Quick Takes

For the first time, Delgado Community College is being forced to turn away students for lack of space. The reason, an article in The Times-Picayune reported, is that repairs to some buildings damaged in Hurricane Katrina have still yet to be repaired. Federal relief funds have been far short of the college's estimates of the damages that it suffered.

With administrators on the hunt for low-enrollment courses and programs to cut, faculty members are going to greater lengths to attract students to their courses. One trend, The Boston Globe reported, is to make course titles more "juicy." For example, Michael Resler changed the name of his “German Literature of the High Middle Ages’’ class to “Knights, Castles, and Dragons." Enrollment nearly tripled.

The University of Houston is using Wii to attract more students to physical education courses, The Houston Chronicle reported. Wii, which is popular with students, is used to have those in the courses follow and copy the action on the screen to work up a sweat -- and earn elective credit.

Pennsylvania State University is trying a new strategy to raise funds for student aid. The Associated Press reported that the university is sending an appeal to the parents of students who were admitted to the honors college (who get a $3,500 merit scholarship) and who didn't apply for need-based aid. The appeal notes that the bad economy has increased demand for need-based aid, and asks parents to donate back the merit scholarship. So far, Penn State officials have raised $228,000 through the appeal.

Hundreds of students at Howard University, along with unionized workers, held a rally Friday to protest problems with campus housing and delays in financial aid grants being awarded, The Washington Post reported. Students -- who said that the delays are making it impossible to pay their bills -- at one point threatened a sit-in but pulled back from that idea. A Howard spokeswoman said that university leaders would meet with student leaders this week in an attempt to deal with the problems.

Two former members of the Texas Tech University Board of Regents say Gov. Rick Perry pressured them to quit after they endorsed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's Republican primary challenge to his re-election, The Austin American-Statesman reported. One of the regents did quit. The other -- who didn't -- wasn't reappointed when her term ended. The governor's office said it was unaware of any pressure being placed on regents.