Untitled Document

Thursday, December 21, 2006

NOTE ON FORMATTING: When stories are transferred from the Web, certain punctuation marks and other marks in this report don't carry over and result in symbols and other formatting errors. To see or print the story in full without these translation errors, simply click on "full story" at the end of each item."

Total Clips: 8

	Date	Outlet
Plentiful switch grass emerges as breakthrough biofuel	12/21/2006	San Diego Union Tribune
Food scares shouldn't put people off their veggies	12/21/2006	Daily Democrat (CA)
High national rank given to AU Architecture, Industrial Design programs	12/21/2006	Opelika-Auburn News
Experts Look Into Woodpecker Sighting	12/21/2006	New York Times
Auburn fires chief of research	12/21/2006	Huntsville Times
Submerged aquatic vegetation vital to shrimp	12/20/2006	Birmingham News
Cold water cools Salmonella rate in eggs	12/20/2006	Food Production Daily
Public Universities Chase Excellence, at a Price	12/20/2006	New York Times


Plentiful switch grass emerges as breakthrough biofuel 12/21/2006 San Diego Union Tribune Bob Secter, Chicago Tribune		Return to Top
David Bransby, a grasslands expert at AU, is featured in this story. If there were such a thing as a Comeback Plant of the Year award – maybe Comeback of the Century – a top contender would have to be switch grass, a dominant part of the tallgrass prairie that once blanketed much of North America. As biofuel, switch grass has a lot of advantages over corn. It requires no herbicides, little fertilizer and is a perennial. Also known as tall panic grass, switch grass grows in thick tangles, with stems 8 or 9 feet high and a deep root system. That vast sea of grasses, so thick and high that pioneers said it could swallow a rider on horseback, all but disappeared as sodbusters ripped it away to make room for lush and productive cropland. What was an obstacle to progress 150 years ago is suddenly getting a fresh, hard look as a major source of fuel. Our energy-starved nation is scrambling to come up with alternatives to limited supplies of expensive oil and natural gas, and there's a growing buzz about switch grass even though most Americans would need a botanical guide to identify it. Agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland Co., the world's largest producer of ethanol made from corn, in November unveiled plans to ramp up research into switch grass as another source to make ethanol and other biofuels for cars, homes and industry. In Washington, the new Democrat heads of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees have put development of switch grass as a fuel source high on their priority list. This is a "natural evolution of an industry that could be massive," said Patricia Woertz, CEO of ADM. Living battery Also known as tall panic grass, switch grass doesn't look much like the grasses that cover today's lawns. It is a lanky plant, with stems up to 8 or 9 feet high and a root system just as deep, topped with lacy seed-bearing panicles. It grows in thick, junglelike tangles. It also is especially good at storing energy from the sun. "A living solar battery," is what Canadian switch-grass researcher Roger Samson calls it. The U.S. Agriculture Department calls switch grass "perhaps our most valuable native grass." Oak Ridge National Laboratory has identified it as the model plant species for fuel, better than corn, which is all the rage right now as the prime ingredient of ethanol. President Bush highlighted the energy potential of switch grass in his State of the Union address this year. So, like a once-treasured toy rediscovered after years in the attic, switch grass is now the focus of talk about its revival – this time as a cash crop – on tens of millions of acres in the Midwest, South and Great Plains.a "This could very well be the future," said Stephen Gardner, one of dozens of southeastern Iowa farmers who for years have supplied switch grass for an electric generating experiment in Iowa that has