University

Reports of Odessa Jones' death were, in the end, an exaggeration. This week, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County sent an email to students and faculty saying that Jones, a student who attends classes at the Shady Grove campus, had died. The funeral was to be held Friday in Silver Spring. A few days later, the university sent another email with the subject line, "Comforting News for the UMBC Community. " Jones was in fact alive, it said. "I am pleased to report that, this morning, the UMBC Police learned from the Montgomery County Police Department that Odessa Jones, the student who reportedly passed away earlier this week, is alive," the email said.

Hoping to ease a growing teacher shortage and improve teacher education, three Baltimore-area universities have joined forces to train 1,400 new teachers by 2004 for the area's toughest classrooms.With a five-year, $12.6 million grant, the Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland Baltimore County and Morgan State University will be hiring more faculty, purchasing equipment and providing mentors for the students who teach. The federal grant is from the U.S. Department of Education.

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court, raising a major constitutional threat to blacks-only scholarships at the University of Maryland College Park, has ruled the university has offered no proof that it uses that program to cure racial bias.In a decision made public yesterday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., said a federal judge in Baltimore should strike down that program if university officials do not now show that discrimination still exists at the university's main campus.

Ending seven years of court action and appeals, the University of Michigan has paid $1.67 million in damages to a scientist who said her work had been stolen by her supervisor.The money went to Carolyn Phinney, 46, a researcher in psychology who specialized in issues of aging and adult development, in a civil case that began in 1988.The award is believed to be the largest ever won by a scientist against a university in a misconduct case, said Robert Sprague of the University of Illinois, who maintains a database of misconduct cases in science research.

Harford Community College and the University of Maryland University College are to sign an agreement Wednesday allowing HCC students with associate degrees the option of transferring to various UMUC degree programs. Under the alliance, transfer students could enroll in UMUC programs that include accounting, business administration, computer science, computer and information science, computer studies, environmental management, human resource management, information systems management, legal studies, management studies, psychology and secondary teacher education.

As Towson University braces for thousands of new students over the next several years, officials are moving forward with plans to expand and spruce up the 130-year-old, rambling campus that traverses busy streets, wooded ravines and meandering streams.The initial phase of the land-use plan, which was unveiled this week, details guidelines for creating a cohesive campus with a brick walkway, called "Education Street," for pedestrians; a town square; a York Road streetscape; hike-and-bike trails; better entrances; improved signs; and landscaped roads.

The president of the University of Maryland College Park appears to have brokered a deal to delay spending state money to replace an aging campus basketball arena for a year so that he can hasten the construction of a new chemistry building.State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Prince George's County Democrat who has been a frequent university ally, has been among the legislators driving the state to spend $35 million toward a new $80 million Cole Field House.Yet, William E. Kirwan, the university's president, sought "fast-track" approval of a $25 million annex for undergraduate instruction in chemistry before tax dollars were spent on the basketball arena.

WASHINGTON -- The University of the District of Columbia opened its doors 20 years ago as the only land-grant institution of higher education serving the nation's capital, and one of just a few in the country supported by a city.Since then, thousands of students - most of them black, low-income residents - have taken advantage of its minimal entrance requirements and low tuition to prepare for careers as scientists, doctors, teachers and public officials.But like the district itself, the university has fallen on hard times - struggles that reflect the larger problems of the district's continuing fiscal and political crises, combined with ever-present tensions over race.

Paint is chipping and ceiling tiles are stained where water has been seeping into the Carl Murphy Auditorium-Fine Arts Building at Morgan State University.The building's mechanical system is failing. The building is not accessible to the handicapped. Students play on broken piano keys. And they practice and perform in rooms they say are too small."The building is functionally obsolete," said Vincent P. Cucchiella, manager of design services in the university's Department of Design and Construction Management.

PHILADELPHIA -- Amid preparations for Monday's commencement exercises, University of Pennsylvania officials spent much of yesterday dealing with the racial tension that has plagued the campus over the last semester.The university's Judicial Inquiry Office held a closed hearing yesterday to determine whether a white student who had called some black students "water buffalo" had violated the university's policy forbidding racial harassment. The policy prohibits racial epithets meant to "inflict direct injury" on people.