Quick Takes

Studies of endowments don't bring good news these days. College endowments in the United States lost an average of 24.1 percent in the last six months of 2008, according to a survey from Commonfund Institute that provides an update on an estimate the organization released two months ago. As is typically the case, the largest endowments did better than smaller endowments. Those with more than $1 billion saw average losses of only 21.7 percent. Those endowments valued at less than $10 million lost an average of 30.2 percent.

The last few months have seen many of the companies that hire new college graduates revise their plans -- and that's why you may be seeing more anxiety in the career center. Data released Wednesday by the National Association of Colleges and Employers show that hiring of new college graduates this year is expected to be down 22 percent from a year ago. And 22 percent of employers responding to the survey said that they didn't plan to do any hiring at all. While the survey found no parts of the country that are immune from the downturn, the projected hiring declines are the greatest in the Northeast and the West.

Officials of the University of Texas at Austin may have a new way to convince legislators to do away with the "10 percent" admissions law: football. The law, adopted as a means to promote diversity, assures admission to any public institution to anyone in the top 10 percent of a Texas high school's graduating class. Because so many of those students enroll at Austin, officials there say that they have lost too much flexibility in admissions decisions. The university's quest to change the law nearly succeeded two years ago, but was killed at the last minute by legislators who think the law is still effective. On Wednesday, William Powers Jr., president at Austin, told lawmakers that without a change in the law, the university would soon reach a point where it could not admit international students or even ... athletes, The Austin American-Statesman reported.

Some students are challenging the truthfulness of Elsa Murano, president of Texas A&M University, over questions of when she made a job offer, The Bryan-College Station Eagle reported. Murano told student leaders last year that she wouldn't offer anyone the job of vice president for student affairs without consulting them first. But students, using open records laws to obtain the documents, found a job offer had been extended before Murano made that pledge. The dispute concerns just what constitutes a job offer, given that the Board of Regents would have to formally approve any appointment.

More white scholars are teaching black studies, and they are finding students (themselves more likely than in the past to include non-black students) more accepting, the Los Angeles Times reported. A Northwestern University professor quoted in the story says: "There probably are students who wouldn't enroll in a black studies course with a white professor.... But it's my view that students are incredibly open-minded. They may at first say, 'I wonder if this person is qualified,' but students want a teacher who performs well, and, at the end of the day, that's how they'll judge you."

Students at Stonehill College, a Roman Catholic institution in Massachusetts, thought they had a way around the college's refusal to distribute condoms. Students decided that they would handle distribution themselves, gathering condoms and placing them in boxes in dormitories. But The Boston Globe reported that the college -- citing religious teachings -- took the boxes and barred further distribution. College officials noted that Stonehill's commitment to Catholic teachings that bar birth control is quite public, so the action shouldn't be "shocking." But the student who organized the effort sees things differently. "College students are going to have sex, and they should be encouraged to have safe sex. In certain moments, students aren't going to stop to run to CVS, so I think they should be available on campus," she said.

The Education Writers Association on Wednesday awarded first prize in its beat reporting category for small media/markets to Inside Higher Ed's Scott Jaschik for a set of 2008 articles on the rising use of adjunct professors. The articles focused on such issues as how colleges treat their workers, the impact on students of being taught by professors without tenure, and the effectiveness of unions and other groups that say they protect faculty interests. Links to the articles can be found here. In addition, Jack Stripling, now a reporter at Inside Higher Ed, won a special citation from the education writers' group for articles he wrote in his previous position, at The Gainesville Sun, about a plagiarizing professor.