The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston faces $710 million in building damage, ruined equipment, revenue losses, and cleanup and evacuation costs because of Hurricane Ike, and officials expect a "significant" number of layoffs at the 12,000-person facility, the Houston Chronicle reports. Insurance will cover only $100 million of the damage, which far surpasses that at Tulane after Hurricane Katrina. The damage includes campus buildings that took on as much as 8 feet of water and the destruction of the hospital's kitchen, blood bank, and radiology department.

UTMB, the state's oldest medical school, has lobbied FEMA for more funds and has also turned to state lawmakers for help.

Elsewhere, Rice University in Houston sustained $3 million in damage, the Thresher reports. Ike damaged about two thirds of the buildings and one third of the trees on campus, but officials say most of the building damage was minimal, such as wet carpet and broken windows.

The University of Wisconsin marching band will be allowed to perform at this weekend's Penn State football game after it was suspended from last week's performance because of allegations of hazing and inappropriate behavior, the Badger Herald reports.

Dean of Students Lori Berquam said nearly 70 students voluntarily came forward to provide information that confirmed "that a broad pattern of inappropriate and humiliating behavior took place in the band," she said.

The behavior in question, which band director Mike Leckrone described as "asinine, disgusting and degrading," included "students having to kneel and take a bite from a summer sausage, students confined to the bathroom in the back of the bus for several hours," and "a game called 'mystery door No. 3' in which students are blindfolded, led to a room behind a closed door and...asked to remove the lingerie from a male band member."

While the investigation continues, the band is barred from traveling, which could affect away games and a planned performance at an upcoming Green Bay Packers game. Since last week, some hazing victims have quit the band, and the university has assigned a staff member to work on appropriate behavior. Criminal charges have not been filed, and school officials have not announced how many people have been disciplined. Penalties could range from an official university written reprimand to expulsion.

Police have arrested a Middle Tennessee State University freshman in relation to threatening E-mails and small fires that prompted school officials to cancel classes Thursday and Friday, the Sidelines reports. The student was arrested yesterday at 5 p.m. and was charged with three counts of arson and one count of terrorism.

Police believe the student, who lived in the dorm where the fires were set, was working alone.

The University of Texas has temporarily reversed its ban on placing signs in dorm windows, saving two students who refused to take down their political signs from any sanction, the Daily Texan reports. Before the university suspended the rule Thursday, the two roommates attended a disciplinary hearing at which they were told that if they did not remove the signs, they would be barred from class registration and could face expulsion.

The university will create a committee to decide whether the housing department should permanently alter or expunge the rule.

Middle Tennessee State University was shut down Thursday around noon after authorities determined there was a "credible threat" to campus, according to Sidelines. The announcement was made after multiple university officials received E-mails Wednesday and Thursday threatening the student body, and authorities responded to three suspicious small fires set in a dorm Thursday.

According to the campus police chief, at least one of the E-mails references "killing, bombing, and destruction," but does not specify a location. Authorities are still unsure whether the fires and threats are related.

Classes have been canceled for the rest of the week as state and local police sweep the campus, with their weapons drawn, according to the Tennesseean, looking for a male suspect. Officials did not reveal why he is being sought.

MTSU is one of the largest undergraduate colleges in Tennessee with almost 24,000 students, most of whom live off campus. Class will restart October 15, after a previously scheduled fall break.

At a disciplinary hearing Wednesday, two University of Texas roommates defended their right to post political signs in their dorm window in opposition to a housing rule that bans window displays and is designed to "prevent things plastered around campus willy-nilly," as one school official put it.

The two students—also members of the University Democrats—had until 7 p.m. Wednesday to take down two political signs in their dorm room windows, the Daily Texan reports. They were told that if the signs were not taken down by the deadline, they would not be allowed to register for spring classes. But as of 9:30 p.m., the signs were still up and both could still register.

Over the course of the semester, the two students had been warned at least three times that their signs violated housing guidelines, and last week, they were notified of the disciplinary hearing.

The two students say they have no plans to remove the signs and have threatened to take the university to court, with the backing of both the University Democrats and College Republicans. Furthermore, the president of the University Democrats has called on other students to place signs in their windows, daring the university—which has said it would discipline all other residents who tried a similar stunt—to come after all of them. "We are going to make UT have 1,000 hearings," he said to the media at an impromptu press conference Wednesday. "Make UT fight you—put your signs up."

The Fellowship of Associated Gay Students & Straight Allies, otherwise known as FAGS, has clashed with administrators at two San Diego community colleges over fliers and posters emblazoned with the eye-catching acronym, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

San Diego City College and San Diego Mesa College have asked the two chapters of the group to remove or alter the materials after receiving complaints from offended faculty, staff, and students. But the groups' president says the school has violated students' free speech rights and defended the provocative name, saying, "We wanted something with a little pop to it, and we wanted to neutralize an epithet, like a lot of groups have done with the word 'queer.'"

A University of Tennessee student and son of a Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker was indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with the hacked E-mail account of Sarah Palin, the Associated Press reports.

David Kernell, 20, son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, pleaded not guilty to intentionally accessing a computer without authorization, the Justice Department said. If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a three-year term of supervised release. Kernell, an economics student at Tennessee, was released without posting bond, but the court forbade him from owning a computer and limited his Internet use to checking E-mail and doing class work.

The indictment alleges that in mid-September, he reset the password of Palin's Yahoo E-mail account by answering personal questions about Palin's life with information known to the public. He then gained access, read the contents, made screen shots of the account, and posted some of that information on a public site.

The San Francisco Chronicle uncovered a memo that outlines a sexual harassment complaint against the UC-Davis marching band filed in May by Tom Slabaugh, the band's former director. The memo cited "ridiculous, disturbing, and offensive" incidents during his tenure last year.

