Quick Takes

The National Council of the American Association of University Professors has issued a statement calling for the reinstatement of Ward Churchill by the University of Colorado. The statement, in its entirety, is this: "We believe the disputes over Ward Churchill's publications should have been allowed to work themselves out in traditional scholarly venues, not referred to disciplinary hearings. We believe Churchill should be reinstated to his faculty position at the University of Colorado." A Colorado jury last week found that the University of Colorado did not fire Churchill as an ethnic studies professor on the Boulder campus for legitimate reasons, but for his political views. A judge will later determine whether Churchill can return to his tenured job. Typically, AAUP's academic freedom committee issues findings about cases involving claims of wrongful termination, but Nelson noted that the National Council from time to time speaks out on its own, as it did in this case. Churchill was fired after the university found that he had engaged in numerous instances of scholarly misconduct.

President Obama on Wednesday nominated New Jersey's top higher education official (who is also a former top aide to U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy) to head the Labor Department agency that oversees federal job training programs. Jane Oates, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and a senior adviser to Gov. Jon S. Corzine, is the president's choice to be assistant labor secretary leading the Employment and Training Administration, which administers the Workforce Investment Act and other federal job training programs. If confirmed by the Senate, Oates would oversee the agency's work, among other things, on spending additional billions in federal stimulus money for job training, much of which could flow to community colleges, and working with Congress to renew the Workforce Investment Act. In other recent Obama administration personnel moves, the president has nominated John Q. Easton, executive director of the University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research, to direct the U.S. Education Department's Institute of Education Sciences, which oversees the federal government's work on education research. At the center, Easton worked closely with Education Secretary Arne Duncan on research aimed at improving the Chicago Public Schools. And the Portland Press Herald reported that Duncan has appointed Glenn Cummings, dean of institutional advancement at Southern Maine Community College and a former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, for a key role in the Education Department's Office of Vocational and Adult Education.

Brown University professors, at the request of student groups, have voted to rename the institution's Columbus Day holiday as "Fall Weekend," The Providence Journal reported. Student groups had called for the change in light of "the nature of Christopher Columbus's conquests and treatment of Native Americans." The vote is not going over well with Providence's Italian American population. Raymond Dettore Jr., national historian for the Sons of Italy, told the Journal: "I don't think this is right. Columbus was the one that opened up this part of the world to Western civilization. Whether it was him or anybody else, it was going to happen eventually. Columbus showed the world was not flat." He added, "Why don't they change the name of Brown? Was it not founded by slave traders? Brown has gone just a little too far with some of these things over the past few years."

After maintaining for two years that the drug overdose death of a student was an "isolated incident," Southern Methodist University officials have acknowledged that there was a broader drug problem at the time in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, where the student died in his room, The Dallas Morning News reported. "SMU has concluded that the use of illegal drugs by members of the fraternity was not isolated to the student who died," said a university statement to the Morning News. "Statements made by several SAE members indicate there was drug use by additional fraternity members in the SAE house or as part of fraternity activities." The university is barring the fraternity from holding parties until November, and said it didn't impose a harsher penalty because a majority of members today were not members at the time of the death of the student, Jake Stiles. The university's characterization of the death of Stiles as an isolated incident infuriated his family members, who cited extensive evidence otherwise, and was the subject of a lengthy article in January in The Texas Monthly.

Joseph Massad may have won an epic tenure battle at Columbia University. No official announcements have been made by Columbia or Massad, but The Angry Arab News Service -- a blog sympathetic to him -- quotes him as confirming campus reports that he has been assured of tenure. Many scholars of Middle Eastern studies believe Massad deserves tenure and that his promotion has been held up unreasonably because of opposition by pro-Israel groups. Those groups, in turn, say that Massad is hostile not only to Israel but to students whose views on Israel differ from his own.

Johns Hopkins Medicine has become the latest medical school to bar gifts from pharmaceutical companies. New policies announced Wednesday prohibit the acceptance of gifts or entertainment -- including food -- regardless of value, from pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Consulting arrangements that carry compensation but no real duties also are barred. Beginning in 2010, Hopkins will no longer accept free pharmaceutical samples, although in some limited cases, it will use "de-identified samples " (those without the brand name or manufacturer's name) for patient education. While consulting work for drug companies will not be barred, reporting requirements to prevent conflicts of interest will be strengthened. "Industry plays a crucial role in advancing medical research and treatments, and the intent is not to discourage principled partnerships," says Julie Gottlieb, assistant dean and director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Office of Policy Coordination, in a statement. "The major reason for developing this policy is to limit the impact of industry marketing influence on faculty and physicians' decision making and by so doing protect patients."

The bishop for the Diocese of Scranton has deemed the response of four Catholic colleges to his inquiry into contraceptives on campus “insufficient.” The presidents of King’s College, Misericordia University, Marywood University and the University of Scranton said in a joint letter Monday that they do not provide condoms or oral contraceptives on campus, but the bishop said further documentation is needed – citing two specific reasons for concern, including the inclusion of condoms on Marywood’s packing list for international students. Officials at the four colleges either declined or did not respond to requests for further comment Wednesday.

A for-profit education company owned by a leading private equity firm has bought Florida Technical College, which operates three career-oriented campuses, according to Stifel Nicolaus Investment Banking, which announced the sale. EduK, which operates several colleges in Puerto Rico and is financed by Leeds Equity Partners, completed its purchase of Florida Technical College from Forefront Education, Stifel Nicolaus said. Florida Tech operates 17 programs on three campuses. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The student editors of Hillsdale College's Collegian knew they'd blown it; the publication's Web site offered an apology for a staff editorial last week that ridiculed the losing ways of the Michigan college's baseball team and the "badass ... swagger" of its members. But as low as the student journalists admit to have aimed, their targets appear to have ratcheted it down a few steps. The paper's editor found the carcasses of several dead animals (including a goat and "one and a half deer," as the Associated Press put it) on the steps of the off-campus house where he lives, with a copy of the editorial tucked underneath. College officials said they had resolved the situation, declining to say whether baseball players were involved and making clear that no animals had been hurt in the incident.