Notes in the Margins: Cars, charter universities and university mergers

New Trinity policy bars cars from entering campus after midnight A new policy at Trinity Washington University bars cars from entering campus after midnight. (The Washington Post)

Senate panel: Consider merging two state universities A Maryland Senate budget panel voted to ask the University System of Maryland to consider fusing campuses in College Park and Baltimore into a mega-university that would surpass Stanford and Yale in some higher education rankings.   (The Baltimore Sun via University Business)

UMass courting two-year transfers University of Massachusetts Amherst, seeking to reach out to immigrants, low-income families, and first-generation college students, will announce today a new effort to recruit community college graduates to the state university’s flagship campus. (The Boston Globe)

Edward Lee: Did UCLA and NYT Overreact to Student's "Asians in the Library" Video? Just a little over a week ago, Alexandra Wallace, a UCLA college student, posted a 3-minute video blog on YouTube. In the video, the self-described "polite, nice American girl," a junior political science major, ranted about the customs and manners of the "hordes of Asians" on campus. Later that Monday after the original video was posted, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block got into the action and posted an official video for UCLA to state that he was appalled by the student's video (though he did not identify her by name, probably out of concern for discreteness) and called for greater civility in discourse on campus. (The Huffington Post)

Are 'charter universities' the future of state-funded higher ed? In states such as Oregon, Louisiana and Wisconsin, flagship universities are inching away from their traditional patrons in the statehouse, accepting lower levels of state funding in exchange for freedom from state regulations. (Shreveport Times via University Business)

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