FLOSS In School - Open Source Software in the Education System

Students enroll at the first college in the United States with a Muslim mission and the first where everyone is a history major.

U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat, awarded thousands of dollars in scholarships from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to four of her relatives, and two children of a top aide, The Dallas Morning News reported. The foundation provides funds to to members to give out as college scholarships, and while there are relatively few requirements on the awards, there is an anti-nepotism rule that was violated. Another rule that was violated in all of the awards is that those receiving the funds need to live in the districts of the caucus members giving out the money. Johnson told the Morning News that she violated these rules "unknowingly" and would "rectify the financial situation."

The U.S. Education Department has selected a Minnesota company, Education Credit Management Corporation, to manage California's federal student loan portfolio, The Sacramento Bee reported. The decision removes EdFund from the federal loan program. EdFund has managed California's federal loans but has been in a series of controversies with the state, with some officials wanting to sell the agency -- a move that is now blocked.

Iran is focusing on the humanities in a new crackdown on the country's universities, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reported. New limits will be placed on the number of students permitted to study the humanities, consistent with worries expressed by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that nearly two-thirds of Iranian university students are seeking degrees in the humanities. He said that the humanities promote "skepticism and doubt in religious principles and beliefs."

A new study by researchers at the University of Leeds has found that one in four lap dancers have undergraduate degrees and a number of them are pursuing graduate education. The study is attracting considerable attention in Britain. In this clip from a BBC interview, one of the researchers cites the need to repay student debt as one factor in the trend.

Officials at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said Thursday that a continuing inquiry into its football program had uncovered evidence of "possible academic misconduct" by a former undergraduate tutor and an as-yet-undetermined number of players. At a hastily called news conference last night, Chancellor Holden Thorp, clearly troubled by the burgeoning evidence of troubles in the Tar Heel sports program, said that the extent of the academic wrongdoing remained unclear. But he promised a thorough investigation by a team of faculty members and administrators. "Academic achievement and fairness are at the heart of the University of North Carolina and the Department of Athletics," said Thorp. "We are treating this issue with the seriousness that you would expect. It's a privilege to put on the North Carolina uniform and to represent this University, and it's our job to make sure that the people who do so have earned that privilege."

The University of California has appointed an official to manage the costs associated with the home of Mark G. Yudof, president of the university, The New York Times reported. The move followed reports of hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses and the involvement of senior university officials in disputes over his previous rented home.

Five years after storm, New Orleans colleges work to rebuild enrollment, faculty and – in some cases – trust.

David Galef describes U of All People's love/hate relationship with Ennyville, the place it calls home.

Even in fields where it is not the norm, co-authoring papers can be a great way to learn the ropes of academic publishing, writes Eszter Hargittai.

Faculty groups are urging the University of Louisiana Board of Supervisors to reject a proposal, on the agenda for a meeting today, to modify tenure protections for faculty members. The proposals come at a time that the state is preparing for major budget cuts and university administrators are calling for maximum flexibility in responding to those cuts. But faculty groups say that in the name of flexibility, the proposal would gut tenure protections. A letter from the Louisiana Conference of the American Association of University Professors notes, for example, that the plan would appear to let tenured professors be dismissed not only when programs are completely eliminated due to financial exigency (the status quo) but because programs are reduced in size. That would be a huge shift, the letter notes, calling the idea "a slap in the face of all faculty throughout academia."