Universities Weblog

As much bad news as we've carried about Oral Roberts university in the last couple of months, it only seems fair to report that ORU got some good news this week.

USA Today is reporting that a businessman in Oklahoma has pledged $70 million dollars to the university. Mart Green, the owner of a business and office supply chain called Mardel that caters specifically to Christians, said Tuesday he would give the university $8 million immediately and hand over the remaining $62 million in 60 to 90 days – after a review of the university's financial records is complete.

Green is asking for two seats on the school's Board of Regents to be filled by members of his family.

Save ORU Dot Com called the gift the beginning of a new era…

Campus Grotto has a story online atthe moment that looks at the most expensive colleges and universities in America. The winner? george washington University, and at over $39K a year for tuition alone. That's more than five times the national median for college tuition.

GW is also the most expensive school when you factor in the all other costs (like room and board). John Hopkins, Brown and NYU are all just behind GW on the "total costs" list.

Campus Grottoes article makes some interesting points about the relationship between cost and quality. They also point out that while the costs may be outragous when take at face value, the high cost schools often also have lots of financial aid resources. They can afford to give the students they want large institutional scholarships out of the university's foundation. That means that you can't really look at a school's student budget and decide that, well, you'll never be able to afford that until after you've been accepted and gotten a financial aid offer…

Before I make my prediction, follow the math with me if you will…

Number one LSU lost this week. So did number two Kansas. Number three West Virginia beat a ranked opponent (U. Conn.) by forty-five points. And number four Missouri beat number two Kansas by eight points. So Mizzou should leapfrog WVU and move into the number one spot, right?

That's what happened, and I can't figure out why. But that's what happened.

So here's my prediction. I predict that no matter what happens this coming weekend, WVU will fall to at least number three and be kept out of the national title game. If Missouri beats Oklahoma, Ohio State will move to number two and the BCS Championship game will be between them. If Missouri loses, Ohio State will move to number one and play – who? Maybe LSU if they win the SEC Championship game. Maybe Georgia is LSU loses to Tennessee in the SEC title game. Maybe Virginia Tech if Tech beats Boston College in the ACC title game. Maybe even USC if the Trojans can slap down UCLA hard enough. (Imagine all the hype that could be built around that match up…)

But not WVU.

Why not WVU? Because voters seem more impressed with an idle Ohio State then with anything WVU can do. Because WVU plays Pitt (four wins, including a MAC opponent and a I-AA team), and no matter how big WVU wins, the voters will say "Well, Pitt wasn't even ranked." And because the system is flawed (and maybe corrupt).

Danny Strickland thinks BCS pollsters want WVU in the title game (and, probably, that my opinion is ridiculous). He thinks that the BCS falls apart if a two-loss team like LSU or USC plays for the title. Whatever. I think the BCS fell apart the year that undefeated Auburn didn't get invited to play for the title. That's been a couple of years.

Don't get me wrong. I don't have any blue and gold neckties hidden in my closet. My last degree came from Marshall University and the WVU fans I know would be hard to put up with for a year if the Mountaineers won the title. I don't know who should play for it at the moment. And I suppose that's the problem. Half a dozen teams or more have some claim to being the best at the moment and only two of them can be in the game.

So, cynical as it sounds, that's my prediction: not WVU. Win or lose against Pitt on Saturday, no matter what Missouri does in the Big 12 title game this weekend, WVU won't get to play for the national title.

We'll see if I'm right…

Richard Roberts, president of Oral Roberts University and son of retired tele-evangelist Oral Roberts, has resigned, according to Tulsa World.

The resignation came after two months of controversy at ORU during which time Roberts eventually took a leave of absence. Roberts has been accused of misusing university resources and mismanagement and his wife has been accused of having improper relationships with underage male students on campus.

In a letter to the university's Board of Regents, Roberts reigned effective Friday, November 30. Roberts said that he loved ORU and wished the faculty, staff and students the best.

In a new twist to the situation at ORU, a group of students at the university have sued the school claiming, among other things, that the controversy of the last few months has decreased the value of their degrees. Peter Smith, who writes and blogs for the Louisville, Kentucky, Courier-Journal, had an interesting perspective on that lawsuit:

These two students were in the degree programs offered by the department for history, humanities and government – a department decimated by the departure of professors, including some now suing the university. They claim these were influential degree programs, providing good contacts with Republicans political operatives nationwide (an eyebrow raiser in itself). Now, the students say, their potential degrees have been devalued. One of them is attempting to transfer…

I do have that ORU degree, and it's never caused me a problem in a job interview. Even in the bluest state in the union, Massachusetts…

Three sites have been chosen for the 2008 presidential debates, and all three sites are university campuses according to Marc Ambinder's blog. The sites and dates are:

• September 26 at the University of Mississippi, Oxford
• October 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee
• October 16 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York

With the debates being set on college campuses, this seems like a logical questions to ask. So, do you know where your favorite presidential candidate went to college? They all did. At least all the major party candidates did…

If you look only at front runners (Clinton, Obama, and Edwards for the Dems; Giuliani, Romney, McCain, and Thompson for the GOP) you find that the Ivy League is well represented. Three out of the seven hail from Ivy League schools. Clinton went to Yale. Obama has degrees from both Columbia and Harvard. Romney also went to Harvard as a graduate student.

