The trial of Christopher Hollis, accused of the 2005 murder of Meleia Willis--Starbuck '07, is scheduled commence next week after more than two and half years of delays, according to the Daily Californian. Hollis allegedly shot Willis-Starbuck, then 19, from a passing car as Willis-Starbuck was standing with a group of friends on July 17. Hollis was Willis-Starbuck's high-school friend. A judge determined in February 2006 that there was sufficient evidence to try Hollis for murder, but the case was delayed while Hollis obtained a new defense attorney. Opening statements for the upcoming trial are scheduled to begin on April 8 or 9.
Virginia's ban on alcohol-related advertisements in college newspapers is a violation of the first amendment, federal court judges ruled Monday, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The American Civil Liberties Union -- representing student newspapers at Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia -- brought the case to Richmond's U.S. District Court in June 2006, claiming that the ban unconstitutionally censored university newspapers and made it difficult for them to compete against other state publications for advertising revenue. The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control implemented the ban in 2006 to prevent underage drinking. A similar law was declared unconstitutional in Pennsylvania in 2004.
Presidents of midsize and small universities are losing confidence in their trustees' fund-raising abilities, according to a study released Tuesday by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Most institutions depend on their trustees for donations and fund-raising, yet only one percent of the 274 presidents and other campus leaders surveyed said they thought their trustees could coordinate basic fund-raising efforts. Ten years ago, 13 percent of university leaders said they believed their donors could successfully raise money. The study also found that individual donations to the surveyed universities increased 50 percent from 1998 to the end of the 2005 fiscal year, with an average donation of $1.61 million. University spending on salaries, fund-raising costs and other expenses have doubled from 1998 to 2005 to reach an annual average of $900,000.
