Court Hearing

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, April 25 — The Jesuits’ Gonzaga University was at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing April 24 about whether students can sue colleges under the 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which prohibits colleges and schools that receive federal funds from releasing most student records without receiving permission from parents or an adult student.

The justices are being asked to weigh the rights of aggrieved students against the potential costs to colleges and universities of frivolous litigation. Washington State Supreme Court ruled earlier this year in favor of Ru Paster, a former Gonzaga student, who contends that he was unable to get a character reference because his school records included rape allegations that never resulted in formal charges.

Come of Age

FOX NEWS, April 5 — As the first generation of home-schoolers settles into young adulthood, they are proving to be more self-reliant and focused than their traditionally schooled peers, reports the all-news network.

“I wouldn't say home-schoolers are better educated, but they are better equipped to learn,” says J. Gary Knowles, a University of Toronto researcher who has extensively interviewed adults who were home-schooled. Absent from home-schoolers is youthful angst and alienation. The burning desire to isolate and separate themselves from their parents just doesn't seem to be there, researchers say.

Adulthood Rocks

THE CATHOLIC ADVOCATE, April 24 — Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison warned an audience at Seton Hall University April 11 not to get stuck in the “best years” of their lives.

To those who see the college years as life's happiest, Morrison said, “you have my condolences.” Those who remain stuck in the “best years,” said the poet, “never mature.”

She cautioned that there are entire industries aimed at maintaining that immaturity. “If happiness is all you have on your mind, you indeed have my sympathy,” she said. “True adulthood,” she said, “is a hard-won glory.”

Canadian Steubenville

CATHOLIC PRWIRE.COM, April 29 — Ontario's Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, a private Catholic post-secondary institute, has reached an articulation agreement with the Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio) that will allow students completing courses at the academy to apply credits toward a bachelor's degree at Steubenville. Our Lady Seat of Wisdom offers a foundational one-year program rooted in the Catholic vision of the liberal arts with a special emphasis on the western intellectual tradition.

Color Blind

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, April 23 — The latest University of California admission figures prove that the state was right to end affirmative-action programs in 1998, and that California's public schools bear the responsibility for not adequately preparing more black and Hispanic students for college, says columnist Joseph Perkins.

Minorities make up better than 19 percent of last fall's freshman class, a larger proportion than when race was used as a factor in admissions. Perkins adds that nearly a third of California's black and Hispanic high school students fail to earn a diploma, a problem that should prompt educators and activists to turn “their attention to California's public school system.”