Quick Takes

The Education Department is reporting significant gains in applications for federal financial aid and in volume in direct lending. Both gains have been expected, but data reported to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators provide some details on the trends. Through the end of February, the department reported processing almost 3 million Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms for the 2009-10 academic year, an increase of 20 percent over a comparable period a year ago. The shifts reported in direct lending are also dramatic. As of February 25, direct lending volume was $20.2 billion, up from $13.1 billion a year ago. So far this academic year, the number of loans provided through direct lending is up by 1.6 million and the number of participating colleges is up by 548.

Two Texas A&M University students -- who were brother and sister -- were shot and killed Friday in their off-campus apartment, and a student at nearby Blinn College has been charged with the murders, The Bryan/College Station Eagle reported. Also on Friday, students were scared but there were no injuries when a police officer at the University of Illinois at Chicago accidentally discharged his gun while investigating reports of possible gunfire on campus, the Chicago Tribune reported. Also last week, five men who are not students at Fairleigh Dickinson University were arrested following reports that someone was waving a gun at the New Jersey university, the Associated Press reported. And in South Carolina last week, a student at York Technical College was arrested after a handgun he was carrying went off during class. WCNC News reported that the student originally said that he fell asleep in class and that the gun fired when it fell through a hole in his pocket. But the student -- who faces charges of carrying a pistol unlawfully and carrying a weapon on a campus -- then changed his story and said that he was holding his handgun in his pocket and that he accidentally hit the trigger. The professor in the class reported that, after the incident, the student apologized and left the class.

A large crowd greeted Richard Dawkins at the University of Oklahoma Friday, cheering on the biologist as he spoke about evolution and the attacks on science by creationists and others. Some legislators spoke out against the university's invitation to Dawkins. One member of the Oklahoma House has introduced resolutions (which have not been voted on) to express disappointment with the university for giving a forum to the noted scholar because of his "biased philosophy." Another resolution prompted by the Dawkins visit attacked the university's zoology department, saying that it has been "framing the Darwinian theory of evolution as doctrinal dogmatism rather than a hypothetical construction within the disciplines of the sciences." The zoology department offended the legislator in question by having material on the department Web site that explains the science of evolution. Despite a heckler/questioner, Dawkins was able to give his talk and won strong support from the audience. He opened his talk (video of which is on YouTube) by noting the legislative opposition to his visit, and wondering whether the diversity of thought on science that his critics want would extend to the parody produced by The Onion of "intelligent falling" as a challenge to the theory of gravity.

President Obama is expected today to announce that he is lifting limits, imposed by President George W. Bush, on federal support for stem cell research. The restrictions have been widely condemned by scientists as hindering research, and as symbolic of the Bush administration's imposition of ideological tests on science policy. The move by President Obama has been expected; during his campaign, he promised such a shift. His campaign document on science said: "Despite recent advances pointing to alternatives like adult stem cell and cord blood, embryonic stem cells remain unmatched in their potential for treatment of a wide variety of diseases and health conditions. Barack Obama has been a long-term supporter of increased stem cell research. He introduced legislation while a member of the Illinois Senate that would allow embryonic stem cell research in Illinois. Obama has cosponsored legislation to allow greater federal government funding on a wider array of stem cell lines. Obama believes we need high ethical standards that allow for research on stem cells derived from embryos produced for in vitro fertilization, embryos that would otherwise be needlessly destroyed."

The U.S. Education Department on Saturday published additional guidance about how it plans to distribute more than $50 billion in the coming months to help states stem cuts to education programs. While the guidance offers significantly more detail than has been previously available -- noting, for instance, that in applying for money from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, states must assure that they will "establish and use pre-K-through-college and career data systems to track progress and foster continuous improvement" -- it still leaves many questions unanswered.

The editorial staff of the Oregon Daily Emerald, which went on strike Wednesday in protest of organizational changes, plans to return to work and publish a newspaper today, the newspaper announced Friday.

In an editorial published on the student newspaper's Web site, the Emerald staff said the paper's Board of Directors is open to further discussions about the role of a new publisher. The board had previously agreed to a plan that would place the new publisher in a supervisory role over the editor-in-chief, breaking with the current organizational structure in which the editor only answers to the board.

"The newsroom of the Oregon Daily Emerald still harbors legitimate concerns about the future of this organization and the supervisory role of a professional publisher over our student editor in chief," the editorial stated. "We will not abandon that concern. But we believe it is in the best interest of both the company as a whole and all of our readers to move forward while these serious discussions take place."

The publisher position was to be filled on an interim basis by Steven A. Smith, a former editor of the Spokesman Review who had provided consulting services to the Emerald. Smith decided not to take the job when he learned of the strike, and the board plans to conduct a national search to replace him.

New York Medical College, a free-standing institution with 1,600 students in M.D., public health and other graduate medical sciences programs, has signed a letter of intent to merge with a university, but won't name the likely partner, The Journal News reported. A spokeswoman for Touro College, while not confirming that it had signed a letter of intent, said that officials there were in "serious negotiations" with the medical college. The New York Medical College is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and Touro has Jewish affiliations.

Officials in Fort Lee, N.J., are investigating how high school guidance counselors apparently improved the grades recorded on the transcripts of some students, hoping to improve their odds of gaining admission to colleges, The Fort Lee Suburbanite reported. School officials have not released details, but said that they would inform colleges about any students whose records had been changed. The New York Times reported that some parents are concerned not about the irregularities, but about the possibility that the situation could hurt their children's chances of college admission now that the problem has become public -- at the height of college admissions season.

Conventional wisdom has it that economic chaos prompts students to seek college programs that are highly practical and that yield sure job offers. But music programs are experiencing a surge in applications, the Chicago Tribune reported, even as jobs with orchestras and arts groups are increasingly hard to come by. The Tribune reported that applications are way up for music programs at Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Indiana University at Bloomington, and DePaul University. Applications have been going up steadily for five years at many of the institutions, with no slowing down this year.