PRESS WATCH: California's state Assembly signaled strong support for freedom of the student press on May 11 by voting 76-0 in favor of a bill to extend First Amendment protections to college journalists. If the bill becomes law, the state would be the first in the nation to provide such support. California press advocates widely hailed the lopsided vote as a sign that administrative censorship will not be condoned in the state. James Ewert, legal counsel of the California Newspaper Publishers Association, said, "We don't want colleges and universities to be vulnerable to censorship attacks." …

WARD CHURCHILL: A University of Colorado investigative committee reported Tuesday that it uncovered serious cases of misconduct in the academic research of Ward Churchill, the professor who caused a national uproar by likening some Sept. 11 victims to Nazi war criminals. The committee said the misconduct by Churchill, an ethnic studies professor, included plagiarism, fabrication, and "serious deviation from accepted practices in reporting results from research." Three of the five members of the committee said the transgressions were serious enough that the university could revoke Churchill's tenure and fire him. But two of those three said the most appropriate sanction would be a five-year suspension without pay. The report is posted at www.colorado.edu/news/reports/churchill. ...

UCLA DENIED: Deborah Freund, provost at Syracuse University, was expected to be named the next chancellor of UCLA. But negotiations went awry. According to the Los Angeles Times, the sticking issue was whether her husband, an economist, could join UCLA's economics department. Freund had been the only finalist for the job — however, the search is now re-opening. ...

ARTFUL DOUBTS: The authenticity of an ancient Chinese art collection supposedly worth $38 million collection that was donated to California State University, Northridge, is being questioned, the Associated Press reported. A student newspaper quoted leading experts who doubted whether collection was authentic. The university has turned down requests to verify the collection, saying it is confident in the art's authenticity. ...

APPLES AND ORANGES: The average scores of SAT college entrance exams dropped slightly for California students headed to UC next fall. Admitted students scored a bit lower on the the critical reading and Math and verbal sections of the SAT Reasoning Test this year, averaging a UC-wide 1195 for fall 2006, as opposed to a 1214 in fall 2005 for the old SAT Verbal and Math total and a 1210 in fall 2004 admissions. However, the fall 2006 applicants were the first students to take the new SAT test, which includes a writing section, and so comparing scores across the years is not straightforward. James Montoya, the College Board's vice president for higher education, said preliminary estimates show a 4- to 5-point drop in average national scores for the critical reading and math sections compared with the verbal and math sections last year. At UC Davis, the total SAT score for fall 2006 California freshmen admits is 1224, down slightly from 1248 in fall 2005. ...

APPLICATIONS NATIONWIDE: Continu-ing a recent trend, applications to colleges and universities across the country were up again in 2005, following a slight dip the previous year. More than 70 percent of colleges reported increases in applications, according to the 2006 "State of College Admission" report, by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Women submitted about 55 percent of the applications. The survey also found that the percentage of students applying online, which has been on the rise, hit 53 percent last year, up from 47 percent in 2004 and 35 percent in 2003. ...

BERKELEY COMMENCEMENT: Demo-cratic Chairman Howard Dean, among others, backed out of speaking at UC Berkeley graduations last week. Their reason — to avoid crossing a picket line for janitors. Dean decided to cancel his keynote address to the law school tomorrow. Instead, he planned to meet informally with about 100 graduates, said Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda. Several other Democrats also backed out of speaking at university ceremonies, including state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. ...

RIVERSIDE: UC Riverside last week submitted a proposal to the UC Board of Regents in the hopes of launching a research-based School of Medicine. If approved, the school will be the first new public medical school west of the Mississippi in the 21st century, opening in fall 2012 with an entering class of 40 students.