James M. Fadool, an associate professor of biology at Florida State University, got a federal grant of more than $300,000 to study eye defects using zebra-fish. Some of that money went to pay another researcher, $1,536 biweekly, to assist with the research and manage the lab where the fish were kept. But an audit by the Office of Inspector General…

A consultant on an endless road trip, Jeff Kallay travels the nation visiting colleges and universities that hire him to conduct a "campus visit audit." After each tour, he discusses his first impressions with admissions officials. Later he sends them a detailed report, with recommendations covering the logistical aspects of visits, such…

The story of Bernard Madoff rivals outrageous fiction. It was astonishing that this seemingly kindly, respectable financier, a pioneer in electronic trading, a founding partner in the Nasdaq exchange, turned out to have been running a $65-billion Ponzi scheme that victimized country-club elites, middle-class retirees, foundations, universities,…

The University of Louisville's former dean of education, Robert D. Felner, faces a criminal trial on charges that he and an associate diverted most of a $694,000 earmarked federal grant into their own bank accounts. Louisville officials have announced an administrative overhaul that will, they say, help prevent any future misbehavior with grants.…

Several colleges and universities lost millions in the alleged $50-billion Ponzi scheme run by the Wall Street trader Bernard L. Madoff. The losses include institutions' endowment holdings in hedge funds that were invested with Madoff as well as hits taken by supporting foundations and donors. Several foundations that have been active in higher…

When Robert D. Felner applied to become dean of education at the University of Louisville in 2003, he carried a genuinely impressive vita. But two of the most recent large grants listed on that vita could not have survived close scrutiny--and it isn't clear that Louisville's search committee scrutinized them at all. First, the impressive part:…

Distance educators won't have to become FBI-style investigators, installing cameras in the homes of online students and scanning fingerprints to ensure that people are who they say they are. At least not yet. The recently reauthorized Higher Education Opportunity Act requires accreditors to monitor steps colleges take to verify that an enrolled…

The federal government could take a cue from its regulation of charitable organizations in monitoring the freewheeling fiscal habits of big-time college athletics, a leading tax lawyer says. The author reports on the ideas offered by John D. Colombo, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, for monitoring big spending on college…

In a daylong meeting broadcast online this month, David B. Ashley, the president of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, was repeatedly grilled, and then publicly demoted, during a contentious gathering of the university system's Board of Regents. The dressing-down followed months of public disputes over the conduct of Mr. Ashley's wife and…

College governing boards are becoming more effective and engaged but continue to fall short in some areas, according to survey results released today by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. The association's survey of almost 700 public and private colleges, conducted last year and described as the first detailed…

At the end of 2005, Robert D. Felner was riding high. A well-paid dean at the University of Louisville, he had just secured a $694,000 earmarked grant from the U.S. Department of Education to create an elaborate research center to help Kentucky's public schools. The grant proposal, which Mr. Felner had labored over for months, made some impressive…

An article in the October 11 "New York Times" attributed the almost universal failure to anticipate the current economic crisis to "insanity"--more precisely, to a psychological inability to give proper weight to past events, so that if there is prosperity today people assume that it will last forever, even though they know that in the past booms…

The American student-aid system has long been based on a tacit promise to provide students with the means to complete their college education and ensure that money is not a barrier to getting a degree. Unfortunately, says the writer, student aid has become little more than a marketing mechanism that permits colleges to maximize tuition dollars…

Most professors have mixed feelings about participating on peer-review panels. It's an honor. It helps the discipline. It's a waste of time. It's biased. Michele Lamont wanted to know whether it works: specifically, whether, and how, professors identify excellence. So the multi-titled Harvard University scholar--professor of European studies,…

This article reports that a pair of university presidents is among the people feeling the heat from the collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns. Henry S. Bienen, president of Northwestern University, and the Rev. Donald J. Harrington, president of St. John's University, in New York, were among the 12 members of the Bear Stearns Companies'…