shown encouraging results. The notion of converting vegetation into fuel may seem odd in a nation that runs on oil, gas and coal. But fossil fuels themselves are the detritus of ancient plants, buried in the Earth for millions of years. They are also a finite resource, while fuel crops can be grown again and again. "Nature figured out long ago how to store chemical energy in plants," explained Robert Brown, director of the office of bio-renewable programs at Iowa State University. Energy can be squeezed from most any plant, and there are a lot of them under study these days as potential fuel sources. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is leading the way in research on giant miscanthus, a grass native to Asia. It can grow to 13 feet with bamboolike stems ripe for burning. Better than corn The trick today is to target the plants that can be most efficiently grown and tapped for fuel. For now, the renewable fuel of choice in the U.S. is corn-based ethanol. It is essentially alcohol made from the starches in grain. Humans have been fermenting and drinking it since prehistoric times. Corn is abundant, and it has a clout-heavy lobby of farmers and agribusiness promoting it for ethanol, which is largely blended with gasoline. But corn has limitations as a raw material for fuel. Divert a lot of corn to ethanol production and food prices are bound to rise. Corn is also a resource hog, requiring good soil and lots of water, fertilizer and herbicide, heightening environmental concerns. One prominent researcher contends it takes more fossil energy to grow and transform corn starch into ethanol than the new fuel can yield, suggesting the process is a waste. Other experts disagree, but if there is an energy benefit to making ethanol this way, it is not huge. The hope for switch grass is that it may bypass a lot of those problems while providing more bang for the energy buck in an ecologically friendly and low-maintenance way, explains David Bransby, a grasslands expert at Auburn University in Alabama. Bransby, who has studied switch grass for 20 years, says the plant grows prodigiously, yielding huge per acre amounts of what the energy industry calls biomass – a term for living material that can be turned into fuel. Switch grass requires no herbicides and little fertilizer, can take hold on poor quality land not suitable for most crops, and it is a perennial, meaning it doesn't have to be replanted like corn after each harvest. Stands of good quality switch grass can last 10 years or more. Switch grass also has ecological benefits, Bransby said. Its deep roots bind soil and block erosion. They also pump a lot of carbon in the ground, essentially recycling carbon-based greenhouse gases emitted when the plant is burned as fuel. "If we really put our minds to it, we can use this to help replace the oil we import from the Middle East very easily in the next 20 years," Bransby said. Unlike with corn, a cost-effective process to convert switch grass and other fibrous plant material into ethanol hasn't been perfected yet, though researchers say they're close. Woertz said biofuel producers right now are in a "chicken and egg" situation as they explore the potential of switch grass. "How do you build massive facilities when you haven't grown the stuff yet, and then how do you grow the stuff if you haven't anywhere to process it?" she asked. Samson, who runs a nonprofit agricultural research institute in Quebec, said switch grass already is being used to make a low-quality natural gas substitute suitable for heating farm structures and small industrial buildings. Such biogas systems are in wide use in Germany and China, he said. Switch grass also can be easily chopped and pressed into fuel pellets for burning in special furnaces to heat homes. The slow-burning pellets heat for a price far less than natural gas, quickly paying for the cost of new heating equipment, he said. "We think we're heading toward an agrarian industrial revolution," Samson predicted.
