A dean who had criticized plans to cut programs at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas has been removed from his post and reassigned to the provost's office, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The university would not say why it demoted the dean, Eric Sandgren, who had led the college since 2003. Engineering programs are expected to be among those hardest hit as the university copes with a 6.9-percent cut in state support.

Tarleton State University, in Texas, canceled the performance this weekend of a controversial play that had ignited opposition in the surrounding community and beyond, The Dallas Morning News reported. The play, Corpus Christi, by Terence McNally, portrays a Christlike character as homosexual. It was one of four student-directed productions that had been scheduled for Saturday as part of a class assignment. In a letter on Friday, Tarleton State's president, F. Dominic Dottavio, had distanced the university from the production but defended the First Amendment rights of the student who was directing it. The professor supervising the project, however, decided on Friday night to cancel all of Saturday's student productions, citing safety concerns and "the need to maintain an orderly academic environment."

The same play ran into trouble in 2001 at Florida Atlantic University. Charlie Crist, ...

Florida International University is conducting an internal inquiry into its response to a campus emergency in which a football player was stabbed to death, The Miami Herald reported. The university's president, Mark B. Rosenberg, told the Herald he was confident that emergency responders had done "absolutely everything they could" after the incident, which occurred Thursday night, but that the review was necessary to ensure student safety. The campus plans a memorial for the slain player, Kendall Berry, on Monday. Another student, Quentin Rashad Wyche, has been charged with second-degree murder in the case. Mr. Wyche turned himself in to authorities late Friday night, the Associated Press reported.

The last time Long Beach City College counted, its grassy campus was home more than 300 rabbits, many of them apparently either dropped off by pet owners or the progeny of such castaways, the Los Angeles Times reported. That's a little more chewing of the scenery than college officials would like, so they've started a campaign to reduce the rabbit population. They have posted signs warning that "rabbit drop-offs are prohibited" -- and punishable under state law by a $500 fine or jail time. The campus is also looking for volunteers to adopt rabbits, and is working with veterinarians from Western University of Health Sciences to spay and neuter the animals.

Long Beach is not the only campus vexed by an abundance of bunnies: The University of Victoria formed a team to deal with the problem in 2007, and the same year, North Dakota State University went looking for other solutions after...

Leaders of the University of California apologized on Wednesday for recent incidents reflecting racial and ethnic intolerance on several campuses and proposed revising admissions policies systemwide to increase the enrollment of minority students. Speaking at a Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco, Mark G. Yudof, the system's president, said he had asked the Academic Senate to consider requiring all nine campuses to adopt consistent holistic-review practices that consider students' life experiences, as well as test scores and grades. The Los Angeles Times quoted Mr. Yudof as saying, "I want a system that is less mechanical and takes a serious look at a range of talents and skills and history, and takes into account poverty."

A lawsuit's settlement leaves intact Wisconsin's "diploma privilege" policy, which allows graduates of either of the state's two law schools to practice law without taking the bar examination but requries graduates of all other schools to take the exam. The federal lawsuit was filed by Christopher L. Wiesmueller while he was a student in Oklahoma. He later passed the Wisconsin bar, but the suit continued on behalf of his wife and, at least temporarily, as a class action. Under the settlement, reached last week, the Wiesmuellers agreed to drop the suit in exchange for $7,500, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. It also bars them from challenging the policy again, but another group of Wisconsin lawyers has petitioned the State Supreme Court to reconsider the policy.

Goshen College tried something new on Tuesday as fans waited at its baseball field for the opening of a doubleheader against Siena Heights University: It allowed "The Star-Spangled Banner" to be played. The performance, which was followed by a peace prayer, was greeted politely, the Associated Press reported.

Goshen, a small Mennonite institution in northern Indiana with a strong pacifist tradition, had previously banned the national anthem because of its martial lyrics. In a controversial decision last month, it decided to ease the ban in an effort to be more welcoming of visitors and students from outside the faith. Tuesday's performance was the first under the new policy, which will be reviewed in June 2011, a college spokeswoman said.

Fans who came just for baseball got a split decision: Siena Heights won the first game, 10-7, but Goshen came back to claim the second, 6-5, in extra...

The Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences filed a lawsuit in a Missouri state court on Monday accusing the president it fired in December of fraud, and the former leader, Karen L. Pletz, responded with a lawsuit of her own, alleging wrongful termination, The Kansas City Star reported. Ms. Pletz, who had led the medical school since 1995, said in her petition that the university was attempting to make her the scapegoat for its own potential tax problems, arising from an Internal Revenue Service audit. The university's petition accuses her of falsifying documents and other deceptive practices in order to increase her compensation, which was more than $1-million at the time of her departure.

The Board of Governors that oversees Florida's financially pressed public university system has dropped out of a lawsuit challenging the Legislature's grip on tuition increases, The Miami Herald reported. While the withdrawal does not end the lawsuit, system leaders hope the departure will hasten its demise. The board's chairwoman, Ava Parker, said discussions with legislators had improved to the point that "we can put this lawsuit behind us." The state's governor, Charlie Crist, a Republican, commended the board's action, and Republican lawmakers suggested that the truce might make them more receptive to the universities' pleas for funds.

Prosecutors announced plea agreements late last week with two activists affiliated with the underground Animal Liberation Front in connection with protests aimed at researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported. One defendant, Kevin Richard Olliff, pleaded no contest to felony stalking and conspiracy charges and faces up to three years in prison. The other, Linda Faith Greene, pleaded guilty to similar charges and faces five years of strict probation. Both were charged with harassing UCLA scientists who use animals in their research, and the two were among five activists who were barred by a judge's order in 2008 from having contact with UCLA researchers.