Easing campus privacy rules
In the wake of last year’s massacre at Virginia Tech University, the U.S. Education Department has proposed new rules that would allow school administrators to share confidential data on troubled students. The rules would allow medical personnel in school clinics, for instance, to disclose information to security personnel without a student’s consent, if the student is deemed to be a threat. Educators say the new rules would clear up confusion about the legality of disclosing confidential information in a crisis.

The FDIC bulks up
Apparently anticipating a spate of bank failures, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has embarked on a hiring spree. The agency, which guarantees U.S. bank deposits, is seeking to boost the number of employees in its Division of Resolutions and Receiverships to 380, from its current head count of 223. The division handles the fallout from failed banks. Two banks have failed so far this year, and the FDIC has 76 other institutions on a watch list.