Campuses : Twin Cities Crookston Duluth Morris Rochester Other Locations OneStop myU Search Websites and People What's Inside Brief Campus Conversations Features Home > Brief > Brief (1-11-2012) People Vol. XLII No. 1; Jan. 11, 2012 Editor: Adam Overland,
[email protected] Resources for Internal Communications Inside This Issue --Federal Relations update. Related Links --Features: Dictators in the dock; This Week @Minnesota; U of M Moment. --People: R. Scott Studham has been named vice president and chief information officer; and more. Office of the President University News and Events Government & Top News | University-wide | Crookston | Duluth | Morris | Rochester | Twin Cities Community Relations TOP NEWS: FEDERAL RELATIONS UPDATE: Congress recently finalized appropriations levels for FY 2012 and the numbers were, by and large, beneficial for research and education institutions. In the context of the many fights and impasses over spending that have defined this Congress, higher education advocates welcomed funding for priorities such as the Pell Grant program, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation. Less rosy is the outlook for FY 2013, when automatic across-the- board budget cuts are set to kick in as a result of the failure of the so-called supercommittee to reach a deficit-reducing deal. For more information, see Federal Relations. Features FEATURE: If dictators who torture, kill, or otherwise abuse their citizens' human rights are overthrown, should they be brought to trial? On one hand, convicting and punishing an ex-dictator would strike a welcome blow for justice in countries where it has been denied. On the other hand, trials may open old wounds and even encourage dictators to hang onto power just to avoid prosecution.