Posts by Jeffrey Selingo
November 28, 2009, 03:45 PM ET
Iranian-American Scholar Faces New Spying Charges
An academic who holds both American and Iranian citizenship and was already serving a 15-year prison sentence for spying against the Iranian government now faces additional charges, according to The New York Times. Kian Tajbakhsh told his wife that he was taken last week before a Tehran court, where a judge read new charges that accused him of "spying for the George Soros foundation," a reference to the Open Society Institute, a pro-democracy group founded by Mr. Soros, a prominent financier and philanthropist. Mr. Tajbakhsh, an urban planner with a doctorate from Columbia University, was arrested in June after protests broke out over that month’s disputed presidential election, which the opposition says was fraudulent. He is in solitary confinement and suffering under “huge psychological and physical pressure,” according to the Times.
Read MoreAugust 29, 2009, 04:04 PM ET
UNC President Embarrassed by Report on Administrative Bloat
The president of the 17-campus University of North Carolina system, Erskine Bowles, has told the system's chancellors to take aim at administrative budgets as they look to trim spending by 10 percent. In an e-mail message to the campus leaders, Mr. Bowles called an article in the Raleigh News & Observer that showed administrative positions jumped by 28 percent over five years "an absolute embarrassment."
"The coverage in today's News & Observer on administrative growth within the university is an absolute embarrassment -- and we brought it all on ourselves," Bowles wrote in an e-mail message obtained by the News & Observer. "In the conversations that we will be having with you regarding your 10 percent budget reduction plans, we will be looking for absolute PROOF that you have focused FIRST on administrative reductions and solid evidence that you have taken steps to shore up our...
August 14, 2009, 01:10 PM ET
Budget Impasse in Pennsylvania May Delay Student Aid
Pennsylvania colleges expecting to receive checks from the state for financially needy students who enroll this fall may end up with an empty mailbox. State lawmakers have yet to pass a budget, and as a result, need-based grants for students won't be distributed to colleges through the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Some institutions have agreed to cover the costs of the grants while the state is without a budget. The number of students expected to receive need-based grants from the state is up by 11 percent over last year.
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