A Massachusetts college's plan to let students bypass waiting lists for nursing and allied-health courses, provided they pay double tuition, has some educators crying foul, The Boston Globe reported. Bristol Community College will offer the fast-track classes next fall in partnership with the Princeton Review, a for-profit education company that is investing $2-million in the project. College officials defend the partnership as a creative solution to deal with the pressing need to train more health-care workers. Critics say it is unfair and contrary to the mission of the state's community-college system. “Are we in the for-profit business as opposed to being a public institution that gives equal access to our students?’’ asked Diana Yohe, who teaches office administration.

Southern Catholic College, in Dawsonville, Ga., will close for the semester on April 15—a month early—because of a lack of money, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The college's president, the Rev. Shawn Aaron, announced the closing in an e-mail message to the campus on Wednesday. He did not say whether the closing was temporary or permanent. Southern Catholic was founded in 2000 and has about 200 students.

A former chemistry professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio who won a $175,000 judgment after the university tossed out the contents of his messy laboratory has seen that compensation tossed out as well. A federal-court jury awarded the damages to Philip L. Stotter last year after finding that a former provost, Guy Bailey, had not given Mr. Stotter adequate notice before sending in the cleaning crews in 2001. Mr. Bailey, who is now president of Texas Tech University, was found personally liable in the case, but the trial-court judge later reversed the jury's verdict. That reversal was upheld by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in an opinion issued on Thursday.

Florida A&M University announced on Thursday that it had reached a settlement agreement with a company that produced a sex video that used its name and mascot. The university alleged in a complaint filed in federal court last month that the online video had damaged its reputation. The company, RK Netmedia Inc., will pay the university $105,000 to support two scholarships, plus $15,000 in lawyers' fees, the university's statement said.

Some of California's cash-strapped universities have diverted student fees meant for classrooms and other student facilities to other uses, the Los Angeles Times reports. At the University of California at Los Angeles, the article says, when fund-raising efforts for a controversial renovation of Pauley Pavilion fell short, administrators revised the financing plan to include $25-million in student fees. Students had approved most of that amount to maintain two older campus buildings that house gyms and student centers.

In another example, the article says that administrators at California State University at Sacramento used general fund money to cover a real-estate investment that went bad.

Animal-rights activists have petitioned a Wisconsin court to prosecute officials and researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison for the accidental deaths of three sheep in a study related to decompression sickness, The Wall Street Journal reported. A judge in Madison heard arguments in the case on Thursday. The activists' use of the petition statute is an example of a new approach in which animal-rights groups are pursuing their cause by turning to a variety of existing laws, the Journal reported.

The Obama administration has filed a friend-of-the-court brief siding with the University of Texas at Austin in a challenge to the flagship institution's consideration of race and ethnicity in admissions, The Austin American-Statesman reported. According to the newspaper, the brief states that the university uses race "in an extremely limited way" that complies with federal law. "The university's effort to promote diversity is a paramount government objective," it says. A federal district judge threw out the lawsuit challenging the university's policies in August. An appeal is now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Duke University and Mike Pressler, the former lacrosse coach who was forced out in 2006 amid the scandal that followed a dancer's false allegations against three players, have settled a lawsuit filed by Mr. Pressler, The News & Observer reported. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Mr. Pressler, who now coaches at Bryant University, in Rhode Island, sued Duke in 2007, alleging that it had violated agreements with him by making disparaging remarks about him.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the dean of the University of Iowa's law school in which a staff member alleged that she was turned down for teaching positions because of her conservative political views, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported. Decisions against the staff member, Teresa Wagner, were not based on her beliefs, Judge Charles R. Wolle of the U.S. District Court in Davenport, Iowa, wrote. The ruling dismissed Ms. Wagner's claims with prejudice, which bars her from making the same claims again, and granted court costs to the dean, Carolyn Jones.

The director of a research center at the University of Wyoming has canceled an invitation for William Ayers to speak on the campus, citing safety concerns, the university announced. A spokesman told the Associated Press that the university had received hundreds of calls and messages protesting the visit by Mr. Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago who belonged to a radical group responsible for bombings in the 1970s.