Quick Takes

John Hope Franklin -- a leading historian during the last century and a pioneer in African-American studies -- died Wednesday at the age of 94. Franklin was the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University, and earlier in his career he taught at historically black colleges such as Fisk and Howard Universities. He also taught at institutions such as Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago, in an era when black professors were rare outside of black colleges. Franklin was not only a scholar of African-American history, but someone who shaped it -- helping to draft key arguments in Brown v. Board of Education, and marching with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. As a scholar, he wrote numerous books, the most famous of which is From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (originally published in 1947). Duke University has created a special Web site with detailed biographical information, a photo gallery, and a form to send condolences to Franklin's family.

Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives took starkly different approaches Wednesday to the budget resolutions they are required to draft to lay out their chambers' plans to craft federal budgets for the 2010 fiscal year. But the plans shared one common element that could bode well for college students. The House Budget Committee, at the urging of the Obama administration, included in its budget resolution language that opens the door to the legislative process known as "budget reconciliation" and to the administration's plan to eliminate the lender-based guaranteed loan program and to use the savings to lock in automatic, inflation-adjusted increases in the maximum Pell Grant. The House language, which the Senate very consciously omitted, would give the House Education and Labor Committee until September 30 to come up with a plan to shave $1 billion in federal mandatory spending -- a goal the committee would be likely to accomplish only through radical changes in the student loan programs, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates would save $94 billion over 10 years. The Senate Budget Committee opted not to head down the controversial path of budget reconciliation -- controversial because it enables the Senate to approve major changes in federal policy (for instance, on health care) with a vote of a simple majority of its members. But the Senate and House panels both included provisions that would create reserve funds designed to pay for the changes in the Pell Grant Program that college leaders and student advocates aggressively favor.

Even amid the cuts and tight budgets of this economically devastating year for higher education, the University of California is hiring senior officials at top salaries and awarding large raises to others, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. According to the newspaper, the university has in the last two months awarded raises of as much as 22.3 percent to a half dozen senior officials. University officials defended the increases, saying that many senior positions must be filled, and that certain circumstances warrant raises or high salaries.

Colorado College has announced plans to cut three teams from its athletics program: football, softball and water polo. In an open letter announcing the changes, college officials cited the need to cut spending. While many colleges are pushing to control athletic (and other) spending, Colorado has a particularly difficult time, the letter noted, because it is the only Division III program in the Mountain Time Zone, forcing particularly high spending on travel. The teams were selected for elimination on the basis of "competitive success, conference affiliation, available facilities, fund-raising success (or endowment earnings), roster size, and recruiting success," the letter said. It added that college officials also wanted to be sure the athletics program met federal gender equity requirements.

For the first time in its history, San Jose State University is rejecting qualified applicants. The San Jose Mercury News reported that while all eligible students from Santa Clara County were admitted, 4,400 from elsewhere in the state were told that they would have to enroll at other California State University campuses. University officials have been warning that they would be unable to meet the increased demand for slots, given the state's budget cuts.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has hardly lacked for targets in his campaign against conflicts of interest in biomedical science and academic research. But a study published Wednesday in the April issue of Academic Medicine suggests potential problems in an area that has largely escaped Grassley's scrutiny so far -- among the members of institutional boards that review research at medical schools and academic medical centers. The study, based on a survey of more than 200 chairs of such review boards, found that a third of IRBs at those institutions did not require voting members to disclose their relationships with pharmaceutical companies or other industry representatives -- even though national groups have urged such reporting and the relationships, in practice, were reported in a majority of cases. Nearly one in five chairs reported a lack of confidence that their boards' policies and procedures "ensured appropriate disclosure of industry relationships in every case," according to the study, which was conducted by three faculty members at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Tufts University withdrew an invitation to an aide to Sen. Charles Grassley to speak at a campus forum, saying that university administrators couldn't appear at the forum along with the aide, The Boston Globe reported. The reason cited was that Senator Grassley (and the aide) are investigating possible conflicts of interest in federally supported research, including that of at least one professor at Tufts. At least one organizer of the Tufts event says that the situation raises academic freedom issues, although Tufts officials have stressed that anyone may speak at the university, and that the issue is simply whether administrators will appear at the same event. The aide in question is Paul D. Thacker, a former reporter who previously worked at Inside Higher Ed. Grassley's press secretary told the Globe: "These issues merit more discussion and less circling the wagons. It's too bad a reform perspective has been removed from the program."

Rigorous eligibility requirements and a faster-than-ideal timeline for implementing the Academic Competitiveness and SMART Grant Programs limited college students' use of the two new financial aid programs, the Government Accountability Office said in an analysis Wednesday. College officials will not be surprised by the federal agency's conclusions; they have consistently criticized the programs as well-intended but ill-conceived and crafted in the dead of the night without thorough review. The GAO report confirms early data showing underutilization of the two programs, finding that in 2007-8 about 460,000 students (instead of the projected 540,000) took advantage of grants totaling $511 million, less than the projected $700 million budgeted. The government study cites financial aid administrators' views that changes that will take effect this summer in the programs' eligibility and other requirements should improve the program's effectiveness.

Blackboard, the leading course management company, is today announcing an application for the iPhone -- a device that has quickly become popular with many students. The new system will allow iPhone users to interact with their Blackboard pages anyplace they carry their phones. In a statement, Michael L. Chasen, president and CEO of Blackboard, said the application would "help students more deeply engage in the educational experience by creating learning opportunities that are not bound by time or place.”

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is today naming 50 top early career scientists to receive special six-year appointments -- in a program on which the institute will spend $200 million -- to focus on bold, high-risk ideas without having to worry about applying for research support. The program is a response to widespread concerns that young scientists need to be so focused on grant applications that they opt for "safe" projects over those that could transform areas of study. Details on the award winners may be found here.

A new book, The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University, details the experience of Kevin Roose at Liberty University. Roose was an unlikely Liberty student because he was there on leave from Brown University to explore an institution with different values. As detailed in The Daily Beast, Liberty -- known under its founder, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, for taking on critics -- is taking a mellow response to the book. University officials have no plans to promote the book, nor to ban it.