In a further sign of the heightened tensions over proposed new federal regulations on for-profit colleges, Keiser University, a Florida-based for-profit, has sued a public-college president there, accusing him and a top administrator of smearing Keiser by communicating derogatory comments about the for-profit education industry to investors and others via e-mail. Keiser itself is not publicly traded, but its founder and chancellor, Arthur Keiser, has been an outspoken criitic of the proposed regulations. The civil suit was filed in state court against two officials at Florida State College at Jacksonville—its president, Steven R. Wallace, and its vice president for government relations, Susan M. Lehr.

The president of the University at Albany warned on Friday that the institution, which is part of the State University of New York, will have to take some difficult "next steps" over the next two years to meet its budget challenges, trimming the equivalent of 160 full-time positions and probably phasing out five programs. The president, George M. Philip, ordered the suspension of new admissions to the five programs—classics, French, Italian, Russian, and theater. "I think it's fair to say they are planning on closing these programs," Phillip Smith, president of the union that represents SUNY professors and other employees, told the Times Union, a newspaper in Albany. This summer, the State Legislature rejected a package sought by SUNY's chancellor, Nancy L. Zimpher, that would have allowed public universities more autonomy to raise tuition and earn money in other ways.

Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis has suspended a Work-Study program with the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which fired 56 employees and hired students to perform some of their duties, The Indianapolis Star reported. A spokesman said the university was trying to determine whether the arrangement violated federal guidelines that prohibit Work-Study employees from displacing employees or impairing existing service contracts.

The former fund raiser at St. John's University in New York who is accused of stealing more than $1-million from the university now also faces federal charges accusing her of forcing students to work as personal servants in order to retain scholarships she had awarded them, The New York Times reported. The former administrator, Cecilia Chang, was suspended by the university last year. A state prosecutor in Queens announced the theft charges against her two weeks ago. The new charges emerged on Thursday at a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, where bail was set at $1.5-million. After the hearing, one of her lawyers denied the federal charges, saying the students' work for Ms. Chang was a normal part of the St. John’s work-study program.

Amy Bishop, the former University of Alabama at Huntsville professor accused of killing three colleagues there this year, will not be charged in an attempted mail-bombing of a scientist in 1993 in Massachusetts, the Associated Press reported. Ms. Bishop had been questioned in the case, in which a package containing pipe bombs was mailed to Paul A. Rosenberg, then an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard University with whom Ms. Bishop worked as a postdoctoral fellow. The bombs did not explode, and no one was ever charged. Carmen M. Ortiz, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, reviewed the evidence in that case after Ms. Bishop was charged in the Huntsville slayings and announced on Thursday that she had found no problems with the investigation.

To help balance the books for the state's current fiscal year, which ends in June, Ohio's governor plans to push that month's scheduled $127.5-million payment for higher education into July, the start of the next fiscal year, The Columbus Dispatch reported. But some lawmakers and college officials say they doubt the money will ever materialize. In its next budget period, the state will have to deal with the loss of $8-billion in one-time state and federal funds. "The schools are treating this like a budget cut," Ronald Abrams, executive director of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, told the newspaper.

In a surprise announcement on Tuesday, David G. Carter, the chancellor of the Connecticut State University system whose past year in office has been dogged by controversy, said he would retire by next September, the Hartford Courant reported. Mr. Carter had faced questions from faculty members, state politicians, and the public over how the system's central office and governing board were managing university affairs, and the faculty at one campus, Southern Connecticut State, had voted no confidence in him and the board. His announcement on Tuesday came at the end of a news conference that had focused on science education.

Raphael Golb, the accused cyberbully who faces multiple counts of criminal impersonation and identity theft in a case stemming from a scholarly dispute over the Dead Sea Scrolls, admitted in court on Monday that he wrote e-mails under the name of the New York University professor Lawrence H. Schiffman, but said he "never intended anybody to believe that these e-mails were sent by Larry Schiffman," the Associated Press reported. Mr. Golb, a lawyer, is the son of Norman Golb, a professor of Jewish history and civilization at the University of Chicago whose views on the authorship of the scrolls differ with those of Mr. Schiffman. Taking the stand on Monday, Raphael Golb said he had done nothing illegal because his writings under Mr. Schiffman's name and other aliases were meant as parody. His testimony is expected to continue on Tuesday.

In a rare move, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees voted on Thursday to deny emeritus status to William Ayers, the professor of education controversial for his radical past. According to news accounts, the trustees' decision followed an emotional statement by the board's chairman, Christopher Kennedy, who is a son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy said that as a matter of conscience, he could not endorse "conferring the honorific title of our university to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father." Mr. Ayers is a co-author of the 1974 book Prairie Fire, whose dedicatees include Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated Robert Kennedy. A university spokesman, Thomas Hardy, said he could not remember another instance of a retired professor's being denied emeritus status. Mr. Ayers, who taught at the university's...

The University of Minnesota has reversed a controversial decision to cancel the premiere of a documentary that raises concerns about farming and the pollution of the Mississippi River: The film will be shown at the university's Bell Museum of Natural History on October 3. The documentary, Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story, had also been scheduled to be shown on public television next month before the vice president for university relations, Karen Himle, canceled its release. It was unclear whether that broadcast could be rescheduled. Also on Thursday, a coalition of environmental and food groups urged the institution's president, Robert H. Bruininks, to authorize a review of the university's conflict-of-interest policy and ask for Ms. Himle's resignation if she had acted improperly, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Mr. Bruininks has expressed confidence in her integrity.