December 1, 2008

Conduct of President's Wife Is Reviewed by U. of Tennessee's Board

Leaders of the University of Tennessee are grappling with an unusually public spat involving a presidential spouse. Word of a reported argument between a donor and Carol Peterson, wife of the system’s president, has led the Board of Trustees to request that the president, John D. Peterson, clarify her role, according to documents obtained by The Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Laura Morris, the donor, quit as chairwoman of the Alliance of Women Philanthropists after an October confrontation with Ms. Peterson, which was described by two fund-raising officials. The trustees and Mr. Peterson subsequently agreed that his wife would avoid contact with donors and university staff members.

But Ms. Peterson may again act freely after her husband sent a letter last week to the governing board’s chairman. The president said he and his wife had apologized for the incident. She would continue to participate in university activities as a volunteer, he wrote, adding that she would have no authority over staff members or volunteers on the campus.

The board is conducting a five-year review of the president’s performance and is considering the incident as part of the process. Mr. Peterson received a positive annual review this year and was praised for his communication skills and his efforts involving fund raising and alumni affairs, the Knoxville newspaper reported. —Paul Fain

State Leaders Ask Congress for Another Stimulus Package

The national associations of governors and state legislators today called on Congress and the White House to shore up their states’ sagging economies with an infusion of at least $126-billion.

The states are facing estimated budget shortfalls totaling at least $140-billion for the current and forthcoming fiscal years because of declining revenues from sales, income, and property taxes, said the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures. At the same time, the states are likely to face increased demand for services like Medicaid, which provides health care for low-income residents.

State leaders are calling for a two-year increase in the percentage of federal matching funds for Medicaid to offset the increased numbers of people expected to be living in poverty by the end of the economic downturn.

The associations have also identified more than $57-billion worth of infrastructure repairs that could be started in short order, an effort that would provide new jobs for residents and an increase in income-tax and sales-tax dollars.

“These investments should include a broad array of infrastructure projects, including airports, bridges, highways, transit systems, ports, rails, clean water, sewers, and broadband,” said Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a Pennsylvania Democrat, at a news conference near Capitol Hill. “We should target high-priority projects so funds can be obligated and invested so that we will see the effects quickly.”

State lawmakers are also calling for $3.5-billion increase in Pell Grant money. While only a small percentage of the proposed infusion of money would go directly to higher education, an improvement in state revenues could forestall some budget cuts that would fall on colleges and universities by the end of this fiscal year and the following year. —Eric Kelderman

Canadian Faculty Group Censures First Nations U. Over Governance

The Canadian Association of University Teachers has censured the First Nations University of Canada, in Saskatchewan, the first time in nearly 30 years that the organization has voted to boycott a college or university.

First Nations is the only aboriginally controlled university in Canada. By imposing censure, the association asks that all professors, including those in other countries, not accept faculty jobs at First Nations, nor invitations to speak there or participate in its conferences.

The university’s troubles began in 2005, when its board chairman, who was also vice chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, suddenly suspended three senior administrators and seized computers and documents. A subsequent inquiry recommended measures to lessen the influence of the chiefs on the university and to correct serious governance problems.

The association says the university has still not carried out some key recommendations but will work with its administration to resolve the issues.

Canada’s de facto accrediting body, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, put First Nations on probation last year and later rescinded the probation.

The university’s president, Charles Pratt, said it had made good progress in instituting changes, according to the Leader Post, a local newspaper. He plans to meet with the national faculty association early next year. —Karen Birchard

Australian Composer Wins U. of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music

Brett Dean, an Australian composer, has won the 2009 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, the university announced today. The award, which is given by the Grawemeyer Foundation, carries a cash award of $200,000.

Mr. Dean, who is artistic director of the Australian National Academy of Music, was honored for “The Lost Art of Letter Writing,” a four-movement concerto for violin and orchestra that was commissioned by symphony orchestras in Stockholm and Cologne, Germany. The composer conducted its premiere in 2007 in Cologne.

The Grawemeyer awards, created in 1984 by Charles Grawemeyer, a University of Louisville alumnus, honor creative works and ideas in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Winners in the other award categories — education, improving world order, psychology, and religion — will be announced later this week.

More information about the Grawemeyer Awards and Foundation can be found on the organization’s Web site. —Charles Huckabee

November 30, 2008

Judge Reverses $16-Million Judgment Against U. of Texas Fraternity

A state judge in Texas has set aside his own ruling that had ordered a University of Texas at Austin fraternity chapter and its national parent organization to pay $16.2-million to the parents of a freshman pledge who died in a drinking-related fall, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

The judge, John Dietz, issued the default judgment in October after the fraternity failed to respond to a lawsuit filed by the student’s parents in September. But the fraternity chapter and organization were allowed to seek a new trial if they could explain why they had not responded to the suit, the Austin newspaper reported.

A lawyer for the fraternity groups said in a news release last week that the court had accepted their explanation and that a trial would now proceed as if the default judgment had not been entered.

The lawsuit concerns the death of Tyler Cross, who died in 2006 after falling from a fifth-floor balcony at his off-campus apartment while drunk. Investigators said his death followed a night of hazing by members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. —Charles Huckabee

U. of California Will Finance Labor Program Whose Funds Were Vetoed

The University of California will set aside money from its own budget to continue a labor-research program on its Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated from the state budget in September, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Mark G. Yudof, president of the university system, agreed to use $4-million in university funds to keep the Miguel Contreras Labor Program operating through this fiscal year, which ends on June 30, the newspaper said. The university is also asking the state to finance the program next year.

