increasing its understanding of and more effectively employing the mutual aid system.

The report makes fewer recommendations for administrators but follows the same general trajectories of increasing communication and planning policies.

In particular, the report spends a considerable amount of time suggesting administrators utilize an existing Emergency Operations Plan to structure responses to events like the protests.

“Why, we wonder, has the campus spent so much time and money setting up this elaborate machinery, machinery that is designed to handle all the decision-making, management, coordination and communication tasks that were not handled well on the 20th, but not used it for major disruptions (and potential threats to personal safety and property) that are caused by civil disobedience?” the report questions.

- Emma Anderson, Stephanie Baer and Javier Panzar of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.

After evaluating the long-term value of U. Texas’ position in the Big 12 Conference, officials announced Tuesday that the University would assist in holding the conference together and decline the invitation to join the PAC-10 Conference.

President William Powers Jr., men’s athletic director DeLoss Dodds and women’s athletic director Chris Plonsky spoke with reporters in the morning to discuss why the University is remaining in the 10-team conference.

“In reaching this decision, we’ve taken into account the impact on our student athletes, the financial ramifications of the various options and the interest of our Big 12 partners,” Powers said. “It has always been our top priority to keep the Big 12 together. We believe a newly reconstituted 10-member conference will continue to benefit all of our institutions and the University of Texas at Austin.”

Powers said there was no single issue that propelled him to decide that UT would stay in the conference — the “economics” of its position in the conference, the student athletes and the traditional rivalries between UT, Oklahoma and Texas A&M were all taken into consideration.

“The Big 12 has served its members well,” Dodds said. “We move forward with the commitment and confidence of 10 Big 12 universities to ensure the very best academic and [athletic] opportunities for the student-athletes we support.”

Since the University of Nebraska’s move to the Big Ten Conference on Friday, university presidents, conference commissioners and athletic directors have been speaking behind closed doors about what could have been the most significant shake-up of college sports in years. Late Monday, UT announced that a Board of Regents meeting to discuss the potential move was canceled, and Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott told The Associated Press in an e-mail that UT had not accepted the invitation to join.

Later that day, Texas A&M, the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State also announced they would remain in the conference.

With 10 teams remaining after the University of Colorado and Nebraska announced they would leave the conference, NCAA rules will prohibit the Big 12 from having a conference championship game.

Powers said he received personal assurances from other Big 12 university presidents that they would not move to the Pac-10 but there was no official
contract between them. He said no money from penalty fees derived from the outgoing universities’ broken contracts has been allocated toward any university, and that he opposes such a deal.

Despite the loss of the conference championship game, UT football head coach Mack Brown said he was happy that the Big 12 is staying together. Brown said the 12-team conference did not provide a fair way to determine a champion anyway.

“It’s very, very difficult, in my estimation, to crown a champion unless you play everybody in the league,” Brown said. “I don’t think [the 12-team conference] is fair, because a lot of times you don’t get to play the best two teams. I like the fact that there are nine [games] and we will all play each other.”

In a telephone conference call with reporters, Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe said Tuesday that nine universities had announced their intentions to remain in the Big 12 and only Texas Tech had not announced its intentions. Tech was invited to join the Pac-10 along with UT, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and other Big 12 universities.

State Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, said in a press release that Texas Tech announced its decision to stay and that the House Higher Education Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday regarding the college decisions has been canceled.

Branch said Texas Tech’s decision to stay made the meeting unnecessary. “Moreover, the decisions by our Texas schools to remain in the Big 12 appear to be a positive result for our students, families and universities,” he said.

Contrary to earlier reports, Beebe said he had not reached an official TV deal to create a campus sports network with UT and there have been no set contracts with any other university going into 2011.

Plonsky said UT officials had received “assurances” that they would be able to continue their pursuit of a television network, which would focus on UT’s 20 athletic programs.

Powers said the network would also feature academic and cultural aspects of the University, such as orchestra performances in Bass Concert Hall.

The supplemental budget bill Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed into law in April included a directive requesting that U. Minnesota consider involuntary furloughs for its “lowest paid employees,” in order to balance its budget. Yet the University does not need to use coercion in this case because there is a fair and effective solution: voluntary furloughs for the lowest paid employees and involuntary furloughs for top administrators.

The union that represents University clerical workers supports voluntary furloughs, and they have proven successful. More than 60 percent of Hennepin County employees individually took off as much time as they could afford in one voluntary furlough program, which saved the county $ 4.5 million in 2009.

University President Bob Bruininks says the crisis of the continued economic downturn and the extra pay period for 2010-11— a budgetary anomaly because of the biweekly pay system — cannot be solved this way. Instead, three involuntary furlough days might be required of all University clerical and administrative employees.

Senior administrators might have to take pay reductions totaling 2.3 percent — twice the proposed cuts for clerical workers — and anyone at the University is eligible for 10 unpaid furlough days. Yet, what the University should implement is the sliding-scale model that it used during the Great Depression, under which employees making less than a certain amount saw no pay reductions.

The extra pay period is a foreseeable recurring budgetary anomaly that occurs every 11 years. Bruininks has had ample time to solve this problem during his eight years as president. A lack of forward thinking on the part of University should not require additional sacrifice by the University’s lowest paid staff.

U. Minnesota President Bob Bruininks received varied reviews Monday for the University’s proposed budget, which includes increasing tuition, cutting courses and laying off faculty.

At a public hearing Monday, some students, employees and professors commended the president and the Board of Regents for making tough decisions to balance the budget, while others, mostly clerical workers, verbally scolded him for placing the budget’s burden on low-wage employees.

“If anyone walks away with the idea that we’ve done this painlessly, I want to assure them they’re absolutely wrong,” Bruininks said.

Mandatory furlough days were a main source of contention between the clerical workers and the president.

The clerical workers’ union said that in a survey it conducted, enough employees said they would be willing to take optional furlough days such that mandatory furloughs would be unnecessary.

Bruininks said that plan would not generate enough money and that the rest of the University community agreed three mandatory furlough days must be taken and all employees who can afford to take up to ten days off should. Bruininks said he plans to take the full ten days off.

“I’ve never seen a financial situation as bad as the current one,” said University Center for Urban and Regional Affairs staff member Will Craig. “I think the University is taking the right steps to address this under the leadership of President Bruininks.”

The furloughs are one example of proposed steps the University will take to solve its $152 million budget shortfall.

The budget gap was widened this year when the Legislature allocated $32.3 million less in state funding to the University in fiscal year 2011 than it did in 2010.

Fiscal year 2011 is the second in a row that the University received more revenue from tuition than state funding, a trend Richard Pfutzenreuter, the University’s chief financial officer and treasurer, said he believes will continue.

On top of state funding cuts, the University also faced a budget issue that occurs once every 11 years: the 27th pay period.

It occurs because the 365 days in a year are broken down into 52 weeks and an extra day.

The University pays salaried employees every two weeks, 26 times a year, and rolls over the extra day and everything runs smoothly.

When rolled over, however, the extra days are compiled and an additional pay period is added on fiscal ‘leap years.’

This event will cost the University $46 million in fiscal year 2011, Pfutzenreuter said.

To balance this one-time cost, the University is delaying compensation to staff, while reducing resources and instituting the

mandatory furlough.

With these plans on the horizon, the board also took time this weekend to hear from administrators about the effects funding cuts for fiscal year 2010 have already had.

The College of Liberal Arts has seen the most dramatic cuts. It has eliminated 52 faculty positions and 145 classroom sections already.

“The impacts and consequences of these cuts have definitely been felt across the board,” Provost Tom Sullivan said. “None of us are pleased with having to make them but it has been strategic.”

When asked about the cuts to CLA, Bruininks said they may seem more severe, but only because it is the University’s largest college.

The School of Dentistry, for example, has cut about 50 positions as well.

Meanwhile, tuition rates continue to rise. In-state students will see an increase of 4.4 percent.

This year, the rise in tuition was prevented from hitting 7.2 percent by stimulus money that will not be available in fiscal year 2012, which means budget issues stand to get worse in coming years, Pfutzenreuter said.

The board will meet again June 22 to vote to approve the budget.

Search for the next president

Last week, the Board of Regents also moved forward in the search to find a new president.

After much discussion, the Board of Regents appointed 12 members to the Presidential Search Advisory Committee on Thursday.

Over the next few months, the committee will be responsible for narrowing the national field of candidates down to a select few, from which the board will likely select a replacement for Bruininks.

The list of search committee members was highly scrutinized.

Regent Dean Johnson said University professors were given too much weight on the committee, which is composed of seven University employees, six of whom are professors.

“I don’t want to be difficult or obstinate about this,” Johnson said. “When we put together lists of search committees we have to ask what the end result is going to look like … In order to do that we need to have balance, and a number of things on this list strike me as unbalanced.”

In addition to University employees, the committee includes two attorneys, one graduate student and one retired judge. It will be chaired by Regent Patricia Simmons.

While Johnson was the only regent to vote against the list, others raised concerns about constituencies left off the list.

Regent David Larson said the board erroneously omitted Minnesota business interests from the list. However, knowledge that committee chair Simmons had already met with nine local chief executive officers and has other meetings scheduled assuaged several regents.

Similar complaints arose over representation of agriculture, minorities and other interests.

Eventually the board approved the list because it said the committee was intelligent enough to strictly follow the guiding principles, or “charges,” of the process, which state that members shall “act in the University’s best interest as defined by the board and not on behalf of any specific constituency or candidate.”

The board also noted that the committee does not ultimately have the say as to who the next president will be. Members pointed to the appointment of Bruininks as an example of a “failed search.”

Bruininks was considered only after the board rejected the initial candidates that the search committee presented.

Because discussion of the candidates consumed nearly the entire hour and 15 minutes of its Thursday afternoon meeting, the board did not have enough time to fully discuss the charges and the characteristics the next president should have, which was finalized Monday.

“You know, we are often accused of having too many unanimous votes and no real controversy,” said board chair Clyde Allen. “And I kind of think it’s neat that on probably the most important discussion, the most important duty that we have, that we had good discussion with a lot of differing ideas on it.”

CSU spokesman Brad Bohlander said that, while it’s too soon to predict what the university budget will look like for the 2011-2012 school year, the only time administration would seek to raise tuition more than the cap, which allows a raise of 9 percent annually, would be under “drastic circumstances.”

State officials said starting July 1, schools have the option to prepare tuition increase proposals for the Colorado Commission on Higher Education that proves a need for more tuition dollars and a plan that keeps school affordable for everyone.

To gain the commission’s approval, universities will need to provide a five-year “performance plan,” which outlines improvements in:

Access, Graduation rates, Student employment opportunities, Quality of campus services, Quality of instruction, and Operational efficiency.

If these qualifications aren’t met, tuition will be rolled back and the institution will be denied access to increases for the following year.

Between 1981 and 1984, when CSU had the final say on tuition matters, it raised tuition 87.24 percent.

CSU alumnus Matt Worthington, who worked closely with the bill during his time as student government director of Legislative Affairs said the legislation allows CSU to “creep” toward a private model.

“I feel pretty lucky that I’ve graduated,” Worthington said.

CSU, he said, played an active role in pushing for amendments that would put a 90-day limit on the approval process and allow for universities to make a second proposal if denied an increase the first time.

Evan Dreyer, spokesman for governor Bill Ritter, said, while the bill wasn’t controversial at the Capitol because it was backed by both parties and education stakeholders, he is confident that the universities can only raise tuition as high as “the market will allow.”

Each institution, Dreyer said, would need to define its own affordability and recruit a student to vote on the governing board for budget matters.

“It became very clear that we needed a short term strategy, Senate Bill 3 is that strategy,” Dreyer said, adding that affordability is Ritters no. 1 priority.

John Karakoulakis, director of Legislative Affairs for the commission, said his offices are still working on a timeline for the submission and approval process and will have a meeting on June 17.

However, SIU administrators have started the process of borrowing funds and the university will look at interest rates as it plans to put itself on the market through public financing, said university spokesman Dave Gross.

“It will be the university issuing debt under its name, so there will be investors in there and pension funds and other types of investors who buy the debt in exchange for the interest rate that will be set,” Gross said.

The interest rate will be set within the next several weeks based on conversations between the SIU finance department and agencies who rate debts, Gross said. He said the interest rate would dictate how much the university will have to pay back to investors.

Gross said he is optimistic the interest rate will end up in the mid 1 percent.

“We hope it will be somewhere between 1.5 percent and 1.75 percent, but we will not know for sure until the debt is rated,” he said.

Illinois’ credit rating dropped twice this month, by Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service, but Gross said that should not reflect on the university’s rating.

The SIU Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting Thursday where the board unanimously approved the university to begin looking into borrowing the money owed to it by the state.

The bill allows all state universities to borrow up to 75 percent of what is owed to them in state appropriations. According to administrators, SIU is still owed about $106 million for fiscal year 2010, which ends June 30.

The resolution states the university may borrow money from time to time in anticipation of receiving tuition, payments from the State of Illinois or other revenues as long as the money is repaid within one year with interest.

Although the resolution states the university can borrow up to $85 million, Gross said the number will likely go down around $70 to $75 million.

SIU President Glenn Poshard said the bill was especially important after the appropriation deadline for FY10 was extended from August to January. He said the delay and the ending of the federal stimulus funds are the major challenges facing the university now.

Gross said SIU has shown in its past that it is a university which can be trusted to pay back its loans, but Illinois’ economy complicates the issue.

“We’ve had an outstanding relationship in the past in terms of issuing debts,” Gross said. “This university is well known in that we’ve borrowed funds to pay for buildings. It’s likely, and we hope this debt can be raised at the higher level.

“But don’t question anything coming out of the State of Illinois right now. Everything has to be viewed through a different set of lenses — it’s a terrible budget situation right now.”

During the summer months, the official design of the renovations will be decided. In addition, housekeeping chores will be taking place within Cole Hall, such as cleaning out old media and preparing the building for construction.

In January, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced that $8 million will be budgeted to NIU directed toward renovating Cole Hall, which has been closed since the Feb. 14, 2008 shootings took place in Room 101.

Jeff Daurer, Director of Capital Budget and Planning, expects the complete renovations on Cole Hall will cost an estimated $6 million, with the additional $2 million going toward a relocation of an additional auditorium elsewhere on campus to make up for the lost auditorium space. Cole Hall originally housed two auditoriums, one of which, Room 101, was the site of the shootings. It has been decided that the space will not be reused for educational purposes.

“We understand our budget and we will come up with a design to that level,” Daurer said. “We can build quite a renovation for $6 million. It should be beautiful.”

At the May 3 Board of Trustees meeting, Daurer presented preliminary designs for the building and discussed plans for the space.

“It won’t look like it does today,” Daurer said.

According to a May 17 Northern Today article written by Joe King, a new Anthropology Museum and a collaborative computer laboratory will replace Room 101. The remaining auditorium in Cole Hall, Room 100, will additionally be renovated and will remain as an auditorium.

“One of the greatest challenges was finding a way to bring badly needed lecture space back online while accommodating the widely held opinion that the site of the shootings never again be utilized as classroom space,” King stated in the article.

Vice Provost Earl Seaver is optimistic about the outcome of the potential design plans and believes the design will benefit student learning.

“Getting a state-of-the-art lecture hall is a great asset for the institution and our students,” Seaver said. “The old lecture halls were pretty dated, and these new auditoriums are going to be a much better learning environment.”

The refurbished auditorium is expected to seat 300 to 400 people and will include modern standards for space allotment and smart classroom technology. At the BOT meeting, Daurer said Room 100 would change from “an airplane hangar with seats” to a state-of-the-art facility.

Tentatively, Daurer anticipates the reopening of Cole Hall in Fall 2011.

“We anticipate bidding [the drawings] in November, during which we will take the completed design out to the community and begin looking for contractors,” said Daurer.

No construction is likely to be visible to students in the upcoming fall semester, Daurer said. However, students will be able to notice the beginning stages of construction going on in Spring 2011.

Among the topics were faculty raises, a common freshman course and enrollment.

“Nobody else in this economy is thinking of raises, and if they are, they’re very small,” said Mary Ann Ferguson, Faculty Senate chairwoman.

UF President Bernie Machen’s announcement to raise faculty and staff’s pay is a sign of great leadership, Ferguson said.

The raises will increase faculty salaries up to 4 percent and staff salaries up to 3 percent based on performance.

Performance evaluations will be determined by department chairs, UF spokesman Steve Orlando said.

Graduate assistants’ pay will increase 3 percent, regardless of performance, and minimum wages for some UF jobs will increase from $9.02 per hour to $9.75 per hour.

The raises were made possible by the federal stimulus package, Orlando said. However, increased tuition will help cover the slack after stimulus money runs out.

Provost Joe Glover also outlined a plan to encourage a common, in-class experience for incoming freshmen through a new course. Honors students had the chance to take the humanities course, tentatively titled “The Good Life,” in the spring semester.

In the board meeting’s agenda, the course was described as reading and writing intensive.

Glover said the course is important because students identify with UF’s athletics and out-of-classroom activities, and he is concerned that they aren’t connecting with the university in the classroom.

The course, which will have three sections under the tag IDH3931, is also intended to be interdisciplinary, which means course objectives will apply to all majors

The university expects 600 freshmen to take the course in the fall. If it is successful, then Glover said the university plans to “scale it up to a huge proportion of the freshman class.”

The course, however, will not be required.

Glover also wants to stabilize declining enrollment levels.

Glover’s plan is to raise graduate enrollment between half a percent and 1 percent each year.

“We are probably at, or near, capacity at the university,” he said. “If our four-year graduation rate went up, then we could increase our freshman and transfer classes.”

Student Body President Ashton Charles said she thinks the board needs to respect the educational paths of all students, even those who take longer than four years.

“Some degrees do take longer to achieve,” she said.

Additionally, Machen wants undergraduate recruitment to focus more on out-of-state prospects. While the university enrolls many international students at the graduate level, 93 percent of undergraduates are from Florida.

Already, the university has begun sending advisers to interested students in the Washington, D.C. and New York areas, Glover said.

“[Alumni] have children who want to come back to the University of Florida,” Glover said.

Balderas—who came to the U.S. at the age of 4—was attempting to board a plane from San Antonio, Texas to Boston with a consular card from the Mexican government and his Harvard identification before being taken away in handcuffs by immigration officials. Though Balderas was released on Monday and eventually boarded a plane to Boston, he awaits an immigration hearing on July 6.

Monday’s incident comes a little over a year after University President Drew G. Faust wrote a letter to Mass. Representative Michael E. Capuano that declared her strong support for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. The legislation would provide qualified undocumented youth with a six-year-long conditional path to citizenship upon completing two years of higher education toward a degree or two years of military service.

“At Harvard, we have dedicated substantial attention and resources to improve access to higher education,” Faust wrote in the May 2009 letter. “The DREAM Act would throw a lifeline to these students who are already working hard in our middle and high schools and living in our communities.”

Nicolas E. Jofre, director of Harvard College Act On A Dream—the student group that promotes education and awareness of immigration laws, and supports the DREAM Act—said that Balderas’ case is not a unique one, for there are many undocumented students at Harvard and other institutions of higher learning across the nation.

Act On A Dream dedicates itself to defending undocumented students’ rights through online and letter-writing campaigns, as well as campus demonstrations and collaboration with other immigration advocacy groups. As minors, undocumented youth had no say in entering the U.S., and the public has a “skewed” perception of such individuals, according to Jofre.

“Sixty-five thousand undocumented students graduate from U.S. high school every year. These are students who are doing whatever they can to advance themselves…to move themselves forward and be a part of American society,” Jofre said. “Hopefully all of this contributes to immigration reform.”

Though opponents of immigration reform argue that such changes would reward families who broke the law by illegally entering the country in the first place, friends and activists have come forward in defense of Balderas in light of his detainment and possible deportation. A Facebook group titled “Keep Eric Home,” that seeks to raise awareness of Monday’s events, has grown to approximately 600 members since its creation on Thursday by Balderas’ friend Mario Rodas, a student at the Extension School.

“Eric is a model stellar student and citizen at Harvard University,” the Facebook group’s description states. “His deportation will deprive all of us of a potential citizen whose courage, commitment, and sincere desire to help others through science can only make our country a better place.”

In an e-mailed statement, roommate David A. Pickerell described Balderas as a passionate and motivated student who works “exceptionally hard,” adding that his dedication to the sciences—cancer research, in particular—would make him a valuable asset.

“He should be allowed to continue his studies at Harvard, as his abilities will one day contribute back to the United States,” wrote Pickerell. “He is one of the best minds in this country, his credentials speak for themselves, and we should nurture such talent.”

Caitlin E. Carey, a close friend of Balderas, recalled his willingness to come to her aid when she fell ill during finals week in the fall.

“He made sure that I got to UHS and got home and rested, and he was just really sweet,” Carey said. “He’s definitely really funny and laid back and really down to earth… It would just be devastating if this [possible deportation] happened.”

Jaime D. Barron, a board-certified immigration lawyer from Dallas, said that until the DREAM Act is enacted into law, individuals like Balderas can avoid potential deportation under a few options. Such possible defenses include petitions from family members, a private bill sponsored by a Congressperson, or special humanitarian discretion by ICE.

“When ICE encounters an individual suspected of being in the country illegally, we exercise our discretion on a case-by-case basis,” said Mark M. Medvesky, public affairs officer at ICE, who told The Crimson that he cannot disclose details about Balderas’ particular case due to the Department of Homeland Security’s privacy policy. “In some instances, we issue a Notice to Appear before an immigration judge.”

