This preseason feature on the Wayne State University football team leads with. . . "Since Wayne State University officials and donors pumped more money into the football program this year, players feel obligated to show they are worthy of the support." Along with a new artificial turf playing field comes higher expectations for the team, reporter Eric Lacy points out. "It's nice to see positive things happening to the program," said junior linebacker Alan Guy. "Now it's up to us to get the job done." Receiver Nick Body added, "But none of these improvements matter if we don't win." The article mentions that the Warriors struggled on offense last year but have several skill-position players returning. On defense, the team graduated only two starters from a squad that improved 85 places in the NCAA defensive rankings.

A feature story on Brownstown Township resident Larry Arreguin, who is an adviser to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's office for Southeast Michigan, notes that he has a bachelor's degree in public affairs from Wayne State University .

This newsletter, called Energy Efficient Motorsport, carries an item about an energy-efficient race car competition in Italy , Sept. 7-10, that will include an entry from Wayne State University , the only non-European entrant. The judging panel for the event includes the chief designer for the Ferrari Formula One racing team.

Peter J. Henning, Wayne State law professor and a specialist in white-collar crime, commented about the government's widening investigation into the alleged stock option manipulation activities at Comverse Technology Inc. The company's former CEO, Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, fled the U.S. this month rather than face charges of scheming to manipulate his company's stock options. Government officials speculate that he may return to Israel where he maintains citizenship. Henning said the decision to evade U.S. authorities could be used as evidence of criminal intent. \"It puts him in a tough position to say he didn\'t do anything wrong but he felt the need to go to Israel in the middle of a war.\"

Two measures proposed for this year\'s ballot in Michigan appear to be in direct conflict. One would automatically give school districts, universities, and community colleges enough money each year to at least cover costs that rise because of the inflation rate. The other proposal would limit overall increases in state spending to a combination of inflation plus population growth. Opponents of the two measures say that if both were approved by voters, the state could be required to return more money to taxpayers while increasing spending on schools and colleges.

Two months after the University of California (U-C) begins its book-digitization project with Google, the university may provide the search company with 3,000 books a day for scanning. U-C is joining Harvard and Stanford Universities, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the University of Oxford, as well as the New York Public Library, in the search-engine company\'s library-digitization effort. Under terms of a contract, U-C will provide at least 2.5 million volumes to Google for scanning, starting with 600 books a day and increasing over time to 3,000 volumes a day. Materials pulled for scanning will be back on the shelves of their libraries within 15 days. The university agrees to pay for pulling and shelving the books, bandwidth and hardware to store digital copies, rooms in which to do the digitization, and transportation of materials to those rooms, among other things. Google will cover its own labor, hardware and software to do the scanning, space in which to do scanning, and transportation to its spaces, along with other costs.

The lead item in today's report highlights Wayne State and a Boston firm that specializes in early-stage university business ventures. The firm, Allied Minds, is partnering with Wayne State to establish a start-up company called GliaGen LLC. The new company will focus on new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies to treat neurodegenerative diseases using technology developed by Leon Carlock and Maria Cypher of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the WSU School of Medicine. In addition to commercializing the patent pending technology, GliaGen will support further research at Wayne State . Matt Roush, editor of the IT Report, also featured GliaGen in his daily, morning drive-time report on WWJ Radio.

The Engineering Technology program at Wayne State partnered with Macomb Community College to develop an integrated education and industrial-based training program under a National Science Foundation grant. The program will be part of MCC's new Center for Alternative Fuels, which will train students and provide a forum for advancing discussion and exploration of alternative fuels. Under the program, hybrid electric vehicle technology will be integrated into Macomb 's associate degree curriculum in automotive technology. The Center will kick off its role as a discussion forum with a daylong symposium on Oct. 5 at MCC's South Campus in Warren .

In an op-ed piece, Peter Eckstein, former economist for the Michigan AFL-CIO, contends that a new proposal to change the way Michigan funds its public universities would harm many of the institutions. Calling the proposed formula "simplistic," he points out that research universities such as Wayne State, MSU, U-M and Michigan Tech have more students in expensive programs in medicine, engineering and laboratory sciences than do other schools and that cutting-edge university research contributes to the state's economic health. "The leveling of university support through uniform per-student grants is not 'conservatism,'" Eckstein concludes. "It is a surefire formula for Michigan 's economic suicide."

