By Goldie Blumenstyk. Last month Pennsylvania State University held an auction to sell dozens of engineering patents to the highest bidder, setting off speculation on whether the move would produce a financial windfall for the university. It also stirred consternation among some in the world of academic research, who feared the auction might create easy pickings for businesses known as “patent-assertion entities.” Such entities, also known as patent trolls or nonpracticing entities, scoop up rights to patents and then use them to assert infringement claims to unsuspecting companies, which often pay to settle rather than incur the cost of litigation. Read more...

It’s fair to criticize Western Washington University President Bruce Shepard for suggesting his school has too many white students in comparison with people of color. It was an unfortunate way to frame the importance of a diverse student body to the higher education mission.
Shepard gave the regrettable impression that he thinks universities should decrease the number of white students they enroll. We’re confident he meant that colleges — and the nation as a whole — benefit when more students of all races earn university degrees. Read more...

By Dayne Sherman. Did you hear about the new bill to make “duck wrestling” the Louisiana state sport? It will honor Duck Dynasty, the popular reality TV program based in West Monroe.
No, this is not a bill filed this year, but don’t be surprised if it’s filed next year. In Louisiana, politics is entertainment. If it’s not Huey Long leading the LSU band in Tiger Stadium, then it’s Gov. Edward Edwards, known as a “wizard under the sheets,” unlike former Klansman David Duke, a wizard wearing sheets. More...

By Blair Emerson. Higher education advocates say a 2008 federal law made state loans less accessible. As Congress works to renew the Higher Education Act this year, student leaders in Minnesota are pushing legislators to make state student loans more accessible. The Minnesota Student Association, the Minnesota State University Student Association and national higher education advocates say the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 restricted how colleges inform students about non-federal loans, driving many students to options more costly than loans provided by the state. The law, enacted in 2010, required colleges to certify all non-federal loans through a lengthy process, said Tricia Grimes, a financial aid analyst at the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. More...

By Jane Porter. A free online course "Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies" launches through Coursera next week on April 28. Come back to Entrepreneur.com as we feature additional interviews with course experts and instructors.
Michael Goldberg was teaching entrepreneurship in Vietnam as a Fulbright Scholar in 2012, when he was approached by a government agency to run a seminar on entrepreneurial ecosystems. The National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship had one request: they did not want him to focus on Silicon Valley, where access to angel investment far surpassed the resources available in transitioning economies. Instead, they wanted him to look closer to home – his home – Cleveland, Ohio. More...