“I think that they [the government] should enact a comprehensive immigration reform that includes a legalization procedure for students who clearly benefit the country,” Barron said. “Mr. Balderas did not choose to break the law. He was brought over, and he has excelled in his studies and should be granted mercy by the federal government because he is an asset to the country.”

The University, whose admissions process is blind to citizenship because it accepts students from all over the world, showed support for Balderas’ standing as a student.

“Eric Balderas has already demonstrated the discipline and work ethic required for rigorous university work, and has, like so many of our undergraduates, expressed an interest in making a difference in the world,” Christine M. Heenan, vice president for public affairs and communications, wrote in an e-mailed statement.

At Big 12 Conference meetings on June 1 in Kansas City, Mo., Perkins described himself as a victim. Former KU director of sports medicine William Dent allegedly blackmailed Perkins after he exchanged rehabilitation equipment for valuable basketball seats.

Students at the University say they have mixed feelings about the drama at the Athletics Department.

“I almost feel betrayed,” Kate Stedman, a junior from Overland Park, said. “It seems like Perkins has just been covering up a bunch of schemes and scandals for the players and now it’s employees too.”

Other students, such as Matt Reissen, a senior from Overland Park, say the Athletics department, not the athletes, is the problem.

“ESPN uses it as another excuse to bash our athletics programs, but it just has to do with athletics employees, not the actual athletes,” Reissen said.

Reissen was the spirit coordinator for Student Union Activities last spring. Reissen said students could recognize him from the stands of Allen Field House at Border Showdown games taunting University of Missouri fans with a noose around a stuffed tiger’s neck. Reissen said the news about Perkins hadn’t changed his feelings for the University or its sports teams, but that he was concerned with how recent scandals would affect booster donations.

“Hopefully they’ll do something to show the people who support our school that we won’t let this slide,” Reissen said.

Stedman had similar thoughts. “It can’t possibly make those who donate happy to know that the seats they could be getting and being sold,” she said.

Morgan Jackson, a junior from Beloit, said dealing with rivals of the University was most annoying aspect of the scandal.

“I haven’t lost faith in KU athletics,” Jackson said, “but I do get heckled a lot more by my friends that are Missouri fans.”

Associate athletics director Jim Marchiony said the department would not give further information regarding the blackmail.

“It has been turned over to the Lawrence Police Department and there is an ongoing investigation,” Marchiony said. “They have asked us not to comment and we will respect that.”

Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little is expected to meet with the Board of Regents and determine a course of action when she returns to the country later this month.

Sowder, of the 99th District Court, ruled against 10 of the 11 claims Leach made against Tech. The university, however, was denied sovereign immunity — a legal protection due to Tech’s status as a state institution — regarding Leach’s claim that his contract was violated when he was fired Dec. 30 of last year.

Leach’s legal team responded to the ruling in a prepared press release.

“The Court’s recent ruling validates Mr. Leach’s legal position,” the team said in the written statement. “While we understand Texas Tech’s desire to enforce the defense of sovereign immunity, we do not understand Tech’s continued refusal to acknowledge its obligations to Mike Leach especially in light of Judge Sowder’s ruling.”

Tech attorney Dicky Grigg also released a statement following the ruling claiming that Leach’s case “has no merit legally or factually.”

The legal team for Tech may still take further action to prevent the case from going to court.

“Texas Tech will appeal the judge’s ruling and we expect the Appeals Court will find in Texas Tech’s favor and dismiss the remaining claim,” Grigg wrote in his statement.

According to Leach’s legal team, “Tech has been proven wrong in its legal predictions and positions and we believe the Court of Appeals will uphold Judge Sowder’s ruling.”

According to Liggett, Leach is seeking $2.5 million dollars from the university in his suit. That figure is broken down into $1.6 million in outside endorsements, $800,000 in a bonus that he was slated to receive the day after he was fired and $100,000 for the team’s accomplishments during the 2009 season.

He said Tech wrote Leach a check for the $100,000 for the team’s 2009 accomplishments but the check will not be cashed until further progression has been made in the case.

The Facebook-born support group for the former coach, Team Leach, continues to post strong numbers with a fluctuating number of members that is currently hovering around 60,000.

In a phone interview, spokesman for the group Charlie Hodges responded to the ruling.

“It’s a win for Mike Leach,” Hodges said. “I don’t care what Dicky Grigg says. If Tech thinks they’ve won out of this, then why are they appealing?”

Team Leach organized a meeting in Memorial Circle in January in support of the fired coach but doesn’t intend on putting anything similar together at this point.

“We haven’t talked about any rallies,” Hodges said. “People know we’re (here). We’re still doing things but we won’t be doing them in an in-your-face type of deal.”

On campus, students continue to be divided about the entire Leach saga and the ruling.

“Having ten out of 11 thrown out definitely looks good on paper,” Jason Flores, a senior education major from Big Spring said. “I’ll be happy when this is all over with and we can just worry about next year and Coach Tuberville. No matter what, I’m behind Tech.”

The Daily Toreador will continue to track the legal proceedings leading up to a possible jury trial.

About 40 jobs will be eliminated in Penn State U’s College of Agricultural Sciences, and other university colleges may face similar predicaments, university officials say.

Chuck Gill, news director for the college, said ten jobs have already been cut and another 30 or so will disappear by July 1. The positions are primarily in the research and cooperative-extension departments, he said.

The College of Agricultural Sciences relies on appropriations from the state legislature to fund its research programs and the appropriations have since been diminishing. Because no tuition dollars are used to support the research department, the college has limited options of how to deal with the situation, Gill said.

University spokeswoman Lisa Powers said if the state appropriation is not adequate for this year, the research and cooperation extension programs will continue to face cuts.

If the state funding can’t help to lift the university out of the $11 million debt it has fallen into, other colleges will face various cuts, too, she said.

“We’re waiting for actions from Harrisburg to see if legislatures will provide the $13.5 million we sought for this budget year,” Powers said.

All heads of departments university-wide were asked to look for ways to reduce their budget by five percent. To meet that goal, it became necessary for the College of Agricultural Sciences to cut some jobs, Gill said.

As the U. Texas System slashes an anticipated $2.2 million in recurrent costs with a realignment plan announced Wednesday, it is adding three new positions to academic and health offices in an effort to ratchet up the commercialization of UT’s inventions and discoveries.

The UT System’s Office of Research and Technology Transfer will no longer exist in its current form after Sept. 1, when six positions will be terminated from that office. The office’s multiple functions — which include initiating programs to accelerate commercialization of research discoveries — were helpful in developing smaller technology-transfer offices in other UT System schools, said Randa Safady, vice chancellor of external affairs for the UT System.

Two of the three new positions will be for science directors who will work on the commercialization activities in either the Office of Academic Affairs or the Office of Health Affairs. These offices and the new directors will interact with UT’s nine academic institutions and six health and science institutions, respectively. The third position, a director of technology commercialization, will focus on business development and work with venture capitalists.

Safady said that the creation of the three new positions would allow the Office of Research and Technology Transfer to concentrate on commercialization activities.

“It allows us to recalibrate what we’re doing now and stay fully [focused] on commercialization activities,” she said. “The current office does that well, but they’re engaged in a whole lot of things.”

The realignment plan, which has been in the works since UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa released a “vision statement” for efficiency, has been in the works since August, Safady said. In addition to the 19 full-time positions being terminated in the recently announced cuts, 26 positions were cut in April when UT TeleCampus was closed in order to allow individual institutions to operate independently of the central office.

According to a May 7 UT System press release, “UT System institutions, [most of which have independent technology transfer offices], on average sign a commercialization deal every other day, are awarded two U.S. patents nearly every week and start a new company every two weeks.”

According to the May 25 Intellectual Property Owners Association’s annual report on the top 300 groups that received the most U.S.-issued patents, the UT System was ranked 191st with 98 patents. Seven universities made the list, and the UT System was the fifth-largest patent recipient of all U.S. college systems on the list.

In terms of intellectual-property revenue, the UT System as a whole garnered about $28.6 million in the fiscal year of 2008. UT-Austin contributed $10 million of that amount, according to data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

But when intellectual-property-generated revenue, tracked by the Association of University Technology Managers, is compared to academic institutions outside Texas, the UT System and UT-Austin do not fare as well. UT-Austin ranks 37th out of more than 150 schools on AUTM’s descending list of revenue generated from intellectual property.

In the 2007 fiscal year, UT-Austin garnered $6.65 million from 40 U.S.-issued patents. In the same fiscal year, the University of Minnesota garnered $63 million from 44 patents, the University of Colorado garnered $22.6 million with 21 patents and Northwestern University garnered $85 million from 22 patents.

“We think we can all do better with intellectual-property revenue,” Safady said. “We have to have an infrastructure of the system administration that allows [the UT System campuses] to be nimble and allows them to be as entrepreneurial as possible. The competition is not sitting still.”

In the press release, Cigarroa said the reallocation of resources and assistance to academic and health institutions “will further enhance the State of Texas’ position as a national leader in conducting groundbreaking research and transferring discoveries to the marketplace.”

But since 2003, UT-Austin’s Office of Technology Commercialization has increased revenue by nearly 17 percent every year, according to the office’s statistics.

“Since 2003, we’ve built up our licensing team [and] we now have five licenses professionals,” said Betsy Merrick, associate director of marketing at the office. “We have them divided into sectors so there can be that much more attention on the technologies coming out of UT. That means there’s more time being spent on relationships with the faculty, which translates into more disclosures. The more disclosures we have, the more patents we have.”

Patents and other properties from UT-Austin generated $4.3 million in 2003, $8.4 million in 2006 and $10.9 million in 2008.

“It’s often a good 10 years for a product to be on the market before royalties start coming in,” said Rick Friedman, associate director of licensing at the office.

“One of the things we’ve been asking is that the [nurse-to-patient] ratio should be maintained at all times,” UCSD Medical Center – Hillcrest registered nurse Janice Webb said. “We’re asking for break-relief nurses. That’s a nurse that comes in and watches your patient while you’re on break.”

The protest, slated to be the largest nurse strike in U.S. history, will also include an additional 14,000 nurses from California and Minnesota, totaling 25,000 participants.

California law requires hospitals to maintain at least one nurse for every three to five patients, depending on the care the patients receive. The union said it wants to mandate stronger enforcement of these laws and establish safe ratios at all times.

According to Webb, the medical centers do not have enough nurses to attend the patients.

“We’ve been having meetings with hospitals that say they already have charge nurses, but realistically they can’t maintain the ratio on breaks,” she said. “A lot of times when the charge nurses [or nurses who supervise] watch, there are still more nurses needed — just someone to help out.”

However, in an online statement, the UC Office of the President contended that such a strike is without legitimate cause.

“The university considers this action unlawful, a violation of good-faith bargaining requirements and a clear violation of the parties’ contract,” UCOP said in their statement.

The strike will also attempt to secure the nurses’ retirement benefits to make sure neither politicians nor the health industry can easily rescind them.

“The other thing we’re concerned about is the pension and our health benefits,” Webb said. “Things are getting expensive now, and they’re trying to look at ways to cut costs. That’s going to affect people, and we want the ability to negotiate with them when they decide.”

According to Webb, the California Nurses Association recently presented UC medical centers with a resolution to the problem before resorting to a state-wide strike.

“We didn’t come up with a cookie-cutter program,” Webb said. “We made a recommendation based on each unit, what type of patients they have. We actually had a well thought out plan, and we’d like to give it a try and enter a contract so that way we’d actually be able to enforce the plan.”

Webb said that the UC medical centers would benefit if more nurses were brought in to care for patients.

“There are all these issues they’re having at all hospitals in California, such as patients falling,” Webb said. “Break nurses can help out with that kind of stuff — the little things that kind of fall through the cracks when people are on breaks.”

She added that improving the nurse-to-patient ratio is a necessity in order to maintain quality care in the medical centers.

“People deserve more time to take a deep breath,” Webb said. “You can’t really work that well if you’re not going to have enough time to gather your thoughts, especially in this difficult field of work. You need it to give the patients the good care they deserve.”

UCSD Health System spokesperson Kimberly Edwards claims the medical centers do not know what actions they will take in response to the strike.

“It’s too early in the process for speculation, financial or otherwise,” she said.

There has been no discussion yet within the administration about how the cuts would affect the University, U. Texas officials stated Tuesday, four days after Gov. Rick Perry’s office announced that all state agencies must cut their budgets by another 10 percent for the 2012-2013 biennial budget.

Before the next legislative session, every Texas state agency — including UT — must now submit a Legislative Appropriations Request that includes a specific plan for a 10-percent reduction in spending to the governor and the Legislative Budget Board between Aug. 2 and Aug. 30. The whole plan will be submitted to the governor’s office in two versions outlining 5-percent reductions.

“This request for 10-percent reduction proposals for the next biennium builds on our ongoing call on state agencies to tighten their belts so Texas can continue our commitment to keep taxes low, attract businesses and create jobs as we continue to lead the way out of the national economic downturn,” Gov. Rick Perry said in a May 28 press release.

On May 10, the UT administration announced a University-wide $14.6 million budget reduction that predominantly affected administrative offices. Each academic college within UT had a 0.2-percent reduction, which means that while the sum of the academic colleges’ reductions amounted to $1 million, administrative offices were cut by larger percentages. More specifically, UT cut a total of $12 million from administrative offices.

The new statewide 10-percent budget cuts would be added to the 5-percent budget cut previously implemented by UT and other state agencies. According to a letter sent to state agency heads by Legislative Budget Board director John O’Brien, exceptions to the plan include cuts to Medicaid entitlement programs and benefits, health and human services and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Kevin Hegarty, UT’s vice president and chief financial officer, said reducing the initial 5 percent was tough, and a 10-percent cut, which amounts to about $30 million, will be even tougher to make, especially given the short time between now and when the plan is due. He said he expected discussions on the plan to begin soon.

“Certainly, we would want to have a plan in hand within the next 30 days or so,” Hegarty said. “I would be surprised if I didn’t see a meeting show up to at least begin initial ideas sometime this week. We want to get going with the possibilities so that we can discuss it with the campus. We all wish we’d known about this sooner because obviously, now, we’re in the summertime when all the faculty and the staff aren’t necessarily here.”

Student Government President Scott Parks said though it is unfortunate that UT must make more cuts, it is still doing better than other universities.

“It’s going to be really tough, but I think if we look around the nation, we’re in comparatively better shape,” Parks said. “There hasn’t been any details released about how the University is going to deal with this 10-percent cut, but I imagine that conversations are going to get a lot more interesting soon.”

Jacqueline Dana, vice chair of the Staff Council, said she had not heard about the budget cuts but that the Staff Council will be watching the issue with concern.

“We will be anxiously awaiting news as to how [the budget cuts] will impact campus, and obviously we would be concerned about the impact it will have on staff on campus and the services we provide — services to students, services to faculty, services to campus facilities,” Dana said.

Jonathan Dingwell, a member of the Faculty Council and associate professor of kinesiology and health education, said he was not yet familiar with the details of the governor’s proposal but that it was unfortunate that there was no warning of the cuts before they were announced publicly.

“Some of the concerns have been that these cuts have been announced at the governor’s level, and then suddenly, everything has to be implemented right away,” Dingwell said. “There’s really no time for colleges and departments to figure out how best to implement [the cuts].”

The U. Texas System announced Wednesday afternoon that 19 people will be laid off as part of a realignment plan, driven in part by looming budget cuts.

The layoffs will all come from the system’s administrative office in downtown Austin and will be concentrated in the Office of Administration and Research and Technology Transfer.

“We’ve lost great talent, wonderful people and great ideas,” said Randa Safady, vice chancellor of external affairs for the system. She pointed out that three positions were also being created in the reorganization.

Safady said the purpose of the realignment was to increase efficiency in the organization as part of an effort to encourage “creative renewal and continued improvement.”

In January, Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Texas House Speaker Joe Straus requested that state agencies reduce their expenditures by 5 to 8 percent because of looming state budget deficits. Perry made another request on May 28 to have state agencies cut their budgets by an additional 10 percent.

Safady said the budget cuts played a role in the planning and implementation of the system’s realignment plan.

The Office of Administration and Research and Technology Transfer will bear the brunt of the cuts, with each department losing six full-time jobs. Operations and facilities services will lose two and a half full-time positions, and system administration compliance will lose two full-time positions. A total of 19 positions will be cut and three positions will be added, for a total reduction of 16 positions. The new positions will focus on improving the system’s efforts to commercialize system research.

A total of 119 full-time equivalent positions have been eliminated at the UT System, including job losses from the reorganization of the distance learning program and online learning program as well as the merger of the Institute for Public School Initiatives into the College of Education at UT-Austin.

The New York Times reported on the trend earlier this year, but it is always a good time to talk about making college campuses more welcoming to diverse students.

With every piece on the importance of equal rights for all college students, we, as a society, are closer to achieving that goal. Ideally, students should feel comfortable applying to every single college in the U.S. But because that is not yet the case, I thought I would highlight some of the benefits of these new college fairs.

A university sets the tone of its campus with its rules, policies and procedures. By openly recruiting gay students, these universities are telling the students — and the world — that they will not stand for the type of discrimination that is unfortunately still present throughout the U.S.

Hopefully, as each college moves toward ending useless prejudice against students, parts of the country will follow in its footsteps.

Finding a school that is welcoming of your sexual orientation can make the entire process of higher education easier. Recently, scholarships and additional financial aid have been created to help pay for some of the costs of colleges from groups such as the Point Foundation, the League Foundation at AT&T, and COLAGE — Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere.

A student who is uncomfortable talking about his or her sexual orientation because of fears of discrimination on campus could miss these great opportunities.

It is not fair that a deserving student might avoid specific scholarships because of outside opinions. Again, implementing events such as the college fairs help set the tone that students are welcome to attend these schools without fear of what others might think.

In addition to receiving helpful financial aid, students can feel more comfortable finding or receiving information on gay students and organizations on campus. The Times explained how the University of Pennsylvania received a lot of attention when the online publication

Inside Higher Ed wrote about the school’s new outreach policy.

The arrangement includes taking applicants whose college essay identifies them as gay and putting them in touch with students and organizations on campus.

The school did so in an attempt to make the transition to college easier. Colleges have been doing it for years — just not based on a student’s sexual orientation.

Still, the process could be a little surprising. Attending a school where gay and lesbian students are recruited could make a student feel more open and comfortable to receiving this information, which is the reason for having organizations on college campuses.

I can’t imagine not participating in the clubs that have helped me become a better student. It is only fair that all students feel equally comfortable joining clubs or organizations that help them become successful college graduates.

Men’s basketball is the top team in the Big 12 and the football team has seen some of its best years in the past decade.

But while all that occurred, Athletics Director Lew Perkins missed a scam worth $1.03 million in tickets.

“It caught me totally off guard,” Perkins said. “Things were going so good. We were raising a lot of money, we were selling a lot of tickets, we were winning. Maybe we just got a little complacent.”

Perkins, along with Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, University General Counsel Jim Pottorff and investigator Jack Focht of Foulston Siefkin LLP, spoke Wednesday about the newly released reports of a ticket scandal within the athletics department.

According to the report conducted by Foulston Siefkin, a Wichita law firm, at least 17,609 men’s basketball game tickets, 2,181 football game tickets, parking passes and Arrowhead Club passes were sold for personal gain.

Those numbers are just from 2005-2010, but the process began years before.

The report identified six former Kansas Athletics employees or contractors, who were unable to be subpoenaed: Charlette Blubaugh, former associate athletics director of ticket operations and her husband, Tom Blubaugh, a former contracted consultant; Rodney Jones, former assistant athletics director for the Williams Educational Fund; Ben Kirtland, former associate athletics director of development; Brandon Simmons, former assistant athletics director of sales and marketing; and Jason Jeffries, former assistant director of ticket operations.

“It is not easy to learn that people you trusted let you down,” Perkins said.

The scandal went on for years without anyone finding out. Those profiting off tickets not only had the trust of the athletic department, they were also experts.

“You had some of the best auditors in the country auditing this department,” Focht said. “And they fooled them.”

Though it was a large sum of money, the effect the stolen tickets had was minimal. At the worst, Williams Fund Donors would only sit a row or two back from where they could have been. And the pool of available tickets for season-ticket holders was slightly smaller.

Perkins blamed himself upfront for not discovering the wrongdoings earlier.

“I accept responsibility because I am the athletic director and I let this happen under my watch,” he said. “I thought we had just about every safeguard in place.

He said this is the first time he has been involved in a situation like this and he is disappointed, but not discouraged. Now that the problem has surfaced, it can be fixed, he said.

To prevent such acts from occurring again, Gray-Little and Perkins suggested the following may be implemented:

— Strengthening internal control for handling and distributing tickets

— Hiring a full-time forensic auditor to ensure financial integrity

— Establishing a whistle-blowing hotline

Gray-Little made it clear the six scalpers will be punished, not Kansas Athletics, the victim in the scandal. Also, Perkins is not in danger of losing his job nor has the university violated NCAA rules thus far.

Now that the information is out, the rebuilding of the Kansas Athletic reputation can begin.

“Now we know about it,” Perkins said, “we can correct this. Just think if we didn’t have an idea, there would still be something wrong. I look at this as a positive.”

The records consist of more than seven million documents that once belonged to Iraq’s Baath Party and security forces, which ruled the country from 1968 until its overthrow by U.S. and coalition forces in 2003. The documents came to Hoover via the Iraq Memory Foundation (IMF), a Washington, D.C.-based group that entered Baghdad in 2003 to protect historical records.

