Female students at Harvard University have signed up for auditions to perform in the Hasty Pudding Theatricals' productions this year, The Boston Globe reported. If any of the women are selected, they would break a tradition of all-male burlesque productions in which some male students portray women. Read more...

The University of California at Berkeley last week announced the African-American Initiative, which will aim to increase support for black students and to attract more black students to the campus. Read more...

A new study -- financed by an industry group -- predicts significant losses for universities with large endowments if they sell holdings in fossil fuel companies, as many student and environmental groups are urging. The study was released by the Social Science Research Network and was based on investment models for Columbia, Harvard, New York and Yale Universities, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Read more...

Sam Houston State University announced Friday that it will not punish Monica Foy, a student whose Twitter comment has infuriated many and led to calls that the university punish her. Read more...

The Texas State University System on Thursday announced a Freshman Year for Free program in which students can earn a full year of credit through massive open online courses offered by edX and coordinated by a new nonprofit called the Modern States Education Alliance. Read more...

By Christopher Garland. I tried to put this piece together a few months ago, when there was still time left in the first year of my tenure-track position. But it has taken the full summer to allow for reflection; even now, I’m focusing on what I wish I’d known when starting the tenure-track path as well as what I’ve learned since I’ve been on it. Read more...

By Kerry Ann Rockquemore. Dear Kerry Ann,
I’m starting the second year of a tenure-track appointment and there’s one area where I continue to struggle: mentoring. I still don’t feel like I have any real mentors in my department. I have three people who were assigned to mentor me in my first year, but it was unclear what that meant. Read more...

By Don Francis. On the presidential campaign trail, we’re seeing one so-called progressive candidate after another call for the federal government to enact major new spending programs to hold down tuition at public universities. Read more...

By Billie Wright Dziech. Campus sexual assault remained in the forefront of higher education’s concerns last week when a St. Paul’s School graduate, Owen Labrie, was tried for, as a senior, raping a 15-year old classmate who accompanied him to an unoccupied building amid rumors of a school tradition requiring graduating seniors to take the virginity of younger female students. Read more...

By Scott McLemee. On Aug. 10, the City Council of Cambridge, Mass., passed, by unanimous vote, a resolution to which even the local media gave scant notice. But the document merits attention throughout the Republic of Letters. Read more...