Hard up for cash, the state legislature in Massachusetts is considering a plan to tax college and university endowments that are valued at more than a billion dollars, according to University Business.

The legislature's rationale is simple. All that money in one place makes the lawmakers question whether the state's universities are really non-profit. Nine universities in the state have endowments worth more than a billion dollars.

How much is a billion dollars?


© o2ma

The nice people over at Sanguine et Purpure (an unoffical blog for the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity) have brought two recent allegations of fraternity hazings to my attention - one at the University of Wisconsin and one at Tulane.

The Tulane incident has new Orleans police still looking for five members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity there. Five other arrests have already been made in that incident. The hazing there allegedly included pouring boiling water on pledges.





In the incident at the University of Wisconsin, members of Sigma Phi Epsilon have been accused of dumping a bucket of "indecent substances" on other frat members. Frat leadership is disavowing the incident and saying that, while it did occur after an initiation, the bucket dumping wasn't approved by frat leaders.

Mike Miesen, president of the UW chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon, "We are a non-hazing fraternity - Sigma Phi Epsilon doesn't haze. We have a very proud system that makes them feel like they are not being hazed."

Close to 100 people have been arrested on drug related charges at San Diego State University, according to an Associated Press story in USAToday. Six fraternities on came have been closed as a result of the drug busts.

Sanguine et Purpure , which bills itself as the "unofficial, unauthorized, unfettered" blog for Sigma Phi Epsilon is reporting that the frats closed on the SDSU campus were Theta Chi, Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Theta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Mu. Sigma Phi Epsilon has not been implicated in the drug busts so far.

The Provost of West Virginia Universty, Gerald E. Lang , and the dean of the university's College of Business and Economics, R. Stephen Sears, have both stepped down from their administrative positions following the release of an independent panel's report on the Heather M. Bresch affair that was critical of WVU and the two administrators.

Lang had been provost at WVU for 13 years, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Heather Bresch was awarded an MBA by WVU, apparently without completing all required course work. Bresch is the daughter of West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, and accusations of political favoritism are being circulated in the case.

Are college and university endowments hoarding their money? Senator Charles E. Grassley, (R-Iowa) thinks so. And he wants to do something about it. He wants to require colleges and universities to spend at least five percent of their endowment every year, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Grassley is not alone. Last week his idea gained the support of Steven T. Miller, commissioner of the IRS's tax-exempt division. In remarks made at Georgetown University and published by , Miller said that the IRS was considering ways to make sure that colleges spend their endowments at at a rate that reflects the size of their assets.


© glass window

The Miami Herald is reporting that the University of Florida has a new policy of the use of Taser guns on students - but it is not clear that the new policy would have prevented Andrew Meyers from being Tased back in September when he disrupted a campus forum where U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was speaking.

According to the Miami Herald:

A University of Florida committee recommended the school adopt a revised Taser policy Tuesday that would still allow campus police to use a Taser stun gun against a student who disrupted a campus forum.

The 52-page new policy "reflects an appropriate balance between the needs of security and law enforcement and the safety of law enforcement personnel, on the one hand, and the safety of arrestees and detainees on other."

Among the changes, the policy would require that a security officer be able to explain why he had used the Taser gun.