Vanderbilt University has teamed with the Regional Transportation Authority to offer direct bus service for those Brentwood and Franklin residents commuting to and from campus. MyVu.com has the story here. 

Vanderbilt University Board of Trust member William W. Featheringill died on Sunday, the school announced Tuesday. He was 70.

Featheringill (pictured) was an alumnus and entrepreneur who co-founded Private Capital Corp., a private investment firm. He graduated from the VU School of Engineering in 1964.

“Bill’s business knowledge, entrepreneurial vision and love of Vanderbilt provided guidance and a valuable voice on the Board of Trust,” Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos said in a release. “He could look at a problem and see an opportunity — and then find a way to make that opportunity happen for the good of the university.”

Featheringill had served on the VU Board of Trust since 1998 and was a member of its executive committee from 2001-07. A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday at Independent Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Ala. Visitation will begin at noon.

Tne Nashville Entrepreneur Center and Vanderbilt University are teaming to offer a three-credit studio and lab.

Select VU engineering management juniors and seniors are eligible to take the course, to be called Entrepreneur Studio.

Students will be matched with a startup company being incubated in the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. They also will attend seminars and classes as part of the course.

Read more here.

Veteran Vanderbilt University School of Law professor Donald J. Hall, author of the nationally used casebook Criminal Procedure: The Post-Investigative Process, died Nov. 29 after a long illness. He was 69.

Hall, who devoted his entire academic career to Vanderbilt (working at the university from 1970 until he retired in 2007). He served as the law school's associate dean from 1979 to 1984. Jim Patterson and myvu.com have the story here.

SEE ALSO: Our coverage of Hall's involvement with the State Ethics Commission

The Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University jumped no fewer than 12 spots on the latest Bloomberg BusinessWeek ranking of America's top business schools, coming in at No. 25 and sandwiched between its peers at Maryland and Texas A&M. For lots of the stats that make up the school's loftier ranking, click here.

SEE ALSO: Owen's place on The Economist's 2012 ranking

Vanderbilt University is partnering with nine other colleges and universities to offer selected undergraduate courses online for credit in a program to be called Semester Online.

The consortium — which includes  Brandeis University, Duke University, Emory University, Northwestern University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Rochester, Wake Forest University and Washington University (St. Louis) — is the nation's first of its kind.

Semester Online courses will be offered through a virtual classroom environment and interactive platform developed by 2U, which previously was known as 2tor. The platform includes live class sessions connecting students and professors, and a social network that allows students to connect and build relationships with peers online.

“We are especially impressed with the strength of the partnership,” Richard McCarty, Vanderbilt provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, is quoted as saying in a myvu.com article by Melanie Moran (read more here). “2U has taken the lead in drawing together great colleges and universities and we look forward to being an active member of the consortium.”

Online teaching has become a hot area in recent years. Fast Company earlier this year ran a wide-ranging piece on sector leader Coursera.

Vanderbilt has initiated a new task force — to be called the Veteran Employment Transition and Support committee — in an effort to recruit and hire retired military and military spouses.

VU’s Department of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action and Disability Services is overseeing the effort.

Joan Brasher and myvu.com have the story here.