Among the list of alleged incidents and behaviors, in no particular order:

• Drunken hazing

• The "naked van" tradition, where all students in the band vehicle strip down to their underwear

• At least one lewd photo that featured four band members simulating urination and another photo that he said showed the equipment manager "simulating oral copulation" on a trombone player

• Two players who wrote "I (heart) BOOBS" in masking tape on the band van's window, prompting a motorist in Oregon to complain to the university

• Male band members periodically dropping their pants at rehearsals, while female members strip to their bras

• At least one evening practice that was disrupted when a bass drummer began performing lap dances

• A barrage of obscene insults and gestures during and outside rehearsals after he tried to punish students

• A Christmas card signed by trombone players with a picture of Santa Claus that read, "I saw you masturbating."

• The "F- Slabaugh" message on the whiteboard when he brought his 9-year-old daughter to sell Girl Scout cookies

Slabaugh, 44, took stress leave from UC-Davis in September and is also completing a doctorate in musical arts from the University of Washington. The veteran band director has called the Cal Aggie band a "hostile work environment."

In response to the complaints, the university has put the band through sexual harassment training and has removed offensive "signs, pictures, condoms, etc." from the band room walls, according to a university sexual harassment official. The school is now considering whether to give Slabaugh the power to expel unruly band members.

The band itself is hardly traditional, describing itself online as "fast, furious, and foaming at the mouth...bold, blue, and bitchin'." The band is student run and has had a reputation of being unruly, which has been exacerbated by the fact that the faculty director has no authority to expel members of the band. Before Slabaugh, the organization had not had a faculty director in four years.

A vestige of technological times past, Seattle University's "bad words list," which screens out nonuniversity E-mails containing at least one of 40 offensive words, has annoyed some students and faculty for years and will most likely disappear by the end of this year, the Spectator reports.

Perhaps most obnoxious, when the list blocks a message, it also doesn't tell anyone—the sender or the recipient—that the E-mail was never delivered, an IT official explains. The message basically disappears. "It's like a black hole."

The list was originally created years ago to serve as a spam filter, an IT official explains, but is now mostly obsolete because of new antispam software.

Georgetown University reports it has confirmed three cases of MRSA skin infections on one dorm floor, with a possible fourth case that has not yet been verified, the Hoya reports. The antibiotic-resistant staph infections have been detected over the course of a month and have been treated. School officials sent an E-mail to students this week alerting them of the infections but won't go as far as calling it an outbreak.

Health officials are also quick to point out that the MRSA infections likely have nothing to do with the hundreds of Georgetown students who were affected by the norovirus last week, although the ways to prevent the spread of each illness are largely the same: Don't share your things and wash your hands.

The Phi Mu Delta fraternity at the University of New Hampshire has been suspended after seven students associated with the organization were arrested and charged with alcohol offenses Friday night, the New Hampshire reports.

The arrests, for unlawful/internal possession of alcohol, occurred after several people received medical attention for alcohol poisoning. Five of those arrested were fraternity members while two were students who received bids from the group.

The Phi Mu Delta suspension comes less than a week after the Sigma Beta fraternity was suspended following a drug raid that led to the arrests of nine members.

Sorin College, one of the six Notre Dame residence halls that were supposed to host a football pep rally last Friday, boycotted the event instead, complaining that pep rallies have become too corporate and formulaic, the Observer reports. Mostly, the dorm objects to the first hour and 15 minutes, during which students are forced to watch videos and campus group performances while waiting for the team to arrive. The protesters would rather have more interaction with the players. "We know this school supports the team," one activist said. "But we don't think that they should have to put up with an hour of organized entertainment to do it."

Sorin College residents didn't just stay at home, though. Instead of attending the official rally, the students cheered outside the building dressed as lumberjacks ready to "cut down" their opponent Stanford's tree mascot. "If you want to say we have no spirit, that's absurd," said another activist.

The University of Wisconsin marching band did not perform at this weekend's game against Ohio State after longtime band director Mike Leckrone suspended the group for allegations of hazing during last week's trip to the University of Michigan, the Daily Cardinal reports. Details of the allegations are sparse, with officials suggesting they involved alcohol abuse and “inappropriate sexual behavior.”

Saturday was the first time in 40 years—the length of Leckrone's tenure—that the band did not perform at a home football game. The suspension was handed down Friday afternoon and will continue until the investigation is complete.

Leckrone said the allegations were similar to the ones from 2006, which also occurred on the Michigan trip. Two years ago, then chancellor John Wiley put the band on probation after allegations surfaced that "female band members were forced to kiss each other to gain access to the bus bathroom, at least one member had his head shaved against his will, and at least one female member was forced to mimic fellatio on a sex toy," the Badger Herald reports.

Since the 2006 probation, the band has participated in mentoring sessions and meetings to discuss appropriate behavior. But, as Leckrone says, "obviously, we still need to do more.”

Fresh on the heels of a GeorgetownUniversity outbreak, at least 130 University of Southern California students were infected over the weekend with what health officials believe is the norovirus, the Daily Trojan reports. School officials notified students of the outbreak via their emergency text message system Saturday morning and also warned sick students not to attend the Oregon game because the virus easily spreads with person-to-person contact.

The school briefly closed a cafeteria, but health officials quickly determined it was not a foodborne sickness. Instead, many students likely picked up the bug from hallmates or acquaintances. "Once someone on the floor got it, everyone got it," said a sickened freshman.

Meanwhile, USC ordered 3,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and 2,000 containers of sanitizing wipes to distribute today and throughout the week to prevent any more outbreaks.