A tornado roared through Union University’s campus near Memphis Tuesday, destroying nearly half of the university’s dormitories and three classroom buildings.
Many students waited out the storm safely in dorm bathrooms. Fifty-one students were taken to the hospital, and nine were put into intensive care.
The university is scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, but school officials are only just beginning to plan the school’s reconstruction. Damages were estimated at $40 million.
Badgers battle intel
A University of Wisconsin at Madison research group responsible for controlling the university’s patents filed a lawsuit Tuesday against computer hardware company Intel.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation said Intel used a microarchitecture design in its Core 2 Duo processors, patented by the University in 1998, violating federal patent laws.
The lawsuit seeks an order for Intel to stop selling its processors and to pay damages and legal fees incurred to the organization.
Any money won from the lawsuit would be used to fund further research at the university.
Opening from the purse
The University of Texas Board of Regents voted Thursday to spend a larger percentage of the university’s endowment in the coming year.
The increase would mean $27 million more in spending for the 2008-2009 year alone – 5 percent of the endowment. The university hopes to attract top professors with the increased spending as well as students with lowered tuition costs.
The average spending rate of national universities last year was 4.6 percent. Congress has encouraged universities to raise endowment spending to 5 percent annually to help alleviate rising tuition.
Town spares with gown
The city of Oshawa in Ontario, Canada, is preparing to pass a bylaw next week that would force nearly 500 Durham College students out of their homes.
The new regulation would limit a single-family home to four bedrooms and would require landlords to license their properties with the city.
City officials claim the new laws are necessary to stop the conversion of single-family homes into illegal student housing complexes. Students say the city is unreasonably blaming college students for its housing problems and faults the college for not providing enough on-campus housing.
College officials hope a new residence hall opening in September will resolve the problem.