“Massive demolition of historic buildings is, in its way, a time-honored Yale tradition,” notes the writer, Carole Bass. “That’s how the university cleared space for its original residential colleges more than 75 years ago.” Among the buildings to be destroyed are Hammond Hall, built in 1904; an early-19th-century Greek Revival house; and the Daniel Cady Eaton House, constructed in 1890. Preservationists, most of whom seem resigned to the demolition, hoped that Yale would move the houses, at least, to new locations. But the cost of such a move, at $5-million apiece, was too much for the university.

The magazine story also included a few digs at Yale’s neo-Gothic architecture. Anstress Farwell, a preservationist who still plans to fight the university, called the neo-Gothic tradition “a fantasy environment about what Yale has been in the past.”

“I don’t think that if the university succeeds in this plan, the debate will ever go away: why did Yale do something retardataire at a moment when architecture is looking to be innovative?” she said.

Among recent additions to The Chronicle‘s online database of new and renovated campus buildings is the Sorenson Language and Communications Center at Gallaudet University. The 87,000-square-foot, $22.6-million building was designed by SmithGroup and Kuhn Riddle Architects. Intended for both teaching and research, it houses classrooms, laboratories, clinics, libraries, and office space, and includes a number of features tailored to the needs of Gallaudet’s deaf and hard-of-hearing students and faculty and staff members.

Among recent additions to The Chronicle‘s online database of new and renovated campus buildings is Georgia Southern University’s Zach S. Henderson Library. The $22.8-million project, by Cogdell & Mendrala Architects and Lyman Davidson Dooley Inc., expanded the library by 101,000 square feet, to a total of 236,552. It also added an automated book-retrieval system that is currently capable of storing 800,000 items—and can be expanded to hold two million.

The letter and the plan, called “1% for Education,” will be presented to leaders in the U.S. Senate, who are hammering out a cap-and-trade bill similar to one passed by the House of Representatives two weeks ago. More than 100 college leaders have signed the letter. Organizers plan to deliver the letter to lawmakers by Friday.

“As presidents of colleges and universities across the nation, we stand ready to provide leadership in the nation’s transition to a clean-energy economy,” the letter says in part. “In fact, higher education currently leads all other sectors in confronting the challenges of climate change and finding practical solutions to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Each year, our education system sends three million graduates into the work force, who need to have the skills and knowledge to contribute to and participate fully in a clean-energy economy.”

A similar letter is being distributed among higher-education associations. In a recent interview, Jim Elder, director of the Campaign for Environmental Literacy, who has been involved in crafting the plan, said that if Congress did indeed create a fund for green education, the money from carbon-emissions allowances would be divided into two piles: Half would go into existing federal sustainability programs, and half would go into programs yet to be defined. Those programs could not be defined until there was some structure in place to finance them, he said — a structure provided by the cap-and-trade bill.

“You can’t refer in legislation to legislation that doesn’t exist yet,” he said. “So we ended up focusing our advocacy efforts on the big picture, which is the 1 percent, and making sure that happens. If we get traction on that, then we’ll spend some time trying to figure out how at least half of those funds get spent.”

Colleges have shown a growing interest in wind power in recent years, but in some cases they have also had trouble just putting in orders for turbines, because of high demand. Surely, Mr. Pickens’s company, Mesa Power, will try to find a buyer for the turbines among major wind projects in North America. But is there a philanthropic angle here as well? If the Texas oilman wants to unload some turbines, could colleges find an opportunity to get some from him?

Among recent additions to The Chronicle’s online database of new and renovated campus buildings is NanoFab East, the latest addition to the State University of New York at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. The 250,000-square-foot building, designed by M+W Zander U.S. Operations Inc., houses offices, laboratories, and classrooms. It cost $100-million. Among the building’s neighbors is NanoFab North.

Among recent additions to The Chronicle’s online database of new and renovated campus buildings is Ford Hall, a new science building at Smith College. The 140,000-square-foot, $73-million building was designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and opened this year.

The story says that the Legislature has denied financing for a handful of projects over the last few years, which means that projects are piling up and space is tight on some campuses. The state-college has complained in the past that it also has a crippling deferred-maintenance backlog.

The reporter toured North Hennepin Community College with Ann Wynia, the president:

With burgeoning enrollment in bioscience, medical device, health, science and related programs, North Hennepin’s existing bioscience building is bulging at the seams. There’s no break in the action during the summer, as a recent tour of the labs and classrooms revealed.

“We opened a new science center in 2002,” Wynia said. “And we were really excited about it. We thought this was going to take care of us. Well, the utilization rate in that building is 140 percent. It may be the busiest building on campus.”

The campus is busy, the story says, because many of the state’s four-year institutions offer courses, and even entire degrees, through the campus. The state’s flagship institution, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, is also less accessible.

“The ‘U’ has gotten increasingly selective and they are focusing more and more on becoming a top-tier graduate university, which is a wonderful thing,” Ms. Wynia told the publication. “That will greatly benefit Minnesota. But we also need a steady supply of bachelor’s degrees.”

Straw-bale building is an increasingly popular construction method, particularly in the West, where the climate is dry. Susceptibility to rot from moisture is one of the main weaknesses of straw-bale construction. Otherwise, the buildings are extremely strong, resistant to fire, and energy efficient.

Minot State University, in North Dakota, is situated next to a cemetery that is the resting place of early settlers of the area and those who helped found the college. Minot State officials have not always been thrilled about this tie to history, the story notes.

One past president pondered planting trees to obscure the view. A state legislator suggested all the graves in the cemetery be moved elsewhere. Current MSU president David Fuller informed him that the university would have to get permission from the relatives of every person buried in the cemetery. The legislator thought the law should be changed so it would be easier to move the cemetery away from MSU property.

Mr. Fuller has decided to try to make the best of it.

The cemetery is to be fenced off with an ornamental fence and the access to the cemetery improved for people who want to visit a grave or stroll through the grounds, he said. Future improvements might include a walking path near the cemetery with statuary or information about the people buried there and the contributions they made.

A Minot State University graduate is researching the history and lives of the people in the cemetery. First Lutheran Church officials are working with Minot State to fix up the cemetery in time for its upcoming [100th] anniversary celebration.

The plans extend to setting up statues of historical figures throughout the campus and celebrating the region with native plantings. (The story says that Minot State is looking forward, too, by considering the installation of a $17-million geothermal system.)