Quick Takes

La Salle University has agreed to pay $7.5 million to cover the lifetime costs of caring for a former football player who suffered brain trauma in a 2005 game, the Associated Press reported. The family of Preston Plevretes had sued the Philadelphia-area university, alleging that it allowed him to play even though he had endured a concussion in a practice weeks earlier; the university had argued that the brain injury resulted entirely from the second blow. The settlement, which did not include any admission of wrongdoing by La Salle, came on the day a trial was to begin in the case. Brain injuries from football have been the focus of increasing attention this fall, in the wake of a National Football League-sponsored study that suggests a greater risk at all playing levels than previously acknowledged. La Salle officials said in a statement Monday that "[f]rom the time of Preston’s injury, the university community, led by those who know Preston and his family, have been hoping and praying for his recovery. That hasn’t changed."

A new study examines an unusual situation within economics: Writing more papers can be linked with higher salaries for professors but also with lower reputations. Writing about the work, Daniel Hamermesh of the University of Texas at Austin, and co-author of the study, says: "The question is why writing more (essentially ignored) papers has opposite effects on reputation and salary? Are university administrators ignorant, rewarding something visible that in fact reduces the scholar’s quality, as measured by his/her colleagues? We tested lots of explanations for the anomaly, but none described it well." The paper was published by the National Bureau for Economic Research and the other author is Gerard Pfann of Maastricht University.

About 150 students who said that they had more than 10,000 student signatures on petitions jammed a City Council meeting in Pittsburgh Monday, opposing a plan by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to add a 1 percent tax on tuition, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The mayor says that the funds are needed for city services, while students and colleges say it is an inappropriate way to raise money. Many of the students said that they were bothered by the tax plan's implication that students hurt the city. Rotimi M. Abimbola, student president at Carnegie Mellon University, said: "We really, really need to dispel this myth that students are a burden to the city." Many colleges nationwide are watching the debate in Pittsburgh with concern that the tax idea, if enacted, will spread.

Rutgers University, while denying wrongdoing, has settled a lawsuit by four groundskeepers -- three of them black and one a Latino -- who charged that they were denied promotions because of racial discrimination, The Star-Ledger reported. Each plaintiff will receive $71,875, and their lawyers will receive a total of $300,000 in legal fees. Both sides had agreed not to publicize the settlement, but the newspaper obtained it under an open records request.

Six former student affairs officials are suing the University of Southern Maine, charging that they lost employment there because of age bias, The Portland Press Herald reported. The university recently reorganized many student services functions, and many jobs were shifted, with those in old jobs allowed to re-apply for the new positions. Those suing, all over 50, say that their age was a factor in their not being hired. The university denies any discrimination. An unusual factor in the suit: One of the plaintiffs is a state senator. who formerly was director of career services and professional life development.

A Boston Globe article today on William Fitzsimmons, Harvard University's admissions dean, credits him with encouraging the university to be much more ambitious about recruiting and enrolling students who didn't grow up with much money or the expectation of going to a place like Harvard. The article notes that Fitzsimmons is the son of a local gas station owner and that, as he set his sights on Harvard as a youth, "the nuns at his Catholic high school refused to write him recommendations, proclaiming the college full of atheists, communists, and rich snobs."

Many European universities lack the autonomy they need to excel, according to a new report by the European Universities Association. The report notes that most governments voice support for autonomy (and cut back on the share of budgets they provide), but said that, in many cases, too much government oversight remains. Financial management is a key area where government controls remain, the report says. "The main issues mentioned were related to the low levels of public funding, short funding contracts which made planning difficult, line-item budgets and a lack of independent financial capacity, such as lack of ownership of university buildings or limitations on universities’ employment policies," the study says. In addition, it says that "reporting procedures were also perceived to be heavy and cumbersome, and, in a number of cases, irrelevant." The report also bemoans "a lack of ability to determine the level of tuition fees or to decide on their introduction."

The season for many college football teams ended last weekend, which meant the start of the season that follows: firing time for many coaches. Monday brought the dismissals of head coaches at the Universities of Notre Dame and Virginia, following closely on the heels of dismissals or resignations of their peers at Marshall University, the University of Akron, and the University of Louisville, among others. While the changes are mostly about X's and O's, and the coaches' relative lack of success in winning football games, they are also about $$'s. Notre Dame will pay Weis as much as $18 million to buy out the rest of his 10-year contract (though other news reports have described that figure as exaggerated), while Virginia will spend $4.5 million to rid itself of Al Groh.

Trita Parsi has won the 2010 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order for Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States, published in 2007 by Yale University Press. Parsi is co-founder and president of the National Iranian American Council. Grawemeyer awards, worth $200,000 each, are awarded each year in in the fields of music, political science, psychology, education and religion.