The following information was gleaned from the internal publications of the institutions mentioned.
* The Board of Trustees at Purdue University increased basic student fees by 4.9 percent on the West Lafayette campus and 4 percent for regional campuses. Starting with the fall semester, Purdue West Lafayette students from Indiana will pay $3,500 a year. Those from out of state will pay $11,720. Engineering students also will pay a $200 differential fee. Within the Big Ten, Purdue remains in eighth place for in-state student fees.
* In a departure from its usual practice, the board of curators of the University of Missouri approved the issuance of up to $60 million in bonds that will be distributed on a retail basis by a St. Louis brokerage firm. Before this action, the university's bonds were sold primarily to major financial institutions. Proceeds from the bonds will be used to refinance higher-cost existing debt for capital improvement projects on campus. The bonds are expected to be rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA+ by Standard and Poor's.
* Beginning with the fall semester, smoking will be prohibited in all of Harvard's residential houses as well as in the freshman dormitories, which were already covered by the ban. The policy is designed to protect non-smoking residents from the ill effects of tobacco smoke.
* A 16-member task force at the University of Illinois has recommended several changes to that institution's sexual harassment policy, including a clearer definition of what constitutes sexual harassment. In addition, the group recommends that the Urbana-Champaign campus adopt a policy prohibiting consensual sexual relations between teachers and their students, as well as supervisory employees and those who report to them. Currently, policy strongly advises members of the university community not to engage in such relationships, but does not actually prohibit them.
* Undergraduate tuition at Vanderbilt University for the 1998-99 academic year has been set at $21,930, a 4.9 percent increase over the current year.
* At Purdue, uncertain federal funding and the failure to obtain additional state funding has prompted a hiring freeze in its Cooperative Extension Service and the School of Agriculture. The freeze applies only to future faculty and staff vacancies on campus and in the 92 extension offices around the state.