Quick Takes

Despite the economic downturn, 67 percent of parents believe in their ability to meet the cost of their children's college education, according to a poll being released today by Sallie Mae and Gallup. However, there are less encouraging signs too. In the last year, the percentage of parents "extremely worried" that the value of their savings and investments would be low increased to 31 percent from 17 percent. Parents also remain worried about tuition increases, the poll found.

The recently rediscovered mental health records of Seung-Hui Cho, the 2007 Virginia Tech killer, were released Wednesday, providing little insight into how he turned into a mass murderer, The Washington Post reported. The records indicate that he was never treated at the university's counseling center, despite a judge's order that he get treatment there.

Michael Cox, professor of music theory and composition at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's School of Church Music since 1990, has taken early retirement, rather than ending his membership in Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, as he would have had to do to continue to teach, the Associated Baptist Press reported. The seminary, which requires faculty members to be affiliated with churches that share its faith, recently said that Broadway Baptist did not meet its tests because it was not sufficiently strong in condemning homosexuality.

Most college financial aid officers oppose the Obama administration's plan for expanding but significantly altering the Perkins Loan Program, according to a survey released Wednesday by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. The administration's proposal, unveiled as part of the president's budget blueprint for 2010, would turn the program from one that provides about $1.5 billion in loan funds to students at hundreds of institutions to a broader one that provides about $6 billion to students at many more colleges. But several aspects of the proposal -- including ending the practice of the government paying interest on the loans while borrowers in college, and requiring significant matching funds from colleges -- earned opposition from the aid officers surveyed. Nearly four in five said they preferred the current version of the program over the proposed one.

Brandeis University has settled a lawsuit challenging its ability to replace a science building. The Wall Street Journal reported that Brandeis has agreed to name a lab after the donor of the building slated for demolition. That donor was the great uncle of a man who sued, arguing that in accepting the donor's funds, Brandeis had agreed to maintain a building named in the donor's honor.

Gov. Steve Beshear, Democrat from Kentucky, recently appointed a colleague with a rather checkered past to the Board of Directors of the West Kentucky Community and Technical College, in Paducah. Early last month – and hidden among a long list of appointments – Beshear tapped Larry Kelley, former member of the governor’s commerce cabinet transition team and now real estate agent in Wickcliffe, for board membership. Kelley, however, is a convicted felon and pleaded guilty to three counts of credit card fraud in 1994. At the time, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Kelley, then a lawyer, had “obtained nearly $5,800 in cash and goods” by “fraudulently obtaining, receiving and using a credit card” from a dead woman, of whose estate he was the executor. Following this, Kelley resigned his post as Ballard County Attorney, and he was disbarred by the Kentucky Supreme Court. Currently, the Kentucky Bar Association does not have his name listed as a member. The news of Kelley’s appointment to the community college board was reported yesterday by Page One, a news blog about politics in the state.