On July 2, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed Justin Morrill's second agriculture-school bill into law. Along with another measure he championed, in 1890, it created a system of land-grant colleges that rooted agriculture firmly in university research and helped democratize American higher education, creating institutions not for the sons and daughters…

James M. Fadool, an associate professor of biology at Florida State University, got a federal grant of more than $300,000 to study eye defects using zebra-fish. Some of that money went to pay another researcher, $1,536 biweekly, to assist with the research and manage the lab where the fish were kept. But an audit by the Office of Inspector General…

According to a new survey conducted by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, about 80% of the governing boards of public universities say they are dealing with state budget cuts this year. Trustees also said they are working extra hours to cope with the financial strains on their universities, and they have enacted or…

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, the ambitious $10-billion research institution that Saudi Arabia plans to open in 2009, has signed agreements with three leading universities to help it design a curriculum and hire faculty members. The agreements, with Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the…

Scientists feel that progress in artificial intelligence and the availability of thousands of experimental results make this the right time to build and test theories on how people think and learn, using the computer to model minds. (MSE)

Specific campus projects that Congress has directed federal agencies to support this year at over 120 colleges and universities are listed. The agencies neither requested support nor sponsored merit-based competitions for the awards. In some cases, the institutions have a history of receiving special federal treatment. (MSE)

Dollar totals of funding for Pell Grants and veterans' education benefits and grants awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services, National Science Foundation, National Air and Space Administration, and National Endowment for the Humanities for research are listed by state or territory. (MSE)

A consortium of universities has charged that research money has been concentrated in a small number of states that have already established close ties between higher education and small businesses. Some small-business advocates believe the consortium is trying to win money that has been earmarked for small businesses. (MLW)

A list of specific campus projects that Congress has directed federal agencies to support this year includes controversial projects (so-called pork barrel projects) for which the agencies did not request funding or sponsor competitions. (MSE)

A National Science Foundation project will develop the technology for exchange of scientific documents containing text, images, drawings, charts, graphs, animation, and even voice among dissimilar computers, altering the nature of research collaboration. (MSE)

A patent awarded to Harvard University for the genetic alteration of mice in cancer research is the first ever issued on an animal, at the same time that legislation putting a moratorium on animal patents is pending in Congress. (MSE)

A new Carnegie Foundation report recommends expanding the concept of faculty scholarship to recognize and reward teaching, service, textbook writing, and other faculty activities. Campuses can accommodate faculty's shifting interests by encouraging movement from one activity to another, possibly with short-term contracts spelling out scholarly…

While some universities have had success establishing venture funds to market research with commercial potential, Cornell University has formed an alumni panel to evaluate new university technologies for those with promise for new products, spin-off companies, and profits. Members with connections in venture capital will arrange financing and…

Research and other projects for which Congress has directed federal agencies to provide support in fiscal 1992 are listed for over 200 colleges and universities. In each case, the agencies did not request money for the projects and did not sponsor merit-based competitions to determine which institutions should get the awards. (MSE)

Stanford University (California) and the United States Navy have settled a dispute over 12 years of charges for research overhead, and the Navy has issued a rule requiring universities to negotiate multiyear overhead rates when appropriate data are available. Stanford agreed to pay back a total of $3.4-million. (MSE)