A story about business development along Grand Avenue in San Francisco 's South Bay area includes a Wayne State University mention by the executive director of South City 's Chamber of Commerce, who was remarking on how a distressed area of his city is coming alive with businesses. Lance Huntley observed that the only Starbucks he saw while in Detroit last week was in the Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Wayne State University . "I'm used to going a block and a half and finding a new coffee shop," he said. "That's how we do it on the West Coast."

Diane Pawlowski, identified as a research anthropologist at Wayne State University , is the writer of an op-ed piece that is critical of lay persons in the Catholic Church who remained silent when they knew or suspected that clergymen were abusing children.

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics says average tuition and fees for full-time undergraduates ranged from $2,000 at public two-year institutions to $18,400 at private four-year institutions for the 2003-04 academic year. To finance their education, three-fourths of full-time undergraduates received some type of financial aid and about 50 percent took out student loans. The statistics are based on a sample of 80,000 undergraduate students.

A brief notes that Francine R. Wunder has been named director of corporate and public affairs, in the Wayne State University Office of Marketing and Communications. She will be promoting the university's partnerships with corporate and civic organizations. A photo of Wunder is included.

The Detroit Orientation Institute at Wayne State University is accepting applications for the fall session scheduled for Oct. 17, 24 and 31. Other details and contact information are provided.

Judicial Watch, a nonpartisan foundation based in Washington, D.C., claims that Federal Judge, Anna Diggs Taylor, who struck down a government wiretap program last week, may have a conflict of interest because of her financial ties to a plaintiff involved in the case. Taylor is the secretary and a trustee on the board of the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, which has given money to the ACLU Michigan office, including a $45,000 grant to support gay and lesbian rights. Robert Sedler, Wayne State University constitutional law professor, said the statement by Judicial Watch had no merit. \"By no stretch of the imagination is this a conflict of interest,\" Sedler said, adding that the real motive for the group\'s claims may be politics. \"Conservative groups are upset that the Bush administration has lost another case in the so-called war on terrorism.\"

Law Professor Jocelyn Benson commented about petition efforts by Southfield residents to overturn a decision by City Council to rezone an 11-acre property to accommodate a new Target store. Target is arguing that the petitions should have followed state election law requirements rather than city regulations and therefore should be thrown out. Benson said that generally state law prevails in cases where it conflicts with local ordinances. \"But the question is always is there a real conflict,\" she said. \"I would just hope that the court errs on the side of thoroughness because at the end of the day election law is about protecting the voter and regulations surrounding the voter\'s actions.\"

Wayne State's Detroit Orientation Institute (DOI) is now accepting applications for the fall session scheduled on three consecutive Tuesdays, Oct. 17, 24 and 31. The DOI, now in its 15th year of operation, offers a historical perspective and candid look at Detroit and the metro region. The sessions, each restricted to 50 participants, are especially beneficial to newcomers or anyone wishing to learn about the city and metropolitan area. Business executives, professionals from nonprofit organizations, university faculty, high school teachers and administrators, government administrators and journalists typically attend. Contact and registration information is provided.

For most teens starting college this fall, disposable contact lenses have always been available, wars and revolutions have always been televised, and a stamp was rarely needed for communication. Born in 1988, incoming freshmen grew up knowing only two presidents, searching for Waldo and eating dolphin-free canned tuna. In addition, "Google" has always been a verb for this generation. Those are some of the 75 cultural landmarks on the Beloit College Mindset List, an annual compilation that offers a glimpse of the world view through the eyes of each incoming class.

Lions Hearing Center (LHC) -- a partnership between the Lions service organization, the Detroit Medical Center and Wayne State University -- provides hearing tests and free hearing aids to eligible individuals. Eligibility is based on income. After submitting an application, eligible candidates will receive a comprehensive hearing test at one of LHC\'s metro Detroit offices. Adults will receive one new digital hearing aid for the ear that has the best speech discrimination. Children will receive two new digital hearing aids. Contact information is provided.

A Detroit News story about WSU requiring laptops for engineering students (mentioned in this report yesterday) was picked up by the Associated Press and mentioned widely yesterday and today on news broadcasts and in newspapers around the state. Among news media that ran the story were television stations in Flint and Grand Rapids , Booth Newspapers and the South Bend Tribune.