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Students pick up the tab on energy

PORTLAND, ORE. - Students in Maine, Louisiana, and Oregon will spend their fall tuition dollars not only on the light of learning, but also on the lights in dorms, libraries, and classrooms. Overwhelmed by rate hikes and heating costs in cold weather, state universities will charge quarterly fees of up to $30 per student. Though Oregon students face the most dramatic surcharges, Louisiana and Maine are close behind, with yearly fees of $60 to $108. State schools in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Montana have fused energy charges with tuition fees.

LUANDA, ANGOLA - Frustrated with an 80 percent illiteracy rate and battalions of children roaming the streets in search of food, Angola's capital city has launched a free, in-school breakfast program. After 26 years of civil war, Luanda's education department found that most poor children quit school for lack of food, and offered free bread and milk in response. Last week, more than 100 children returned to school and found breakfast waiting. The government has expanded the program to Luanda and neighboring provinces, feeding 190,000 children in 200 schools.

santa clara, calif. - Defense lawyers from across the country convened at the Santa Clara University School of Law last Saturday for a week of Death Penalty College - a series of workshops in which experts and lawyers with pending capital cases swap strategies. In its 10th year, the program tries to promote collaboration among attorneys and experts fighting the death penalty, and is one of only two such workshops nationwide.

NORTHAMPTON, MASS. - Smith College brought one of academia's highest-ranking women to the helm last week, appointing Carol Christ as its 10th president. Since 1970, Dr. Christ has worked at the University of California-Berkeley, serving as professor of English, dean of humanities, provost and dean of the College of Letters and Science, and executive vice chancellor and provost. At all-women's Smith, Christ will help strengthen engineering and the sciences. Former Smith President Ruth Simmons became president of Brown University in Providence, R.I. last month.

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We are always looking for college students to write for our "On Campus" column. To contribute a column, e-mail Stacy Teicher at: teichers@csps.com Or, write to The Christian Science Monitor, One Norway Street, Boston, MA, 02115.