Quick Takes

A federal district court judge has backed the University of Montana law school's decision to deny financial support to a Christian student group that barred as members students who won't sign its statement of faith or who engage in or advocate homosexual sex. The decision last week upheld a magistrate judge's 2008 opinion that the law school did not violate the First Amendment rights of a Christian Legal Society chapter that sought funds through the school's student fee process. The law school appropriately concluded that the group's membership standards discriminated on the basis of religion and sexual orientation, the judge found.

Members of the University and College Union again voted Wednesday to boycott Israeli universities, but leaders of the union -- the largest for British academe -- said that the vote would be void due to legal questions about whether the organization can take such a stance, The Guardian reported. British faculty unions have been voting on and off for such boycotts for several years now, creating some conflict with American academic organizations that have opposed boycotts as violating academic freedom.

With Louisiana State University facing deep budget cuts, the Louisiana State University Press could face reductions so severe that they would endanger its ability to continue. University officials have said that they want to save the LSU Press, but that they face limited, undesirable choices unless the state comes up with more money. This week two major humanities organizations wrote to the state's governor, Bobby Jindal, urging him to make sure the press survives. Catherine Porter, president of the Modern Language Association, wrote that "we value the excellent publications issued by LSU Press. These include outstanding works of fiction and poetry by the likes of John Kennedy Toole and Claudia Emerson — both winners of the Pulitzer Prize. The press is also highly regarded for publishing scrupulous scholarship on Southern literature and history and on African American culture, among other fields." Arnita A. Jones, executive director of the American Historical Association, wrote that the press has "for almost 75 years" been "one of the most significant publishers in the fields of Southern history and its loss would be a severe blow to our understanding of the past."

A surgeon at the University of California at Los Angeles is the latest campus researcher to come into the crosshairs of U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley's campaign against alleged conflicts of interest, The Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper said that Grassley sent a letter last week to UCLA officials alleging that Jeffrey Wang, chief of spine surgery there, had failed to tell the university about $459,500 he received over four years from medical companies whose products he was studying. The Journal notes that public university researchers in California must "disclose any financial ties to nongovernmental entities funding their work." UCLA and Wang declined to comment on the senator's letter, the newspaper reported. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, has made a steady stream of allegations to try to show Grassley that universities and the National Institutes of Health are not enforcing regulations designed to prevent conflicts of interest in federally financed research.

The Justice Department's antitrust division is investigating the purchase by Blackboard of Angel Learning, one of its rivals in the course management industry. Such inquiries do not mean that the government plans to challenge the purchase, only that it is conducting an investigation. Blackboard revealed the inquiry in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in which it indicated that it is cooperating with requests for information.

It would be "absurd" for the State of California to alter its Constitution to strip the University of California of its relative independence from state regulation, university officials said in a formal response to legislation introduced this week by several legislators. In criticizing the legislation introduced by State Sen. Leland Yee and colleagues, UC officials essentially argue that the state, given its many problems, is in no position to take over a university that, despite its own recent travails, remains "the pride of California and the envy of the world." Typical of the combative if not hostile tone of the missive, the university says: "California might have trouble marketing its bonds in the current fiscal crisis, but UC has a triple-A rating. The state budget may have fallen over a cliff, but UC has managed its resources prudently in a tough environment. It has been able to preserve its world class status -- a thrumming engine of educational opportunity, scientific advance and economic stimulus -- even as it has absorbed a steady onslaught of cuts dictated from Sacramento.... By contrast, consider what state control has meant for California's once world class, but now declining, K-12 public education effort. As Arne Duncan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, observed during a recent visit: 'Honestly, I think California has lost its way, and I think the long-term consequences of that are very troubling.' "

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education must rescind its 2008 ban on outdoor smoking on its 14 campuses, the state's labor relations board has ruled. The board's ruling came in response to a complaint filed last fall by the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, a union representing more than 6,000 faculty members and coaches in the system, which charged that the university system engaged in unfair labor practices by failing to discuss the ban with it and other related unions. The Pennsylvania university system had asserted that a recently enacted state law mandated that it ban smoking anywhere on its campuses, obviating the need for collective bargaining. But "[b]ecause the Clean Indoor Air Act does not prohibit smoking in non-enclosed, outdoor areas, and therefore does not explicitly and definitively preclude bargaining over employee smoking outdoors on a State System College or University campus, PASSHE was obligated under [state labor law] to bargain with APSCUF before banning smoking on all outdoor areas of the campuses," the labor board wrote.

Just in time for graduation season, a major cellular phone company has taken a shot at community colleges in the latest spot in an already controversial ad campaign. Boost Mobile, a phone service owned by Sprint Nextel, recently unveiled a new ad featuring a graying father carrying his overgrown, adult-aged son in a baby-carrying device through the frozen food aisle of a supermarket. The gruff-looking son confronts the camera, strapped to his father, and asks, “Do you think this is wrong?” He then goes on to thank his father for purchasing him a new cell phone for his “junior college graduation.” Nichole Cappitelli, company spokeswoman, provided Inside Higher Ed with a copy of the television ad and stated via e-mail that the company had not "yet" received any complaints about this particular “junior college” spot. Recently in the world of popular culture, NBC irked some community college leaders when it announced it would debut a new sitcom this fall chronicling the lives of a lovable group of “losers” at a fictional two-year campus.