Concerns about increasing violence in Gaza are leading universities to cease study abroad programs in Israel, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Locally, Duke University appears to have made the same decision. And at least one Israeli program that UNC Chapel Hill is affiliated with, at Ben-Gurion University, has postponed a program for one week and has posted a security alert to its website.

Duke's most famous employee — apologies, President Brodhead — is the featured speaker next week during the university's quarterly Primetime event at the Bryan Center.

The event for Duke employees will be held Thursday, Jan. 22 at noon. Sandwiches and refreshments will be provided. 

Mike Krzyzewski, he of the three national titles, Olympic Gold Medal and city of tents, will talk about his time as the U.S. Olympic Coach this past summer and about this season's Blue Devil squad.  

Women's coach Joanne P. McCallie will be on hand as well to talk about her squad this season.

You can submit questions in advance. So if you're just dying to ask Coach K something - like how he motivates, what the deal is with all that floor-slapping, his thoughts on Bobby Knight, or why Trajan Langdon had the ball at the end of the 1999 championship game rather than William Avery, click here.  

Two student groups at Duke are sponsoring a candlelight vigil Friday evening related to the conflict in Gaza.

The groups are Duke Against War and Duke's Arab Students Organization.

The vigil begins at 5:30 p.m. in front of Duke Chapel.

As you may have read on our blog a while back, universities and the organizations they belong to are breathless in anticipation of stimulus money that may be trickling down to higher education.

Maybe.

In any event, Jane Shaw over at Raleigh's Pope Center for Higher Education Policy has an opinion on all of this. Check it out here. 

Talk about specific.

At Duke, there is a program that caters specifically to undergraduate female athletes who want to go to med school.

It's called the CAPE program, and it's essentially a support system to help these students weave their way through rigorous undergraduate classwork while navigating a very busy sports schedule.

Interested? Read on.

If you're applying to colleges now - or have a child doing so - and are intimidated by the financial aid application process, relax. You're certainly not alone.

That's why Duke put out this video conversation with Alison Rabil, the university's financial aid director.

Take notes.

Duke and N.C. Central University were among 119 universities recognized recently for their sustained commitment to community collaboration through teaching, research and outreach.

The 2008 Community Engagement classification comes from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

NCCU was one of eight UNC system campuses to receive the desigation this year and joins N.C. State University and UNC Chapel Hill, each of which received the designation in 2006.

That makes 10 of the state’s public universities with the designation, enough to elicit this boast from UNC system officials, via a press release: “The proportion of North Carolina’s public universities deemed by the Carnegie Foundation to be ‘community engaged’ far exceeds that of peer state systems across the country, including California, Texas and Wisconsin.”

Also recognized: Appalachian State University, East Carolina, UNC Charlotte, UNC Greensboro, UNC Wilmington, UNC Pembroke and Western Carolina.

“In order for UNC to be the most engaged University in America, our campuses must continue to be responsive and valuable partners in solving real problems,” said Leslie Boney, UNC Associate Vice President for Economic Development Research, Policy, and Planning. “The fact that over half of North Carolina’s public universities have been nationally recognized for their commitment to working with communities sends a strong message for the future of our state.”

At Duke, the designation recognizes community efforts such as the Duke Center for Civic Engagement/Duke Engage, the Community Service Center, the Duke Durham Neighborhood Partnership, the Office of Service Learning, and the university’s community and family medicine department, officials there said.

“We are thrilled to be recognized by a classification that underscores a truly core part of Duke’s mission - to be engaged in our local, domestic and international communities, whether through academic pursuits or immersive, meaningful service,” sasid Elaine Madison, director of Duke’s Community Service Center.

If you work at Duke University, you get an extra day off this week.

So says Duke higher-ups Tallman Trask III and Peter Lange, who have penned a joint email to staff announcing that university employees need not go into work Friday, the day after Christmas. (Employees already get Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 off)

By way of explanation, the duo wrote:

"As we come to the end of a most eventful 2008, and prepare to enter a new year that brings both uncertainties and opportunities, we encourage you to use this season as a time of renewal and recharging. To that end, we invite all University employees to take December 26 off, with pay.  The University will essentially be closed next Friday, and access to buildings and services will be quite limited. We hope you will spend this day with your family and friends."

The surprise perk affects 23,000 employees but not those with Duke University Health System. 

A Duke professor argues that this nation's reliance and heavy use of road signs, intended of course to protect us, actually has the opposite effect.

Writing in Atlantic Monthly, John Staddon suggests that a seemingly never-ending run of street signs along our roads and highways actually distract rather than protect.

He writes in part:

"The American system of traffic control, with its many signs and stops, and with its specific rules tailored to every bend in the road, has had the unintended consequence of causing more accidents than it prevents.

Paradoxically, almost every new sign put up in the U.S. probably makes drivers a little safer on the stretch of road it guards. But collectively, the forests of signs along American roadways, and the multitude of rules to look out for, are quite deadly."

Duke University's endowment, like so many others at universities across the nation, took a massive hit this year. It's down 19 percent since July 1.

Still, some folks there see opportunity and plan to continue recruiting top faculty, even while looking for ways to tighten other forms of spending.

Read more here.