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Food scares shouldn't put people off their veggies 12/21/2006 Daily Democrat (CA) Sandy Kleffman, Media News Group		Return to Top
This story quotes Bryan Chin, director of AU's Detection and Food Safety Center, and continues to appear in additional media outlets across the U.S. Eating raw fruits and vegetables is good for you, experts tell us. That's particularly true as we rapidly draw nearer Christmas and New Year's when banquets and family feasts await. Then come unnerving reports of people sickened by bacterial contamination in baby spinach, tomatoes, green onions, sprouts, strawberries. The list goes on. Statistics back up the popular perception that the nation now has more illnesses linked to fresh produce. When food from stores and drive-thrus becomes suspect what is anyone to do, particularly as we stock up for Christmas dinners? The number of such outbreaks has more than doubled in the past decade, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The center found 639 produce-related outbreaks affecting nearly 31,500 people between 1990 and 2004. But that does not mean produce is more contaminated today than it was decades ago, or even that more people are getting sick, experts note. Scientists now have better technology that enables them to take a bacterium's "fingerprint" and link it to sicknesses in several states. As a result, they can discover an outbreak that would have been missed years ago. "I don't necessarily feel that there's more of it happening now," said Dean Cliver, a food safety professor at UC Davis. "In all probability, it's less. But we sure know when it happens these days, and we didn't use to." Changes in the way the nation packages and distributes its produce, as well as a trend toward healthier eating, have also contributed to the rise in outbreaks. Years ago, consumers would go to the supermarket and buy a head of lettuce or spinach or a loose bunch of scallions. But today, such items often come in bags that contain leaves from numerous heads. "So if only one is contaminated, there's a good chance that the entire bag is contaminated," said Dr. Lee Riley, professor of epidemiology and infectious disease at UC Berkeley. "They represent multiple farms, not just a single farm," he added. "So you have an increased chance of cross-contamination." The nation now has a centralized food system with large-scale farms and processing plants that ship items far and wide. A problem in one corner of the nation spreads rapidly. Food Safety • Wash hands and items that come into contact with food often. Bacteria can get onto cutting boards, knives, sponges and counter tops. • Keep raw meat, poultry and seafood away from other foods. • Refrigerate food promptly to prevent bacteria from multiplying. Refrigerators should be set at 40 degrees Fahrenheit and the freezer at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Check the temperature occasionally with a thermometer. • Purchase produce that is not bruised or damaged. • When selecting fresh cut produce such as half a watermelon or bagged salad greens, choose items that are refrigerated or surrounded by ice. • Pre-cut or peeled produce should be refrigerated within two hours of purchase. • As an added precaution, wash lettuce in pre-washed bags. • Even if produce will be peeled before eating, it is important to wash it first. The outbreak of E. coli in prepackaged spinach in September was traced back to the Salinas Valley. But it sickened more than 200 people in 26 states. A decade ago, it is doubtful anyone would have connected the dots to identify that as an outbreak, Cliver said. But today, scientists use a technique known as PulseNet, which enables them to identify a specific strain of E. coli. When they discovered the same strain making people sick in numerous states, they knew they had a problem and most likely a common source of contamination. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has improved its tracking methods in recent years. Through a program called FoodNet, microbiology laboratories across the country now send monthly reports on suspected foodborne disease agents they discover in their testing. Doctors have also gotten better about looking for and identifying foodborne illnesses. "The medical reporting system has been undergoing a fundamental change," said Bryan Chin, director of the Detection and Food Safety Center at Auburn University in Alabama. "Our system is getting better in warning the public about possible problems." But while the pathogens may have been in our food system for decades, no one is advocating complacency in tackling the problem. It takes on added urgency as Americans consume greater quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables as health experts advise. Contaminated meat has been dealt with successfully by ensuring that Salmonella or E. coli is cooked out. But that doesn't happen when fruits and vegetables are eaten raw, making it tougher to tackle problems in produce. The Center for Science in the Public Interest in October asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to ban the use of raw manure as fertilizer during the growing season because of fears it may contaminate crops. The group also requested additional restrictions on irrigation water, mandatory sanitation procedures and packaging that makes it easy to trace fruits and vegetables during an outbreak. "California's reliance on voluntary compliance with guidelines, education and awareness has not been effective in preventing foodborne illness from fresh produce," the group said in its letter to the governor. Several state lawmakers have indicated they plan to introduce food-safety legislation next year. Others are seeking answers on the technology-front. The Detection and Food Safety Center in Alabama is developing equipment to detect when water runoff containing a pathogen is moving onto a farm field, Chin said. Center researchers are also attempting to develop radio frequency identification sensor tags for food items. The tag could be placed on a chicken as soon as it is defeathered, for example, and detect if Salmonella is introduced during the processing. The tags could indicate if a frozen chicken gets too warm during transportation or sits too long on the grocery shelf. The tags, which are years away from completion and widespread use, would contain information about the farm and date where the chicken was obtained to help in tracking outbreaks. But while some consumer groups advocate tougher regulation of farming and food processing, Cliver believes experts should first focus on gaining a better understanding of contamination sources. It may not make the holiday meals any safer, but at least people will know what is going into the dinner menu.
