Shawn Vestal

A Republican student group at Gonzaga is bringing another controversial speaker to campus next week, as the debate over their last one continues. David Horowitz, a conservative critic of higher education and racial politics in America, will speak Wednesday at GU on the topic of "Academic Freedom on America's College Campuses."

The faculty and administration at Eastern Washington University are turning to mediation in their attempt to negotiate a new contract. The United Faculty of Eastern union announced Oct. 21 that talks had broken down with the administration and that it would be seeking mediation to resolve differences over proposed salaries.

A University of Idaho professor testified in favor of "intelligent design" this week, as a landmark trial over the use of the theory in a Pennsylvania school district drew to a close. Scott Minnich, a microbiologist at UI, testified Thursday and Friday on behalf of the Dover, Pa., Area School Board, which voted in 2004 to require students to hear a statement about intelligent design and "gaps" in the theory of evolution in biology classes. Eight families are suing, saying the policy violates the constitutional ban on state promotion of religion because it essentially promotes a biblical view of creationism.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Covering Hurricane Katrina gave a timid American press corps the chance to "find its footing again" and challenge the government, National Public Radio's watchdog said Thursday. "After 9-11 it seems like there was a self-censorship that went on at many levels, including NPR," said Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR's ombudsman since 2000.

Gonzaga University, which has rejected attempts to bring Planned Parenthood and "The Vagina Monologues" to campus in recent years, this week hosted a presentation titled "The Medical Effects of Homo-Sex." The College Republicans brought in Dr. John Diggs for Tuesday's lecture at the Jundt Auditorium on campus. The talk argued that homosexuality has a damaging effect on individuals and on society and portrayed promiscuous gay sex as a reason for sexually transmitted diseases across society, according to various accounts.

A student playwright at Washington State University who wrote a controversial "intentionally offensive" play last year is preparing new productions. Chris Lee's "Passion of the Musical" inflamed its audience and sparked a debate about WSU's role in a protest of the play. University officials purchased tickets for protesters, and the school has taken the position that protesters were expressing their free-speech rights.

A national higher education watchdog group says Washington State University is failing to protect the speech rights of students who have controversial or unpopular opinions. In the latest case, an education student who describes himself as a conservative Christian was threatened with dismissal and ordered into diversity training over comments that he didn't believe that whites are privileged, opposed adoption by gays, and wrote "diversity is perversity" in the margins of a book.

Eastern Washington University will dedicate its first new academic building in 34 years today, and the party sounds a lot like a science lab. That's on purpose, of course – the new Computing and Engineering Building on the Cheney campus is meant to expand lab and classroom access for science students. Those students will be demonstrating their work during the building's dedication today, ranging from a robot to a discussion of how to instill fear reactions in video game characters.

MOSCOW, Idaho – A longtime advocate for helping Native American students finish high school and college is fighting a decision by the University of Idaho to remove her as head of the program she ran for a quarter-century. As part of Isabel Bond's battle with the UI, petitions seeking her reinstatement are being circulated on tribal reservations around the Northwest. Signatures are being collected on the Nez Perce, Coeur d'Alene and Spokane reservations.

When University of Idaho President Timothy White announced last week that the UI would not allow alternate theories to evolution in science classes, he tapped into an issue with a long, long life. Evolution went on trial against creationism in 1925, and it's been on and off the front pages ever since.

North Idaho College says it is looking into complaints that an English professor offended students by discussing a deadly bestiality accident and cursing routinely during classes. But another student in instructor Keith Hunter's class called the complaints "ridiculous," and said Hunter is a "great teacher" who tries to include all points of view in his classroom.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Gas prices have attracted a lot of attention lately, but the panelists at a University of Idaho conference would like drivers to think about some other costs, too. The cost of building and maintaining roads. The effect of automobile emissions. Lives lost on the road.

The Community Colleges of Spokane will honor two Spokane residents today – one for service on its board of directors and another for years of supporting literacy. Longtime board of trustees member Betty McInturff is stepping down, and a reception in her honor is planned today following the board's monthly meeting. The reception begins at 11:30 a.m. in the Learning Resource Center at Spokane Community College, 1810 N. Greene St.