A prominent cancer researcher at the University of Wisconsin at Madison resigned abruptly this spring after university officials began investigating a potential conflict of interest involving his outside business interests, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. The researcher, Minesh Mehta, had been leading a clinical trial of a specialized radiation treatment for cancer patients that involved the use of a medical device made by a company from which he received consulting fees. Dr. Mehta denied that there had been a conflict of interest, saying that he had informed the university of his consulting work and that the clinical trial was studying radiation dosages, not the device that administered them.

One of the nation's longest-serving community-college presidents, Stuart Steiner of the State University of New York’s Genesee Community College, has announced his plans to retire at the end of the coming academic year. "Next year at the age of 74 I will be in my 37th year as president of Genesee and my 45th year at the college," Mr. Steiner wrote in a letter to the campus last week that listed record enrollments and strong financial stability among the college's achievements. In a recent essay for The Chronicle, Mr. Steiner and another longtime SUNY leader, Joseph Hankin of Westchester Community College, enumerated what they believe to be the defining measures for high-achieving campus chiefs, beginning their list with: "Successful community-college presidents are educators first and foremost."

The University of Minnesota is close to putting into effect a broad-based conflict-of-interest policy to govern relationships between the university and businesses across the entire institution, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. In the wake of several high-profile cases that raised concerns about financial conflicts of interest in scientific research at Minnesota and elsewhere, the university's Board of Regents approved a new policy in March that outlined tougher standards governing such conflicts. Specific rules dealing with potential conflicts at the Academic Health Center will be released this week and put in place later this month, the newspaper said, with the universitywide rules to follow later in the year.

An investigative report by The Dallas Morning News raises questions about the level of autonomy granted to medical residents and the quality of care they provide at a charity hospital affiliated with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. The newspaper said its review of records and interviews with current and former staff members of the medical center and the hospital, Parkland Memorial, suggested a near reversal of power between residents and the faculty members who oversee them at Parkland. Residents initiated surgeries with little or no faculty supervision, it said, sometimes botching those procedures or making other medical errors. Officials of the medical center and the hospital disputed the allegations, saying they originated with one demoted faculty surgeon who has sued to get his job back.

The University of Connecticut, which spent $500,000 in state funds on a private home where its recently departed president, Michael J. Hogan, lived for three years, is terminating its lease on the residence, the Hartford Courant reported. The university owns a presidential house and spent more than $1-million renovating it in 2004, but Mr. Hogan, who left in May to become president of the University of Illinois, had declined to live there, saying his wife had a severe allergic reaction to mold and mildew in the house. Instead, the university leased a home for the Hogans from a longtime benefactor. It paid $49,920 in rent for the first year of a two-year lease signed in 2009, but will not have to pay the $51,408 scheduled for the coming year. The state auditor has questioned the leasing arrangement and the amount spent on the house.

Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts has signed into law a bill to rename the state's six public colleges as universities, according to reports in The Boston Globe and The Republican, a newspaper in Springfield. The colleges at Bridgewater, Fitchburg, Framingham, Salem, Westfield, and Worcester will officially become universities when the measure takes effect this fall, and will join three specialized institutions in a new "state university" segment that will remain separate from the University of Massachusetts system. The legislation does not create any new programs and does not change the former colleges' teaching mission. Supporters say the name change will help the institutions earn more grants and draw more applicants. Critics have dismissed the legislation as a "feel good" measure that will do little to improve the quality of education.

Trustees of the Connecticut State University System voted on Monday to scale back raises granted this month to the system chancellor and the presidents of CSU's four campuses. The presidents and the chancellor, whose salaries range from $285,000 to $360,000, will get to keep 5-percent cost-of-living increases, the Connecticut Mirror reported, but the board rescinded additional "pay equity" adjustments. The move followed sharp criticism from Gov. M. Jodi Rell last week.

The U.S. State Department has denied a visa to a Colombian journalist to attend a fellowship at Harvard University, the Associated Press reported. The journalist, Hollman Morris, has criticized ties between illegal far-right militias and allies of Colombia's departing president, Álvaro Uribe, who has been a key ally of the United States. Bob Giles, curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, said he was surprised by the decision to exclude Mr. Morris and had written the State Department to ask it to reconsider. U.S. Embassy and State Department officials declined to confirm the visa denial, citing privacy laws.

Two former senior officials of Washburn University allege in a lawsuit that they were wrongfully terminated in March after they spoke with members of the Kansas institution's Board of Regents in response to questions about the university president's performance, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported. Among other allegations in their complaint, Robin E. Bowen, who was vice president for academic affairs, and Wanda Hill, who was treasurer and vice president for administration, say that President Jerry B. Farley was untruthful about erroneous enrollment statistics and about overspending on scholarships. In an interview with the newspaper, Mr. Farley denied the lawsuit's allegations, saying he had never lied to the Board of Regents or asked other administrators to be dishonest.

The University of Washington's police department authorized an undercover officer to infiltrate and spy on a student group that was planning a protest on behalf of campus custodians, the ACLU of Washington State alleges. In a letter to the university's vice president for student life, the ACLU urged the university "to issue a clear statement that government surveillance based on political ideology is not permissible." Norm Arkans, a university spokesman, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that the university had dealt with the matter months ago and had made clear to the police that such actions were unacceptable.