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High national rank given to AU Architecture, Industrial Design programs 12/21/2006 Opelika-Auburn News Staff report		Return to Top
Auburn University's Architecture and Industrial Design programs both ranked in the top six degree programs nationally in DesignIntelligence magazine's "America's Best Architecture and Design Schools 2007." The annual rankings for architecture, industrial design, landscape architecture and interior design programs are based on input from the nation's architecture, design and engineering employers, as well as deans and chairs of design programs. In the survey, AU professor Tin-Man Lau was named one of the Industrial Design Educators of the Year. AU's Architecture program was ranked sixth nationally along with California Polytechnic State University and the University of Kansas. Deans and department chairs ranked its program the second most admired, after Harvard’s. "The 2007 national rankings by DesignIntelligence are a testament to the quality of Auburn faculty and students, and reflect their dedicated commitment to studio teaching and scholarship," said Dan Bennett, dean of the College of Architecture, Design and Construction. "Having our program listed as the second most admired in the country by our peers is especially gratifying. That kind of recognition is rare, and is a significant compliment to both our faculty and students." Regionally, AU's undergraduate Architecture programs ranked first in the Southeast for the fourth consecutive year, and both the graduate and undergraduate Industrial Design programs ranked first in the Southeast. AU's Department of Industrial Design's undergraduate program was ranked sixth best in the nation, and its graduate program was named the third best. In addition, the program ranked second in ecodesign practices and principles, third in academic balance and fifth in both research and analysis and collaborative learning with business, engineering and other disciplines. The program ranked nationally in preparedness of recent graduates. The Interior Design undergraduate program ranked seventh nationally and second in the Southeast region. The graduate program in Landscape Architecture ranked fifth in the Southeast region. The College of Architecture, Design and Construction will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2007. The components of the CADC are annually regarded and ranked among the best in their respective disciplines nationally for the quality of education and quality of students.
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Experts Look Into Woodpecker Sighting 12/21/2006 New York Times Associated Press		Return to Top
This AP story mentions the report published jointly by AU ornithologists and other researchers. It also appears in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, Austin American-Statesman, Washington Post, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Fresno Bee, Houston Chronicle, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Gainesville Sun, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Macon Telegraph, Anchorage Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes magazine and the Tuscaloosa News, as well as numerous other media outlets across the U.S. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Researchers have scoured the area where two Arkansas men reported sighting the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker last week, and more search teams will arrive near the spot in January, an ornithologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Wednesday. Catherine Rideout, who helps lead the search for the rare bird for the commission, said a team went to the site near Cotton Plant Tuesday with Kip Davis, one of the two men who reported they caught a glimpse of the woodpecker. ''Based on his sighting we decided to do a follow up in person at the location,'' Rideout said Wednesday. ''There are search team members in that general vicinity this year and it helps to know there was a possible sighting there.'' Davis, the city planner for McCrory, and Jay Robison, who works for the Arkansas Department of Economic Development, were driving near Cotton Plant last Friday when they saw a female ivory-billed swoop behind an oncoming truck. Davis, who has attended workshops about identifying an ivory-billed woodpecker, said he and Robison believed it was a female because the bird had a black head and body with white wing-tipped feathers, but no red. The male ivory-billed has a red crest. Two researchers -- one from Cornell and the other from the Arkansas Audubon Society -- met Davis at the site Tuesday to gather more information about the sighting, Davis said Wednesday. ''I took them down to where we saw the bird, and they were really excited about it. They wrote down everything,'' Davis said. ''I know it's their dream to find the bird ... and I hope this helps.'' Two years ago, Cornell researchers said the bird was spotted in the swamps of eastern Arkansas. They released recordings and a grainy video after searching for the bird in the Cache River Wildlife Management Area. The video, however, was questioned by some experts. Additionally, after last search season, researchers with Cornell said they had found no new evidence of the bird's existence. In September, ornithologists at Auburn University in Alabama and Windsor University in Ontario published a report in Canada's online journal Avian Conservation and Ecology, claiming an ivory-billed may live along the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida panhandle. The report came after researchers documented 14 sightings and extensive sound recordings of the bird. And Rideout said it is possible that Davis and Robison did see an ivory-billed woodpecker. ''It's definitely not always a black or white with this kind of thing,'' Rideout said. ''I think because the sighting was in an area where there have been other sightings, we will have some search effort in that area this year,'' she said. Ivory-billed woodpecker volunteer search teams will return to Arkansas in January 2007, Rideout said.
