Pronetos

Having just held the seminal Northwest Energy Innovation Summit here in Boise this week, lots of us were excited to see the news from Stanford:

Stanford Announces $100-Million Energy-Research Institute

Stanford University announced on Monday that it had raised $100-million to establish a new institute that will study issues like energy efficiency, renewable energy, and global warming, and promote practical solutions to global energy problems.

The Precourt Institute for Energy will allow Stanford to establish one of the nation’s largest research institutes on renewable energy without relying significantly on federal or industry support. The start-up money comes from a collection of gifts, mostly from three alumni, and represents one of the largest amounts the university has ever received for a new program.

That story wasn’t too far ahead of this other story in my Google reader:

Moody’s Sees Stiff Challenges for Colleges—Especially Private Ones—in Next Year

A new annual-outlook report from Moody’s Investors Service says that higher-education institutions are facing a range of challenges in the next year and a half. Although all colleges will face hardship, private colleges will be especially stressed compared with public colleges and community colleges.

So I guess someone needs to tell Stanford that there is a recession on, and someone better tell the Chronicle that Boise State University, Idaho State University, the University of Idaho, and Lewis Clark State College all face losing 10% of their budgets this year and next (i.e., we are especially stressed here, Chronicle staff).