Quick Takes

Trustees of City College of San Francisco have agreed to consider a formal plan to let donors sponsor classes that would otherwise be eliminated, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. Don Griffin, the chancellor, first raised the idea last week, saying that he would let donors pay $6,000 to rescue one of the 800 courses being called off due to state budget cuts. Trustees hadn't been briefed on the idea and demanded a formal discussion first. The San Francisco newspaper reported that the discussion appeared headed toward killing the idea. Some trustees worried about the concept letting the state feel it could ignore the college's needs. One trustee was worried about the possibility of an alcohol or tobacco company sponsoring a health course. But the trustees were swayed to allow Griffin to develop a plan for their review after faculty members and others spoke, detailing their concerns about how many classes were disappearing. One speaker told the board to "take the money and run."

The University of Kansas is becoming the first public university -- following moves by all or parts of institutions such as Harvard and Stanford Universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- to make all faculty journal articles available free in digital form. Chancellor Robert Hemenway proposed the policy, which was endorsed by the Faculty Senate. The articles will be placed in KU ScholarWorks, a digital repository. Open access advocates see the creation of such repositories as a way to spread knowledge at a time that many journal subscriptions are too expensive for many academic institutions or individuals.

The Oregon Senate and House have now passed (with gubernatorial approval expected) legislation to codify principles of the Faculty and College Excellence Campaign of the American Federation of Teachers, which aims to improve the working conditions of faculty members and to push colleges to hire more tenure-track professors. Under the Oregon legislation, public colleges and universities will be required to report on the make-up of their faculties -- something faculty groups say is essential for drawing attention to and changing hiring patterns. Further, some part timers will be able to gain eligibility for health insurance based on work at multiple colleges, not just one.

Colleges will soon be urged by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to test athletes for the sickle cell trait -- and eventually the colleges may be required to do so. That's because of the settlement of a lawsuit against Rice University and the NCAA by the family of a football player who died during a workout and whose sickle cell trait was linked to the death, the Associated Press reported. At the time of his death, Rice (like many universities) did not test for the trait. Most terms of the settlement are confidential, the AP said. But parties are going public about the sickle cell testing. The NCAA said that it couldn't agree to force colleges to do the testing because such a requirement would have to be proposed and adopted by a membership vote. But the NCAA agreed to recommend the testing, and Rice agreed to sponsor a proposal that the NCAA require such testing.

Dickinson College is introducing a new fellowship program to encourage public service and allow students to take a "gap year" (or years) between high school and college. Under the program, students apply as high school seniors and, if admitted, can defer enrollment for one to four academic years. For every year that they spend in public service, they earn a $10,000 credit toward expenses at the college. The students must work for 30-40 hours a week for 10-12 months to be eligible, although they may count work with other programs to encourage service, such as AmeriCorps. The credits do not limit other financial aid the students could receive from the college.

Pennsylvania State University and other "state-related" institutions in Pennsylvania -- Lincoln and Temple Universities and the University of Pittsburgh -- have long debated whether they are public institutions or not. They depend on state appropriations and favor in-state applicants, but they have more independence than the state-owned institutions, and periodically assert that they should not be treated as public institutions (such as when groups are seeking information from them under state open records laws). Now Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, is embracing that position, and proposing to exclude them from the federal stimulus funds intended to minimize state cuts to public higher education, The PIttsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The four institutions would collectively lose $40 million under this plan.

Two University of Arizona graduate students and another researcher were arrested in Brazil, and then freed on bail, on charges of illegally prospecting for minerals, the Associated Press reported. A university spokesman said that the students were in geoscience and were conducting research on climate and environmental change.

With the World Conference on Higher Education -- sponsored by the United National Scientific and Cultural Organization -- scheduled to open in Paris at the end of the week, regional pre-conferences are issuing recommendations for the body. Delegates from Arab nations on Friday issued a "Cairo Declaration" on their goals, with an emphasis on ways that higher education can promote peace and development. European delegations met this month as well and issued the "Bucharest Message" calling for an emphasis on access and equity. The U.S. delegation will be led by Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden and an adjunct at Northern Virginia Community College.

Brigham Young University on Friday ended its blocking of YouTube on the university network, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Students still must be careful about what they view on YouTube because the honor code requires that they avoid Internet material that is not "virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy," and plenty of the videos on YouTube would not meet that standard. But university officials said that the wealth of educational material on the site convinced them to stop blocking it.