Richard Sousa, the director of Hoover’s library and archives, brokered the agreement with the foundation, which agreed to store the Baath records in a Hoover archive until conditions in Baghdad are sufficient to ensure the archive’s security.

“We have documents from the Iraqi ministry saying Hoover can hold on to these while we [the ministry] find a safe haven for them,” Sousa said. “Now, even though the Iraqis say things are better, it’s certainly not clear to everyone that the situation is better.”

Indeed, several scholars have, in light of the request, lamented the security in Baghdad, where the National Library and Archives is located.

“Circumstances are unstable in Iraq — there are different actors with a variety of motives and the ability to ensure the physical integrity of the documents is questionable,” said Larry Diamond, a Hoover senior fellow and former adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. “If you’re a Baath terrorist and you know these records have been physically returned to Iraq and are sitting in building X or basement Y, that’s going to be a very inviting target.”

Abbas Milani, the director of Iranian studies and an Iranian exile, expressed concern that the records, if returned, could be used for political means.

“My fear is that, if the rest of the region is any example, those in power will use these documents for scoring political points against opponents,” Milani said. “I would hope that they would go back to a democratic Iraq that will make them readily available to scholars, equally available to scholars and safely available to scholars.”

“It doesn’t take an area expert to really see that Iraq today is not a very safe place for these kinds of valuable documents,” he added.

The director of the Iraqi National Library and Archives, Saad Eskander, has made the request not only to Hoover — which he and a delegation did in person earlier this month — but also to the National Archives in Washington, which currently stores a Jewish archive, and to the Pentagon and the CIA, which house other Iraqi records.

“This was the first time that Iraq presented an official demand to retrieve all the documents, not only the Jewish archive,” Eskander told Reuters last week.

Still, according to an e-mail to The Daily from Kanan Makiya, the founder of IMF, there is a “deep rift” within the Iraqi Ministry of Culture about whether or not any of the records should be returned now.

Makiya said that in an Iraqi radio program that aired last Thursday, which he heard in Erbil, Iraq, “a deputy minister of culture, senior to Eskander and his team who visited Hoover, tore into his colleagues’ allegations, supporting enthusiastically the IMF and Hoover’s role.”

Eskander did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite the back-and-forth, Sousa has maintained since the Baath records arrived at Hoover that the documents belong to the Iraqi people and will be returned.

“From the start, these papers belong to the Iraqi people,” he said.

Scholars who now work with the records access digitized copies; the originals are kept in an undisclosed location. Sousa said “most” of the archive has already been digitized.

“We have no other case where an entire ruling party’s archives are found in one place and are being rigorously, systematically catalogued and being made available to scholars,” Milani said of the digitization project.

Diamond said digitization of the archive will likely appeal to both scholars in the United States and the Iraqi people.

“Nationalism is very strong in Iraq, so the sense that their treasures or their precious history be returned to the country is probably something that would resonate with a lot of Iraqis,” he said. “But I think the goal of preserving a complete historical record is also something that will resonate with them.”

Talks between Hoover and the Iraqi National Library and Archives will continue next month, when Sousa and Eskander are set to meet in Washington.

“We’re working with them to try to find a time when these things should go back,” Sousa said.

In a budget filled with massive spending cuts, service reductions and the outright elimination of the state’s welfare-to-work program, CalWORKs, both the U. California and California State U. systems saw increases in funding. Additionally, previous cuts to the Cal Grant financial aid program were rescinded.

The competitive Cal Grant award, which faced elimination in Schwarzengger’s January budget, will now be fully funded to the tune of $45 million. Other proposed cuts – including $111 million in enrollment growth funds for the UC and CSU systems and $75 million from Cal Grants – “will no longer be considered as budget solution options under any circumstances,” according to the budget summary.

Diana Fuentes-Michel, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, which administers the Cal Grant awards, said though she is pleased with the level of funding, she is aware that the funds are tenuous and as the state faces a $19.9 billion deficit, more cuts could come.

“I am concerned because I know that the budgeting process is a process of negotiation, and everything needs to be on the table, in terms of options for resolving this problem,” she said.

The budget revision now faces the scrutiny of the state Legislature, where it will require a two-thirds majority in both houses before it can be signed into law. In past years, the Legislature has failed to muster the necessary votes before its June 30 budget deadline.

This year’s proposal has already prompted condemnation from top Democratic leaders. In a press conference following the budget’s release, state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, called the revision and its $12.4 billion dollars in cuts a “non-starter.”

Schwarzenegger has called the cuts “tough choices” that are necessary given the size and scope of the state’s budget deficit.

“California no longer has low-hanging fruits,” he said during a press conference. “As a matter of fact, we don’t have any medium-hanging fruits. We also don’t have any high-hanging fruits. We literally have to take the ladder away from the tree and shake the whole tree.”

Nonetheless, Schwarzenegger has kept previous promises to preserve funding for higher education.

The proposed budget also includes $355 million in capital facility construction funds for the UC system, which according to a statement released by UC Vice President for Budget Patrick Lenz would “create 3,300 private sector jobs associated with the building and construction.”

Victor Sanchez, president of the UC Student Association, who, along with UC President Mark Yudof, led a coalition of students and administrators on a joint lobby effort in March, called the budget “bittersweet.”

While the Cal Grant awards are fully funded and the UC system retained its level of funding from January, he said the cuts to social services are disheartening and reflect the need for budgetary reform.

“It sucks when a victory feels like a loss,” Sanchez said. “We need to know the state is in a very difficult position, and we need to push our leaders to come up with new alternative forms of revenue. Everything has to be on the table, including taxes.”

Though her nomination as Supreme Court Justice on Monday has been warmly received by many colleagues, several individuals among the Law School’s faculty and staff interviewed by The Crimson in the last month raised questions about how Kagan’s temperament may translate to her time on the bench.

At the official announcement of her nomination, President Barack Obama hailed Kagan, currently Solicitor General, as a “consensus builder” known for “her openness to a wide range of viewpoints.”

During her five years as dean, Kagan pushed through a major curricular reform and won the hearts of students and faculty alike by reaching out with simple gestures, such as opening an ice skating rink (now closed due to budget cuts) and providing free coffee.

But multiple interviews with Law School staff depict Kagan as a brusque leader whose ambitious agenda of effecting change created a culture of high standards and sometimes fostered tense relations with some of her co-workers.

Three Law School colleagues characterized Kagan’s management style as “very Washington,” an echo of her previous administrative experience in government as Thurgood Marshall’s clerk and former President Bill Clinton’s Associate White House Counsel.

“She brought very high expectations to the school,” said current Law School Dean Martha L. Minow, who enthusiastically endorsed her predecessor’s nomination on Monday. “She held no one more than herself to high standards. So ‘We’re fine, we don’t have to be stepping it up’—that attitude was over when she was dean. Some people didn’t really like it, some people disagreed.”

“Not everybody loves change,” Minow added.

A HEAVY-HANDED LEADER?

Several faculty members credited the success of Kagan’s sweeping initiatives and her ability to break through bureaucratic logjams at the Law School to her strong-handed management style.

“There’s a lot of navel-gazing in academia,” said Dean of Students Ellen M. Cosgrove, who lauded Kagan for transforming the pace and productivity at the Law School. “She was someone who wants to get the job done quickly, on a time-frame that is more consistent with the real world and the corporate world.”

Fresh from a post in the White House, Kagan brought intensity along with her proposals to remake a Law School tired of being second best to perennial rival Yale Law and criticized for a lack of concern for its student body.

“She’s a demanding dean—as she should be,” Law School Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said.

Kagan succeeded Robert C. Clark as Dean, whose administrative style starkly differed from Kagan’s.

Clark faced an ideologically divided faculty during his time as Dean, and one of his major accomplishments was soothing the rifts that would pave the way for some of Kagan’s most transformative initiatives.

But an ambitious reform campaign at an institution that has been described as “Beirut on the Charles” for its vitriolic academic disputes also led to bruised egos and heated conversations, according to multiple sources at the Law School.

Law School Professor Mark V. Tushnet acknowledged that he had heard “that she would lose her temper,” but he added that Kagan led the school with a “firm hand” like a good manager. Kagan was “willing to fire people that needed to be fired,” Tushnet said.

Few faculty members interviewed for this article voiced displeasure with Kagan’s management style, but some staffers and administrators said that the former dean’s high-energy, ambitious agenda placed a strain on their working relationships.

Former director of the Law School library Harry S. Martin III observed that some staff members working under Kagan “didn’t seem to get along with her, didn’t warm to her.”

In the “pursuit of excellence,” Kagan set the bar high for her colleagues and created “a culture of incredibly high expectations and high stakes,” according to former Registrar staff member Leslie Sutton-Smith.

“It was not as much a collaborative effort as it was making sure everything was right before it got to Elena,” Sutton-Smith said. “You have to come to the table 150 percent prepared because she will find a hole in whatever your argument is.”

“As a result of that, she could be perceived as someone to be afraid of,” she added.

In pushing for change, Kagan often displayed an insensitivity to the opinions and feelings of others, according to Maura H. Kelley, a faculty assistant who worked at the Law School for over 25 years.

“If you go against her, she doesn’t take very kindly to that,” said Kelley, who was familiar with staff assistants that worked under Kagan. “If she presents an idea, she wants everyone to accept it immediately without question, without debate, without input.”

But Sara D. Zucker, director of International Legal Studies Program, said that the word “fear” does not spring to mind in describing her interactions with Kagan in the past.

A “forceful” personality who made very clear “what she wanted,” Kagan held everyone up to the same, albeit very high, standards—including herself, according to Zucker.

Kagan was also quick to acknowledge a job well done.

Kagan instituted what was known as “pie-day,” an occasion in November for staff to gather, eat pie, and write thank-you cards to one another. She also made a point of remembering staff members’ names—which one staffer said was appreciated at an institution where relationships between faculty and staff are often tinged by elitism.

SETTING A NEW STANDARD

Kagan’s colleagues overwhelmingly voiced their support for her nomination despite her sometimes abrasive manner, which they saw as a byproduct of her strong desire for implementing change at the Law School.

“She was pushing for the school to be better every single day,” Minow said. “Some people didn’t really like being held to a standard and didn’t like being told you could do better.”

University Professor Frank I. Michelman said he believed her experience leading the Law School would translate well to her role on the Court.

“You have to deal with a lot of constituencies in ways that are considerate of and responsive to their interests,” Michelman said.

“Most relevant to the Supreme Court post is her decision-making style,” Minow said. “She would listen to each person carefully, remembering their comments even better than they did; approach each issue with an open mind; and reach a judgment based on fairness.”

“She was a beloved dean, as I hear regularly from faculty, students, and staff,” Minow added.

But one professor, who requested to remain anonymous to maintain relations with the Law School, said that Kagan’s tense relations with staff provide clues to how she may conduct herself as a justice.

“The treatment of subordinates is definitely relevant to her values and our assessment of her as a progressive justice,” the professor said, adding that Kagan’s prowess as a “consensus builder” who would be able to sway Justice Anthony Kennedy, for example, is undermined by her temper, which the professor believes may hinder her ability to work well with others on the bench.

“Justice Kennedy would not like that,” the professor said.

The strike, which began May 3 as a demonstration focused on a controversial Arizona immigration law and has attracted attention worldwide, concluded as all but one of the 18 strikers ate ears of corn together in a symbolic gesture. UC Berkeley senior Alejandro Lara-Briseno said he will continue to go without food until he travels to Arizona May 20 to meet with family and then travels to Mexico, where he will meet with other organizers.

Meanwhile, five students and one union worker met with Birgeneau in California Hall to represent the strikers. After a nearly two-hour meeting, the representatives announced the conclusions of the discussion to a crowd of about 150 supporters outside the building.

The strikers had demanded that Birgeneau denounce the Arizona immigration law, make UC Berkeley a sanctuary campus and provide extended protections for undocumented students, drop all student conduct charges against activists, stop cuts to low-wage employees, suspend conduct procedures and initiate a democratic, student-led process to review the code, as well as commit to using nonviolent means to ensure safety at demonstrations.

In a May 7 statement, Birgeneau addressed their first demand by calling for the repeal of the Arizona law.

As a result of the meeting Wednesday, campus officials will begin to collect reports from ethnic studies and similar programs on campus in order to assess how to improve such programs. A task force charged with examining the needs of undocumented students to be assembled by the campus next fall will now incorporate worker input.

Another previously announced task force to examine the code of student conduct will now also examine the process for handling conduct cases. The task force will also now incorporate students outside of the ASUC and the Graduate Assembly.

The campus will not drop conduct charges against student activists as protesters requested, but will consider offering students facing conduct charges a community service sanction for their involvement in the Nov. 20 Wheeler Hall occupation rather than a seven-month suspension.

In order to address the protesters’ concerns about union workers, campus Labor Relations Director Debra Harrington will schedule a meeting with union representatives.

UC Berkeley junior Kathy Vega said because the representatives at the meeting said resources on campus are limited for communities of color, a task force will be assembled by campus officials to look into this issue next fall.

The campus center for Chicano/Latino research will be compensated $50,000 each year for the next five years by the campus for their loss of state funding. A project examining the impact of the Arizona immigration law will be funded with this money.

According to strikers, Birgeneau said he will also consider how to address an Arizona law passed Wednesday that bans ethnic studies classes.

Protesters and administrators had been back and forth in discussions for days, trying to agree on the conditions for ending the strike.

In the past week, numerous parties have urged Birgeneau to meet with the protesters, including state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, and a group of more than 80 professors. Dozens of other organizations, from campus to Japan to Brazil, also pledged support for the strikers.

Many protesters said though they were happy the meeting with Birgeneau took place and that it was a “great first step,” they wished the conversation had happened sooner.

“Regardless of what went down in (California Hall), I think what we accomplished as a community was the biggest thing,” said freshman Marco Amaral. “This was not a Latino issue, or a Filipino issue, or a black issue. This was a human issue.”

The strikers and their supporters emptied their jugs of water and loaded their supplies onto UCPD trucks at around 6 A.M. after being told by campus officials they would be arrested if they did not leave the lawn in front of the building.

“This morning the university decided that you know, it’s time,” said UCPD Lt. Alex Yao.

Yao said the strikers and their supporters had been in violation of campus rules and regulations by lodging and violating campus curfew. Both can be punishable by arrest, he said.

The strikers chose to leave the lawn. Though strikers said they do not know where they will relocate, they will not stop fasting.

“We are going to continue,” said senior Horacio Corona, who has gone without food for a week.

Though the strikers’ belongings were moved by UCPD to Eshleman Hall, by 8 a.m. the protesters had gathered again in front of California Hall.

Ten more students and staff had joined the strikers in a “Solidarity Strike.” Marco Amaral, a freshman striker, said the coalition will hold rallies at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. in front of the building.

The strikers are demanding Chancellor Robert Birgeneau publicly denounce a recent Arizona immigration law, make UC Berkeley a sanctuary campus and provide extended protections for undocumented students, drop all student conduct charges against activists, stop cuts to low-wage employees, suspend conduct procedures and initiate a democratic, student-led process to review the code, as well as commit to using nonviolent means to ensure safety at demonstrations.

Though the campus administration has produced three responses to the demands and have met with members of the coalition, the strikers said they will remain outside until they meet with Birgeneau.

According to Claire Holmes, associate vice chancellor of public affairs, two of the demands – regarding the rehiring of low-wage employees and the dismissal of student conduct charges – had not been settled.

Holmes said the strikers had spoken Sunday with Birgeneau and were unlikely to meet again until the hunger strike ended.

“I wouldn’t rule (a meeting) out, but I doubt it very much,” she said. “We have done everything we can to respond to them. We would like to continue the dialogue, but we really want them to end their hunger strike.”

Obama announced his appointment at 10 a.m. this morning with Kagan by his side.

Kagan, who is 50 years old, would be the youngest Justice on the Court. She would also be the first Justice since William H. Rehnquist without any prior judicial experience.

Kagan clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall, who previously served as Solicitor General.

Law School Professor Mark V. Tushnet, who also clerked for Marshall, noted that experience as Solicitor General will have exposed Kagan to a wide variety of legal issues.

Kagan is considered a relative moderate, but is expected to be challenged by Republicans for her opposition to military recruiting at the Law School in response to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The Law School no longer bans military recruiting on its campus.

But speaking yesterday before the announcement was made, Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz said that the recruitment issue was “very center to moderate” and that he does not believe that it will bar her from the Court.

“She is a very strong person and she is a strong advocate,” said Professor William P. Alford before the announcement was made.

Kagan was confirmed as Solicitor General in 2009 by a vote of 61-31 in the Senate.

At the Law School, Kagan was known for bridging gaps between liberals and conservatives.

“I think she was appreciated by the faculty of the right, the center, and the left,” Dershowitz said.

“I think she would be a welcome presence on the Supreme Court.”

If confirmed, Kagan, who is Jewish, will replace the Court’s only Protestant, and the court will be made up of six Catholics and three Jews.

But Dershowitz said he did not think religion would figure in her potential confirmation. “It’s long past the time that we will care about religion,” Dershowitz said. “That’s an issue of the 20th century.”

Several professors noted that they thought Kagan ran the Law School in the style of a government agency.

Kagan expanded the Law School faculty by about 10 percent during her tenure. She also pushed forward the building plans for Northwest Corner, and oversaw major curriculum overhaul with now-current Dean of the Law School Martha L. Minow.

Dershowitz said he believes that the institution improved under her term.

“She ran it like a university should be run,” he said.

Obama passed over federal appeals court Judges Diane P. Wood and Merrick B. Garland, a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, the other frontrunners for the position.

Kagan’s youth may also have been a significant factor in Obama’s choice, as Wood, 58, and Garland, 57, might have served shorter terms as Justices.

For one week, about 18 hunger strikers from the “Hungry for Justice Coalition” have been camped out in front of California Hall, awaiting the return of Chancellor Robert Birgeneau from Europe.

The strikers are demanding Birgeneau publicly denounce a recent Arizona immigration law, make UC Berkeley a sanctuary campus and provide extended protections for undocumented students, drop all student conduct charges against activists, stop cuts to low-wage employees, suspend conduct procedures and initiate a democratic, student-led process to review the code, as well as commit to using nonviolent means to ensure safety at demonstrations.

Concern for the strikers’ health has caused campus administrators to announce new initiatives as incentives to end the strike, but demonstrators say they are determined to continue despite impacts to their health.

“It’s hard to focus because of a lot of sleep deprivation since we are sleeping outside,” Corona said.

Though the campus administration has produced three responses to the demands and has met with members of the coalition, the strikers said they will remain outside until they meet with Birgeneau.

In a statement released Friday, Birgeneau acquiesced to one of the strikers’ demands by publicly calling for the repeal of the Arizona law.

Another statement released Friday by Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Harry Le Grande said the campus would create a task force “to identify and articulate the issues and needs of undocumented students at Cal,” ensure student representation in the review of the code of student conduct, take steps towards creating an “inclusive” campus climate and treat staff as “compassionately as possible.”

The campus administration has also said they will form a task force that will include students, faculty and staff, to review and possibly revise the code of student conduct. Charges against students involved in the Dec. 11 “Open University” were recently dropped.

Strikers said they remain unmoved and “disillusioned” with campus responses and continue to stand by their prior demands. Lara-Briseno said he already knew about the initiatives announced by Breslauer and Le Grande before the letter was released and is “unimpressed.”

“We are still set on demands in terms of student conduct for them to drop the charges against the protesters,” Corona said. “We believe they charged these students under undue process. A lot of these students are our personal friends that are committed and invested leaders in Chicano groups.”

Staff from the Tang Center continue to check on the strikers daily, making sure they are sufficiently hydrated by drinking cranberry juice and are retaining fluids, said Kim LaPean, communications manager for University Health Services.

Nancy Amy, associate professor of nutritional science and toxicology at UC Berkeley, said it would take a month before strikers would feel the physical effects of not eating, but they will feel other “psychological changes” much sooner. She added that administrators should be worried about the strikers’ lack of sleep rather than their lack of food.

“There have been people who have participated in hunger strikes for months,” she said. “If people continue not sleeping after two days, they start experiencing serious consequences such as hallucinations.”

Lara-Briseno said he is willing to continue going without food until he graduates.

“Us staying on the hunger strike is our way to pressure them and ensure that they won’t provide us with false words,” he said.

After an informal discussion Thursday afternoon between five members of the “Hungry for Justice Coalition,” Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Harry Le Grande, the strikers said that they will continue their protest until Birgeneau agrees to discuss their demands in person.

The strikers have been camped out in front of California Hall since Monday afternoon, surviving only on water laced with sugar and lemon. At the time of the discussion, the strikers had been without food for 75 hours.

After the representatives of the strikers spoke with Breslauer and Le Grande for nearly two hours, they addressed about 100 supporters outside of California Hall, saying their discussion was simply a dialogue, not a negotiation.

“We spoke mostly about the strikers’ demands,” said External Affairs Vice President-elect Ricardo Gomez, one of the five students in the meeting. “It was a good step towards moving towards what the hunger strikers want to accomplish.”

In a statement released Wednesday, Birgeneau addressed each of the demonstrators’ six demands and stated that he is “personally prepared” to speak out against the recently passed Arizona immigration law. However, he did not fully agree to the strikers’ other demands.

