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Freedom for American Colleges in China Has Its Limits, Federal Report Says

A long-awaited report on American university campuses in China will probably satisfy neither critics nor supporters of such overseas branches. The federal study, by the Government Accountability Office, found that American colleges operating in China emphasize academic freedom, including added protections for academic speech in agreements with their Chinese counterparts.

But investigators noted that not all of the 12 institutions surveyed had unfettered internet access, and that some faculty mem…

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National Default Rate on Student Loans Declines for Third Straight Year

The overall three-year cohort default rate on federal student loans dropped in newly released data, marking the third straight year the rate has fallen, the U.S. Department of Education announced on Wednesday.

The percentage of borrowers who defaulted on federal loans within three years of entering repayment dropped from 11.8 percent to 11.3 percent for those who started repayment between the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years.

Colleges with high default rates may lose their access to federal student ai…

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Mizzou Chancellor Is ‘Outraged’ After Black Students Report Racist Incident

[Updated (09/28/2016, 4:47 p.m.), with news that the fraternity was suspended.]

 Two black students at the University of Missouri at Columbia say they were verbally assaulted outside a fraternity house late Tuesday night when students yelled racial slurs and obscenities at them, according to a statement by the university’s Legion of Black Collegians.

University officials announced Wednesday afternoon that the fraternity involved, Delta Upsilon, was temporarily suspended. In the statement, the …

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Chapel Hill Football Player Denies Sexual-Assault Accusation

Allen Artis, a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was publicly accused of sexual assault by a fellow student, says he is innocent, The News & Observer reports. His encounter with Delaney Robinson, who said she had been raped, was consensual, he told reporters in an interview on Wednesday.

Ms. Robinson, who said the attack took place in February, recently went public with her allegations to express her dismay with the university’s handling of the case. Ms. Robinson says…

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U. of Wisconsin, Responding to Affordable Care Act, Limits Student Workers’ Hours

The University of Wisconsin at Madison will limit student workers to a weekly maximum of 29 hours in order to comply with an Affordable Care Act mandate, according to The Capital Times.

The health-care law requires large employers like the university to provide basic health care to employees working an average of 30 hours a week or more. The change in campus policy, announced in an email in July, means the university will not have to provide health care to its student employees and nonstudents w…

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Chicago State U. Enrolls Just 86 Freshmen This Fall

Chicago State University enrolled just 86 freshmen this fall semester, and its undergraduate enrollment has dropped by 32 percent over the past year, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The university now has a total of 3,578 students enrolled, and total enrollment is down by a quarter. This is just one of the many concerns for the struggling public university.

Just this month its president, Thomas Calhoun Jr,. was let go after only nine months at the helm.

Chicago State struggled to make it through th…

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U. of Tennessee Says No Punishment for Law Professor’s ‘Run Them Down’ Tweet

Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, will not face disciplinary action after tweeting a suggestion that motorists in Charlotte, N.C., run down demonstrators protesting the police shooting of a black man, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.

The dean of the College of Law, Melanie D. Wilson, said in a statement on Tuesday that the tweet was an exercise of Mr. Reynolds’s First Amendment rights.

“Nevertheless, the tweet offended many members of our community …

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Nebraska Athlete Describes Bitter Online Reaction to Kneeling for National Anthem

[Updated (09/28/2016, 12:12 a.m.), with additional comment.]

Michael Rose-Ivey and a few of his football teammates at the University of Nebraska took a knee on Saturday during the playing of the national anthem. For that, some fans said they should be hanged before the next game, he said on Monday at a press conference.

“People want athletes like DaiShon [Neal], Mohamed [Barry], and myself to remain silent and just play football,” said Mr. Rose-Ivey, a linebacker who is a senior. “However, we ca…

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U. of Michigan Denounces Racist Fliers in Campus Buildings

The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor condemned racist fliers found in two campus buildings on Monday, calling their message “inconsistent with the university’s values of respect, civility, and equality” in a statement.

According to the Detroit Free Press, a student found and removed the fliers on Monday morning. The university’s Black Student Union also tweeted a picture of two fliers:

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Iowa State President Grounds Himself After Reports of Damaged Airplane

Steven Leath, president of Iowa State University, said on Monday that he would no longer pilot the university airplane after the Associated Press reported that he damaged the aircraft last year during a landing, to the tune of $12,000. The university paid for those repairs.

Mr. Leath uses the plane for both personal and business reasons, and he said that flying himself was a more convenient option for him. He said that the university had approved of the arrangement and that senior officials wer…

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