Quick Takes

Charles Nemeroff, an Emory University psychiatrist whose work has been highly influential and who has been at the center of a conflict-of-interest scandal, is moving to the University of Miami as its new psychiatry chair. Nemeroff resigned from the chair's position at Emory in December, amid growing Congressional scrutiny of payments he received from GlaxoSmithKline and did not report -- in violation of university rules, which are designed to ensure that federally supported research is not tainted by unknown financial conflicts of interest by researchers. The Miami Herald quoted Pascal Goldschmidt, dean of the University of Miami medical school, as acknowledging the controversy, but also calling Nemeroff "an extraordinary psychiatrist and scientist."

Two students -- backed by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education -- are suing the Tarrant County College District, charging that its limits on rallies are violations of First Amendment rights, the Associated Press reported. The college permits protest activities only in a limited free speech zone, and requires advance permission to schedule events there. College officials say that the rules are consistent with federal and state requirements. But the students say that they are being blocked from engaging in legitimate protest. The students want to rally on behalf of the right to carry concealed weapons on campus and they say that they are being barred from wearing empty holsters on campus as an expression of their views.

The Institute for College Access and Success on Thursday unveiled a new Web site, College InSight, designed to provide a wide range of data about colleges -- information on prices and financial aid, socioeconomic, racial and other diversity, and student outcomes. The site, a resource for parents as well as policy makers, allows users to build their own data sets based on the institutions and data elements of their choosing.

Hundreds of students at the University of Maryland at College Park, in one of the larger rallies in many years on the campus, on Thursday protested the elimination of a full-time position devoted to diversity efforts, The Washington Post reported. Cordell Black, associate provost for equity and diversity, will lose that title, but will remain as a tenured faculty member. University officials attributed the change to budget cuts, but students said that the move reflected a dangerous lack of commitment to diversity issues on the campus.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a 2010 spending bill for many federal science programs that would provide $6.9 billion for the National Science Foundation, including $5.55 billion for research, $122 million for research equipment and facilities; and $857 million for the agency's education programs. In passing the bill, the Senate rejected an amendment that would have eliminated funding for the NSF's political science program -- though the amendment garnered 36 votes.

A state panel has concluded that the University of Vermont and five state colleges in the state should not be merged, the Associated Press reported. The idea of a merger has been much debated in the state as a way to save money, but the panel concluded that the cultures of the university and the state colleges are too different. Instead, the panel suggested that they look for new ways to collaborate on selected programs.