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Auburn fires chief of research 12/21/2006 Huntsville Times Bob Lowrey		Return to Top
AUBURN - The man who headed Auburn University's research programs for the past 12 years has been fired, although university officials were mum Wednesday on the reason. Michael Moriarty, who was associate provost and vice president for research, will be replaced on an interim basis by Ralph Zee, an associate dean in the college of engineering, the university announced on its Web site. Zee's appointment is effective Jan. 1. Reached for comment at his home, Moriarty confirmed his dismissal, but declined to discuss why he was fired. "You'll have to ask them (Auburn administrators) that," he said. "I don't see that it would serve any useful purpose for me to comment." Auburn spokesman Brian Keeter would not say why Moriarty was removed. "I would have to refer you back to the news release," said Keeter. "University policy does not allow us to address the specifics of personnel action." Moriarty, who is a tenured faculty member in physiology and pharmacology, said he has accepted a reassignment and will remain at Auburn in the college of veterinary medicine. Dwight Carlisle of Tallassee, a member of the Auburn Board of Trustees, said he learned Friday during a meeting of the Auburn University Research Foundation that Moriarty would be replaced. Moriarty is president of the foundation, but Carlisle said Moriarty was not at the meeting. Carlisle also declined to discuss the reason for Moriarty's removal. Holdover from Muse era Moriarty was one of the few remaining top administrators left from the administration of former President William Muse, who was forced out by the trustees in 2001. Others administrators from the Muse era eventually resigned, were fired or were reassigned after President Ed Richardson was appointed by Gov. Bob Riley to replace embattled William Walker. Walker resigned under pressure in January 2004 after he and three members of the board tried to oust head football coach Tommy Tuberville. Walker, who retired as an engineering professor at Auburn last January, said Wednesday he was surprised to hear of Moriarty's removal. "I have the highest regard for Mike," he said. "He started some great initiatives at Auburn." Richardson made no comment in the press release on the firing, but he said students in veterinary medicine would benefit from Moriarty's experience. Moriarty came to Auburn in 1994 from the University of Georgia. During his 12-year tenure, Auburn research grew at an average rate of 17 percent, with contracts and grants totaling nearly $100 million annually. Oversaw space institute Moriarty was also credited with helping steer the development of the university's $25 million research park, which will open in 2007. He also oversaw the Space Research Institute, which does research and technology development on hybrid electric power systems for use in space and on Earth, electric propulsion systems for space travel and testing spacecraft materials. The center is supported by the Space Product Development Division of NASA. Moriarty held a similar research position at the University of Nebraska, and has been a department head, assistant provost and graduate school dean during his career. While he was associate provost and vice president for research at Auburn, he obtained more than $3 million in competitive grants for his research on the detection of malignant tumors, a topic on which he has published more than 60 articles and papers.
