A little respect for custodians: When Craig Beaver, a custodian at Cornell University, brought a plate of cookies for seniors studying for exams two years ago, a student named Katie Bartels was so touched that she mentioned it to her father. As it happens, Phil Bartels is an alumnus and a member of a university fund-raising council — and, apparently, a guy who believes in saying “thank you.” He told the Cornell administrator in charge of building care, Rob Osborn, that he wanted to sponsor an annual Bartels Award for Custodial Service Excellence. It is now given to five of the university’s 297 building-care employees every year, according to an online university newsletter. In return, the university’s building-care department gave Mr. Bartels his very own custodial jacket.

End zone? No kidding: A new seating section under construction in the end zone of Texas Christian University’s stadium collapsed about 1:30 a.m. Friday, drawing structural engineers to the site for an investigation—and prompting a rash of news stories in Britain, where a soccer team in Liverpool has hired the same architecture firm to design its new stadium. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, no one was injured when the structure that was to hold the new seats collapsed onto the seats below it. The stadium additions were designed by HKS Inc. The university said it would hire independent engineers to investigation the collapse.

Square 54 in the news: It might not sound like much from the name it’s going by now, but Square 54 is a choice piece of Washington real estate. It’s halfway between Georgetown and the White House, it’s right across 23rd Street from the Foggy Bottom Metro station, and—best of all, if you happen to be a developer—it’s currently empty. The property was formerly the site of George Washington University’s hospital, which moved across the street a few years ago, and now the university has signed a 60-year lease under which Square 54 will be developed by Boston Properties. According to The Examiner, a daily Washington tabloid, the company will pay the university $9.1-million a year for the property. On the drawing boards is an 842,000-square-foot mixed-use complex designed by Cesar Pelli’s firm, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, that will have offices, housing, and a “substantial” grocery store. But the university’s activist neighbors in Foggy Bottom, who have clashed with the institution repeatedly (The Chronicle, November 21, 2003), say the development plan “is a much greater intensity of use than we would have liked.”

Settlement in Connecticut: The University of Connecticut and a development company that built several residence halls at the university have reached a settlement under which the company will pay almost $15-million of the $25.5-million the university has spent fixing hundreds of fire and safety problems, according to The Hartford Courant. The problems were discovered in the Hilltop Apartment complex (right) beginning in 2004, and led to a wider investigation of the university’s construction program (The Chronicle, May 19, 2005).