Among the Democrats, Joe Biden went to the University of Delaware and did his law degree at Syracuse University. Hillary Clinton went to a "women only" school, Wellesley College, before doing her law degree at Yale (ironically, the alma mater of our current president). Chris Dodd went to Providence College before doing his law degree at the University of Louisville. John Edwards started at Clemson, graduate from North Carolina State, and did his law degree at the University of North Carolina. Mike Gravel went to Columbia University. Dennis Kucinich went to Case Western Reserve University. Barack Obama finished up his undergraduate work at Columbia University before going on to Harvard for his law degree. And Bill Richardson studied French at Tufts University.

The GOP list is no less interesting. Rudi Giuliani went to Manhattan College and then on to New York University School of Law. Mike Huckabee did his undergraduate work at Ouachita Baptist University and then went to seminary at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Duncan Hunter got his BA and his law degree from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. Alan Keyes did his undergraduate work at Cornell. John McCain went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Ron Paul went to Gettysburg College before getting his medical degree from Duke. Mitt Romney attended Stanford, but ended up doing his undergraduate work at Brigham Young; he then went on to do an MBA and a law degree at Harvard. Tom Tancredo attended the University of Northern Colorado. Fred Thompson got his undergraduate degree from the University of Memphis and did his law degree at Vanderbilt.

So of the 17 presidential candidates in the two major parties, eight have law degrees and one has a medical degree.

The ACC is represented by four schools, the Big East by two institutions, and the SEC by one.

One candidate went to college on the G.I. Bill.

Utah's Dixie State College is headed for a name change, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. But not everyone is happy about that, and if the issue is not resolved it could interfere with a plan to merge Dixie State into the University of Utah.

Getting rid of the reference to the Confederacy is a precondition to merging Dixie State into the U. of Utah. Dixie State would become the University of Utah at St. George if the plan proceeds. And the Dixie State Rebels will have to find a new mascot. One local media outlet, KSL TV, says the name "Dixie" is a reference to the efforts of Mormon pioneers in the region to grow cotton and that the name has nothing to do with racism or slavery. The University of Utah's Board of trustees doesn't care.

Alums of Dixie State are raising cane about the potential name change, according to the Desert Morning News. Many are threatening to withdraw financial support for the college. It will be interesting to see if the merger goes through or if the rebels of Dixie State manage a to lead a rebellion against it…

Starting this fall semester you can attend Michigan State University classes in the morning and sit on the beach in the afternoon – not on the shores of Lake Huron, but with your toes soaking in the warm waters of the Persian Gulf…

MSU officially launched its regional campus at Dubai International Academic City (DIAC), according to Zawya news service. The new campus in Dubai will offer bachelor and master's degree program beginning in August, 2008.

MSU announced its plans for Dubai back in September. While the academic plans for the new campus are still being finalized, programs being considered include media, communications, public relations, computer engineering, construction management, family studies and business.

It looks like the Delta Zeta sorority will eventually be allowed to return to the campus of DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. The university severed its ties with Delta Zeta in February amid charges of discrimination in the sorority. The sorority's national office sued the university over that decision. And the university and the sorority have now agreed that Delta Zeta will be allowed to return to the campus in 2010 as part of an out of court settlement, according to United Press International.

Delta Zeta's DePauw chapter is over 100 years old. Problems at DePauw with Delta Zeta began in February when a psychology professor on campus survey students who, in the words of the NY Times, described Delta Zeta's members as "socially awkward." The sorority them booted out almost two dozen members who were either overweight or not popular enough on campus. Included in the list of those who got the boot: every minority member of the sorority.

It would be an understatement to say that there was a degree of bitterness on campus toward Delta Zeta. The perspective of a blogger who calls herself CityMamma is interesting. She describes herself as "over-weight and half-Korean."

It was not the game I expected. Harvard proved the better team Saturday and, in the process, won the Ivy League's conference title for this year.

Harvard QB Chris Pizzotti threw for a career high 367 yards against Yale's defense. Pizzotti's four touchdown passes put up more points than any other team had managed against Yale in a game so far this year. Harvard running back Cheng Ho scored the game's only rushing touchdown. Yale's lone TD came when Gio Christodoulou ran a punt back 87 yards for the score.

Among those happy with the outcome, GreenSooner said that "One of the many few great things about Harvard football is that it's a successful season if we beat Yale…so there's really no reason to pay attention to any of the rest of it." Ah, it's like that with some many rivalries. At least today, no one cares that Michigan is 8-4 and will probably play on New Year's Day; it only matters that they lost to Ohio State.

So the question now is this: how much significance does the game really carry? Is the Yale loss bad news for Hillary (a graduate of Yale Law School) and/or good news for obama (who went to Harvard School of Law)? Alan Keyes is also a graduate of Harvard, but I somehow doubt the Crimson won will boost his chances of getting the GOP presidential nod. But Romney attended both Harvard School of Law for his JD and Harvard Business School for his MBA.

I suppose we'll have to wait a few months to see if the outcome of the game is a precursor of things beyond football…

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has donated $2 million to the University of Southern California's film school, the School of Cinematic Arts. The money, according to the university, "will fund a central exhibition space in the new headquarters of the school and an archival repository for student films and historic documents."

This is Hefner's third such gift to USC. Hefner gave $100,000 to the university in 1992 to fund the creation of a course on censorship. In 1995, he donated another $1.5 million to endow the Hugh M. Hefner Chair for the Study of American Film.