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Submerged aquatic vegetation vital to shrimp 12/20/2006 Birmingham News		Return to Top
This story mentions a previous AU Marine Extension study about the subject of submerged aquatic vegetation. Submerged aquatic vegetation vital to shrimp Studies have shown fish and shellfish more abundant in SAVs than unvegetated areas Wednesday, December 0, 006 A recent article in the Press-Register highlighted the worldwide loss of submerged aquatic vegetation and provided estimates of losses in the Mobile Bay-Mississippi Sound area. As the article pointed out, numerous studies have shown that SAVs provide shelter and feeding opportunities for a wide variety of fish and shellfish. The importance of the SAV, or sea grass, is often illustrated by comparing abundance of fish and shellfish found in SAV compared to unvegetated areas. Some years ago, researchers at the Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center undertook a study in Mobile Bay to quantify shrimp abundance on unvegetated bottom, in SAV and at marsh edges where emergent vegetation (marsh grass) grows. Because the SAV and the marsh grass provide such good protection, it is difficult to get an accurate sample using conventional netting techniques. Researchers used a large, heavy cylinder which could be dropped into vegetation. Everything inside the cylinder was then collected using pumps and nets. The results were clear from a sampling site near the mouth of East Fowl River. Eight times more brown shrimp, six times more pink shrimp and twice as many white shrimp were found in SAV than in adjacent bare areas. Overall, there were six times as many shrimp in sea grass than on bare bottom. Another interesting aspect of the study was a comparison between SAV and adjacent marsh grass. The importance of marsh grass habitat for sea life is also well established, but not many studies have compared marsh grass to SAV. At this site, shrimp were twice as abundant in the SAV as in the marsh grass. In reality, all three habitats (bare bottom, SAV and marsh grass) are important to shrimp. But clearly, more shrimp are found in vegetated areas and, at this site, more shrimp were found in SAVs than in marsh grass. Unfortunately, SAV is just not as visible as marsh grass and destruction and disappearance often go unnoticed. (Rick Wallace is an extension marine specialist at Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center. Sea Grant writers may be contacted at 8-690.)
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Cold water cools Salmonella rate in eggs 12/20/2006 Food Production Daily		Return to Top
This story refers to joint USDA/AU research that was published in the Journal of Food Safety. Contamination is a continuing problem for egg producers, due to the high prevalence of pathogens, such as Salmonella, in egg-laying hens. Washing the shells before processing is known to reduce the incidence of pathogens caused mainly by fecal matter on eggs. Researchers with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) together with those from Auburn University, studied the frequency of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria and other pathogens in eggs commercially washed in cool water. Their findings were reported in the Journal of Food Safety. Egg processors need to use wash water of at least 90F, or 20F warmer than the warmest egg entering the processing line to meet USDA quality standards. Furthermore, the eggs must be sprayed with a sanitising rinse that is at least the same temperature as the washing water. The eggs must then be quickly cooled to prevent pathogen growth associated with warmer temperatures. USDA requirements state that eggs for human consumption must then be stored at 45F or below as quickly as possible. The researchers tested three water temperature schemes in dual washing commercial systems. The first test used water at 120F for both washes of the eggs. The second used water at 120F for the first wash and 75F for the second. The third used water at 75F for both washes. They found that using warm temperature water in a first wash and cooler water in a second wash could provide the greatest benefit by both reducing egg temperature and microbial levels. While Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria were all detected in shell emulsion and wash-water samples from cool-water washing treatments, none were detected in the eggs contents throughout the storage period of eight weeks. Salmonella and Campylobacter pose major problems to processors who use eggs. In June the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) published a study, which found about one in five of the EU's large scale commercial egg producers have laying hens infected with the Salmonella spp. pathogen. The study found Luxembourg and Sweden had the lowest levels of infection. The highest rates, ranging from 52 per cent to 80 per cent of holdings, were found in Portugal, Poland and the Czech Republic. The EU's current Zoonoses Regulation, sets out plans that would from 2010 ban completely the retail sale of eggs from Salmonella-infected flocks. Eggs will have to undergo a sterilisation procedure if they are to be used for processing into egg products. The European Commission is considering the feasibility of accelerating the ban on marketing eggs from Salmonella-infected flocks. A Commission study published last year found there were 192,703 reported cases of salmonellosis and 183,961 of campylobacteriosis cases reported during 2004 in the EU's 25 member states. The cases are out of a total of 400, 000 human cases of zoonoses reported. Most of the cases were foodborne and associated with mild to severe intestinal problems. NOTE: The Web link for this story was not active at the time of this clip report.
