James Oblinger, the former N.C. State chancellor who resigned earlier this year amid questions over his handling of the hiring of former First lady Mary Easley and other issues, is a finalist for another top university gig.

Oblinger is one of five finalists for the presidency of the New Mexico State University system.

Oblinger's departure at NCSU was an ugly one. He resigned as questions mounted over his handling of Easley's hiring and of the departure package he okayed for Provost Larry Nielsen.

Months after his resignation, the UNC system's Board of Governors even reduced the amount of pay he received in his own settlement.

And yet, he's not the New Mexico State candidate with the freshest wounds. That would be another of the five announced finalists, Richard Herman.

Herman resigned as chancellor of the University of Illinois just last week, embroiled in a scandal related to his university's admissions process.

There's an admissions furor at the University of Illinois.

The university announced this week the suspension of its "clout" list, an admissions list of students with shaky academic credentials nonetheless being pushed by legislators, wealthy alums or other people of influence.

A Chicago Tribune report has shined some light on the issue, revealing that over the last five years, undeserving applicants gained entry to the university's main campus in Urbana-Champaign due to the sway of trustees or legislators.

Read all about it here.

The fancy building you see here is the Irwin Academic Services facility at the University of Illinois.

Nice, isn't it? Most Illinois students wouldn't know.

See, this $6 million tutoring center is specifically for athletes. If you aren't one at Illinois, you can't come in. So reports the Chicago Tribune in this penetrating examination of a new phenomenon on college campuses that have some crying foul.

The center's director oversees at least 50 tutors and a professor advising staff, yet reports not to a dean or academic department head, but to the university's athletics director, the story reports.

The university defends the center, saying it pays plenty of benefits by helping giving athletes more intensive, one-on-one academic help than they would otherwise likely receive.

Here's what one critic, University of New Haven professor Allen Sack, thinks, according to the Tribune story.

"A student who is not an athlete will say: 'I'm working nights to get through school, whi don't I get free tutoring. That the athletes do perpetuates the image of a dumb jock who couldn't get through school without special help."