Quick Takes

Those frustrated by the numerous errors in the new edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association will be able to get a correct version. Until now, the association has insisted that it would be wasteful to issue new editions, and it urged those who bought the book to just use an online compilation of corrections. But on Tuesday, an organizer of a boycott movement for the error-laden version announced that the association had agreed to offer corrected versions.

Congressional negotiators completed work Tuesday on a compromise spending bill that would provide $167.5 million apiece in the 2010 fiscal year to the National Endowments for the Humanities and for the Arts. The compromise legislation, which would fund the Department of the Interior and several other agencies, would give the two cultural agencies more than the $161.3 million that the Senate proposed providing, but slightly less than the $170 million that the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee would have provided.

The U.S. Education Department published final regulations Tuesday to carry out changes Congress made to federal law governing higher education accreditation. The rules, which were published in the Federal Register, deal with a wide range of issues involving the relationships between the federal government and accrediting agencies, and between the agencies and the colleges they accredit. Among them: new standards for distance education, requirements on transfer of credit policies, and plans for how colleges should "teach out" when they close campuses. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation published an analysis of an earlier version of the rules in August; the final version of the regulations released Tuesday has changed little from the proposed rules.

Two of the five finalists to become president of New Mexico State University recently left chancellorships elsewhere amid considerable controversy. One of them is Richard Herman of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who resigned amid a furor over an admissions system (no ended) that gave preferences to politically connected applicants. The other is James Oblinger of North Carolina State University, who resigned amid a debate over a highly paid position for the ex-governor's wife.

Rejecting the views of student protesters, the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees voted 16-3 Tuesday to approve a $7 million gift for a new dormitory for basketball players, to be called the Wildcat Coal Lodge, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported. The "coal" part of the name was a condition of a donor, who heads a coal company. The university cited the need for the facility, and the contributions of coal miners to the state, but critics said that the university was associating itself with a controversial industry. Some students yelled at trustees: "You're leaving Kentucky behind, one more time," and "I'm transferring."

Faculty members are St. Petersburg State University are angry over new rules requiring approval of administrators before a professor can publish or present work outside of Russia, The New York Times reported. While academics view the rule as a limit on their academic freedom, administrators say the rule is just routine enforcement of Russian law and will not result in any serious restraints.

Nine Chinese universities have created an academic conference called the C9 that is being called "China's Ivy League" by educators, Xinhua reported. The universities will work together on graduate education and establish a credit system to allow for easy student exchanges and transfers. China's Education Ministry praised the creation of the group.

The United States is losing ground in the world economy because of declines in educational attainment, according to a new report by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The report cites data showing that the United States and Germany were the only two nations in which those aged 25–34 have attained less education than their parents’ generation.