TUITION BILL: During one of his last outings as President, Bill Clinton visited the Michigan State University campus. The trip to MSU was his fifth in eight years at the White House, prompting the popular Democrat to joke: “If I were to come back here one more time I would owe partial tuition.” The then-President and a crowd of 12,000 at the Breslin Student Events Center honored the 2000 Michigan State men’s basketball team, which won the national championship last April.

ARCHITECTURAL ADVANCE: The University of California, Davis is on schedule to open the first building in the United States with an unbonded braced frame system. The system is the latest advancement in earthquake-resistant construction. The $36.6 million project should be completed in January 2002 and will house the Agronomy and Range Sciences departments, as well as Land, Air and Water Resources.

POWER OF PERCUSSION: A sculpture at the University of Michigan has been making quite a racket, literally. “Sculptures Musicales,” a melding of percussion instruments and art, is on display at a gallery on the UM campus. The exhibit was created and constructed by UM Professor Michael Gold and Michigan State University’s Allison Shaw. The 12-sculpture exhibition is an interpretation of a 1989 musical score, ‘Sculptures Musicales’ by John Cage, which takes its name from an idea found within Marcel Duchamp’s sketchbook ‘The Green Box’ (1934).

DIVERSITY DESIGNS: Administrators at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have charged a new 27-member committee with developing plans to improve diversity on the campus. The committee includes students, professors, deans and other campus administrators. In forming the committee, Provost Richard Herman stressed the need for improvement: “It is important that we move forward to create a truly diverse community that enhances the campus educational environment,” he said.

HIT THE RHODES: A record number of University of Virginia fourth-year students were nominated for the prestigious Marshall and Rhodes Scholarships in 2000. Creation of the College Fellowships Office helped spur the increase in nominations according to a report in Inside UVA. The office provides a consolidated outlet for students interested in scholarships and fellowships.

NET NEWS: Students at Ohio State University have started receiving a weekly campus news update in their e-mail accounts. Buckeye Net News is being delivered to more than 55,000 students at the school’s main campus in Columbus and the surrounding regional campuses. The e-mail messages will feature important campus headlines, a calendar of the week’s events, updates from the administration and more.

HONORING THE SOLDIERS: A recent University of Michigan rededication ceremony at the Alumni Memorial Hall honored “all who have served in the wars of their country, either in the naval or military departments.” A plaque was initially unveiled in the building in 1914. It was removed in the 1960s during a renovation project and remounted last month. To lend an air of history, the rededication ceremony included Civil War re-enactors.