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Public Universities Chase Excellence, at a Price 12/20/2006 New York Times Tamar Lewin		Return to Top
This story provides commentary relevant to colleges and universities in general. GAINESVILLE, Fla. — If there is any goal that the University of Florida has pursued as fervently as a national football championship for the Gators, it is a place among the nation’s highest-ranked public universities. "We need a top-10 university, so our kids can get the same education they would get at Harvard or Yale," said J. Bernard Machen, the university president. To upgrade the university, Dr. Machen is seeking a $1,000 tuition surcharge that would be used mostly to hire more professors and lower the student-faculty ratio, not coincidentally one of the factors in the much-watched college rankings published annually by U.S. News & World Report. This year, that list ranked Florida 13th among public universities in the United States. Like Florida, more leading public universities are striving for national status and drawing increasingly impressive and increasingly affluent students, sometimes using financial aid to lure them. In the process, critics say, many are losing force as engines of social mobility, shortchanging low-income and minority students, who are seriously underrepresented on their campuses. "Public universities were created to make excellence available to all qualified students," said Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, an advocacy group, "but that commitment appears to have diminished over time, as they choose to use their resources to try to push up their rankings. It's all about reputation, selectivity and ranking, instead of about the mission of finding and educating future leaders from their state." While a handful of public universities have long stood among the nation's top institutions — the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan among them — many have only recently joined their ranks. At some of the best public universities, selectivity is up: at the University of Florida, the average student high school grade point average now exceeds 4.0, a feat achievable only with high grades in honors or Advanced Placement classes. And student interest in these institutions is soaring. At the University of Vermont, where three quarters of the freshmen come from other states, applications have more than doubled since 2001. The demands on such universities are growing, too, particularly with many states questioning their spending on higher education. Increasingly, these colleges are expected to bolster their states' economies by attracting research grants and jobs. To do that, they say, they must compete with elite private universities. So the universities face a tough balancing act: should they push for higher status and higher tuition revenue by accepting more top-achieving, out-of-state students, or should they worry about broadening access for low-income, in-state students? Is their primary goal to serve the people of their state or to compete nationally with private research universities? Can they leave the less prestigious state colleges to serve the bulk of in-state students? "It is increasingly challenging to manage all of those inherently conflicting goals," said Mark A. Emmert, president of the University of Washington, adding that global competitiveness required world-class scholarship: "When we think about our peers now, we don't just think about the publics, we throw in Stanford and the Ivies." In some ways, the University of Washington outdoes its peers. Dr. Emmert says proudly that his university is second only to Harvard in research financing from the National Institutes of Health. In certain respects, flagship public universities have become more like private institutions. Public universities are still far less expensive, but with their tuition rising rapidly, enrolling low-income students has become as much an issue for them as it is for private universities. From 1995 to 2003, flagship and leading public research universities quadrupled their aid to students from families with incomes over $100,000, while aid to students from the poorest families declined, according to the Education Trust. The best public universities, the group said, have come to resemble "gated communities of higher education." And their aid policies are paramount, because aid given by the universities dwarfs what students get from the federal government. "The rise in the quality of public flagships across the country is in principle a good thing," said William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland. "What's begun to cross the line, though, is when in the pursuit of excellence, our financial aid gets distorted in a way that high-achieving, low-income students who are qualified to go to our best public institutions can't." In an implicit recognition of this distortion, several public universities have started programs to help low-income students. The Carolina Covenant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the first such program. Started