Quick Takes

President Obama is getting ready to unveil his plan to help community colleges improve the job skills of Americans. Writing in The Washington Post Sunday, Obama stressed the importance of community colleges. "In an economy where jobs requiring at least an associate's degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience, it's never been more essential to continue education and training after high school. That's why we've set a goal of leading the world in college degrees by 2020. Part of this goal will be met by helping Americans better afford a college education. But part of it will also be strengthening our network of community colleges," Obama wrote, saying he would be talking about this issue during the week ahead. "We believe it's time to reform our community colleges so that they provide Americans of all ages a chance to learn the skills and knowledge necessary to compete for the jobs of the future.... We can reallocate funding to help them modernize their facilities, increase the quality of online courses and ultimately meet the goal of graduating 5 million more Americans from community colleges by 2020." While Obama did not provide details, a draft of the plan from the end of last month was discussed in Inside Higher Ed, and featured billions for job training, low-interest facilities loans and smaller sums to create free online courses. The likely setting for Obama to release his plan is Macomb Community College, in Michigan, where Obama will appear on Tuesday.

A federal appeals court last week revived a lawsuit challenging the policy under which graduates of law schools in Wisconsin need not take the state's bar exam to practice law, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. The ruling returned the case to a lower court, which had rejected the case, urging consideration of the question of whether the state's policy violated the Constitution's ban on limits on interstate commerce by effectively discouraging Wisconsin residents from enrolling in law schools out of state, as the plaintiff in the case did. The appeals court ruling also noted that only a portion of the state's bar exam focuses on Wisconsin law and that the rest may well cover material that would be taught in similar ways at out-of-state law schools.

Iranian authorities have arrested Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American social scientist, although the nature of the charges is unclear, the Associated Press reported. His family members have no information on where he was taken. Tajbakhsh was arrested in 2007 and released after four months in prison. This Web site, prepared by supporters in 2007, details his work as a scholar.

The Louisiana State University is eliminating 400 positions, 100 of them at the flagship campus in Baton Rouge, but the LSU Press will survive. The Advocate quoted LSU officials as saying that the cuts -- while significant -- are not as large as first feared. While the university press will not be eliminated, university officials said that its budget will be cut and that operations like the press need to take cuts to protect the jobs of faculty members. The press is well respected for its books on history and literature, and many scholars nationwide were concerned about the publishing arm being on the chopping block. In an e-mail to Inside Higher Ed, MaryKatherine Callaway, director of the press, said that she was pleased that the press will now be able to celebrate its 75th anniversary next year. "While we must definitely retool our entire operation in light of the budget cuts, we intend to implement a plan that will allow the press to thrive over the next 75 years," she said.

What amounts to good news for endowment managers these days wouldn't have been good news a few years ago. But Bloomberg reported that several colleges with large endowments are finding that their losses for the fiscal year just ended are slightly smaller than projected and several that expected the current fiscal year to produce more losses are now projecting a flat year. While the revised projections are welcome, they are not generally dramatic enough to lead colleges to reverse budget cuts they have adopted.

The Nevada Board of Regents on Friday ended David Ashley's presidency at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, returning him to the faculty, The Las Vegas Sun reported. Regents cited Ashley's lobbying of legislators, whom he told that UNLV was being disproportionately cut in the budget process. While Ashley said he was doing his job to protect the campus, and student leaders agreed, regents said that he undermined the unity of the state higher education system.

If all goes according to plan, Simon Fraser University, in British Columbia, will be the first Canadian member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Last week, the Division II Membership Committee accepted its application, kicking off a two-year candidacy period during which the institution must compete at least one year under provisional status before being accepted as a full member. At the earliest, Simon Fraser could gain full membership by the fall of 2012. To receive NCAA membership, Canadian institutions must be accredited by an American regional accrediting agency. Earlier this year, Division II officials said Simon Fraser was one of a handful of Canadian institutions that either were going through the process or were considering it, solely to qualify for NCAA membership. Stephen M. Jordan, chair of the Division II Presidents Council and president of Metropolitan State College of Denver, also hinted earlier this year that the University of British Columbia might be the next Canadian institution to join Division II.