FLOSS In School - Open Source Software in the Education System

Talk of ending journalism school at CU-Boulder is latest effort to transform such programs, suggesting the only way to build them anew is to tear them down.

Ron Feemster describes his efforts to help community college journalists learn their craft. (Spoiler alert: He's no longer employed there.)

Federal appeals court finds that U. of Wisconsin at Madison improperly rejected funds for Catholic activities that involved worship.

Education Management Corporation, the company that runs the Art Institutes, Argosy University and other for-profit colleges, has turned to external consultants to help employees craft letters voicing opposition to the U.S. Department of Education's proposed regulations on "gainful employment." CEO Todd Nelson wrote to employees last week asking them to cooperate with representatives from DCI Group who would write personalized letters on behalf of employees, which they could then sign and send to Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Steve Burd, editor of the New America Foundation's Higher Ed Watch blog, which first reported on Nelson's request, characterized it as an attempt at "manufacturing dissent."

In an e-mail message to Inside Higher Ed, an Education Management spokeswoman, Jacquelyn Muller, said it was "important" for the company's employees and students to be able to speak out against the proposed rules. "We will continue to communicate our opposition to the proposed Gainful Employment Rule and support voluntary efforts that allow our employees, students and faculty to do so as well."

A California judge has dismissed a student's claim that last-minute tuition increases imposed on students by California State University campuses were unfair, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. A San Francisco State University student had asked the small claims court to refund her share of the additional tuition increase the Cal State system imposed in July 2009 in the wake of huge budget cuts. A class action aiming to overturn the tuition increase is working its way through the courts, too.

A large California community college district has gotten rid of all of its emergency notification boxes to save money -- a move not yet commonplace despite boom in cell phone usage.

Susquehanna U. Press is placed "on hiatus." Move follows decisions at Rice, Scranton and SMU.

Scholar reflects on a career trying to teach and enforce "the Queen's English." Bonus: a double limerick.

Drake University on Wednesday announced that its football team will play a game on May 21, 2011 in Tanzania -- in what the university believes will be the first American football game in Africa. Drake will play an all-star team from the CONADEIP conference in Mexico in what is being called the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl. After the game, members of both teams will participate in service activities in the area and they plan to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

For-profit college turns to events co-branded with media outlets to change minds and critics wonder about the journalistic ethics of providing positive PR.

Once, the e-book reader was a futuristic fantasy. Scott McLemee faces the ambivalence of living it out.

GMP offers suggestions for female graduate students in science and technology fields.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the legality of a Florida law that bars state employees from using state funds to travel to countries on the U.S. government's list of "State Sponsors of Terrorism." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit rejected a challenge by faculty members from several public universities in Florida, who argued that the state statute conflicts with federal law and intrudes on the federal government's power to control foreign affairs. But the appeals panel, in partially overturning a lower court's split ruling, backed the state's right to determine how its own funds for education (and non-state funds administered at state expense) are spent, including on academic travel.

AAUP calls for colleges to formalize policies and to avoid situations where couples are helped at the expense of adjuncts.

A Brooklyn College alumnus has ended plans for a bequest because of his anger over a reading assignment for first-year students, The New York Daily News reported. The book in question is How Does It Feel to Be a Problem, by Moustafa Bayoumi, who teaches at the college. The book looks at the experiences of Arab-Americans, post 9/11. Bruce Kesler, the alumnus, told the Daily News: ""That book was a poor and insulting choice. I'm sure Brooklyn College is still a great avenue for education, but I don't think that I should send it any more money." The National Association of Scholars, which has drawn attention to what it considers politicized reading assignments for freshman orientation programs, recently wrote critically about the book. A statement from the college said it was "regrettable that Mr. Bruce Kesler misunderstands the intentions of the Common Reader experience and the broader context of this selection."