in 2004, it guaranteed low-income students enough aid to graduate debt-free. This year about 8 percent of the freshman class qualified, in the process helping diversify the student body, which for the first time is less than 70 percent white. The University of Virginia followed with a similar program. And just this fall, the University of Washington did as well. The University of Florida, as much as any, is grappling with these issues. "Florida wants a top-10 university because it's clear that our economic development is increasingly tied to research," said Dr. Machen, the president. "The state's fired up to invest in this university when it sees our projects with the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and Scripps Research Institute." The university's financial situation is unique: it has the lowest tuition of the flagships, $3,206 a year. In addition, the state pays 75 percent to 100 percent of tuition and fees for students with high grades and test scores, including more than 90 percent of freshmen. Still, the students at the sprawling Gainesville campus, with its historic buildings, lawns and lush vegetation, are so affluent that those who must work to help support themselves are sometimes put off by the fancy cars, the stylish clothes and what they see as a sense of entitlement around them. "The way they dress, what they talk about, the 'I drive this, I drive that,' it gets annoying," said Angela Momprevil, a sophomore whose parents, Haitian immigrant business owners, did not attend college. Dr. Machen said that when he became president of the university in 2004, he was troubled to discover that the average student's family income was about $100,000. "That bothered me because public education is supposed to be a ladder to success," Dr. Machen said. "We don't want to be an elitist institution. We want to be a mirror of society." Ever since, he said, he has struggled to balance the quest for higher rankings with the push to serve minority and low-income students. Two of the university's efforts, the tuition surcharge and a new program for low-income students, could almost stand as the yin and yang of his agenda. Dr. Machen said the university needed the surcharge to supplement its inexpensive tuition and bring in 200 new faculty members. "How can I tell parents that the education their children can get here is on a par with Michigan or North Carolina," he said, "when my student-teacher ratio is 21 or 22 to 1, and Michigan's is 15 to 1, Chapel Hill's 14 to 1?" The surcharge proposal, for next year's new students, has caused little upset on campus and was endorsed by the Student Senate. But some students had concerns. "I worry that there will be highly qualified students who won't be able to pay an extra $1,000," said Sal Picataggio, a junior. "It's a fine line. I want it to be prestigious, to be top 10, but I also want it to be more accessible." Even as the cost of education at the University of Florida goes up, Dr. Machen is working to bring in more low-income students. "We found a significant number of accepted students, from the families of the working poor, who didn't come because they didn't have the money to pay the costs," he said. "Loans weren't attractive to them, and we wanted them here." So this fall, the university started a program covering the full cost of college, living expenses included, for students from families with incomes under $40,000, if neither parent went to college. The program also attracted more minority students, helping to raise the proportion of blacks among this year's freshmen to more than 13 percent, from about 10 percent in the two previous years. "It turns out that using 'first generation in the family to go to college' is a pretty good surrogate for diversity," Dr. Machen said. The university is also cutting back merit aid. For years, Gainesville paid dearly to attract National Merit scholars, the students who scored highest on the Preliminary SAT exams. Scholars from out of state pay no tuition at the University of Florida and receive an additional $38,000 over four years. As a result, the school has drawn hundreds of merit scholars, sometimes nearly as many as Harvard. But next fall, the amount of those awards will be cut to $17,000 for out-of-staters. "It gave us a kind of bragging rights," Dr. Machen said, "but it didn't help in the world of our peers, because they knew we were buying them." This is higher-education code: peer ratings are the largest component of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, so anything that does not impress other educators is not likely to help the rankings. Manny A. Fernandez, chairman of the board at the University of Florida, talks as frankly as Dr. Machen about rankings. "I want to be on the cocktail-party list of schools that people talk about, because that influences the decisions of great students and great faculty," Mr. Fernandez said. "I don't apologize for trying to get the rankings up, because rankings are a catalyst for changes that improve the school."
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