The demonstrators said they stand by their prior demands, asking Birgeneau to publicly denounce Arizona’s immigration law; make UC Berkeley a sanctuary campus and provide extended protections for undocumented students; drop all student conduct charges against student activists; stop cuts to low-wage employees; suspend conduct procedures and initiate a democratic, student-led process to review the code; and to commit to using nonviolent means of ensuring safety at student demonstrations in the future.

Claire Holmes, associate vice chancellor of communications and public affairs, said Birgeneau is in Europe on university affairs and will return Monday. She added that campus officials will try to reach out to strikers again Friday.

“They had a very good dialogue – we’re in the process of digesting the information and the exchange,” she said. “We’re thinking hard about what commitments we can make. We are very concerned about their health and well-being, and we want them to end the protest.”

The strikers urged the demonstrators to e-mail the administration with their personal stories of how the Arizona law affects them in order for the administration to understand how the immigration law impacts UC Berkeley students.

“To see the protesters here gives me energy,” said UC Berkeley sophomore Alejandro Jimenez while addressing the strikers. “I encourage you to stay strong, to hang in there and to know that you are inspiring a lot of people, keep it up.”

Huguely was charged with swearing in public, public intoxication and resisting arrest Nov. 14 in Lexington, Va. and reportedly threatened a police officer’s life. Casteen expressed frustration with the lack of communication between police jurisdictions, adding that neither Charlottesville Police nor the University was ever informed of the incident.

“Strikes me as odd,” Casteen said, “that the law does not require that kind of notification.”

Thursday, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Casteen and University officials plan to meet with Gov. Bob McDonnell to discuss the possibility of passing a state law that would require police departments to notify universities when a student is arrested.

Dean of Students Allen Groves added that he was first informed of the arrest when he read about it in the media in the days following Love’s death.

“As things surface, as things like this 2008 arrest are brought to light, I find myself saying, ‘I wish we had known that,’” Groves said.

Athletic Director Craig Littlepage explained that University policy requires a student involved in an alcohol incident to undergo counseling. In the case of an athlete, the student would be suspended from team-related activities until he was cleared by the counselor, Littlepage said. Thereafter, the athlete would meet with his coach, who could potentially take further disciplinary action.

Littlepage said neither men’s team coach Dom Starsia nor Huguely’s teammates came forth with any information regarding the 2008 incident. Littlepage did address the potential gap of communication separating players and coaches that has become a nationwide issue.

“Understand the dynamics of a team: The last thing you want to do as a teammate, as a roommate, as a friend is to tell something that might have you fall out of favor with somebody that you’re very close with,” Littlepage said. “There’s a unique element of trust within a team, and we’re struggling with a mechanism by which student-athletes can feel comfortable having either a mechanism or a person who they can go and speak with.”

Four students and one union worker will have an informal discussion with Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Harry Le Grande Thursday at 4 p.m.

In the statement, Birgeneau addressed each of the demonstrators’ six demands, stating he is “personally prepared” to speak out against the recently passed Arizona immigration law and will join with others in urging President Barack Obama to find a way to repeal the law, “repairing a clearly broke federal immigration law system.”

Members of the Hungry for Justice Coalition met at 2 p.m. to discuss Birgeneau’s response but will not comment until after the meeting, according to senior Horacio Corona, currently in his 75th hour without food. A meeting was attempted Wednesday between student strikers and Breslauer, but the talk was called off when campus officials refused to let Tanya Smith, president of the University Professional and Technical Employees Local 1, join the students.

In the letter Birgeneau said the campus has already hired eight out of 33 laid-off custodians and will try to rehire more laid-off employees as new positions open up.

Birgeneau said he will not acquiesce to the strikers’ demand to have UC Berkeley declared a sanctuary campus for undocumented students because there may be the “unintended consequence of putting undocumented students and other community members at risk for heightened scrutiny.” He also said undocumented students would not be put at risk if they contacted UCPD to report crimes or threats.

The chancellor also declined to drop conduct charges against all student activists, as the strikers requested, saying the campus has already dropped cases against those involved in the Dec. 11 “Open University” demonstration and that the circumstances surrounding the Nov. 20 Wheeler Hall occupation disrupted the campus community.

“On November 20th, 3800 students were prevented from attending classes by the actions of the protesters who occupied Wheeler Hall and a number of our buildings were disrupted by falsely pulled fire alarms,” he said in the statement. “We have an obligation to all members of our community to ensure that our (normal) campus activities are not disrupted and our Time, Place and Manner rules are upheld.”

The campus will not suspend conduct procedures, but a task force of students, faculty and staff will be created to reexamine the conduct process.

In response to the strikers’ demand that the campus accept “responsibility for the violence and escalation of the confrontation surrounding Wheeler Hall on Nov. 20 and Dec. 11,” Birgeneau said he regrets the incidents that “brought physical and emotional injury” and that the campus is investigating the events led by the Police Review Board. A report from Wayne Brazil, professor of law and chair of the board, is expected by the end of the month.

“We are committed to fashioning policies and procedures that honor the University’s commitments to freedom of inquiry and expression, and to maintaining the kind of secure and safe environment without which free inquiry and expression would not be possible,” Birgeneau said in the letter.

Earlier this morning, two members of American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 announced they would join in the hunger strike.

The new system will use sensors to detect students’ university identification cards when they enter classrooms, according to NAU spokesperson Tom Bauer. The data will be recorded and available for professors to examine.

Bauer said the university’s main goal with the sensor system is to increase attendance and student performance.

“People are saying we are using surveillance or Orwellian [tactics] and, boy, I’m like ‘wow,’ I didn’t know taking attendance qualified as surveillance,” Bauer said.

NAU president John Haeger is encouraging professors to have attendance be a part of students’ grades, but he added it is not mandatory and up to each professor to decide, Bauer said.

Haeger added the sensors, paid for by federal stimulus money, initially would only be installed in large freshmen and sophomore classes with more than 50 students.

NAU Student Body President Kathleen Templin said most students seem to be against the new system. She added students have started Facebook groups and petitions against the sensor system.

NAU sophomore Rachel Brackett created one of the most popular Facebook groups, “NAU Against Proximity Cards,” which has more than 1,400 members.

Brackett said she chooses to go to class, and it is a right she hopes to preserve. She said not being forced to go to class is a part of the college experience.

“I feel as though having students make it their own decision to go to class is part of the process of becoming mature adults,” Brackett said.

Adam Kissel, director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said this is the first time he has heard of such a system.

Kissel added if the school is strictly using the system for taking attendance in classrooms there would probably be no harm.

Kissel said with enough sensors, the system could be used to track students’ presence on campus 24 hours a day, which would be a problem for students’ rights.

“One thing that we find here at FIRE is that if the rule is there or the technology is there, the university will probably use it,” Kissel said.

Brackett said she feels the sensor system is an invasion of privacy. She said in theory, with the recorded data, many people in the university would be able to track students’ locations.

“It’s just one more step in the wrong direction…. I am finding out the more I study this particular issue,” Brackett said.

While some say the system is Orwellian, it is similar to an existing University of Wisconsin practice. Some UW classes use electronic clickers to take attendance and have students answer questions during class.

U. Wisconsin professor Dana Geary, who uses the clickers for one of her classes, said the clickers do not seem to affect the number of students who attend class.

Geary added the attendance grades were useful in helping her make decisions in grading for students whose grades were right at a boundary level.

Both Huguely and Love, members of the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams, respectively, were set to graduate May 23.

Charlottesville police officers were called to apartment 9 in the Camden Courtyard complex on 14th Street at 2:15 a.m. Monday to respond to a case of possible alcohol poisoning. Love was found unresponsive and appeared to have undergone serious physical trauma. Officials attempted to revive her, but those efforts were unsuccessful. Love was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police officials, who have yet to determine the cause of death, declined to discuss the nature of Love’s injuries but are treating the case as a homicide investigation.

“We referred the case to our investigation division, which arrived on the scene earlier this morning, and at that point, our attention was drawn to Mr. Huguely,” Longo said.

Huguely, who graduated from the Landon School in Bethesda, Md., was reported to have dated Love in the past, Longo said, and officials arrested him Monday morning. Longo declined to discuss the evidence that connected Huguely with Love’s murder.

“It’s clear that at some point, they were involved in a relationship, but what the status of that relationship was at the time is not yet clear,” Longo said.

UVA president John T. Casteen sent an e-mail to students early yesterday afternoon with news of the tragedy. He expressed condolences to friends and family of Love and indignation that the crime appears to have been committed by a University student.

“That she appears now to have been murdered by another student compounds this sense of loss by suggesting Yeardley died without comfort or consolation from those closest to her,” Casteen said. “We mourn her death and feel anger on reading that the investigators believe that another student caused it. Like students who have contacted us in the last few minutes, we have no explanation of what appears now to have happened.”

Love was a resident of Cockeysville, Md., north of Baltimore, and graduated from nearby Notre Dame Preparatory School. She has been a steady contributor to the women’s lacrosse team during the past four seasons and scored during her first career game as a Cavalier against Virginia Tech in 2007. She has played in 15 games this season as a defender.

With the postseason for both men’s and women’s lacrosse teams nearing, athletic department officials said they have not yet considered suspending the teams’ seasons. It was “not even entering our thoughts,” Athletic Director Craig Littlepage told ESPN.com yesterday. Officials were still shocked by the loss of Love, he said, “a person who was described as an angel by teammates and friends.”

The Love family declined to comment at this time.

University officials centered their response to the tragedy on ensuring students received all necessary support. In an interview last week, University spokesperson Carol Wood described the University’s course of action when responding to any kind of death or serious incident involving the University.

“We always start off with a narrower focus, offering assistance to the victim’s family and close friends,” Wood said. “Once we have provided as much support as possible for the individuals most affected, we shift our focus to addressing the greater community.”

Counselors and deans made themselves available for students and athletes affected by the tragedy. Love is the seventh student to have passed away this academic year.

No homicides, however, have been reported in the Charlottesville area since January, when the remains of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington were uncovered at a farm just south of Charlottesville. Harrington disappeared Oct. 17 last year after a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena. No suspects have been located in the case.

Officials identified Huguely as connected with the crime almost immediately and had arrested him just hours after Love was pronounced dead. In incidents involving students who have been charged with a crime, local police usually forward information to the University’s Office of the Dean of Students and the dean can bring up University Judiciary Committee charges against the student. But so long as the student is jailed and not enrolled in classes, he will not face trial with the committee, according to organization bylaws. UJC or Honor Committee proceedings are the only methods by which enrolled students can be dismissed permanently from the University.

Huguely, who was charged in November 2008 with public intoxication and resisting arrest in Rockbridge County, currently is in custody at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail.

Students expressed shock and outrage at the murder as it garnered attention from press outlets across the country, many of which were drawn to the case because Huguely was a member of the University’s top-ranked men’s lacrosse program.

“It’s been especially tough on students because [the news] has hit the mainstream media,” Student Council President Colin Hood said. “I think students are trying to keep a sense of community here and are still in a period of mourning and grief; they are trying to fill the gaps of uncertainty.”

While the Big Ten is unlikely to announce any decision on conference expansion in the near future, other conferences around the country are keeping a watchful eye on its actions.

Last week, Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive told The Associated Press that while the conference is not considering adding new teams, it is internally examining the pros and cons of expansion in the event of a “significant shift in the conference paradigm.”

Rumored targets of the Big Ten include Big East schools Rutgers U., U. Connecticut, Syracuse U. and U. Pittsburgh, as well as several Big 12 teams, including U. Texas and U. Missouri.

U. Minnesota Athletics Director Joel Maturi is aware that any move the Big Ten makes could have a significant effect on the landscape of college sports. Maturi said last month that that effect is one of the many considerations for the conference before it reaches a decision on expansion.

“Others might [be] concerned [with] what we’re doing, if we’re going to take a team from their conference, and how … that positively or negatively impacts the whole climate of intercollegiate athletics, and I think we’re sensitive to all those things,” Maturi said.

Losing member universities to another conference can be devastating.

Former Southwest Conference Commissioner Kyle Kallander had a front-row seat for the conference’s dissolution after losing four schools when the Big Eight, now the Big 12, expanded in 1994.

Three years after U. Arkansas abandoned the SWC for the SEC in 1991, it was announced that Texas, Texas A&M U., Texas Tech U. and Baylor U. would leave to join the newly formed Big 12 in 1996.

Kallander, currently the commissioner of the Big South Conference, came to the SWC as an assistant commissioner in 1992 and served as commissioner in its final season. He said that at the time, conferences were beginning to develop their own television packages, and schools left seeking more television revenue than the SWC could provide.

After Arkansas’ departure, the eight remaining SWC schools were all in Texas, limiting its television footprint.

“It became all about the number of households and ratings, and the Southwest Conference was in an unenviable position of being a one-state league … so the leverage at the bargaining table was pretty limited,” Kallander said.

He said there was little talk of trying to save the conference, and the issue was determining the next step for the four remaining schools: Southern Methodist U., Texas Christian U., Rice U. and the U. of Houston.

But historically, other conferences have not always sat idly by as another conference poached its members.

In 2003, the Big East filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference, which had extended invitations to three Big East schools — U. Miami, Virginia Tech U. and Boston College — to join the conference. The suit alleged that the ACC conspired with Miami and Boston College to weaken the Big East by stealing its top football programs.

A separate suit was filed against Miami, Boston College and its director of athletics, Gene DeFilippo.

DeFilippo declined to comment for this story.

A settlement was ultimately reached, but the Big East wanted to deter members from future departures. As a result, it established a loyalty clause requiring departing members to pay $5 million to the Big East Conference in exchange for their release.

In 2005, the Big East turned to Conference USA for replacements, plucking U. Cincinnati, U. Louisville, U. South Florida, DePaul U. and Marquette U. from its ranks.

Conference USA in turn added six new members from the Mid-American and the Western Athletic conferences to fill its vacancies.

Kallander said a similar “ripple effect” occurred when the Big Eight expanded and the WAC added three former SWC members.

While it’s unknown what the Big Ten will do, Kallander said any expansion could have a far-reaching impact.

“It depends on who all’s involved … but if it’s a dramatic shift, then it could affect everybody in college athletics at the Division I level in the country,” Kallander said.

Several university buildings — including some residence halls and Central Library — have experienced minor flooding, according to an update on Vanderbilt’s website. If students experience any issues related to flooding, they are encouraged to contact either their RA or HR immediately.

In his official statement, McCarty said the decision to cancel exams was not taken lightly and that his primary concern is the safety of students, staff and faculty.

“Some of our students have been displaced from their residence hall rooms because of water damage, and many of our faculty and staff are dealing with damage to their homes or live in areas threatened by rising waters from nearby streams and rivers,” he wrote in the e-mail sent to all students, faculty and staff.

“If a given faculty member and his or her students can go forward with the exam as scheduled, I trust them to make that decision. However, my guiding principle is that no student should be disadvantaged given the events of the past two days. I ask that all faculty members work with their students to schedule an alternate time or times to administer their exams, including extending the exam period by one day.”

Professors have been instructed to contact their classes with more information about how these chagnes will affect individual courses.

Emergency officials are urging all Nashville area residents to stay in place unless they are threatened by rising water.

According to media reports, third-year law student Stephanie N. Grace’s private e-mail detailing her views on race was forwarded to the Black Law Students Association e-mail list earlier this week, and then circulated nationally soon after.

In her e-mail, Grace allegedly wrote that she “absolutely” does not “rule out the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent.”

“Everyone wants someone to take 100 white infants and 100 African American ones and raise them in Disney utopia and prove once and for all that we are all equal on every dimension,” Grace allegedly wrote.

“I am merely not 100% convinced that this is the case,” the e-mail continued.

According to Professor Charles J. Ogletree, a BLSA adviser, the student—whom he declined to name—approached Dean of Students Ellen Cosgrove Wednesday upon learning that the e-mail was forwarded.

The student sent the e-mail to several friends in November, Ogletree said. Ogletree added that he was unsure why the e-mail had not been circulated until now.

Olgetree said he asked the student to come to his office, where the two “had a heart to heart and she profusely apologized,” he added.

Minow met with BLSA leaders Wednesday when the e-mail first surfaced. In a message she sent to the Law School yesterday morning, Minow wrote that the “circulation of one student’s comment does not reflect the views of the school or the overwhelming majority of the members of this community.”

Professor Ronald S. Sullivan said that the “unfortunate statement grew out of a very ugly part of our history where blackness itself was assigned physical meaning.”

Some students at the Law School mentioned that the media exposure and backlash has been unfair because Grace’s e-mail was intended to be private. But others said they felt the administration should not overlook the incident.

The student assumed the risk of her e-mail being widely circulated as soon as she sent it to multiple people, Sullivan said.

“The way this came out is unfortunate because it doesn’t facilitate open conversation,” said Jennifer Dein, president of the Law School’s student government.

According to legal blog Above the Law, Grace wrote an e-mail apology to BLSA that stated, “I am deeply sorry for the pain caused by my e-mail…I would give anything to take it back.”

Ogletree said that he “consider[s] the matter closed” following the student’s apology and Dean Minow’s response. “The Law School has done everything it could have done, and should have done,” he said.

Above the Law previously reported that BLSA is actively attempting to get Grace’s upcoming federal clerkship for conservative Judge Alex Kozinski rescinded. However, Minow and Sullivan said these reports were false.

“The Harvard community is strong. She is a part of it,” Sullivan said. “And I think our community will be even stronger after having worked through the pain that the e-mail has caused.”

Neither Grace nor BLSA officers returned repeated requests for comment.

Javier is sick with fear. How could he have missed the speed trap? He knows what’s at stake. He’s 19 years old, a U. Kansas freshman from Kansas City, Kan., but he’s also here illegally, undocumented. If this cop finds out his secret, Javier could be arrested and shipped back to Mexico, a country he hasn’t seen since he was 5 years old.

Javier, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, frantically plans what he’ll say as he watches the cop draw nearer in the rearview mirror. He steps closer to the black VW Golf and gazes in at Javier.

“License and registration?”

Javier feels his hands trembling. He has no license because he is undocumented. On paper, he doesn’t exist. He tries to play it cool and hands the officer his registration and insurance.

“And your license?” the officer says.

Javier tries to calm his voice as he tells the cop what he will discover anyway.

“I don’t have one.”

And then the lie.

“I never got around to it.”

The officer asks for some form of ID. Javier hands him his KU ID, newly printed at orientation. The officer stares at it. Javier holds his breath.

“You’d better call someone to pick you up.”

The cop walks away, Javier’s ID in hand. Relief floods over him. His dream is still alive.

•••

Raul stumbles out of the bus and onto the asphalt. His bruised wrists ache from being handcuffed to another man during the long journey from the jail in Missouri where he was detained.

Guards with guns drawn toss the men’s belongings to the ground in plastic trash bags. Raul scrambles for his Bible, drawings of his godson and his $40 prison check, his parting gift from the U.S. government to start a new life in Mexico.

It is a year and a half and 750 miles from Raul’s 2007 graduation from U. Kansas. In that faraway life, he was the radiant example of success against all odds — a student senator, the first in his family to earn a college degree. Even now, as Raul stands at the Mexican border, his face beams from the Latino recruitment poster used by KU Admissions. On the poster, he is pictured below text in Spanish that reads: You Have a Home Here.

Then-Provost Richard Lariviere delivered an impassioned speech for diversity, using Raul’s story as a shining example: how he came from a poor family and worked full time to both support them and pay for his education, earning a degree in psychology.

“We must repeat his story thousands of times,” Lariviere told faculty.

Lariviere and those who heard that speech didn’t know that Raul, who came to the United States with his family in search of the American dream, was undocumented.

That dream crumbled into a nightmare only a year and a half after he walked down the hill at graduation. This time, he would walk across a bridge over the Rio Grande to another country and another life.

For Raul, life in limbo had ended.

•••

Each year, more than 65,000 undocumented students like Javier and Raul graduate from high schools in the United States. These students live in limbo: They grow up American, yet are not legal residents.

In Kansas, undocumented students can go to college. But in some states, including Missouri, it is illegal to attend public universities. Undocumented students can’t get Social Security numbers to work legally, driver’s licenses or college scholarships. They live in constant fear of deportation to countries that they don’t remember.

For students like Javier, living in limbo means that any at second, life as he knows it could be snatched away, as when Raul was sent back to Mexico.

“I was born there, but it’s not my home,” Javier said.

In high school, Javier felt lost. People noticed his flashy gold Supra high tops poking out from his school uniform khakis, but Javier himself receded into the shadows. The skinny kid with dark hair and glasses who speaks English without an accent was the only undocumented student at his private Catholic high school in Kansas City, Kan. The school had both rich and poor students, and he was from the poorer side. His parents take pride in their hard work that pays for their children’s education. His father, Javier Sr., is a painter; his mother, Ester, cleans houses. His sister, Ireri, 16, a popular girl who plays soccer and swims for the school team, is also undocumented.

Like other undocumented teenagers, Javier was hitting the many restrictions of his status. He didn’t have a driver’s license, so he couldn’t drive. He couldn’t legally work, either. He used a fake Social Security number to get his first job as a lifeguard at Roeland Park Aquatic Center. The manager assumed the faulty digits were a mistake and asked Javier to go home and check it out with his parents. Javier walked out and never went back.

“It was the first time I felt like I was undocumented,” Javier said. “It just hit me all of a sudden, like a wake-up call.”

During his junior year, friends started talking about college. They would ask him about his plans, and Javier would say he didn’t know.

