The University’s preparations for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s April 8 lecture is the top item in the weekly “Political Scene” column.

During a March 8 presidential lecture, President Ruth Simmons expressed her view that educators should seek to promote diversity not only because it helps to counteract racism but because it could help build better democracies. As one of the last bastions of free speech, universities should uphold diversity as a standard for citizenship, she said. A video of her lecture can be viewed here: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/media/06/417_HigherEd_Diversity/index.html

Brown University men's basketball coach Glen Miller is a finalist for the University of Hartford’s vacant coaching position.

Latino immigrants pour into New Orleans in order to take construction jobs. "There must be 10,000 to 20,000 immigrant workers in the region by now, and the number is going to grow,” sociology Professor John Logan, who has studied the region since Hurricane Katrina struck, tells the Times’ reporter. This article appeared in numerous other newspapers around the nation.

This Web site devoted to science news reports on the collaboration between chemistry Professor Richard Stratt and researchers at the University of Southern California who say they have achieved near-frictionless motion in water by using lasers to spin a molecule like a propeller.

Political Science Professor Marion Orr, who has studied the politics of school reform in Baltimore, offers his perspective on Maryland school chief Nancy S. Grasmick, the first state superintendent in the nation to seek a takeover under federal law.

A record 18,313 students applied to be admitted into the University’s Class of 2010. Brown accepted 13.8 percent or 2,523 of the applicants.