Quick Takes: Tom Wolfe to Give Jefferson Lecture, Intellectual Diversity Bill Defeated in South Dakota, Higher Ed Panel to Meet in Boston

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Tom Wolfe, whose last novel explored sexual politics among college students, was named Thursday by the National Endowment for the Humanities to deliver this year's Jefferson Lecture. Being selected for the talk is considered a top honor by the federal government for intellectual achievement. Wolfe's campus-based novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons, was published in 2004. He is best known for earlier works, including The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Right Stuff, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
The South Dakota Senate rejected legislation that would require public colleges to report on how the protect intellectual diversity, the Associated Press reported. Academic leaders in the state strongly oppose the legislation -- approved by the House -- as potentially attacking academic freedom. Senators noted, as faculty members and administrators have said, that there have not been reports in South Dakota of problems involving students or professors being discriminated against because of their views.
The Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education will hold a second public hearing next month, in Boston, the U.S. Education Department has announced. The meeting will take place on March 20 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.