Duke gives its freshmen iPods
Duke University’s freshman class received Apple iPod mp3 players as part of a research initiative to discover educational uses for the players. For certain courses, upperclassmen will receive loaner iPods so they can also participate. Courses for which iPod use has been developed are as varied as Spanish, various freshman seminars, engineering computing and a course about the culture of 20th-century Berlin. The devices can be used to store data like a hard drive and to record audio through a microphone, as well as storing and playing mp3 music files. The total cost for the project is estimated at half a million dollars.

Beloit College issues ‘Mind-Set’ List
Most of the college freshmen entering school this fall were born in 1986. Beloit College’s seventh annual list describes the generation gap:
• “Heeeere’s Johnny!” is a scary greeting from Jack Nicholson, not a warm welcome from Ed McMahon.
• Photographs have always been processed in an hour or less.
• Baby Jessica could be a classmate.
• Alan Greenspan has always been setting the nation’s financial direction.
• They were never tempted by smokeless cigarettes.
• There have always been nonstop flights around the world without refueling.
• They never got a chance to drink 7-Up Gold, Crystal Pepsi or Apple Slice.
• There has always been a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• They never ate a McSub at McDonald’s.
• Politicians have always used rock music for theme songs.
• Oliver North has always been a talk-show host and news commentator.
• M.A.S.H. was a game: Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House.
• They have suffered through airport-security systems since they were in strollers.
• They did most of their search for the right college online.
• Desi Arnaz, Orson Welles, Ted Bundy, Ayatollah Khomeini and Cary Grant have always been dead.

Pitt will offer health benefits for same-sex partners in January
Renouncing a decade-long battle, the University of Pittsburgh will begin in January to offer health benefits to the same-sex partners of employees. In a memo to employees, chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg said that in order to remain competitive with other universities, Pitt would make benefits available to unmarried partners of employees in both same-sex and opposite-sex relationships. Currently, three-fourths of the large research institutions in the United States offer such benefits, according to the Association of American Universities.