He grew frustrated, but his mom was hopeful. Ester, 47, and Javier Sr., 46, came to this country so their children could get an education. Though they speak limited English, they dream of success in the United States for their children. Each night, Ester would ask Javier how his college search was going. She was sure there was a way for him to go.

When he visited his local college, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, the woman working at admissions gave a rousing speech about how the university welcomed people from all backgrounds. After listening, Javier felt hopeful enough to ask if that meant he could go too. She told him it’d be illegal for him to go to school in Missouri.

Sometimes the frustration would boil over. His mom would insist there was a way, and Javier would explode.

“You don’t know anything!” he snapped at her. “You know nothing about the laws!”

When he was done, Ester would calm him in Spanish: Have faith in God.

His parents started talking about sending him back to Mexico for college.

Javier hasn’t been to Mexico since he was 5. His friends are here. His life is here. Border enforcement is strict. If he went to Mexico, he might never be able to return home.

“That was my plan Z,” Javier said.

Worry about his future consumed his thoughts, but he found bravery through his art.

He spray-painted a canvas his senior year that now hangs in his bedroom. Standing bold against diagonal blue and red stripes is Muhammad Ali, poised and ready to fight.

“Muhammad Ali wasn’t scared of anything,” Javier said.

In between the lines of his own name, Javier painstakingly stenciled: I feel anxious, confused.

•••

Then, in February 2009, Javier visited the University with his friend and classmate, Juan. Juan had already applied to the University and wanted to major in business.

As Javier walked around the campus, he told himself: If I could go to any school, this is where I’d go.

Now, the pair stood in a crowd of prospective students and parents outside Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union.

“Just ask,” Juan nudged Javier.

“I already know it’s no,” Javier said.

As Javier looked at his feet, he flashed back to his visit to UMKC. Why would this be any different?

“Ask,” Juan insisted.

He had known Javier since they were in kindergarten — he was used to pushing his more reserved friend. He had already dragged him to this visit.

“Do you want me to do it?” Juan said.

“I don’t care,” said Javier, relenting so Juan would stop asking.

Juan approached Greg Valdovino, KU’s assistant director of multicultural recruitment.

“So, I have this friend who’s illegal — can he go to school here?”

Only a few feet away, Javier heard the response and couldn’t believe it.

“No problem,” Valdovino said.

Kansas has made higher education possible for students like Javier since 2004. Kansas is one of only 11 states to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students who attend high school in state. Though opponents voiced fears that colleges in Kansas would be inundated with undocumented students, an average of only 251 students per year have received in-state tuition because of this law since 2005, according to the Kansas Board of Regents.

Of the 316 undocumented students who received in-state tuition in Kansas in 2009, only 10 attend this University, the Board of Regents reports.

The bill, called the Kansas Dream Act, makes the dream of a college education possible for students like Javier.

He couldn’t wait to tell his mom.

•••

When he heard his mom yell, “I’m home!” in Spanish, Javier bounded up the stairs from his basement room into the kitchen.

He launched into a description of the visit to the University. He saved the best for last: “I can go,” he said in Spanish, smiling.

Ester squealed with joy and grabbed Javier, squeezing him tight.

“I told you so,” Ester said in Spanish, kissing her son.

“I was happier for her than I was for me,” he recalled.

•••

Ester called Valdovino, and he explained everything to her in Spanish.

Javier would have to meet the same entrance requirements as any applicant, and he wouldn’t be eligible for federal financial aid. That makes attending the University an impossible dream for undocumented students who fall below the poverty line.

All Javier had to do was sign an affidavit that he had gone to high school in Kansas and was attempting to pursue citizenship.

Then Ester asked the question she feared the answer to: Would Javier be safe from discrimination … and worse?

Valdovino explained that the law required confidentiality. Immigration and customs officials could not come to the University and ask for students’ citizenship information.

Javier applied.

•••

Two months later, the TV was blaring in Ireri’s room, but Javier’s younger sister could still hear the sudden screams.

Visions of what might have happened cloud her mind. She dashes into the living room. Javier is grinning. Her mother is hopping with excitement and yelling into the phone in Spanish.

“Lo aceptaron!”

A letter lies open on the table.

Ireri starts shouting, too.

Javier’s father comes in. “What’s all the commotion?” he asks his giddy family.

“Javier got into KU!”

Javier Sr.’s eyes glisten.

“Good job, son,” he says.

•••

Javier Sr.’s van pulled up outside of McCollum on move-in day. Javier was both embarrassed and proud that the world could see Ireri’s message painted across the windows: KU — here comes Javier.

Everyone in Javier’s family wore KU gear to move Javier into his dorm room.

Javier watched his mom. Yeah, she spoke Spanish, but she was like every other mom there. On move-in day, all moms flutter around, worried. Ester was beside herself.

When the family drove away, despite his vows not to cry, Javier Sr. was the first one in tears.

•••

“Are you in your room?” Ester’s voice sounded upset.

“No,” said Javier. He was talking on his cell phone, walking back from class on a sunny October afternoon.

“Call me when you are back there,” his mother requested.

Javier suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Something bad had happened.

He called her back. His mother’s 40-year-old brother, Javier’s uncle Alex, had been murdered in Mexico.

He had been shot in the gang warfare consuming Mexico. The drug war killed more than 6,000 people last year and has prompted some security analysts to warn that Mexico is in danger of becoming a failed state.

Alone in his McCollum room, Javier hurled anything he could find at the wall.

His uncle had been the ladies’ man, the life of the party. He made everybody laugh. He had just settled down — he was married, just had his second baby. Now, he was gone.

Undocumented, the family couldn’t go to Mexico for the funeral. If they did, they might never be able to return to the United States. In recent years, the Department of Homeland Security has put up 44 miles of tall fencing dividing the Juarez Valley from Texas and has doubled the number of Border Patrol agents.

•••

Sometimes, Javier thinks about being deported and about the violence in Mexico.

Chihuahua, the Mexican state south of Texas where his family lives, is terrorized by the narcotics war.

When he talks to his grandmother on the phone, she describes hearing the pop of AK-47s firing outside her window.

Javier worries most about having to build an entirely new life in Mexico. His grandmother, aunts and uncles live in a tiny city in the desert.

“It’d be like starting over in a foreign country,” he said.

He also worries about losing the relationships he has here. He started dating his first steady girlfriend during his senior year of high school. A year later, he is still dating Haley, the blonde and bubbly girl who charmed his family at his sister’s quinceñera, the celebration that marks a young Latina’s 15th birthday and her corresponding transition to adulthood. The only gringa at the party, Haley kicked up her heels with his family and stayed to clean up afterward.

That night, he had his friends sneak outside to scrawl a prom invitation across the windshield of Haley’s car. They started dating the day after prom.

Haley is from the right side of the tracks. Her parents are professionals. Before Javier, she had never known someone who was undocumented.

“My parents have always raised me to be open minded and aware of other people,” she said.

The summer after they started dating, they talked about the big “what if” — what if Javier got deported? Javier tried to play it cool, like he wasn’t scared so he could convince her it wasn’t a problem.

But Haley worries.

“It’s definitely in the back of your mind … you know, what if … this happened,” she said.

Her voice catches. She regains composure and says, “People think it’s hard to do long distance relationships in college. Well, it’s even harder in another country.”

Javier knows Haley will be there for him. In his darkest hours, Javier plans how he might get back to her if was deported.

•••

Javier knows there is no practical way to legalize his status. His family came in 1995 on tourist visas. The visas expired, but the family stayed.

When Javier turned 18, he became an unlawful resident of the United States. Unlawful presence, which begins only when a person becomes a legal adult, is what typically bars a person from changing his visa status.

Javier’s only hope to change his status would be if he had a spouse or a child who was a U.S. citizen.

The proposed DREAM Act could allow him legal status.

DREAM, an acronym for the Development, Relief and Education Act for Alien Minors, is bipartisan legislation that addresses the plight of young people who immigrated as undocumented children, grew up here, stayed in school and kept out of trouble.

Introduced in 2001, it stalled in Congress in 2003 and again in 2007. In March 2009, it was reintroduced.

Javier holds out for that slim hope.

•••

Javier goes home to Kansas City most weekends to see his family and Haley, a freshman at Rockhurst. She keeps him motivated when the barriers of being undocumented trip him up, whether it is the embarrassment of having Haley drive everywhere even though she says she doesn’t mind, the pain of his uncle’s death and the separation from his family in Mexico, or the possibility that he could be deported.

Haley is a regular visitor at the tidy burnt orange bungalow that stands out from the muted white and grey of its neighbors. In a row of yards where weeds compete with trash, the neatness of Javier Sr., and Ester’s enclosed lawn seems to gleam.

On the front of the house, a small sign proclaims, “Jayhawk fans live here.”

Inside, Ester flips hot tortillas onto plates. She fusses over her children and husband, making sure everyone has enough to eat. Javier tells his father a story in between heaping bites of menudo, a traditional Mexican soup. Ireri glances up from her phone to grin at her brother. The family is talking and laughing, but living in limbo, not knowing when the life they have here could end.

Raul is disoriented as he stands next to the bus. It’s September 2008, and he is miles away from anyone or anything he knows, staring at the bridge before him.

It begins to rain.

The 75 deportees pass through border check-in points — small structures that resemble tollbooths — and then onto Del Río-Ciudad Acuña International Bridge. It crosses over the Rio Grande and connects, yet divides, two countries, two worlds.

Raul tries to move quickly: He doesn’t want to get wet, and he doesn’t want to get left behind. Gang members are lurking across the border, waiting to rob any stragglers. It’s hard to keep up — the guards took his shoelaces and his belt.

For a minute, Raul pauses. One chapter of his life is over. As the rain pelts his back and he walks back into Mexico, he thinks, I have to change my plan completely.

•••

Not so long before, Raul’s plan had been different.

Raul, now 26, graduated from the University in 2007 with high hopes and frequent worries. He wanted to get a master’s degree, but he was worried about finding a good job, about caring for his family. One day, he wanted to take his godson to visit his homeland of Mexico.

He never dreamed his arrival back in Mexico would be like this: dropped at the border after being arrested at his workplace in Olathe and deported five months later.

•••

These days, it is hard for Raul to remember his life in Lawrence.

But people here remember him.

His mentor, Juan Izaguirre, assistant director of the Multicultural Resource Center, remembers Raul as the first to volunteer for activities — even if it meant moving around shifts at work.

Friends remember him as “always on the go” as he balanced responsibilities and his academics, his job, his family, his friends and his fraternity.

After the Provost’s speech praising him, those who didn’t know Raul now did. Yeah, he was quiet, but he had flair. He was the kid who went to a U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute Conference wearing a sherbet green suit. He had a leather jacket decorated with fake $100 bills. He wore sparkling earrings he insisted were diamonds. Friends called him “Flash” or “Speed Racer.” Even people who didn’t know him personally knew his hair — shaved in intricate designs.

But few knew his whole story.

•••

In 1999, when Raul was 16, his parents started talking about making the journey North.

His father had worked as a salesman for the Sabritas potato chip plant in Tijuana, a rough industrial border town in northern Mexico close to San Diego, but he lost the benefits that would help him pay for Raul’s higher education.

Education had almost mythical qualities for the Raul’s family. His parents finished only middle school and were sure they struggled in life because they were uneducated. More than anything, they wanted a better life for their children.

Raul didn’t want to move to a foreign land where he was sure people would look down on him because he couldn’t speak English.

He didn’t know his parents were serious about the move until they started selling the family’s belongings.

Then, he asked his mother: “Why are we going?”

“Because we are a family,” she said, “and families stick together.”

Raul started studying English.

The family crossed using tourist visas. His parents decided on Kansas and moved to Kansas City, Kan., with their four children: Raul, his younger brothers Hugo and Sergio, and his sister Claudette.

Raul learned English quickly at a rough urban school in an industrial area of Kansas City, Kan. His first quarter, he enrolled in every English as a Second Language class he could. By the beginning of the second quarter he was enrolled in regular English classes. He graduated with a 3.98 GPA and went on to Johnson County Community College for the 2001-2002 school year. There, he first learned how fragile his dream was.

•••

“It’s expired,” the customs agent at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport stated, holding Raul’s passport and staring at him.

Raul was shocked. It hadn’t been a problem on the way down. He had spent two weeks on a service trip to Jalisco, Mexico, through Johnson County Community College. The students volunteered at a community of low-income families called Las Pintas. They needed an interpreter, and Raul, eager to help, had signed up.

On the way down, his passport and tourist visa were no problem.

But during the trip, his passport had expired, and Raul could no longer legally enter the United States.

Authorities separated Raul from the other students and took him into custody. There, he signed a voluntary deportation form and was placed on the next flight back to Jalisco.

Frustrated, alone and 19 years old, he cried the entire flight.

•••

Trapped in Mexico, Raul had only two thoughts on his mind: his family and his education. He worried about his brothers. His parents worked more than 80 hours a week at two jobs, and Raul had acted as a father figure to Hugo and Sergio. He knew the family was hurting without his income and guidance.

He decided to make the journey back. He tried to go legally first by applying for a visa, but it was denied.

The only other option was crossing illegally. Desperate to go home, Raul paid a coyote, a guide who transports undocumented migrants, to lead him across the desert that spans the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

Raul remembers the desert as dark and cold. They traveled at night, and he wasn’t able to sleep for almost a week. In the middle of his journey, he was robbed of the only money he was carrying — 20 pesos, roughly equivalent to $2.

Border Patrol officials, la migra, arrested some members of his group, but Raul ran without looking back and escaped capture.

Raul kept thinking about his family, knowing that his mom would suffer if he didn’t make it. He thought about his education. He had visited the University during high school and thought he was destined to go there.

•••

Raul made it back and enrolled in fall 2003. Then, in the spring of 2004, his father was deported. Raul dropped out of school and worked 75 hours a week to support his family.

He returned to the University in spring 2005, when his father re-entered the United States. Raul thrived in the classroom, yet he continued to work two jobs. He slept as little as two hours a night.

“I was born and raised to work physically until I drop dead tired,” Raul said. “That’s how my mom and dad work.”

Even though he was juggling family, academic and job responsibilities, he was active in Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity, the International Student Association and the Hispanic American Leadership Organization. He practiced step dancing, a vibrant form of dance traditional to many Hispanic and black fraternities and performed in the University step show for three years.

He was an inspiration to his friends.

“He helped us, whether he knew it or not, in that way that we looked at him and said — if he can do it, so can we,” said Eloy Gallegos, a KU alumnus and a 2008 graduate and Raul’s friend. “He helped us indirectly with his attitude and his character. He’d make us laugh all the time. I don’t ever remember him saying, ‘No, this cannot be done.’”

Raul’s family came to his graduation in May 2007. Raul felt happy, proud, successful — everything a graduate should feel. He also felt a huge responsibility as a Latino with a college degree and the first member of his family to get a degree. He had a future but not the one he expected.

•••

It was 10 a.m. on April 17, 2008, almost a year after Raul’s graduation. Raul was eating lunch in his cubicle at an Olathe car dealership where he worked as a salesman, when a detective arrived.

The detective said he was looking for Raul.

He began to question him.

When Raul truthfully answered all of his questions, the officer put him in handcuffs and took him to jail.

•••

Raul’s mother was at home, cleaning the house on her day off.

The phone rang.

It was Raul. He had been arrested.

Pain washed over her. All of his accomplishments are useless now, she thought.

•••

The family sought help at Raul’s alma mater.

The message on Juan Izaguirre’s phone was from someone named Claudette. Izaguirre, in the Multicultural Resource Center, didn’t recognize the name, but the caller introduced herself as Raul’s sister.

She told Izaguirre something he couldn’t believe. The talented student he had known for four years was in trouble. He had been arrested. He would be deported.

She wanted to know if Izaguirre — who had coached him, been part of his fraternity, had hired him for HawkLink — could help him.

Izaguirre had no idea Raul was undocumented.

His first thought: Oh my god. Why didn’t I know?

His second thought: I’m paralyzed. He felt his hands were tied. He had hired Raul that summer as part of the HawkLink program. Even though he had no idea at the time that Raul was undocumented, it is illegal to hire an undocumented worker.

Izaguirre told Claudette that on an institutional level, as a KU employee, there was nothing he could legally do to help Raul.

On a personal level, he’d do anything the family needed.

She never called him back.

•••

Raul was sentenced to four months in prison. The charge? Identity theft. Raul had been using someone else’s Social Security number so he could work.

He was transferred four times to different prisons in Missouri and Kansas. Upon completion of his prison term, he was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest investigative agency of the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE officials questioned him repeatedly, trying to get him to sign deportation papers. Raul refused. Finally, it didn’t matter whether he had signed them. His deportation date was set. Raul never appeared before an immigration judge.

•••

In September 2008, Raul was taken by bus to the border, a trip that lasted three to four days because of the many stops and starts. Raul was handcuffed the entire journey, sometimes to the man next to him.

It wasn’t until he was actually there, standing in Ciudad Acuña in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, that he closed the chapter on his American life.

In the Grupo Beta aid center, Raul wearily called his grandmother in Mexico City and prepared to move there.

He ran hot water over his aching red wrists and worried about his parents and siblings back in Kansas City.

•••

They have many reminders of him.

His flashy red car, damaged in a wreck, now sits in the family’s yard.

His mother recalls how Raul would come home after classes, sit at the dining room table and in the moments before his departure for work, tell her about his day and all the things he had learned.

Raul’s absence is a special loss for his younger brother Sergio, 16. He remembers trying to translate complex mail into Spanish for his parents shortly after Raul left.

“It was overwhelming, having to do all that grown up stuff while I am still just trying to settle down,” he said. “It’s a big responsibility.”

In Mexico, Raul dreams about his family.

“A lot of times, I want to go to sleep and not wake up, not because I want to die but because I see them in my dreams, and in my dreams, nothing stands before us, no borders — nothing,” he said.

Raul texts or calls his family daily, but the technology available to him in Mexico City isn’t good, and he doesn’t always have access to the Internet or phone service.

Eloy Gallegos, his friend at the University, thinks about Raul and others like him.

“There are hundreds of Rauls in Lawrence. We just don’t know them,” he said. “It’s about putting yourself in their shoes. Would you be able to work a 12-hour shift and then go to class and somewhere in that process make time to sleep? It’s about opportunities in front of you — becoming better than what your parents are.”

•••

Raul’s new life is worlds away from his old one. He returned to his family in Mexico City and now lives with his grandmother, aunt and uncle in a suburb. Each day, he volunteers at an old cinderblock house converted into CAMISE school, a school for children with special needs. CAMISE, which serves 35 children from low-income families, is in Tultitla’n, one of the most dangerous and poorest parts of the city. On weekdays, Raul works with children with Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. To make ends meet, he sells sporting goods at flea markets over the weekend.

“If you have a college education here, they treat you like a god,” he said. “But there are still no jobs.”

Raul says that what matters in Mexico is who you know. Unlike in the United States, where a hard-working person from any background has a chance at success, in Mexico, you have to have contacts.

Raul no longer has money to buy flashy clothes or jewelry. Even if he did, it would be too dangerous to wear them.

Nice tennis shoes are an invitation to be mugged.

The kid formerly known as “Flash” has to dress down in Mexico.

Raul now dreams of helping those around him: He wants his grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins to feel safe when they leave their homes. He wants to help people at the community center where he works. He wants to get the kids wheelchairs and walkers and to raise awareness about impoverished places like the one he lives in now.

He dreams of change, but he knows they are just dreams.

Sometimes, Raul goes online and looks at the KU website — and he remembers.

“It just seems like another planet,” he said.

“I didn’t really have much money coming in [to college],” Choate said. “I had an account saved up, but I ended up needing to purchase a car with it before college.”

Choate said he was set on attending Iowa State “off the bat,” and gave little thought to other choices for his education, although it wasn’t until his junior year when he actually found his major. When he started going to Iowa State, he first financed his education through Iowa Student Loan.

“My dad had taken care of my brother’s, so he’d gone through it before, so he planned to do the same thing for me through Iowa Student Loan,” Choate said.

Choate ran into an obstacle when he contacted Iowa Student Loan to reapply his sophomore year and was told to find another lender.

Iowa Student Loan did not go bankrupt nor did it close its doors; rather, the credit market crisis affected the availability of student loans.

“At its peak in 2008 and 2009, it caused a reduction in the private student loan options available to college students,” said Steve McCullough, chief executive officer of Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corp. “Since then, Iowa Student Loan has been working with its partners to rebuild Iowa students’ supplemental funding options.”

Choate went to private lenders, but the situation was further complicated when he scrambled to find a co-signer for a Wells Fargo private student loan as his sophomore year approached. Five family members — two aunts, both parents and a grandfather — were rejected when Wells Fargo said they did not have adequate credit.

“My aunts had bad credit and my dad is a small business owner, which he filed bankruptcy for,” Choate said, adding his grandfather is retired.

Choate lives in Frederiksen Court with three roommates from his high school — each of whom is in a financial situation he’s jealous of. Choate said two have most of their expenses covered by parents, and the other has every dime covered by the federal government as a member of the Air Force.

Choate found slight relief his junior year after obtaining a Stafford Plus loan through the government, which he said was a much easier process.

“One thing that was beneficial to me was going through the university to get my private loans,” Choate said. “I think they should try to make that the main option instead of students going to Wells Fargo or a private bank.”

Rachel Curtis, graduate student in sociology, said her jaw dropped when she completed her undergraduate studies and got her first bill showing her $38,000 debt.

