As president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger has quietly - and sometimes not so quietly - taken on a broader role as ambassador.

B. Joseph White seemed like a perfect fit when he was named president of the University of Illinois in 2004.

The endowment downturn at Yale represents a setback of sorts for the money management theories of David F. Swensen, the university’s chief investment officer

The group that oversees education in New York state has added to its considerable clout, electing Merryl H. Tisch as its first female chancellor.

As it bails out banks, the federal government might also do something to improve the quality of school cafeteria food, renowned chief Alice Waters argues.

Hillary Clinton to State; Timothy F. Geithner to Treasury; Malia and Sasha to Sidwell Friends School.

Colleges and universities became Exhibit A last week of how quickly the credit crisis is extending beyond Wall Street.

Robert Steven Kaplan may be the equivalent of a fill-in head coach who takes his team to the Super Bowl and wins.

A long-running struggle over control of the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees that has drawn national interest could reach some resolution next week. At stake is a system that allows alumni to elect almost half the membership of the board of trustees.

The disclosure this week of a March, 2003 memo from Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo, asserting that laws banning torture were trumped by the president’s authority as commander-in-chief in a time of war, appears to offer a direct line to subsequent abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

Advice to anyone who wants to become a successful (and rich) men’s college basketball coach: Connect to Kansas.

For the second time in a little more than two years, Harvard University has named a new person to oversee its mammoth endowment fund.

G. Wayne Clough, the president of Georgia Tech, will become head of the Smithsonian Institution July 1, more than a year after the previous chief, Lawrence Small, resigned over accountability issues.

“This is a treasure of our country, and it needs to move forward,” Clough, 66, said Saturday.

James H. Simons keeps putting his money where his mind is.

The billionaire former mathematics professor and his wife, Marilyn Hawrys Simons, have given $60 million to Stony Brook University.

It’s a new beginning for Oral Roberts University.

Monday, the school’s board of regents accepted a donation of $62 million from businessman Mart Green and his family, and agreed in principle to make sweeping changes in how the Tulsa university is run.

“We are humbled and thankful for the board’s trust in this plan and their faith in us,” Green said in a statement.

At Oral Roberts University last week, two more regents resigned, a whistle-blowing professor was reinstated and a judge issued a rare gag order in a civil lawsuit.

That was just preamble for this week and what could be one of the most important regents meetings in the Tulsa school’s history.

Beginning tomorrow, regents will evaluate “strategic opportunities,” the university says in a release. Former president Richard Roberts, son of the university’s namesake, resigned last year following allegations of mismanagement.

Ohio State plays Louisiana State for the college football national championship tonight.

What better time to look at the powerful connections of the two people who head the schools?

E. Gordon Gee is the president of Ohio State University and Sean O’Keefe is the chancellor of Louisiana State University. Gee has held several university presidencies, including Brown and Vanderbilt, and is in his second stint at Ohio State. O’Keefe is a former Administrator of NASA and Secretary of the Navy.

Earlier this week we wrote about how some directors of The First Marblehead Corporation, who were also large shareholders, were feeling the financial pain of the company’s recent stock swoon.

The company, and the directors, got some relief Friday from Goldman Sachs, which agreed to invest up to $260.5 million in the Boston-based packager of student loans.

The shakeup at Oral Roberts University continues.

Last week, evangelist Creflo Dollar resigned from the board of regents and Benny Hinn lost his voting status.
This week, the university said that Louisiana televangelist Jesse Duplantis also resigned from the board, the Tulsa World reports.

It has been an especially tough couple weeks for Leslie Alexander, the largest shareholder of The First Marblehead Corporation, a packager of student loans.

Alexander owns the Houston Rockets of the NBA. He also controls more than 18.2 million shares of First Marblehead stock.