U-M assistant professor Mark Clague talks about the challenges facing the symphony orchestra and how to make it more economically viable.

The latest news about the U-M campus, administration, students and beyond.

This month:

• Smoking ban takes effect July 1
• Campus growth up, but energy use down
• New scoreboards coming for Stadium, Crisler and Yost

The U-M Library is scanning 1,100 Islamic manuscripts, many of them hundreds of years old, giving scholars around world access to one of the world’s finest collections.

Ice dancers Davis and White win nationals—again; faculty say that hugs follow a 3-second rule and speculate about the dangers of the Islamic Brotherhood; alums maintain internet security and play folk music; a brewpub opens in Bangalore; and more.

This hand-held solar-powered light and power source can be used anywhere, but inventors Abdrahamane Traoré and Shanhoor Amin hope to sell it cheaply in the developing world, where access to the power grid can be hard to find.

Ask cohabiting men and women, and you get very different views about what their relationship means and where it’s going.

Some orthodontists may be exposing young patients to unnecessary radiation when they order 3-D X-ray imaging for simple orthodontic cases before considering traditional 2-D imaging.

U-M grew last year at a rapid 8-percent clip—including the campus’ largest physical expansion in 60 years—but its sustainability efforts have simultaneously cut normalized energy use by 4 percent, water use by 3 percent and resulted in a decrease in per-person trash levels of nearly 5 percent.

The University of Michigan Board of Regents voted Jan. 20, 2011, to install new high definition (HD) video scoreboards at Michigan Stadium, Crisler Arena and Yost Ice Arena. The boards will be installed at each venue prior to the 2011-12 season.