Seton Hall University, a Roman Catholic institution in New Jersey, is debating whether to cancel a course on gay marriage after the archbishop of Newark, John J. Myers, said it would conflict with church teachings, The Star-Ledger reported. The archbishop serves as chairman of Seton Hall’s Board of Trustees and is president of its Board of Regents, the governing body that oversees academic issues. W. King Mott, the associate professor of political science who was scheduled to teach the class next fall, told the campus newspaper, The Setonian, that the course "is not about advocacy, but about studying the issue from an academic perspective." Mr. Mott is a former associate dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences who was demoted in 2005 after he wrote a letter to the newspaper criticizing church views on homosexuality.

Arizona State University will merge or eliminate several programs and cut 98 support staff and administrative jobs to deal with a $5.4-million state budget cut in the coming school year, the East Valley Tribune reported. The changes, approved by the Arizona Board of Regents over the weekend, include eliminating the university's department of kinesiology, School of Health Management, and School of Design Innovation, and merging its teacher-education programs into a single college. Those cuts come a month after financially crimped institution pulled out of a medical-school partnership with the University of Arizona. All three of the state's public universities could face further cuts if voters reject a sales-tax ballot measure later this month.

In response to a new state law aimed at easing the transfer of students from two-year to four-year institutions, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is reducing the general-education requirements that all students in its Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences must complete, regardless of their majors, from 66 credit hours to 35, the Associated Press reported. The changes eliminate a foreign-language requirement, reduce science requirements, and require only college algebra, which the college's dean, William Schwab, characterized as "high school-level stuff." Mr. Schwab met with language faculty members last month to reassure them that he intended to minimize the new requirements' impact on their departments.

Severe storms flooded homes and highways in the Nashville area this weekend, The Tennessean reported, prompting Vanderbilt University to cancel examinations and some medical-school classes set for Monday. No injuries were reported on the campus, but some students were displaced from dormitory rooms that suffered water damage and a library was closed because of flooding.

Other higher-education institutions in Nashville, including Belmont, Lipscomb, and Tennessee State Universities, reported library closures on Sunday and some cancellations on Monday. The American Red Cross set up an emergency shelter in Lipscomb's Student Activities Center that had reached its capacity of 200 people on Sunday.

New England College has agreed to settle a lawsuit in which it accused the former director of its graduate poetry program of secretly re-creating the program at Drew University while still employed at New England, and luring faculty members and students away, the Associated Press reported. A lawyer for New England College, in Henniker, N.H., declined to comment on the terms of the agreement. The lawsuit had sought compensation for lost tuition and the $33,000 salary it paid the former director in her last year at New England.

Michigan's State Senate, voting largely along party lines, has rejected 14 of Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm's appointments to the governing boards of public colleges and universities in the state, The Grand Rapids Press reported. The unusual move was not about the appointees' qualificiations, the chamber's Republican leaders said, but about who should have the authority to appoint them. The appointees would replace trustees whose terms expire at midnight on December 31, about 12 hours before Governor Granholm, a Democrat, will leave office. "These appointments should be reserved for the next governor," a spokesman for Sen. Michael D. Bishop, a Republican and the chamber's majority leader, told the newspaper last week.

The National Academy of Sciences has announced the election of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates in recognition of their achievements in original research. A list of the new members and associates, with their affiliations, is available on the Web site of the National Academies.

When Tom Tancredo, a former U.S. congressman known for opposing illegal immigration, tried to speak at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last April, he was shouted down by student protesters and eventually escorted from the room after someone smashed a window. A return visit on Monday met with far less friction, according to The News & Observer, a newspaper in Raleigh. Student protesters still made their feelings known, as more than 100 walked out on his speech, and there were a few exchanges between Mr. Tancredo and the protesters. But in the end, the students moved their protest outside, and Mr. Tancredo got to finish his speech, on the values of Western culture.

Threats of violence alone do not justify barring a controversial speaker from a campus, the federal judge hearing arguments in a lawsuit filed by William Ayers against the University of Wyoming told the university's president, Thomas Buchanan, on Monday, according to the Casper Star-Tribune. Judge William Downes of the U.S. District Court in Casper, Wyo., is considering whether to order the university to allow Mr. Ayers to speak at a campus facility this week, pending the outcome of the lawsuit. He is expected to issue a ruling on Tuesday. Mr. Buchanan testified that the university had received a "torrent" of angry calls and threats about an earlier scheduled visit by Mr. Ayers, a former radical who is now a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Saint Mary's College of California has punished a singing instructor for choosing the original version of the song "Ol' Man River," which contains derogatory references to African-Americans, for use in a voice class last month, the Contra Costa Times reported. Later versions of the song, from the 1927 musical Show Boat, substituted other language. The instructor, Louis Lebherz, is the brother of a trustee on the college's board. The provost, Bethami Dobkin, said the college had required Mr. Lebherz to apologize to the class and to the student who complained about the song, and to complete diversity training. "We're continuing to discuss our future relationship with him," she said.