Colleges

The first e-mail to alumni was encouraging: Syracuse University would be cutting costs but remained "solidly positioned" to weather the financial downturn, college president Nancy Cantor said in mid-November. In fact, a $1-billion college campaign was on track, with $600 million raised and $200 million earmarked for scholarships, she said.

THIS is a tale of two de-accessions, the term used for the disposal of works of art by a public institution, usually through sale. The practice is legitimate but thorny -- legitimate because any institution's leaders, who benefit from public tax subsidy, must be free to make decisions they believe to be in the public interest; and thorny because the public is rarely unanimous in deciding what its interests are. De-accessioning often raises hackles.

Compton fifth-grader Alejandra Guizar has already gone to class at Tufts, Stanford, Emory and Princeton. And it's just by chance that she missed out on Harvard. These are the names of classrooms at Bunche Elementary School in the Compton Unified School District. Naming them after colleges is one small piece of the school's enveloping academic culture that emphasizes achievement and, ultimately, college aspirations.

Spanish Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar refused to deliver a lecture at a Saudi university after visiting female journalists were banned from attending. The Spanish reporters were prevented from entering Al-Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University even though they were wearing the traditional \o7abaya \f7and veil, said Esther Bazan, one of the correspondents from SER radio. Saudi authorities said the university was all-male and women were not allowed.

At least 70 Iraqi college students were killed and more than 170 others wounded Tuesday when a pair of car bombs exploded almost simultaneously at a Shiite-dominated university in the capital, apparently the latest salvo in the civil war between Sunni Arab insurgents and Shiite Muslim militants. The first bomb blew up a minivan filled with students leaving Mustansiriya University for the day.

Aided by one of the nation's largest endowments, Princeton University decided to hold tuition steady, something it hasn't done in four decades. Trustees chose to keep tuition at $33,000 for the 2007-08 school year by dipping into its endowment of about $13 billion.

The University of Dallas withdrew its bid for George W. Bush's presidential library, citing the library site selection committee's exclusive talks with nearby Southern Methodist University. Last month SMU emerged as the apparent winner for the library with the announcement of the negotiations, putting it ahead of the other two finalists, the University of Dallas and Baylor University in Waco.

Tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims churned in the Lebanese capital Thursday as armed clashes at a university killed at least two people and overflowed into surrounding neighborhoods. Hours after dark, the army imposed an overnight curfew in an effort to restore order. Community leaders took to the airwaves to soothe their followers' inflamed emotions.

A computer holding personal and financial information on 5,100 Vanguard University students and some of their parents was stolen last week, police said Friday. The theft from the school's financial aid office happened over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The computer contained federal student-aid applications for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 academic years. The university sent letters to affected and prospective students, advising them how to avoid potential identity theft.

Hundreds of Lebanese police and soldiers ringed a university as students returned for the first time since a political spat in the cafeteria mushroomed into street riots that killed four people and inflamed Sunni-Shiite Muslim tensions. Security guards at Beirut Arab University searched all students and denied entry to those without student IDs. In the clashes of Jan.