The U.S. Government Accountability Office recognizes that it's really hard for states to report all of the information on how educational institutions are spending their money from the stimulus package -- more than $70-billion for schools and colleges. But they should be giving more detail than they are, the GAO recommended in a report released today. "While most states cannot provide information on how each subrecipient is using its funds, providing more information ... could help the public gain a better understanding of how the funds are being used," the watchdog agency concluded.

California State University at Fresno is no longer at the center of a dispute over whether a cache of old pictures are actually long-lost works by the famed photographer Ansel Adams. The university was scheduled to be the first stop of an exhibit of the photos, which were purchased for $45 at a garage sale and, if genuine, have been valued at $200-million. But Adams's heirs and executors have disputed the authenticity of the photos and called claims to the contrary a "fraud," putting Fresno State in an awkward position. The university has now declared that the planned show is off because the event space is booked with another exhibit. And not a moment too soon: One of the art-world experts who authenticated the photos as Adams's work has recanted his opinion. According to The New York Times, Robert C. Moeller III, a former curator at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, now thinks at least...

Employers responding to a recent survey said they planned to hire 13.5 percent more new college graduates from the Class of 2011 than they did from the Class of 2010, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which conducted the survey in July and August and released preliminary findings today. But the survey found that only 48 percent of employers actually expected to increase their hiring; 40 percent said they expected level hiring, and 12 percent predicted a drop in hiring.

The editor in chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Catherine D. DeAngelis, announced today that she would leave the medical publication next June, after 11 years at the helm. "I'm going to return to my academic home, Johns Hopkins University, ... and I'm going to start a center for professionalism—that's the ethics," Dr. DeAngelis said. A search committee for her successor will be led by Ronald G. Evens, of the medical school at Washington University in St. Louis.

Marquette University announced on Tuesday that its next president would be the Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, who is currently president of the University of Scranton. One issue Father Pilarz is likely to face at Marquette when he takes office next summer is academic freedom at the Roman Catholic institution. Three months ago, Marquette drew sharp criticism both on and off the campus when it rescinded a job offer to a Seattle University sociologist, Jodi O'Brien, a move widely regarded as stemming from her being a lesbian (Marquette denied the allegation). In an interview at the time, Father Pilarz declined to talk specifically about the O'Brien case, but he did discuss the tensions over academic freedom that can arise at Catholic colleges (the question appears at 1:36 of the podcast).

In annual rankings of the best places to work in the federal government, the Education Department ranked third from the bottom in the "large agencies" category, scoring just above the National Archives and Records Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which tied for last. The rankings are produced by the Partnership for Public Service and American University's Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation.

With more faculty members than ever before likely to have domestic partners or spouses who are also academics, the American Association of University Professors has released recommendations to help colleges understand the issues surrounding dual-career appointments and to develop policies in response.  

Among the recommendations, which were written by a subcommittee of the Committee on Women in the Academic Professions: "Appropriate faculty bodies" should create an institution's dual-career policies; professors hired as part of a dual-career appointment should be evaluated in the same way as other faculty members; and dual-career appointments "shouldn't be the occasion for increasing the number of contingent faculty members at an institution," the report says.

In the wake of a congresswoman's admission that she violated rules of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's scholarship program in awarding scholarships to her relatives and those of an aide, the foundation has begun an audit of the program, its chairman announced on Monday. The foundation has also delayed its next round of scholarships until new integrity measures are in place. "There will be no self-dealing or nepotism in the awarding of college scholarships," said the chairman, Rep. Donald M. Payne, Democrat of New Jersey. The Dallas Morning News first reported the problems with 23 scholarships handed out by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Democrat of Texas, since 2005. Ms. Johnson has said that her actions were unintentional, but the foundation's lawyer, Amy Goldson, pointed out that the students, the lawmaker awarding the scholarships, or the lawmaker's designee must certify that ...

As promised, the Obama administration today filed an appeal of a federal judge’s order last week that blocked the White House’s expanded policy for allowing federal financing of research involving embryonic stem cells. In a statement accompanying the filing, the Justice Department said the plaintiffs in the case -- two private researchers -- have little or no basis for claiming the administration's policy harms their economic or professional interests.

The University of California, facing an estimated $20-billion deficit in its retirement plan, released a proposal on Monday to reduce the amount it spends on employee benefits. The deficit at the 10-campus university system is a severe example of the pension crisis that threatens public colleges across the country. The proposed changes would reduce benefits for new employees starting in 2013, raise the minimum retirement age from 50 to 55, shift some health-care costs to employees, and sharply increase employer and employee contributions to the system's struggling pension plan. Mark G. Yudof, the system's president, is expected to send a revised set of recommendations to the Board of Regents in November.