The program, whose budget the governor also has proposed cutting in previous years, has produced policy research and educated students on labor and employment issues for eight years. Portions of the program’s work, including training for union leaders, have often sparked controversy among politicians in the state.

After the governor’s veto of money for the program this fall, more than 400 faculty and staff members at California colleges sent Mr. Schwarzenegger a letter of protest in which they called the elimination of the program an “unwarranted political interference in the academic activities of the University of California.”

Aides to the governor have said that the cut was not political, but that the state’s budget deficit had forced him to eliminate money for several state programs.

The $4-million the university will spend on the program is $1.4-million shy of the amount that was cut from the state budget. That $1.4-million would have been used to pay for small grants and other funds for campuses other than those in Berkeley and Los Angeles to conduct labor and employment research, the San Francisco newspaper said. —Sara Hebel

November 28, 2008

College of Santa Fe Looks to State as Deal With Laureate Collapses

The State of New Mexico might need to take over a struggling private college there after its discussions to be acquired by a for-profit provider fell through.

The College of Santa Fe was in talks with Laureate Education for it to assume the college’s debt and assist in marketing the college, in affirming its brand, and in recruiting more students.

According to an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican, a local newspaper, the college announced on Wednesday that a deal with Laureate was dead.

‘‘It is now apparent that, because of their own financial realities, Laureate Education Group will not be able to assume the debt required to retire CSF’s bonds and fund the college,” wrote Marcia Sullivan, vice president for administration and communication.

Now the college is working with New Mexico’s governor, Bill Richardson, to see if it could become a state institution. In a statement the governor, a Democrat, said the college “is an important part of the educational opportunities available to citizens of New Mexico and a valuable partner in the Santa Fe community. We need to explore every opportunity to see if there is a way for it to continue to serve the citizens of Santa Fe and of New Mexico.” —Jeffrey Selingo

November 26, 2008

Duke U. Sues Insurer Over Payment for Legal Costs Stemming From Lacrosse Case

Duke University sued one of its insurers this week for not paying legal fees and settlement costs related to the notorious lacrosse case that drew national attention two years ago, The Herald Sun, a newspaper in Durham, N.C., reported today.

Duke filed suit on Monday against National Union Fire Insurance, a subsidiary of the American International Group. According to The Herald Sun, the insurer has refused to reimburse Duke for legal bills of $11-million because it believes the university’s policy is capped at $5-million.

The newspaper also reported — and a source close to the case confirmed — that National Union and Duke’s other insurer, United Educators Insurance, are “bickering over which company — if not both — has the responsibility to pay.” This week’s lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, seeks to break that deadlock.

“Duke believes its insurance companies should meet their obligations,” Michael Schoenfeld, Duke’s vice president for public affairs and government relations, told The Herald Sun.

The university’s expenses stem from a legal fiasco in which three lacrosse players were accused of assaulting a woman hired as a stripper. They were initially charged with felony rape and other crimes by the local district attorney, but ultimately declared innocent by the state’s attorney general. The local D.A. was later disbarred.

Duke reached a settlement — to avoid possible litigation — with the three students named in the case, and it paid to settle other lawsuits, including one filed by a lacrosse player who alleged grade discrimination by one of his professors. In February, 38 current and former lacrosse players and nine parents sued the university, arguing that it had breached special duties of care it owed to the students. That case is pending. —Sara Lipka

Suffolk U.'s Board Faces Conflict-of-Interest Questions

A trustee and a nominee for Suffolk University’s Board of Trustees, who helped set or defend the high compensation of President David J. Sargent, have significant business ties to the institution, The Boston Globe reported today.

Publicly defending Mr. Sargent’s $2.8-million pay package has been George K. Regan Jr., who was nominated to serve on Suffolk’s board and is a public-relations executive whose company has a $366,000 annual contract with the university, according to the newspaper. And as a member of the board’s executive committee, the Boston lobbyist Robert B. Crowe was involved in approving Mr. Sargent’s compensation amount in 2006. The university pays Mr. Crowe’s lobbying firm $120,000 per year.

Business relationships between universities and trustees are fairly common, and Suffolk officials said the companies were providing a service to the university, at a discount rate. Neither trustee’s business interests influenced Mr. Sargent’s pay, officials said, adding that the university had made all appropriate financial disclosures.

But the business dealings of nonprofit board members are a sensitive topic, and they have received new scrutiny from federal lawmakers. Both the American Council on Education and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges have issued recent reports urging universities to revisit their conflict-of-interest policies.

“It is important that boards apply their conflict-of-interest policy uniformly and that it be consistent with state public-ethics laws,” said Richard D. Legon, president of the governing-board group, in an e-mail message. “Board members should recognize that the appearance of conflict must often be managed in a manner similar to those situations where there is an actual conflict situation.” —Paul Fain

U. of California to Reopen Study-Abroad Program in Israel

The University of California announced on Tuesday that it would end its six-year suspension of study-abroad programs in Israel, and would reopen a program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem next year.

The university system suspended its study-abroad programs in Israel in 2002, after the U.S. State Department placed the country on its travel-warning list. But after an internal review of the security situation in the country, the university concluded that it could reopen programs as long as the situation was monitored closely.

“Over the past few years, the university has enhanced its risk-assessment program and now has access to the services of a leading corporation specializing in risk-management technology, integrated crisis response, and the analyses and assessment of intelligence and changing conditions for regions around the world,” the university said.

Students may be able to enroll in the new program, at the Hebrew University’s Rothberg International School, as early as the summer of 2009, the university said. —Josh Keller