Emma Tamburlini, a daughter of the Pop artist Larry Rivers, has asked New York University to turn over a set of videos and films that show her and her sister as naked adolescents being interviewed by their father about their developing breasts, The New York Times reported. The university, which purchased Rivers's archive from his foundation and which will receive the materials in a few weeks, has agreed to discuss the matter. At the urging of the foundation, the university has already promised to keep the films locked away during the daughters' lifetimes. The foundation rejected a request two years ago to destroy the tapes. Ms. Tamburlini, now 43, says the filming contributed to her anorexia as a teenager.

The president of the American Association of University Professors, Cary Nelson, issued a statement today calling the Pennsylvania State Senate's unanimous passage of the College Textbook Affordability, Accountability, and Accessibility Act "the first dangerous step in restricting academic freedom in textbook selection." The bill would require faculty members to choose "the least expensive, educationally sound textbooks." Authority over textbook selection has traditionally belonged to faculty members, although some for-profit institutions save money by having students use a common set of electronic textbooks. Pennsylvania is not the first governmental entity to try to legislate cheaper textbooks. Recent federal and state laws have also confronted the issue.

Ohio University placed its chapter of the Pi Beta Phi sorority on probation last week and ordered its members to pay $290 in restitution and perform community service for damaging an art gallery in Parkersburg, W.Va., where the group held its winter formal, the Associated Press reported.  The gallery's director accused attendees of stealing keg taps, "using plates like missiles" in a food fight, and having sex in a bathroom. The sorority disputed some of the claims, but the gallery's state insurer has already approved payment for more than $44,000 in damages. 

BP has announced $25-million of a promised $500-million in grants to university researchers studying the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Receiving money will be researchers at Louisiana State University, the University of South Florida's Florida Institute of Oceanography, and a consortium led by Mississippi State University. In other news related to the spill, Nicholls State University, in Louisiana, is advising students that they may be eligible for need-based financial aid if their families have been affected by the disaster.

Georgia's State Board of Regents has approved plans for a new committee of regents and college presidents that will explore the most efficient and cost-effective ways for colleges to check students' immigration status, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The decision follows a controversy over whether Kennesaw State University should have been responsible for determining the citizenship status of a student who was in the country illegally but was paying in-state tuition.

Eight scientists will share $3-million in award money as winners of the biennial Kavli Prizes in astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience, the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters announced today. Sharing the prize in astrophysics are Jerry Nelson, of the University of California at Santa Cruz; Ray Wilson, formerly of Imperial College London and the European Southern Observatory; and Roger Angel, of the University of Arizona. The nanoscience prize went to Donald M. Eigler, of IBM’s Almaden Research Center, and Nadrian Seeman, of New York University. The prize in neuroscience was awarded to Thomas Südhof, of the Stanford University School of Medicine; Richard Scheller, of the biotech company Genentech; and James Rothman, of Yale University.

The Kappa Alpha Order, a national fraternity inspired by Gen. Robert E. Lee, has issued an order forbidding its members to wear Rebel uniforms at "Old South" parades and parties, the Associated Press reported. The policy shift, which the fraternity's national office announced in an internal memorandum in January, follows years of complaints about the tradition, which critics say evokes a racist past.

The Kappa Alpha chapter at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa has canceled this year's Old South parade altogether, according to The Crimson White, a student newspaper. At last year's parade, the paper reports, Kappa Alpha members — dressed as Confederate soldiers and waving Confederate flags — "made a prolonged stop" in front of a black sorority, drawing complaints from the women.

In the memo announcing the policy change, Larry Stanton Wiese, Kappa Alpha's executive director, wrote...

In a reversal, the University of Florida has agreed to let two graduate students use footage of the Haitian earthquake's aftermath in a documentary film they are producing for their master's thesis, The Gainesville Sun reported. The university had earlier said the students could not use the footage because they had gone to Haiti in defiance of an institutional travel ban. Under the new agreement, the documentary must include a disclaimer stating that the university did not give money or authorization for the filming. The university is still investigating whether the students' professor violated policies by allowing their trip.

A wildlife rehabilitator in Pennsylvania says that nine spray-painted chickens that were removed from Carnegie Mellon University are victims of animal cruelty. Beth McMaster, who is caring for the chickens, says that the oil-based paint has sickened two of the hens, and she wants the culprits to be punished. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that a pink bird was found inside Carnegie Mellon's student center, a silver one was found on a racquetball court, and others were found in the vicinity of some fraternity houses. The university said in a statement that staff members were gathering facts about the incident and that students were cooperating: "If disciplinary action is warranted, it will be handled through the normal internal judicial process."

Columbia University has named three scholars as winners of this year's Bancroft Prize, which honors the authors of new books in American history, biography, and diplomacy:

• •Linda Gordon, a professor of history at New York University and a previous Bancroft recipient, won for Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits (W.W. Norton & Company, 2009).
• 
  
• •Woody Holton, an associate professor of history and American studies at the University of Richmond, won for Abigail Adams (Free Press, 2009).
• 
  
• •Margaret D. Jacobs, associate professor of history and director of women's and gender studies at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, won for her first book, White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940 (University of Nebraska Press, 2009).
• 
  

The awards, which are worth $10,000 apiece, will be...