Curtis took out debt through various federal and private loans while at Iowa State or holding internships. She kept a part-time job at a restaurant throughout her career at Iowa State.

Curtis pointed out one area she attributes to her debt was living in dorms.

“The dorms are way more expensive,” Curtis stated. “The convenience is not worth it. And actually my academics got better when I moved off campus, there were fewer distractions.”

Curtis has also taken part in several on-campus groups and internships during her summers.

“I understand the increase in tuition because the university is losing money,” Curtis said. “But the debt makes me sick to my stomach.”

Iowa State sets aside tuition revenue each year to go back as financial aid in grants. Roberta Johnson, director of financial aid at Iowa State, said the university is required to use a minimum of 15 percent, but they currently take closer to 27 percent.

There is a limit Iowa State sets for student loan amounts, which Johnson said is a safeguard for both lenders and students not to compromise their financial futures.

State Rep. Peter Cownie of West Des Moines feels like there could be a direct relationship between the high levels of student debt and a lack of understanding about credit. He is the president of Junior Achievement of Central Iowa, a nonprofit group that teaches students K-12 about financial literacy, entrepreneurship and overall economics.

“When I was in college, I knew a lot of kids who didn’t know what a credit card was, didn’t know what a mortgage was and didn’t know what credit card debt was,” Cownie said. “Once people are out of college they really need to know what those things are.”

He suggested financial literacy is key to curbing the high level of debt in Iowa and said it would be a good thing for colleges to advocate.

Johnson similarly said there is a great need for financial education, considering student loans are often one of the first experiences young people have with credit. The federal loans require an online training session, but up until recently, nothing was required for private loans.

“Lenders who did anything different were doing it for one of two reasons: Either they had a good heart or they knew it would affect their bottom line,” Johnson said. “Because the more counseling they did up front, the less likely the students would default on the back end.”

Congress passed legislation in the Truth in Lending Act that now requires more disclosure for students getting private loans, but no mandatory financial counseling.

“It is mandatory the student get a form from their school showing what the total cost of attendance is and what their other financial aid is,” Johnson said. “There’s a requirement the student receive at least three disclosures from the lending institution.”

Those disclosures include total loan amount, expected interest to accrue over the life of the loan and possible repayment plans available. Additional regulations require the schools to let student know federal loans may be more advantageous than private loans, Johnson said.

Johnson said there have been discussions about a required financial literacy course similar to Library 160, and she points out that direct loans require an online training experience.

Choate wants to be better educated on what’s coming after graduation. Choate said when he applied for his private loans there was no counseling from either lender, and his father filled out all the paperwork.

“I never actually went in, all I had to do was electronically sign online,” Choate said. “I’ve never gotten any education at all. I think it’s something where you kind of dig yourself into a hole, and when you’re out you start getting payments thrown at you.”

Although Iowa State has a higher average student loan debt, ISU students have a lower default rate: 2 percent in fiscal year 2007 against a national average of 6.7 percent, according to the Department of Education.

Peter Orazem, economist and Ames City Council member, said the increase in availability of loans correlates with an increase in tuition.

“It’s clear that loans are easier to obtain now than they used to be,” Orazem said.

He cited the smaller family unit, which allows more money to be put behind each child, and the higher value placed on a college education.

He questioned whether Iowa State is atypical in creating debt for students, or if the school simply attracts more students who need loans to attend.

The new director of ISU Ambassadors, Jessica Bruning, sophomore in political science, had conversations with her parents over that subject.

“Iowa State is thought of as a largely agricultural school,” Bruning said. “So a lot of students are going home to be farmers, whereas the University of Iowa is turning out lawyers and doctors.”

Iowa’s median household income level in 2006 was the second-lowest among the 11 states where regent university institutions are located. A college degree, though, does increase earning potential.

Orazem said the basic principal that the richer one is, the more debt they can incur — suggesting perhaps that students take out greater debt, but also make more over their lifetime.

On July 31, 2008, ISU graduates have a median starting salary of $45,400 and a median mid-career salary of $84,600, according to data from the Wall Street Journal. Iowa State ranks above the national median starting salary for a state school of $44,126. However, the University of Utah has an identical median starting salary, but Utah also ranks as the state with the least average amount of student debt.

In a fall 2004 letter to the Minnesota Department of Corrections, he described the feeling of walking into the prison’s dental clinic and seeing Norman Eid, a dentist he knew through personal experience and his reputation among inmates.

“Right away fear rushes my heart and I am scared to death,” A.S., whose initials are being used for privacy, wrote in the letter.

A.S. wrote he had approached Eid one year earlier with a “rotten” tooth so painful it caused his gums to swell, but the dentist refused to see him.

“I had only asked him a question as to how to save the tooth,” he wrote, “and that was all it took to see his rage and disrespect.”

Eid treated prisoners at Stillwater Correctional Facility and the Oak Park Heights Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison for male felons, between 2000 and 2009.

Despite a history marked by problems with inmates and coworkers, Eid is currently in his 22nd year of employment at the U. Minnesota School of Dentistry.

As an adjunct associate professor in the radiology division, Eid oversees students’ evaluation of X-rays for four hours one day a week.

For nearly four months, the Minnesota Board of Dentistry forbade Eid to practice following multiple findings that he had failed to give pain medication before procedures, limited inmates’ access to dental care, behaved disrespectfully toward coworkers and failed to maintain a sanitary clinic. In February, the board ordered Eid to work under a conditional license.

If he completes a list of mandatory coursework and other conditions, Eid, who declined to comment for this story, could have his license fully reinstated this year.

A troubled history

Complaints against Eid’s performance culminated in an investigation by the state Office of the Attorney General in April 2008 and another in August of that year.

While working at the prisons, Eid yelled at patients, used inappropriate names for patients, made disparaging comments about coworkers, failed to properly administer and prescribe anesthesia and pain medication and “failed to remove his contaminated gloves before reaching into drawers to retrieve instruments or materials,” according to board records.

Following the investigation, the board sent Eid to Resurrection Health Care in Illinois for an evaluation.

Out of the 16,000 people the board oversees, less than 10 are sent to Resurrection per year, Executive Director Marshall Shragg said.

After receiving Resurrection’s evaluation, which recommended that Eid “cease practicing dentistry and enroll in a specialty treatment program for disruptive behavior,” the board issued a “cease and desist” on his dental license May 4, 2009, forbidding him to practice.

Eid’s was one of eight cease practice orders given by the board between April 2000 and April 2010, according to board records.

Resurrection’s report also classified Eid as having met the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder as well as some aspects of antisocial personality disorder.

Eid requested an indefinite leave of absence from the University on April 28, 2009, six days before the cease practice order was placed on his license. He was officially terminated by the School of Dentistry on May 9, 2009, one day after the last day of instruction that semester.

In August 2009, the board agreed to lift the cease practice order, with the caveat that it was still investigating Eid’s case.

U. Minnesota rehired Eid on Jan. 7, 2010, four days before the spring semester began and more than one month before the board signed an agreement finalizing the terms of his conditional license.

“It would have been known to an employer that followed standard hiring protocols that this is an individual whose case is being investigated by the court,” Shragg said.

The University decided to rehire Eid given “all the energy and effort” it had invested in him, said Patrick Lloyd, dean of the School of Dentistry.

“We didn’t feel it would be an inappropriate rehire,” Lloyd said. “[Eid] was teaching with us for 20 years without incidents,” he said. “As a consequence, you end up acquiring a fair amount of teaching aptitude. Otherwise, you’re not here.”

Eid was in the running for a position in a new dental clinic the school will open in May as part of a partnership with U. Minnesota Physicians.

Lloyd said the administration removed him from consideration about three weeks ago when it realized the position wouldn’t conform to the guidelines of his conditional license.

“There was no offer given to Dr. Eid,” he said.

‘His role is very limited here’

Last summer, Eid spent about two months at Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services in Hattiesburg, Miss., following Resurrection’s recommendations. His July discharge report concluded he had “occupational problems; and narcissistic personality disorder with obsessive-compulsive and personality features.”

Most of the complaints about Eid concern his interpersonal relationships, and no such issues have been reported at the University, Mansur Ahmad, head of the radiology division, said. Furthermore, the accusations about his performance as a dentist don’t relate to radiology, Ahmad added.

“His role is very limited here, teaching students one-to-one,” Ahmad said. “None of these were an issue for our situation.”

Nelson Rhodus, head of the division of oral medicine, said the administration investigated Eid’s performance — questioning students and faculty — before he was rehired. Rhodus said they found no problems.

“We’ve never had one single concern or complaint,” he said. “If someone accused him of something, we took it seriously.”

Although he only spent about a half-hour in the radiology lab examining X-rays with Eid, third-year dental student Andy Bohnsack said it was a valuable experience.

“I wouldn’t have any reason to believe that he would exhibit any of that behavior,” he said. “He came off as a nice guy, willing to take some extra time to teach me.”

Jane Schwartz, a dental hygienist who worked alongside Eid at Stillwater for about three years, said she’s disappointed that the University would let him work with students, who are probably unaware of his past.

“In my opinion, someone who defers treatment … and not help people, I don’t think that’s a good role model,” she said.

Questionable dentistry

On Dec. 4, 2006, Roseanne Forsblade, a dental assistant at Stillwater, did something she’d been doing for more than 10 years: She assisted the dentist with a tooth extraction.

But Eid’s extraction was unlike any she’d seen.

“The patient wasn’t numb,” she said. “He was screaming in pain the entire time.”

After the tooth, an upper molar, was removed, bone was uncovered on the neighboring wisdom tooth, according to a Board of Dentistry account of the incident.

“A great deal of his jaw came out along with part of the tooth,” Forsblade said.

Following the procedure, Eid prescribed 30 tablets of 600 mg ibuprofen. The next day, the patient saw a doctor at the prison who prescribed Vicodin and Augmentin for pain, according to the report.

During the three years she worked at the clinic, Forsblade said Eid would insult patients and coworkers and would often try to get his coworkers in trouble.

In May 2008, the Department of Corrections reduced Eid’s vacation time after charging him with making false claims against a dental assistant and “jeopardizing her license by making up false allegations and incident reports regarding her performance,” according to a DOC report.

In a letter to Eid, Nanette Larson, the DOC director of health services, wrote, “Your behavior cannot continue to cause tension, conflict and discord in the unit. Your behavior must significantly improve.”

Forsblade submitted two harassment complaints against Eid, both of which were sustained by the DOC in September 2007 and June 2008, according to letters obtained by The Minnesota Daily.

Forsblade said she felt unsafe when Eid would yell at patients during treatment and threaten to stop halfway through.

“I was always worried he was going to upset the wrong guy in the chair and I could wind up getting attacked,” she said.

Forsblade claimed Eid never used topical anesthesia before administering an anesthesia injection and consistently refused to provide preventative care to inmates. He performed primarily extractions and temporary fillings, she said.

“I’ve seen the X-rays where it’s like the abscess just grew after months and months of delay and neglect,” she said.

Following months of anxiety attacks, stress-related sickness and an inability to sleep or digest food, Forsblade’s job at the DOC came to an end in July 2009.

At that time, the DOC reduced its dental staff, including Forsblade and Schwartz, in response to significant budget reductions.

Eid, set to be laid off as well, retired at the same date.

Janet Graves, who worked alongside Eid as a dental hygienist at the Oak Park Heights facility beginning in summer 2006, said Eid would often remove teeth before fully numbing his patients.

“The man was in so much pain he was ready to climb up on the ceiling,” Graves said recounting one situation with a level-five offender. “He was screaming.”

Four out of five harassment complaints filed by Eid’s coworkers resulted in discipline, according to the DOC. The department would not reveal whether the fifth claim was substantiated. The disciplinary actions against Eid — two written reprimands, an oral reprimand and a one-day reduction in vacation — were for losing a dental instrument, harassment and inappropriate conduct.

In a written reprimand to Eid by the DOC dated Jan. 9, 2008, Oak Park Heights Health Service Administrator Kathy Reid wrote, “You contribute to the conflict between you and your dental colleague in your interpersonal actions and your disrespectful attitude toward the offenders and your colleague … You have had numerous supervisory conferences with Human Resources, Central Office Health Services staff and me regarding your poor interpersonal skills and your inability to avoid conflict with your colleagues.”

Graves said she quit in March 2008 because she couldn’t work with Eid any longer.

In addition to numerous incident reports alleging patient abuse, Graves filed a lawsuit against the DOC in April 2008 because she felt working with Eid was unsafe and intolerable. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.

When Schwartz first stepped into the Stillwater Correctional Facility in fall 2006 during her job interview, she could tell something was wrong.

Even in the tiny dental clinic, Eid, her future co-worker, wouldn’t acknowledge her presence.

“It made me uncomfortable,” Schwartz, a dental hygienist, said.

When she was offered the job, Schwartz said she asked about Eid but was assured there wouldn’t be any problems.

When Schwartz began noticing Eid’s strange behavior around inmates, such as refusing to see them and calling them “horse’s asses,” she began reporting it to her supervisor.

In separate accounts, three of Eid’s former coworkers said that when they complained about the dentist’s behavior, they were told to deal with it or find another job.

Eid’s former coworkers emphasized the way he treated patients as the most disturbing behavior.

“It was stunning to see grown men crying in the dental chair and telling him they could still feel it,” Schwartz said. “He would say, ‘There’s no way you can feel that. We’re almost done.’ ”

Continued supervision

As part of Eid’s conditional license, he must work in a board-approved “group practice setting” that will provide accountability for his work, including workplace monitoring, random chart reviews, limited administrative duties and patient satisfaction surveys.

Ahmad, Eid’s direct supervisor, said the chart reviews and patient surveys are not applicable to his current position because he doesn’t see patients.

Although Shragg declined to comment on whether Eid’s work setting meets the conditions of his license, he said the board works with the licensee and the employer to ensure compliance.

If a licensee is not compliant, “that’s something they will be held accountable for,” Shragg said.

By fall of this year, Eid will have to take a comprehensive course on local anesthesia, including the use of topical medication. By February 2011, he’ll have to complete a course on infection control designed by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.

In an e-mail last month in response to Schwartz’s concern over the rehiring of Eid at the University, Rhodus wrote, “We are now in consultation to terminate Dr. Eid, immediately. This should not have happened, but I believe we can soon rectify it.”

In an interview last week, Rhodus said he sent the e-mail before he had looked into the situation further. He said he now feels comfortable with Eid’s position working with students.

“It looked like from our perspective, legally, the board, as our legal governing body, they gave him clearance to [work],” he said, “so we saw no reason not to let him do it.”

When asked his opinion on the board’s treatment of Eid’s case, Shragg, the board’s executive director, said, “My personal thoughts don’t really matter on this, although I wish they did.”

Lloyd said that in the future he would consider hiring Eid as a University dentist, provided the conditions be removed from his license and that there be a long incident-free period.

“I would suspect that in time, if that’s an area of practice he would like to move toward, and if we had a need,” he said, “I think he would be an appropriate person to be considered.”

For some students, however, partying hard entails far more than liquid intoxication. At Duke, illicit drug users constitute an active minority that operates largely unnoticed.

Approximately 68 percent of Duke undergraduates reported drinking in the 30 days before they completed last Spring’s National College Health Assessment Survey. Just less than 10 percent said they had used marijuana in that time period.

Students interviewed described the hard drug scene at Duke as secretive but dynamic, with cocaine use especially prevalent.

Tom Szigethy, associate dean and director of the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention Center, estimated that 1 to 3 percent of students recreationally use drugs other than alcohol and marijuana.

“In my over 11 years at Duke, I can only think of a handful of times when we have actually found a student in possession of cocaine,” Stephen Bryan, associate dean of students and director of the Office of Student Conduct, wrote in an e-mail.

Nevertheless, Bryan is aware that just because administrators rarely catch students using or dealing drugs does not necessarily mean that some are not doing so.

Drug culture at Duke is discreet and diverse. Members of the community range from the casual weed smoker to the enterprising student who deals 8-balls—about 3.5 grams of cocaine—out of his dorm room.

For drug dealers at the University, business is cyclical, waxing and waning throughout the semester. Felix, a junior and former drug dealer whose name has been changed for his protection, said demand for his products was high during the drop/add period and dipped during finals week. In a typical week, he would sell 1.5 pounds of marijuana and roughly 3 ounces of cocaine. He earned an estimated $6,000 profit from weekly sales—$4,000 from marijuana and $2,000 from cocaine.

“My place had a revolving door on it,” he said. “All hours, people would be knocking on my door [and] calling me.”

Who uses?

Men tend to play a greater role than women in Duke’s drug scene. They are typically the primary purchasers and are more often caught in possession.

This year, the Office of Student Conduct has received 41 reports of suspected drug use­­­­ and 14 students have been found in violation of the University’s drug policy, Bryan said. All offenders were male.

Indeed, the NCHA survey showed that men use marijuana about 50 percent more often than do women—at a rate of 12.8 percent versus 8.3 percent, respectively.

“I haven’t come across many female potheads in my lifetime,” said Alec, a recent graduate who distributed marijuana, cocaine, psilocybin mushrooms and mephedrone at Duke, among other drugs. His name has also been changed for privacy purposes.

Felix’s clients were usually men. With cocaine, though, he felt guys typically made the purchase and then gave half or more of it to girls for free.

“There’s definitely a fair amount of glorified prostitution,” he said, “But I guess that’s just indigenous to the drug.”

Student dealers said they obtained their products through a variety of sources, both in Durham and outside the state, to capitalize on a social structure that permits drugs to flow to those who seek them.

All students who said they distributed drugs acknowledged providing them to fraternity-affiliated clients.

“The [greek] system definitely facilitates sales,” Felix said. “It makes it really easy to get the word out.”

He added that fraternities typically cater toward freshmen who want to experiment with drugs.

Freshman Michael Hoyle said the fraternities he rushed provided mostly alcohol and sometimes offered marijuana in more private settings.

“It definitely wouldn’t surprise me to hear some fraternities used [harder] drugs during rush,” Hoyle said. “I guess it just depends on the kind of people they’re trying to attract.”

Echoing this notion, Szigethy said drug activity depends on the specific organization, with some placing a greater emphasis on partying than others.

A line between use and abuse

Students deeply immersed in the drug environment may find themselves more consumed by the substances than they had originally intended.

Felix said he eventually stopped handling cocaine because his customers became too intrusive and he grew concerned about his friends’ relationships with the drug.

“I would like to see them not destroy their lives,” he said, adding that while selling cocaine, the line between making easy money and running an exploitative criminal enterprise sometimes blurred. Felix noted that he refused cocaine to friends who appeared dependent.

Alec, who stressed that he never earned profit on the drugs he transferred, said he never cut anyone off from his supplies.

“There have been a lot of people that I’ve introduced a certain substance to and I’ve watched them abuse the s— out of it, and that makes me a little sad sometimes,” he said. “But at the same time, life is all about personal choice.”

Alec quit using cocaine months ago for health reasons but said he struggled with the drug late in his undergraduate years.

“It was really difficult to get out of it mainly because the majority of my friends were also in it,” Alec said, adding that he would use cocaine to study, party and “numb emotional pain.”

Students often get high to mask pain or deal with stress, Szigethy said, noting that the impetus to use drugs is often a deeper problem than the substance itself.

Some students, however, feel they can use drugs recreationally without compromising other aspects of their lives.

As a frequent pot smoker, Oscar—a sophomore whose name has also been changed—said he has a code of conduct for himself. Each morning he makes a checklist of tasks he must complete that day. When they are done, he can smoke.

“There are a lot of really functional, recreational drug users at this school,” Felix said. “That could be anything from smoking weed after a test to going to the bathroom and laying a line out on a bathroom pull-down [during a test].”

Szigethy said, however, that those who use drugs should think about the quality of their lives, even if they are able to complete coursework on time.

“If people really feel they’re getting the full experience of their lives and they’re doing drugs, why are they doing the drugs?” he asked.

Christine Pesetski, assistant dean for off-campus and mediation services, said student drug users may face dropping grades and low class attendance in addition to addiction.

“I don’t know anybody who used drugs the way I used that was successful at school,” said Jason Rice, Trinity ’98.

For Rice, who was arrested in a Durham crack house in the Spring of 1996, being a functioning substance user was impossible.

“I had so much opportunity and potential and I basically said, ‘You know what, that’s good stuff, but I would much rather just get high,’” he recounted. “And I never really got anything out of it, other than just getting high and maybe some temporary relief from some emotional pain. And eventually what I ended up with was a lot of guilt, shame and remorse.”

Rice acknowledged, however, that not everyone shares his propensity for addiction. He has been sober for 12 years.

A tight-lipped institution

The drug scene usually plays out behind closed doors. Students said Duke’s campus provides ample privacy for getting high and making transactions, rendering extreme precautions unnecessary.

“They’re not going to try to figure out a bunch of kids are dealing coke out of their dorms,” Felix said. “Doing drugs on this campus is not difficult. Even if the cops do come to your dorm room, you can just wait them out, and if you’re quiet for an hour, they’ll just leave.”

Bryan said searches of students’ residences without consent are rare and added that they are only conducted if there is probable cause to believe illegal substances are present. Usually, residences are not searched unless criminal search warrants are issued by the Duke University Police Department.

DUPD Chief John Dailey wrote in an e-mail that the police department most often receives calls from housing staff and students reporting the smell of marijuana. At a minimum, those caught are referred to Student Conduct—some may also face criminal charges.

Still, Duke’s hard drug culture remain unseen for most students.

