Boston College's acquisition of land once owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and the college's subsequent plan to develop that land, has had its ups and downs. For one thing, residents of the surrounding Brighton neighborhood have complained loudly about the plans.

But this new development is something else altogether: The Boston Globe reports that the kin of Cardinal William H. O’Connell, who died in 1944 and is buried in a crypt on the property, have raised objections to a plan to dig up the cardinal's remains and move them.

The archdiocese agreed to disinter and move the cardinal's body, along with the bronze casket it rests in, as a condition of the selling the land to Boston College. Both the church and the Catholic college support this step.

But the cardinal's relatives argue that neither the diocese nor the college has the right to move the body, which they say ...

Clemson University has received the largest research grant in its history to create a wind-turbine facility in Charleston, S.C., reports the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail.

The grant -- $45-million from the U.S. Department of Energy, plus $53-million in matching funds -- will support research on giant wind turbines, which could produce five to 15 megawatts each. The biggest turbines built by colleges now produce less than two megawatts.

The facility will be in "a former Navy warehouse adjacent to existing rail and ship-handling infrastructure," the newspaper says, "and will be capable of full-scale, highly accelerated testing of advanced drive-train systems."

This week's Chronicle has an article about colleges that are working with heirloom or "heritage" foods in their dining halls or in their research. Emory University is one of them—last week Emory served up 1,600 pounds of Standard Bronze and Bourbon Red turkeys, two breeds that date back to the 1800s but are in danger of dying out for lack of demand. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Producers of heritage or "heirloom" foods are fighting an uphill battle against the agriculture industry, which selects animals and plants for mass production and broad commercial appeal. In the process, foods that fed generations have been lost, along with their DNA and their traditions.

The heirloom-food movement might be the philosophical ground where gourmands and sustainability advocates meet—perhaps over a plate of barbecued Tennessee fainting goat, a rare breed noted as much for its lean, tasty...

The National Wildlife Federation is releasing a report today that documents more than 160 student-led projects in sustainability and offers tips on how to start similar projects on campuses across the country.

Julian Keniry, director of the Campus Ecology program at the federation, said that the examples in the report document what many have observed about the current sustainability movement: There is unprecedented student interest in sustainability issues that has given rise to a diverse set of activities.

Ms. Keniry also said interest in sustainability cuts across some geographic and political demographics. "We have been impressed by the breadth of involvement," she said. "They are schools small and large, state, public, and private."

And although sustainability programs and projects are more easily found on, say, the coasts, the movement is "something that we are seeing across the ...

Any facilities administrator or campus architect who has had to add ramps, elevators, heating-and-cooling systems, and other modern features to grand old college buildings will appreciate this article. The Guardian reports on controversies at Britain's venerable universities, as officials try to balance modern additions with historical sensitivity.

At the University of Cambridge's Old Schools, people noticed a hole in the floor of the Regent House Combination Room and wondered if maintenance people were fixing the pipes or somesuch. When they found out the university was putting in an elevator, they were appalled.

"It is historically the most important room in the universities of the English-speaking world. It is the cradle of Cambridge's democracy, our Westminster Hall," said Anthony Edwards, a fellow of Caius College. "Nothing will persuade me that this would not, in its effect, be a...

The United Negro College Fund has received a $1.8-million grant from the Kresge Foundation that will help establish training programs to promote green building at minority-serving institutions. The program was set up with the help of Second Nature, a leading sustainability organization in higher education.

The grant will establish institutes and workshops to train college staff members in green-building practices. The fund plans three workshops, in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and San Antonio, starting this February. The American Indian Higher Education Consortium, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund will also participate.

The $2-billion Kresge Foundation is known for giving money to construction programs. In a news conference this morning, William F.L. Moses, director of programs, said that because of Kresge's increasing interest in...

Middlebury College recently found that a 40-year-old chairlift at its ski facility, the Snow Bowl, was in need of repair and would not meet state regulations. Instead of spending $500,000 for repairs to the double-chair lift, a university release says, the college is spending $1.7-million to replace the old lift with a triple-chair version.

As the video below explains, some of the concrete foundations of the lift towers were failing. Workers could have replaced those concrete foundations, but that would have been considered a major modification that would trigger requirements to bring the rest of the lift up to code. Getting the concrete for the piers up the mountain, as you can see in the video, is no small project. The workmen have to use a helicopter to fly the soupy stuff to the forms on the hill. "Basically a yard at a time goes up the mountain," says Peter Mackey, the general...

Texas A&M University at College Station says says its McFerrin Athletic Center—a pair of tentlike indoor practice facilities for football and track—is ready for action now that questions about its structural integrity and safety have been answered.

McFerrin is similar to a practice facility used by the Dallas Cowboys that collapsed earlier this year, injuring a dozen people (one of whom was paralyzed). Soon after that collapse, the university hired an engineering firm to examine its facility. The Associated Press acquired documents prepared by the engineering firm, which said that the McFerrin Athletic Center had not been built to withstand high winds, as required by local building codes. A vice president at the firm, Hanyes Whaley Associates, recommended in the documents that the university close the practice facility, the AP article says.

The designer of the facility, Summit...

Work on the University of Toledo's Scott Park Campus of Energy and Innovation is well underway, the groundbreaking having taken place in September. Programs on the campus, a former overflow campus for the university, will focus on developing and marketing alternative-energy technologies, like wind, biofuel, and solar. Some of those technologies will help to power the campus, which is shooting for a carbon-neutral footprint.

A 100-foot-tall, 80-kilowatt wind turbine has already been erected on the site. More than 1.2 megawatts' worth of solar panels, some of them developed by a company that got its start at the university, are being installed as well. (Toledo apparently has a reputation for being the solar capital of the Midwest. Who knew?) University officials have requested $75-million in stimulus funds from the state to develop the campus, but they say they will continue the...

Other colleges would love to have this problem: Halifax Community College recently "found" 50 unused acres on its property, according to the Daily Herald, in nearby Roanoke Rapids, N.C.

Smith Sinnett Architecture discovered the land after the college hired the firm to guide a planning process. "We think this is significant for the future of the college," said one of the architects, Richard Andrews. "It doubles the size of the campus in terms of development.” If the college had to buy the land, it might have paid $30,000 an acre, the article says.

The architects suggested that Halifax could use the land for purposes as varied as a technology center and a nature trail. The college is planning a $12.8-million, 63,000-square-foot academic-and-student-services center.