In a major victory for civil rights groups, a federal appeals court has revived the lawsuit that forced the Education Department to monitor the desegregation of public colleges in 18 southern and border states, claiming the groups bringing the suit still had the legal standing to pursue it. (MSE)

The Supreme Court decision in Martin vs. Wilks gives employees dissatisfied with affirmative action hiring plans the right to mount legal challenges to them years after adoption, even if employees did not challenge the plans originally. Some say the plans are vulnerable to new legal challenges, while others say they are not. (MSE)

Some higher education groups are concerned that the strategies adopted by other groups to counter industry's charges of college abuse of tax-exempt status will further alienate Congress and stimulate new restrictions on the business activities of nonprofit groups. (MSE)

Revisions of federal tax law governing the business operations of nonprofit institutions would no longer define a business activity as "related" to the organization's primary mission, and thus tax exempt, solely because it is operated for the convenience of members or students. (MSE)

With nearly 1 in 11 of first-year college students reporting a disability, colleges are responding in different ways, from policies to architecture. Activists for the disabled say the first serious efforts date to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Educators see high cost and educational issues as barriers to compliance. The law is not…