Michigan’s University Research Corridor, an alliance of the state’s three largest universities, is growing in several areas, including a $15.5 billion economic impact on the state, according to a recent annual report. However, when compared with six other clusters of university alliances around the country, the URC’s national ranking in technology transfers to the private sector has remained the same since 2007.

As they settle into their roles, the new board members face a fundamental question: How involved will they be in the running of the university? Their biggest test comes annually on the budget and tuition rates. For years, university boards mostly rubber-stamped budgets and tuition hikes, but the last couple of years have seen more board members voting against administration recommendations in those areas.

By singling out climate change in his inaugural speech, President Obama indicated a willingness to take on an issue he acknowledges was often overlooked during his first term. Andrew Hoffman, director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at U-M, said Obama’s focus on climate showed political backbone. “He finally had the courage to acknowledge the words ‘climate change,'” Hoffman said, adding that Obama and other administration officials have frequently used words such as green jobs or clean energy to describe energy policy, instead of the more politically charged term.

Forty masters and professional-degree students from eight schools and colleges at U-M are beginning the Dow Sustainability Fellows Program, marking the first cohort of fellows in the program launched last spring. Established through a six-year, $10-million gift from The Dow Chemical Co., the Dow Sustainability Fellows Program supports U-M graduate students and postdocs who are committed to finding interdisciplinary, actionable, and meaningful sustainability solutions on local-to-global scales.

Indian palaeontologists and scientists have found an unusual concentration of dinosaur dung fossils in and around the village of Pisdura in India’s western Maharashtra state. This has helped scientists conclude about the dietary habits of the dinosaurs and paleobotanical aspects of this region. “This is spectacular as it is a site highly abundant with coprolites and other dino evidence including bones,” says Jeffrey Wilson, an associate professor at U-M’s Department of Earth and Environment Sciences, who is collaborating on dino evolution research with Indian palaeontologists.

Even the nicest water-resistant materials, from synthetics to waxed canvas, can be ruined by certain liquids that soak right in while rain and coffee roll off. Scientists at U-M have created a surface that repels not just everyday fluids but exotic and dangerous ones.

There was a time when professors, scholars, and even one of Wikipedia’s founders, Jimmy Wales, said the user-edited online encyclopedia should not be used in academe. But in recent years, academics seem to be looking more favorably on the popular reference tool. The newest indication: The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library at U-M is now the first presidential library in the U.S. to have a “Wikipedian in residence” on its staff.