“You don’t really see it… unless you’re actively searching for it,” sophomore Mike Sullivan said.

Bryan said he hopes those students who do seek out illegal substances will consider the consequences.

“How much have they shortchanged themselves because of the impediments presented through their drug use?” he asked.

Alec, though, perceives his drug use differently.

“I think it increased my social life by leaps and bounds,” he said. “I’m in an environment that sucks… and the only escape slash fun side of it on the weekend is to binge drink or do drugs.”

According to the study published in the Teachers College Record, a comparison of 80 four-year colleges and universities showed that over the past 50 years, the rate of grade inflation has gone up, with private universities surpassing public universities in the trend. George Washington U. was one of the universities studied. Looking at contemporary grading data from 160 schools, private colleges had a grade point average of 3.3 while public schools had a GPA of 3.0.

This is not an indication that students at private universities are smarter than those at public ones. According to the study, students were equally qualified based on SAT scores and other factors.

A large factor in GPAs is the rate of grade inflation, and private universities are the bigger offenders, the study found. The findings are especially interesting, seeing as the common perception is that private universities have a more rigorous curriculum than public ones. One would expect GPAs to be lower at these schools. And while this may not seem like the worst phenomenon to GW students, the study highlights the possible negative effects of grade inflation and the need for schools across the country to level out the playing field.

For example, grade inflation at any school gives students a false sense of security. When we get to graduate school, law school or our first jobs and realize we aren’t the A students we were back in college, part of the blame falls on inflated GPAs.

Institutions of higher education have a responsibility to their students to curb grade inflation, but any effort to simply reexamine grading policies will require all schools to make the same effort. While some schools, such as Princeton U., have attempted to lead the charge, others still continue to round up. In early April, Loyola Law School of Los Angeles reportedly announced a plan to increase grades by a third. According to a dean’s memo published by the website Above the Law, “what previously was a B- would be a B, what previously was a B would be a B+, and so forth.” This collective action problem presents a need for higher education to implement ways that would level out grades for everyone.

Seeing as grade inflation has been on the rise over the past 50 years, any effort to reduce it would need to be both national and even coerced. If colleges and universities are penalized for grade inflation with such consequences as losing accreditation or falling in national rankings, there would be an incentive to stop inflating grades. A national range of average GPAs, calculated based on grading data from schools across the country, could act as the gauge for possible indicators of grade inflation. If a university’s average GPA falls too drastically outside of that range, that school’s grading practices should be investigated. If results of an investigation show that grades have been inflated, the school should face the aforementioned consequences and end the detrimental practice. Otherwise, the rising trend will continue for years to come. Hopefully at that point it won’t be too late to gauge the difference between a “real” A and an inflated one.

Additionally, if administrators used averages to track the way professors have graded in both current and previous jobs, they could then focus on hiring only the professors who do not inflate grades. This speaks to the sources of grade inflation, and would reduce the number of professors who are too willing to hand out good grades to those who don’t deserve them.

We as students at a private university may have an apparent advantage now, but it may hurt us later. Unfortunately, unless there is an incentive to stop or a penalty for grade inflation, a harmful trend will continue to rise. Higher education as a whole must act accordingly. In the mean time, we will need to be cognizant of the fact that in the post-graduation race, our unfair advantage means that grads from public universities may have a slightly better grasp of what work actually deserves an A.

Lyndsey Wajert is a George Washington U. sophomore.

After becoming the first university in the world to cut its contract with Nike, it is powerful to hear how UW personally affected people’s well-being, UW freshman Beth Huang said.

Gina Cano from the Hugger de Honduras factory and Lowlee Urquia from Vision Tex factory in Honduras, who both lost their jobs Jan. 19, 2009, and were denied payment of severance fees by Nike, shared detailed accounts of their life situations since the factories closed.

After working for Nike for 13 years, Cano and 1,200 other Hugger de Honduras employees lost their main source of income and received only 21 percent of what was owed to them in benefits.

At the Vision Tex factory, 458 employees, including Urquia, lost their jobs and were simply allowed to collect 26.5 percent of owed benefits through the sale of old factory machinery.

While still running, the factories, which were subcontractors of Nike, refused to pay their employees for their overtime work and denied putting money into the social security fund, which would allow for employees to receive access to hospital care, Cano said.

Cano added after so many workers lost their jobs without obtaining their severance pay, even more people have died due to the inability to afford medical attention.

In one instance, a woman receiving cancer treatment was unable to finish her sequence of treatments due to monetary difficulties and therefore died, leaving her three children behind, Urquia said.

“People can no longer afford to pay for schooling, transportation or even housing,” Urquia said. “One of my children couldn’t finish elementary school.”

Urquia added all the former employees are looking for is a tiny fraction of Nike’s mass amount of funds, which they helped to earn, but also stressed no amount of money would be able to compensate for the immense amount of suffering that has resulted.

Even though Nike is introducing new occupational training sessions for the employees and promises to bring work back into the area, these are simply words that Hondurans cannot trust, Urquia said.

In order to force Nike into paying the severance provisions, people involved in the situation and possible consumers must put continual pressure on them, Cano said.

Cano also thanked UW for the action it took to ensure workers’ rights would be sustained and encouraged UW students and faculty to support other universities working toward the same goal.

“I’d really like to thank all the wonderful people here in Wisconsin because you really gave us a lot of happiness,” Cano said. “We can see that you really understand all the situations that we’re going through, and you made us really happy with what’s happened here.”

In the filing, six Tech officials are being sued individually for damages: Tech Chancellor Kent Hance, Board of Regents members Jerry Turner and Larry Anders, Tech President Guy Bailey, Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers and Tech Investigator Charlotte Bingham. Craig James, the father of Adam James was also named as a defendant.

One of Leach’s attorneys, Ted Liggett, said Friday that the individuals are being sued — especially Hance, Turner and Anders — because they went “beyond the scope of their job.” Liggett pointed out that it was Bailey and Myers’ responsibility to deal with the Leach situation and no one else should have been involved.

Liggett believes the filings show that Leach’s firing is derived from the contract negotiations last spring.

“We are able to do that under the law whenever and individual acts in a capacity that’s beyond their scope of employment with the university,” he said. “It allows us to seek damage against them individually. And that’s what we’ve done.”

After allegations Leach harmed Tech receiver Adam James surfaced, Liggett said Myers and Bailey were ready to reprimand Leach instead of fire him. But the filings claim that Hance, Turner and Anders wanted to use the James situation to get rid of Leach and save money.

Leach was fired on Dec. 30, 2009, three days before Tech was scheduled to play in the 2010 Valero Alamo Bowl. The firing also occurred a day before Leach was supposed to be paid an $800,000 bonus.

But Tech’s attorney Dicky Grigg, said both the lawsuits and Friday’s court filing are acts Leach’s attorneys are using to deter the undisputable facts against them.

“Today’s action by Mike Leach and his attorneys is another absurd act of desperation,” he said in a statement Friday. “This is the legal strategy one deploys when the facts and the law are irrefutably against him.”

Leach’s attorneys have not deterred from the lawsuit against the university. Liggett said that lawsuit is still in effect along with Friday’s filings.

Leach’s attorneys believe the conspiracy to fire Leach has been discovered through text messages and e-mails, which Liggett said are used as exhibits in Friday’s filing.

Liggett said Adam thought his situation with Leach was funny and the Tech receiver thought “Mike shouldn’t have been fired because of that.”

One of Tech’s defenses in this case has been the sovereign immunity claim, which points out that an individual cannot sue the state,  of which Tech is a branch. But Leach’s attorneys believe the Tech administration has waived that through numerous causes, such as the Board of Regents making its own policies and procedures, therefore acting as its own legislative body.

As far as damages are concerned, Liggett said his attorneys are working on that figure daily, but it has not been determined yet.

But Liggett said on Friday that Leach’s attorneys intend to go to trial at this point.

“It seems incredulous to me and I think it has to go with what happens a lot of times in business and in life, ego and pride,” Liggett said. “… He wasn’t the good ol’ boy, button down football coach that they wanted to have for Texas Tech and they were looking for a reason to fire him.”

C. Aaron Kelley, a former dean of the college and professor in Management Systems, sent Ohio his resignation letter last week.

OU President Roderick McDavis initiated de-tenuring proceedings against Kelley in September, 15 years after the first allegations of the professor’s inappropriate behavior surfaced.

Kelley has admitted to having a sexual relationship with his secretary while he was business dean. He resigned from that position in 1996 after faculty and staff expressed discomfort and concern about his actions.

He has also admitted to a relationship with a former student that began in spring 2001.

Kelley has denied allegations that he had inappropriate relationships with two students in OU’s Master’s in Business Administration program in India. The first of those relationships is alleged to have happened in 2002, at which point the college removed Kelley from the program for several years.

The most recent accusations against Kelley arise from text messages found on a cell phone he used in India in 2007 that hint at an intimate relationship with a woman who was in his class at the time. In texts and e-mails to the woman, Kelley referred to himself as “Mr. Banana” and signed some of them “love.”

College of Business faculty and administrators were particularly concerned about the possibility that Kelley may have altered the woman’s grade because of their relationship.

Kelley has denied that he adjusted her grade. His resignation comes after his department and college, along with the president, provost and a Faculty Senate committee recommended he lose tenure.

Kelley has not been teaching in the college since 2008.

Kelley will need to work with the State Teachers’ Retirement System to coordinate retirement benefits. The Post could not immediately confirm whether he will receive money from OU. His attorney could not be reached for comment.

C. Aaron Kelley, currently a professor in the department of Management Information Systems, faces numerous accusations spanning from 1996 to 2008. He has acknowledged having sexual relationships with his secretary and a former student, but has denied allegations of having inappropriate relationships with two students he taught at OU’s Master of Business Administration program in India. OU also discovered 6,500 pornographic images on Kelley’s computer and fielded complaints about a Sports Illustrated swimsuit calendar Kelley kept on his desk, which reportedly made a female student uncomfortable.

OU President Roderick McDavis began formal de-tenuring proceedings against Kelley with a letter last September.

“Over a period of 13 years you have disregarded repeated warnings and have engaged in a pattern of behavior that was harmful to the university and the young women with whom you had a relationship,” McDavis wrote. “By repeatedly abusing your position of authority over students, you have created a significant risk of legal liability for sexual harassment claims against you and the university.”

Kelley was relieved of his teaching duties mid-Spring Quarter 2008 after questionable text messages surfaced between him and an Indian student. The department’s Promotion and Tenure Committee unanimously approved the move.

“Basically, we unanimously just felt we just could not in good conscience put Aaron back in the classroom,” said Department Chairwoman Mary Keifer, according to a transcript of Kelley’s appeal hearing before a Faculty Senate Committee.

OU hired Kelley to lead the college in 1993. He came from the University of Louisville, where he joined the faculty in 1981. Kelley received his doctorate from the University of North Texas and a master’s degree from the University of Utah.

The Post compiled this account of the accusations against Kelley from McDavis’ letter, the more than 100-page transcript of the appeal hearing and the Faculty Senate committee’s final report. OU employees were instructed not to talk about the case. Kelley’s attorney was on vacation last week, and did not respond to numerous messages seeking comment.

An Office Affair

Kelley’s affair with his then-secretary, Vicki Robbins, forced him to step down as dean of the College of Business in 1996.

The affair became public after Robbins delivered a letter – in which she said she wanted to leave the relationship, but could not – to every faculty and staff member in the college, current Dean Hugh Sherman said, according to the transcript.

A year earlier, then-President Robert Glidden and then-Provost David Stewart advised Kelley to break off the relationship, but it continued.

The Faculty Handbook addresses relationships among faculty and staff by indicating they “can raise special concerns.” Colleges and departments can use the same procedures to investigate problematic personal relationships they use to investigate alleged professional ethics and research violations, according to the handbook.

Kelley has said he left his position by “mutual consent.”

Following his resignation, Kelley spent a year teaching at OU’s Lancaster campus before returning to teach in Athens.

A Former Student

In 2001, Kelley began a relationship with a former student. The woman had been in two of Kelley’s classes during previous quarters. Kelley told the Faculty Senate committee the woman approached him.

“I told her no, it wasn’t appropriate, and that went on to an extent where, you know, it happened,” Kelley said, according to the transcript.

OU’s Faculty Handbook prohibits instructors from supervising or grading the academic work of a student with whom the instructor has or begins a sexual relationship. The university views such relationships as “inherently suspect” because of their potential for coercion.

At the time, OU determined the relationship didn’t violate university policy. But John Biancamano, OU’s current general counsel, said Kelley’s behavior concerns him. Bincamano did not work for OU at the time of that case.

“I know a lot of students come here to get an education and I don’t know how I would explain to their moms and dads that we view it as appropriate for faculty to hit on an 18-year-old when she arrives,” Biancamano said, according to the transcript. “I mean, that’s a separate issue from a technical violation, but it’s something that we have to bear in mind.”

The relationship became public after Kelley was offered a job as dean of the business school at Coastal Carolina University. Kelley declined the offer. Sherman, who was the department chairman, told Kelley “to avoid such behavior in the future,” adding that it reflected badly on the college and was “a serious breach of professional standards.”

‘Mr. Banana’

Kelley also has been accused of having inappropriate relationships with two of his students in OU’s Master of Business Administration program in India.

The first of those apparent relationships happened in 2002, at which point Kelley was removed from the program for several years.

The most recent allegation surfaced in 2008 and suggests Kelley had an inappropriate relationship with an Indian student in 2007. That accusation surfaced in January 2008, when professor John Schermerhorn arrived to teach in India and was given the university-owned cell phone Kelley had used the previous summer. Schermerhorn informed the program’s directors he had found what appeared to be inappropriate text messages on the phone.

“It’s clear from the content of the messages that the sender had more than a friendly relationship with the recipient,” Sherman said, according to the transcript. “It is also clear that the recipient was one of Kelley’s students.”

There were no messages from any other students on the phone, Sherman said.

Other Indian students brought the relationship to OU’s attention when they became concerned about the woman’s grades, Sherman said. They forwarded e-mails to OU professors in India.

“U r so bad. U gave me an A minus. I don’t like u,” reads one e-mail from the student he reputedly was having an affair with. Kelley responded on a traditional scale the grade would have been a B+, but he adjusted the scale to give her an A-, Biancamano said.

Kelley defended the exchange, saying he simply had adjusted his overall grading scale the year before to accommodate concerns from leaders at the Indian school.

OU administrators also found several photos of Kelley standing arm in arm with the woman, but acknowledge they have no definitive proof of a sexual relationship, according to the transcript. They were not able to get in touch with either woman.

Chris Yost, an OU professor who worked with Kelley in India, sent a statement to the Faculty Senate committee saying she had never seen Kelley behaving inappropriately with students.

“I never witnessed anything even suspicious about any behavior, either on his part or any student’s part,” she stated. “Dr. Kelley was completely professional in all student interactions I encountered.”

Professor Robert Sarikas, who also taught in India with Kelley, said it was not unusual for OU professors there to socialize with students. Kelley also told the senators it was not unusual for the students to go to the professors’ hotel to discuss work.

Still, McDavis and some faculty senators said they wondered about some nicknames and other language Kelley used in correspondence with the students.

Kelley referred to the one Indian woman as “Sleepy.” He explained it was because she often slept through his class. He also referred to himself as “Mr. Banana,” a nickname he said the student gave him because she liked fruit-related nicknames. He also signed some messages to her with “love u.”

One message from Kelley to the student reads, “Hello, :) so I guess no time for banana again today :( ,” according to the transcript of the Faculty Senate hearing. Kelley said the message referred to the student being unable to make a meeting with him.

At the Faculty Senate hearing, Kelley acknowledged some of the language he chose could be construed as inappropriate.

Faculty Senate Chairman Joe McLaughlin, who also ran the hearing committee, said given Kelley’s past experiences, he was surprised the professor was not more careful with his language.

“Even if I were willing to grant what you’re saying about this conversation in 2008, it doesn’t strike me as a person who’s being careful,” McLaughlin said, according to the transcript. “It seems to me that given the history there one would want to hold oneself to a higher level of propriety or what’s appropriate in a conversation like that, really not wanting to leave anything to interpretation.”

Pornography and Swimsuits

Other charges against Kelley stem from the discovery of 6,500 pornographic images found on his university computer. Kelley has said he must have inadvertently transferred them to that computer from a flash drive when he was restoring other documents.

Kelley has also been criticized for having a day-by-day Sports Illustrated swimsuit calendar on his desk, which college employees said at the hearing made at least one female student worker uncomfortable.

Tenure

None of the students allegedly involved with Kelley have filed complaints, but university administrators said at the hearing Kelley’s behavior has exposed the university to liability in potential sexual harassment claims.

Sherman and Keifer said the concern at the college level was the pattern of behavior, regardless of whether Kelley violated specific OU policies, according to the transcript.

Kelley said he thinks OU administrators and some business faculty are biased against him because of what they think he did.

“I think central administration decided they were going to get rid of me,” Kelley said, according to the transcript. “All of a sudden I went from being one of the best faculty members in the College of Business to being of harm to my students and jerking me out of class mid-quarter.”

At the Faculty Senate hearing, Kelley’s attorney raised questions about the validity of some of the statements from people in India. She was concerned that they were not notarized or easy to verify.

By September, when McDavis initiated the de-tenuring proceedings, a committee in Kelley’s department as well as Dean Sherman and then-Provost Kathy Krendl had all recommended Kelley’s tenure be revoked. The Faculty Senate committee has since unanimously made the same recommendation.

Now, OU has told Kelley unless he chooses to retire, McDavis will ask the Board of Trustees to revoke his tenure. Kelley and his attorney would be invited to appear before the board in that case, and the trustees would take one of two possible actions. They could sustain the hearing committee’s decision, thereby revoking tenure, or they can return the question to the committee with specific objections. If the board returned the case to the committee, senators would discuss the case again and submit another report to the board. The trustees would then vote on whether to revoke Kelley’s tenure.

Kelley’s case is not on the board’s agenda for its meeting this week. If he retires, Kelley will be entitled to his full retirement benefits from the State Teachers’ Retirement System.

Demonstrations have caused the campus to deplete a $211,000 “protest fund” on a heightened campus police presence, fire department responses and site cleanups. The fund is only expected to cover expenses accrued through the end of February.

Additional costs such as those incurred during the March 4 protests will be covered with central campus funds, any available reserves or through cuts to programs such as human resources, finance or police services.

The Nov. 20 Wheeler Hall Occupation alone cost the campus an estimated $50,541, including $21,530 to repair damage done to campus buildings and $29,011 to fund the police response to the approximately 2,000 students who gathered outside the building.

Chris Christofferson, assistant vice chancellor of physical plant-campus services, said he respects the right of students to protest but added that demonstrations are costing the campus “money we don’t have.”

“It costs money to clean up graffiti; it costs money to replace broken glass,” he said. “Every dime we spend on a budget that has been significantly reduced is no money to do the work we have to do. We don’t have the staff to be chasing the protesters around.”

Student organizer Zachary Miller said protesting cuts to the campus budget and staff should take precedence over concerns that demonstrations themselves are further damaging the campus’s finances.

“If we sacrifice one day of classes now to protect thousands and even millions of students (so they can) have access to public education in the future, then isn’t that a sacrifice worth making?” he asked.

But the costs to the campus encompass more than one day of classes or one day of excess spending. The Dec. 11 attack on Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s house racked up a $13,926 bill. Repairs for damage done to Durant Hall on the night of Feb. 25 will be between an estimated $50,000 and $75,000. Expenses resulting from the attack include replacing two windows of laminated glass, which costs $4,464 and buying new planters and plants, which cost $2,631.

Resources for maintenance staff-who must clean up after protests-are “very limited,” said Christine Shaff, campus director of communications for facilities services.

Campus gardener Hank Chapot said extra time needed to clean up after protests keeps employees from completing other tasks.

“If I recall it was just a hell of a day of cleaning,” he said, referring to the March 4 protest. “We did have some overtime that day-a couple hours of overtime.”

Additional costs to the campus include work orders from the Physical Plant-Campus Services. A Nov. 20 order states that fire alarms were pulled in at least 26 campus buildings. Specialized personnel were called in to reset and check the alarms, costing $13,428.

The Berkeley Fire Department must dispatch both an engine and a truck to the scene of any triggered fire alarm. Personnel costs for vehicle operators-not including other fuel and equipment costs-are on average $378 per hour, according to Sabina Imrie, assistant chief of special operations for the department.

“False alarms can delay a fire response,” Imrie said in an e-mail. “This could potentially impact someone in need of immediate medical care such as a choking, cardiac arrest, etc.”

Impromptu disturbances, such as the dance-party-turned-riot Feb. 26, cost the Berkeley Police Department approximately $13,000 for patrol operations alone, said Berkeley police Officer Jamie Perkins, spokesperson for the department.

Other UC campuses, too, have seen an increase in expenditures due to protests. The UC Davis campus incurred approximately $14,000 in expenses during March 4 protests due to false fire alarm calls, emergency staff and police overtime, said campus spokesperson Claudia Morain.

Outside law enforcement agencies that assisted the campus generated an estimated $45,000 in additional expenses.

But for some, the monetary costs are worth the freedom of expression. Berkeley resident and UC Berkeley professor of media studies Katie Galloway said she did not mind “footing the bill” for the protests.

“The issues at stake are big, major implications for education so I think (protesting) is a good thing,” she said. “All the great changes in history-sometimes costs are associated with that, but the costs of not speaking up are far greater.

