Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a political watchdog group, has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether Liberty University violated its nonprofit status by using the university's student newspaper to influence the outcome of an election for the state's House of Delegates, reports The News & Advance. Americans United called for a similar investigation last May, after Liberty revoked the status of the student Democratic Party club. The next month, the university made both the Republican and Democratic student groups unofficial campus clubs. The Lynchburg, Va., university was founded by the religious conservative Jerry Falwell and is now led by his son, Jerry Falwell Jr.

As many colleges and higher-education systems across the country consider ways to close their budget gaps, a new report warns that the cost of raising tuition for nonresident students may sometimes be greater than the potential rewards. For example, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education lost 40 percent of its nonresident enrollment after imposing steep increases in tuition from 1990 to 1996, says the report, which was prepared by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York. The report suggests that if SUNY raises nonresident tuition, as it is considering doing, it must be able to set different costs for different campuses.

Under two pieces of legislation pending in the Tennessee General Assembly, some politicians would get a waiver of a state requirement that they hold an advanced degree to be eligible to serve as president or chancellor of a state university. The companion bills stipulate that after 10 years of service, Tennessee's secretary of state, its comptroller, its treasurer, members of the governor's cabinet, and cabinet-level staff members would need only a baccalaureate degree to be a college chief executive.

A panel commissioned by the Louisiana Legislature has issued final recommendations for overhauling the state's higher-education system. The suggested measures are meant to improve graduation rates at the public four-year universities, encourage more students to attend two-year colleges, lower the state's costs for higher education, and increase accountability of the institutions.

A state legislative audit has revealed that nearly half of the 32 campus presidents in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system think the central administration is too large, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. While all but 13 of the 106 services examined in the audit were rated positively, the presidents panned the system's two largest operations, information technology and student services, the newspaper reported.

The U.S. Senate has announced its six nominees to serve on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, an 18-member board that advises the education secretary on accrediting agencies. Senate Republicans chose Anne D. Neal, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, who served on the committee from 2007 to 2008, before Congress overhauled it in the reauthorized Higher Education Act. The other two Republican appointees are Bruce Cole, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Michael Poliakoff, former vice president for academic affairs and research at the University of Colorado system. The Democratic nominees are Daniel Klaich, chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education; State Rep. Cameron Staples of Connecticut; and Larry N. Vanderhoef, former chancellor of the University of California at Davis. The ...

Last year State Sen. Jack Harper of Arizona persuaded his legislative colleagues to pass a bill allowing guns to be stored in the locked trunks of cars on public-college campuses. This year the Republican senator from Surprise, Ariz., has introduced legislation to allow faculty members at the state's colleges to carry guns on campuses if they have a concealed-carry permit, reports The Arizona Republic.

Despite an unemployment rate of 11 percent and warnings that businesses could be forced to cut jobs, Oregon voters on Tuesday approved an increase in the state's income tax on families earning more than $250,000 a year and a raise in the minimum corporate income tax from $10, its level since 1931, according to The Oregonian. The measure passed easily, with the support of about 54 percent of voters, the newspaper reported, and is the first voter-approved statewide increase in the income tax since the 1930's. The move means that state lawmakers will not be forced to close a $727-million budget gap solely by cutting state spending on higher education and other programs.

A former president and a former dean of business services at Shelton State Community College, in Alabama, were arrested on Monday on federal charges of stealing more than $2,500 from the two-year institution, according to The Tuscaloosa News. Richard Rogers, Shelton State's president from 2000 until he resigned in 2008, and Karen Van Luvender, the former dean, were indicted by a federal grand jury in a long-running investigation into the financial dealings of the state's two-year college system.

The framers of the U.S. Constitution did not lay out a right to party, according to Judge William E. Smith, of the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island. Judge Smith ruled on Friday that the town of Narragansett, R.I., could continue to put bright yellow stickers on houses whose residents are deemed too raucous. The town began labeling residences in 2007 in an effort to crack down on partying college students who rent houses there, reports The Providence Journal. Oral arguments in the case were held at the Roger Williams University School of Law, where Judge Smith is an adjunct professor, the paper reported.