Quick Takes

Several more colleges and universities are reporting outbreaks of H1N1 virus, or students with flu symptoms that could indicate H1N1. Among the latest institutions affected so far: Anderson University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Kansas, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. At Tulane University, those with flu symptoms (not yet shown to be H1N1) are on the football team, leading 27 players to miss a scrimmage, The Times-Picayune reported. Recent Inside Higher Ed articles on H1N1 and the campus response may be found here.

Three Boston-area colleges with very different missions are getting ready to announce a series of joint curricular offerings designed to offer students (and potential students) a wide range of new options -- at a time that the economy is blocking colleges from adding many new programs by themselves. The Boston Globe reported that the collaborations -- not yet officially announced -- will involve Wellesley College, an elite liberal arts college for women; Babson College, known for its business programs; and the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, a new engineering college. “No institution alone can effectively aspire to a general level of excellence in today’s world,’’ said Leonard Schlesinger, president of Babson, told the Globe. “I don’t care if you’re Harvard. There just aren’t the resources with which to do it.’’

An Israeli academic who is prominent in his country's peace movement is under intense criticism for publishing an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times calling for a boycott of Israel. Neve Gordon, who teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University, writes that Israel has become an apartheid state and that outside pressure is the only way his country will ever allow the creation of a Palestinian state. While many Israelis, particularly in academe, share Gordon's belief that Israel should not stand in the way of a Palestinian state, there is, not surprisingly, a wide consensus in Israel that boycotts are not appropriate. And in Israel academe, which has been a boycott target for some British and other academics, that opposition to a boycott movement is strong. Haaretz reported that after the article appeared, Israel's consul-general in Los Angeles wrote to the president of Ben-Gurion, Rivka Carmi, to say he was hearing from donors to the university who were vowing to stop giving. Carmi denounced the essay, as did Israel's education minister, who called it "repugnant and deplorable," the newspaper reported. Amid the uproar, Gordon qualified his call for a boycott in a statement to YNet News, saying that he wanted a boycott to be "graded" and "sensitive," starting with products made by Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

The University of Northern Iowa has frustrated many of its donors with an insurance program that turned out to violate federal tax laws, The Des Moines Register reported. The program -- a group insurance offering -- was supposed to be a benefit available to donors to an athletic scholarship fund. But the university spent years fighting with the insurance company over specifics, and only this year determined that the effort violated federal law. The university may now owe up to $170,000 in back taxes, and nearly 1,700 donors may have lost more than $6 million in accumulated insurance, the Register reported.

Beware the powerful legislator who feels ignored by higher education. In Indiana, Sen. Luke Kenley, chair of the Budget Committee, criticized Indiana and Purdue Universities over tuition increases, asking them to scale them back in light of the recession. Nothing happened. Senator Kenley's response? He's now threatening to use his committee's role to delay $53 million in construction projects at the universities, The Indianapolis Star reported. "This is a new, interesting situation that we've never had to deal with before," said Larry MacIntyre, a spokesman for Indiana University, told the newspaper. "If Senator Kenley withholds approval of these projects, it could be quite problematic for us, because some of them are time-sensitive, and work on some of them already has been bid, and those bids could expire."

An article in today's Wall Street Journal reviews how Harvard University -- which has the largest university endowment, and also lost more money in the last year than anyone else -- is regrouping. Among the strategies: selling off some holdings in hedge funds to give the internal investing staff more money to manage.

While more college athletes who are gay have come out in recent years, they have not included big-time football players. But a survey of 85 football players in ESPN magazine found that just under half know a gay teammate, and that the number increases to 70 percent in the Pacific-10 conference.

Authorities in Germany are investigating about 100 professors involved in possible bribery to help students obtain their Ph.D.'s, the Associated Press reported. Hundreds of doctoral students may have been involved, although it is unclear whether they knew about the bribes. Authorities say that the students were paying money to a company that promised to help them with their doctorates, and that this company in turn paid the professors. Many of the professors were people hired to teach selected classes, not full-time faculty members.