The recent recession has galvanized a 30-year long national trend of state disinvestment in public higher education.

State appropriations per student across the country fell 5.7 percent in 2008-09 in inflation-adjusted dollars. The $7,953 per student that states provided was 12 percent lower than a decade earlier, according to The College Board’s 2009 report.

State investments in higher education have declined by $52.3 billion since 1980, or 46 percent, according to a report from Postsecondary Education Opportunity, an independent policy research group.

Significant hikes in tuition have been a natural response at schools around the country and recently incited protests on many American campuses.

Despite increases in tuition, public colleges and universities are struggling to fill the void left by state disinvestment. Sweeping cuts in programs and expenditures have been unavoidable.

Striving to maintain the American tradition of excellence in public education, more and more schools are turning to the private sector to fill growing budget gaps.

With financial models that are beginning to look more like private institutions than public universities, administrators and policy officials are beginning to question state regulation of public higher education institutions.

On Wisconsin with less state support

The state of Wisconsin is no exception. Decreases in state funding for the University of Wisconsin System over the last 10 years have left students and their families bearing the brunt of rising educational costs.

By some accounts, Wisconsin has led the charge in states’ disinvestment in higher education.

According to the PEO report, Wisconsin’s investment efforts since 1980 have fallen by 54.3 percent, putting it in the top 10 worst in the country.

“The relative burden of who is paying has certainly shifted to some degree from state taxpayers to students and families,” President of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance Todd Berry said.

The state share of the total UW System budget has fallen 10 percentage points since fiscal year 1999-00. During the same period, tuition and fees’ contribution to the overall budget have risen by about 7 percentage points, according to state Legislative Fiscal Bureau and UW System records.

While Wisconsin’s flagship university maintains the second cheapest in-state tuition in the Big Ten, published in-state tuition and fees have increased from $3,791 in 2000-01 to $8,314 this academic year, according to the UW 2009-10 Data Digest. Tuition and fees for non-residents have grown by almost $9,000 over the same period.

“It used to be that students about 10 years ago paid a little more than a third of their own educational costs and the state subsidized the other two-thirds … today, students are paying about 60 percent of the cost,” UW System spokesperson Dave Giroux said.

A changing UW student body is showing the effects of this shift. Students from lower income brackets have become less represented on the UW campus in recent years, according to Joanne Berg, vice provost for enrollment management.

“We are admitting those students from lower income brackets, but the fact is we don’t have the money to fund all of their tuition,” Berg said.

According to the executive summary of the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, the university falls at least $20 million short each year of meeting students’ demonstrated need, and that shortfall is growing.

Efforts have been made at the university level to change this, however. Through a differential tuition increase associated with MIU, the university will use $10 million of the increased revenue for a need-based financial aid fund. This amount is expected to be matched by the UW Foundation.

Federal assistance makes up the vast majority of financial aid available to students, accounting for 74.5 percent of the total aid received by Wisconsin residents in 2008-09, according to a report from the State of Wisconsin Higher Education Aids Board.

The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act — which was recently passed as part of the Health Care Reconciliation bill — will likely increase federal assistance even further by revamping the Pell Grant and direct lending programs.

Nonetheless, there remains a large portion of unmet financial need for Wisconsin students.

In 2008-09, there was $675 million of unmet need for Wisconsin residents, according to the Education Aids Board report.

More than 68 percent of the average cost of education at a UW System school is not covered by the expected contribution of students and their families.

Of those who do choose to assume the cost of attending UW, many are leaving to start their careers with double-digits of debt hung over their heads.

Nearly half of all UW undergraduates graduated with some sort of debt last year, a 5 percent increase from a decade earlier. Moreover, the average total debt of these students has grown from $15,140 in 2000-01 to $22,858 in 2008-09, according to the UW Data Digest.

Chynna Haas, UW senior and president of the Working Class Student Union, said the loans she does get as part of her financial aid package through the university far from alleviate the burden of the rising cost of tuition.

“I’m an in-state student,” Haas said. “My parents have lived here their whole lives; they have paid taxes here their whole lives, and I’m still $20,000 in debt and working three jobs to get through school.”

Students are not the only ones feeling the effects of state disinvestment, however. Program and expenditure cuts are also impacting faculty and administrators.

Along with other state workers, UW employees are required to take eight unpaid furlough days this year, the equivalent of a 3 percent reduction in pay, according to Giroux.

Additionally, the state rescinded a previously approved pay plan that increases the average salary of UW System faculty and academic staff by 2 percent each year.

There were also $161 million worth of cuts to UW System’s overall operating budget, according to the UW System 2009-11 Biennium Budget Fact Sheet.

While accompanied by a 5.5 percent increase in tuition, Giroux said this increase was not nearly enough to cover the cost of the cuts.

Most administrators agree the cuts and tuition hikes, though not as harsh as they might have been, will not be the last changes schools face.

“The state fiscal environment for higher education has yet to hit the bottom. And I unfortunately believe it’s going to hit the bottom for the next biennium budget, and maybe the one after that,” said Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education.

Where have all the state funds gone? A question of priority

Over the last two decades, public higher education funding in Wisconsin has taken a backseat to three primary areas of state social spending. Medicaid, aid for K-12 schools and prisons received a proportionally high percentage of the state’s funds over the past decade.

Beginning in the 1990s, Wisconsin legislators made a conscious decision to get tough on crime at the expense of public higher education.

“There is no question that corrections during the nineties gained share (of public funds), while public higher education lost share,” Berry said.

Changing population demographics, which saw disproportional growth in the 16-24 male age group led to a noticeable up-tick in crime, creating public pressure on the Legislature to crack down, Berry said.

Since the ’90s, growth in this segment of the population has slowed, and so have crime rates. But, spending on prisons and corrections has not decreased along with them.

“The prison system used to get about one-third as much money as the university system,” said Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison. “Now [they] are pretty close to being the same because we incarcerate too many people and that costs a lot of money.”

By comparison, Wisconsin had 23,380 people in prison in 2008 while neighboring Minnesota had only 9,406 people incarcerated, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

In the 2009-11 Biennium Budget, there was a call for the early release of some prisoners in Wisconsin to save money, said Rep. John Townsend, R-Fond du Lac, who also sits on the Colleges and Universities Committee.

Growth in another demographic has brought a new financial strain to the state, however.

An aging population has put pressure on the state government to expand Medicaid in recent years. Where Wisconsin used to have 1 in 13 residents in the program, this number has grown to 1 in 5, Berry said.

Considering this fact, the recent passage of the national health care reform bill has many legislators and school administrators questioning the impact it will have on state finances.

Townsend said he is concerned one of the ways the bill seeks to save money is cutting expenditures to Medicaid and Medicare. Federal government cutbacks could increase pressure on states to increase Medicaid funding.

Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, who chairs the Committee on Colleges and Universities, said Wisconsin is in an excellent position to implement the recently passed health insurance reform legislation, given similar state reforms such as BadgerCare and SeniorCare.

He added, however, whether projected savings from the bill would translate into more money for public higher education remains an open question.

Others are more skeptical about the bill’s impact on higher education funding. Mark Bugher, current director of University Research Park and former secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration, is one of them.

“I am concerned that a substantial increase in federal spending on this particular appropriation for Wisconsin will adversely impact federal dollars going into higher education,” Bugher said.

A new financial model emerges

Confronted with the profound impact of state priorities and funding cuts, UW officials are discussing alternative financial structures for the school.

As support from the state has continued to decrease, private sources of funding for the university have increased at an even faster rate than tuition over the course of the last 10 years. For better or for worse, UW’s financial model is becoming more private, Radomski said.

“We will still be a public institution, but we’ll look very, very private,” Radomski said. “And that’s not a bad thing … we are already a public university with a private financing model.”

Despite the state’s share of UW’s budget falling below 20 percent, state regulation of the university has not changed since its founding 130 years ago.

Some officials say this regulation is becoming burdensome, as the school is forced to diversify its financial structure.

“If the state isn’t going to give the university ever increasing amounts of money, then it has got to give the university the governance tools to be able to manage itself better,” Berry said.

While the state does not get directly involved in running the university, some of its regulation is restricting, Chancellor Biddy Martin said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald.

“There are state and system policies that constrain our flexibility, limit our ability to gain efficiencies and make it hard to help ourselves generate value in areas such as personnel policy, procurement, salaries, tuition pricing, etc.,” Martin said.

The suggestion is not that UW should become anything other than a public university. Although state funding has decreased substantially as a part of UW’s total budget, it is still a significant portion and remains critically important, Martin said.

If the state government were to relax regulation of things like tuition rates, overall budgeting processes, construction, faculty and position hiring and private funding, Bugher said administering a large public university like UW would become much easier and responsive to students’ needs.

While Hixson said he believes the state can and will continue to fulfill its role in providing direction to the UW System Board of Regents regarding issues of higher education, exploring new ideas is vital.

“In these challenging times we need to constantly be exploring new ideas…the strongest path to a sustainable economic future for the State of Wisconsin is through education,” Hixson said.

Both the House and Senate are debating the differences in their individual proposed 2010-11 fiscal year budgets today in Tallahassee, but a portion of what they agree on in their plans includes an across-the-board 8 percent increase in tuition.

The House and Senate proposals also are banking on another 7 percent boost in differential tuition fees, which would be an option for individual universities. That could provide an estimated extra $68 million for the state system, U. South Florida Government Relations Lobbyist Mark Walsh said at the Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday.

Lawmakers mandated the same 8 percent tuition increase last year, and USF took advantage of the 7 percent increase in differential tuition. It resulted in an increase of $586 for a 30-credit-hour course load in one year for in-state undergraduates. With the new proposal, students would pay roughly an additional $673 for 30 credit hours in one year.

“What we didn’t have for years and what we don’t advocate now is that tuition be the only thing that goes up, and that the state doesn’t put in an additional amount of money,” Walsh said after the meeting. “… But in Florida even a 15 percent increase is a bargain. So tuition probably needs to be more, but we still don’t think that lets the state off the hook (with allocations) so we can gain momentum.”

The House and Senate differ, however, on how much in total should be allocated for the state university system next fiscal year, which begins in July.

The House total is about $3.41 billion, a nearly identical amount as last year. The Senate proposal is more generous, Walsh said, allocating around $3.62 billion. That would be a 6.35 percent increase from last fiscal year’s total budget.

However, both include the anticipated federal stimulus funds, which are likely to be in the range of $150 million and will stop coming after the 2010-11 fiscal year.

The House proposal is more of a “break-even” budget, Walsh said. And it’s hard to get excited about that, said Provost Ralph Wilcox, because next fiscal year stimulus funds will stop coming, as universities search to find new sources of revenue.

It will make the prospect of hiring new tenured faculty “significantly limited,” Wilcox said. There are no faculty members who are paid with stimulus dollars, but some staff members are, Wilcox said.

“We’re not elated,” Wilcox said. “We’re quietly comfortable, I suppose, with what we’re hearing from Tallahassee. But there’s a lot of time left in this session, and things could get worse quickly. Things can also improve.”

Walsh said the key in the future will be finding sources of recurring revenue to fill in for the non-recurring revenue that may leave, much like the stimulus funds.

One of the ways USF did that is by offering retirement packages this year. By using one-time, non-recurring stimulus money for retirement packages, it can help alleviate recurring expenses like payroll.

Wilcox said the goal for the University during the economic struggle is to preserve programs, tenured faculty and quality of academics. Last year, along with the in-state undergraduate increase, out-of-state and graduate tuition rose.

In the coming weeks, the House and Senate will meet during “budget conferencing” to try and iron out the differences in their proposals, Walsh said. The goal for lawmakers during the current 60-day legislative session, which began in early March, is to push a single budget to Gov. Charlie Crist’s desk for his signature.

After that, USF gets its individual appropriations and constructs its own budget.

“Some (state) agencies are going way back,” Walsh said. “There are many items in the higher education budget that are not state universities and are taking 10 to 15 percent cuts … Overall, you never like to be satisfied in the process, but based on where we thought we might be six months ago … it’s better than we thought it might be.”

Additional reporting by Anastasia Dawson

Legislators will debate 1,907 bills in the next three months. Many have direct effects on higher education, ranging from tuition prices to TOPS awards to administrative salaries.

“More is at stake than any session in the last 10 years,” said Jason Droddy, assistant vice chancellor of Legislative and External Affairs. “We are looking at program elimination, consolidation. There could be some job reduction. There could be furloughs affecting people’s pay, and it could have real effects on students.”

BALANCING THE BUDGET

Balancing a $1 billion dollar deficit is the largest obstacle legislators face and will dictate other measures in the coming session.

Higher education faced a $219 million reduction in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed budget going into the last legislative session. The governor has proposed no new cuts to higher education this year.

The proposed budget relies heavily on one-time funds to cover the deficit, so legislators and administrators expect some cut to higher education before the legislature approves the final budget.

“It would be difficult to imagine we would escape some cuts,” Droddy said. “If the state were to reward us for our performance, then they could find a way not to cut us.”

Multiple bills seek to amend the constitution to help protect higher education and health care as legislators balance the budget.

A $200 million to $400 million shortage in revenue in the last four months of the current fiscal year will be an issue the University must face before the end of June as lawmakers balance the budget for the coming fiscal year.

State revenues are drastically less than expected for the first month of this calendar year, said James Richardson, University economics professor and a member of the panel that forecasts state revenue.

It’s unclear what the shortfall in funding will be for this fiscal year until the Revenue Estimating Conference meets in April to review revenue figures from March, Richardson said.

State officials instructed the University System to prepare for another midyear cut because of the shortfall, Droddy said.

“Whatever the deficit is this year, it will likely be certified too late to actually take it this year,” said System President John Lombardi. “But it will have to be forwarded to next year. That will just make the next year worse. So its not a salvation; it’s just a delay.”

The budget is currently being debated in the House Appropriations Committee.

RAISING TUITION

The idea of increased tuition to help mend the damage caused by the state budget is gaining more traction with lawmakers and administrators.

Chancellor Michael Martin made it clear last month he wants the state to give the University the authority to raise $12 million to $15 million to help cover the gap.

Currently, the legislature must approve increases in fees, but multiple bills would give the University the authority to increase tuition without legislative approval.

These include the governor-sponsored LA GRAD Act — or House Bill 1171 — which would give the University the ability to raise tuition and fees 10 percent for consecutive years if certain graduation goals are met.

The LSU Board of Supervisors increased tuition by 5 percent earlier this month.

Passage of a bill like the LA GRAD Act would allow tuition to be raised by 5 percent more for next year at a cost of about $444 for full-time undergraduate students.

CAPPING TOPS

Lawmakers are again attempting to lessen TOPS awards.

Multiple bills seek to place caps on the TOPS program while another would force students to repay TOPS awards if the award is not retained for the first two years.

Five working groups will report to the commission Tuesday, which was established last July in order to examine a future course for the university, which was rocked by a $637 million state budget cut this year alone. After months of public forums, meetings and discussion, the full commission will hear initial recommendations from the work groups that were released this morning by the university.

After the meeting, the systemwide Academic Senate and student government organizations will review the recommendations before they can be revised and sent to the UC Board of Regents for approval this July.

UC President and co-chair of the commission Mark Yudof said though the recommendations are “inevitably bound to be controversial,” they are necessary given years of reductions in state funds.

“What you are hearing is a brave first take (on changes to the UC),” Yudof said. “This is part of the healthy process of airing different perspectives.”

Though many recommendations from the work groups conflict with those from other groups, acquiring funding to maintain academic quality throughout the 10-campus system figures prominently throughout the 30 recommendations.

“Even if we were in a very good time (for UC finances) this work would be of great value the university,” said Senate Chair Henry Powell.

The education and curriculum work group, co-chaired by Christopher Edley, dean of Boalt Hall School of Law, and Keith Williams, a UC Davis associate professor of exercise biology, recommends increasing the proportion of students graduating in less than four years from the 2005 level of 2.9 percent, a move that could save money and free up space for undergraduates, according to the report. The group also proposes creating a three-year degree program incorporating priority registration, summer school and the full use of any Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or honors credits.

Additional recommendations from the group include the implementation of online courses in order to increase student access to courses, decrease the time necessary to acquire a degree and reduce the costs of education to both students and the state. The report recommends “the pursuit of the pilot project being coordinated by the Office of the President which … will develop and deliver up to 40 online undergraduate courses, evaluating their quality, learning effectiveness, workload impacts (and) costs.”

A crowd of around 80 protesters gathered outside the Fisher Banquet Room on the UCSF campus while the commission heard reports from the work groups, chanting, “You see Regents, I see racists.”

Many people in the crowd said several of the recommendations being presented did not offer meaningful change and would only have a detrimental effect on students.

“If you are putting classes online you are not going to maintain quality they keep on talking about,” said Alejandra Cruz, a third year law student at UCLA who drove up for the commission meeting.

The proposal’s recommendations include streamlining degree requirements by reducing the number of upper division requirements and raising the required average workload of students to 15 credits per quarter or semester while “putting stricter limits on the maximum number of units allowed over the course of undergraduate study,” according to the report.

Several recommendations from the work groups outline a perceived need for future student fee increases. But proposals differ as to how to offer financial stability to both students and the university.

“California fiscal experts agree that the state’s severe fiscal problems are likely to persist for several years,” a recommendation from the funding strategies work group reads. “The Regents should be prepared to approve tuition increases sufficient to contribute significantly to the University’s funding needs, thereby protecting its academic quality.”

The same work group, co-chaired by Steve Olsen, vice chancellor for finance, budget and capital programs at UCLA and Gene Lucas, executive vice chancellor at UC Santa Barbara, recommended adopting one of three multiyear student fee increases ranging from “low increases” of 5 percent annually to “aggressive increases” of 15 percent annually, both for five years. The recommendation states the plan would better allow students and families to predict the costs of attending the university, though the multiyear plan would not guarantee student fee levels.

The funding strategies work group considered but did not endorse a recommendation by the access and affordabilty work group that would increase student fees for each entering class at a fixed rate–possibly the inflation rate–for the four years a student is enrolled at the university.

“While cohort-based tuition could be incorporated into a multiyear tuition plan, uncertainty regarding state funding would expose the university to substantial financial risk under such a plan,” the funding strategy working group recommendation reads. “A cohort-based approach would reduce the university’s flexibility to respond to budget changes and thereby expose affected cohorts to greater tuition hikes.”

Alongside proposed changes to university curriculum and student fees are two separate recommendations that would substantially increase the number of nonresident students in the system. The two work groups proposing the increase in nonresident students–funding strategies and size and shape–differ in their implementation, yet aim to take advantage of the additional $22,879 in tuition revenue that each nonresident student pays.

A recommendation by the funding strategies work group proposes that doubling the number of nonresident student to about 15,200 by 2015-16 could raise an additional $174 million in revenue for the university.

Whether the proposed influx in out-of-state students would replace enrollments currently unfunded by the state has not yet been determined. The university could raise an additional $98 million in revenue if the additional nonresident students do not replace the enrollments currently unfunded by the state.

To achieve that increase, the work group recommends the university decrease fees for nonresident students in order to keep the UC competitive with research universities nationwide.

“Total tuition paid by nonresidents would be limited to $5,000 under the levels charged by Harvard, Stanford, and similar institutions. Under some models calling for more aggressive increases in resident tuition, this would require actual reductions in the level of nonresident tuition in future years,” the recommendation states.

The size and shape work group also proposes an increase in the number of out-of-state residents as well–though members of the work group could not determine a minimum or maximum number in time for the meeting.

The recommendation says the additional revenue from nonresidents would increase access to the university as long as the new enrollments do not displace state-funded resident enrollments.

“Given the reduction in state support for new enrollment, this recommendation is likely to result in fewer unfunded resident students at campuses,” the recommendation reads. “This is particularly true for campuses that are near or at their maximum physical capacity.”

The research strategies working group, co-chaired by UC San Francisco professor Mary Croughan and UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry Yang, recommends the streamlining of research practices in order to realize potential savings for the university totaling hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

“The university collects over $780 million in indirect costs on grants and contracts per year, yet it spends an estimated $1.5 billion on facilities and administrative support for these grants and contracts,” the report reads. “Currently, the University is underwriting the cost of conducting research.”

To remedy this, the work group proposes negotiating higher indirect cost recovery rate–the rate of overhead costs covered by the sponsoring organization–to reduce the current gap ranging from 5 to 18 percentage points between the UC calculated rates and the final negotiated rates, which amounts to “several hundred million dollars per year systemwide,” according to the report.

The group recommended streamlining risk management practices as another way to cut costs. By relaxing the research policies that “are making highly creative and innovative research more difficult,” researchers would be able to spend more time performing research and collaborating with colleagues around the world, according to the report, which stated that researchers engaged in federally sponsored studies spent 42 percent of their time doing administrative activities before and after instead of the research itself.

“Streamlined administrative practices and decreased administrative burdens on faculty will result in increased research opportunities for students,” the report reads.

The work group also proposes establishing a multicampus “UC Grand Challenge Research Initiative” to tackle problems facing the world today–a move that could create new streams of revenue for the university.

“UC is uniquely positioned to take a leadership role in addressing grand challenge research problems of the 21st century,” the report read, asserting that UC’s many campuses and academic strengths make it an ideal institution to undertake research of that magnitude.

The establishment of such a program could give the university “a competitive advantage for funding from federal major sponsors,” such as the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, creating new revenue streams, according to the report. The program, in addition to garnering increased external funding, would also lead to the pooling of systemwide resources and facilities in order to keep costs down.