Higher Education Quick Takes

Franklin College, in Indiana, filed a complaint in federal court Monday seeking to stop Franklin University -- an Ohio institution that has opened a campus in Indiana -- from using the Franklin name in ways that the college considers confusing and an infringement on its trademark. Franklin College's president James Moseley issued a statement in which he said that many people who have seen the university's "advertising blitz" have been confused about whether the college was changing its mission. He said that the federal complaint was a "necessary decision to deal with a situation that could negatively affect our school’s good name and reputation. He added that the university's ads "include colors and a ’clock tower’ design amazingly similar to our logo." The university responded with a statement of its own, saying: "Franklin University is and has been publicizing its presence in Indianapolis using its own name in a completely factual and consistent manner.... Now that Franklin College has chosen to use the legal system to resolve this matter, rather than contacting Franklin University, Franklin University will certainly act to protect the right to use its own name to publicize its programs."

With summer jobs much more difficult for students to find, some colleges are hiring more students than in previous years for summer work on campus, USA Today reported. Saint John's University, in Minnesota, created 80 such jobs, most involving physical labor such as painting dormitory rooms, while the College of Wooster, in Ohio, hired more than 200 students for summer work, nearly triple the number hired most summers, the newspaper said.

An English professor who has served on the admissions committee of the U.S. Naval Academy has set off a debate at Annapolis and in military circles with an article suggesting that standards have been lowered to admit more black and Latino students, The Washington Post reported. Bruce Fleming's article, which ran in The Capital, charges that there are dual standards for white and nonwhite applicants, with significant differences in the grade and test scores required for the admissions committee to declare an applicant suitable for admission. The Post article noted that Annapolis officials deny admissions practices that go as far as Fleming suggests. But Fleming noted that as the Naval Academy has seen significant increases in black and Latino enrollments it has also seen significant increases in the percentage of students with mathematics SAT scores below 600 or who need a year of pre-college work (although the figures for those two categories of students are not broken down by race).

An analysis of student loan guaranty agencies' budgets by the New America Foundation has found that 60.5 percent, or $948.8 million, of the federal payments agencies received in the 2008 fiscal year were for the collection and rehabilitation of defaulted student loans. In contrast, they received only $177.3 million for helping to prevent defaults.