North Carolina State University has installed near its library a 16-foot-tall solar tree where students and others can charge laptops, phones and tablets. Comprising a 1,500-watt solar array atop a recycled steel base, the tree is designed to withstand 140 mph winds and is the first of three planned for this area of campus. It […]

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has been elected president of the 17-campus University of North Carolina system. Spellings is currently president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. She served as secretary of education from 2005 to 2009, during which she led the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act and spearheaded […]

Columbia University students concerned with hunger on campus launched two initiatives this fall—one involving a mobile app—that help provide struggling classmates with meals. The Emergency Meal Fund allows students on Columbia's meal plan to donate up to six unused meals per semester. Any Columbia undergraduate or graduate student can register to receive a donated meal, […]

Programs for students on the autism spectrum are no longer a unique campus concept, but Austin Peay State University's Full Spectrum Learning (FSL) initiative stands out from the crowd. Input in shaping FSL comes from all groups involved—especially students with autism who participate in the program and their upperclassmen mentors. In addition, the effort is […]

Mary Sue Coleman, a former president of the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa, has been named the next president of the Association of American Universities, an organization for research institutions. She will succeed the retiring Hunter R. Rawlings III, who has held the post since June 2011. Coleman, who retired in 2014 […]

Located in downtown Manhattan, the 23,000-square-foot Innovation Center at The New School is an AV-intensive facility that's open 24/7. The flexible space has become a hub for collaborative, cross-disciplinary learning for the institution's nearly 10,000 students, who are spread out on a fragmented urban campus. CHALLENGE New School officials wanted to create a destination where […]

Brian W. Casey, president of DePauw University in Indiana, will become the 17th president of Colgate University in New York. Casey has led "DePauw 2020," a multiyear strategic plan. And under his leadership, DePauw has invested in academic programs, campus projects, student advising and postgraduate planning, plus established and secured more than $56 million for […]

Under construction on the site of a circa-1905 gymnasium, the 34,430-square-foot, three-story Convergent Media Center at Capital University in Ohio will create a hub of activity where multiple disciplines—including communications, electronic media, music and art—can intersect. With a price tag of about $16 million, the Collegiate Gothic-style facility should be open for classes in spring 2017. […]