Public relations issues arising from the University of Utah's controversial announcement of research claiming achievement of nuclear fusion at room temperature are discussed. They include problems occurring before and after the initial press conference, secrecy vs. openness, research ethics, and effects lasting past the original incident and…

Although higher education institutions dislike rankings published in the mass media, they like the attention the rankings create and prefer to be included rather than excluded. Common criticisms of the methodology include emphasis on inappropriate criteria, unfair comparison of private and public institutions, faulty assumptions, inaccurate data,…