Your weekly roundup of KU mentions in the news from around the country, a bit of a light one this time:

• Less than 18 months after he was fired as president of the University of Oregon, former KU provost Richard Lariviere’s new job is not shaping up as an easy one.

Lariviere took over in October 2012 as director of the Field Museum in Chicago. I just visited the museum a couple months ago and had a fine time, but that apparently was not enough to help it overcome some serious budget issues that developed well before Lariviere came aboard.

The Chicago Tribune has reported pretty extensively the past week on the museum’s troubles. It seems that last decade the museum borrowed many millions of dollars to pay for improvement projects, and then the recession hit. That has left it with no choice but to cut its budget.

Of the museum’s two missions — providing the public museum for visitors and conducting scientific research — it appears the research side is likely to face more cuts, the Tribune reports. The museum’s scientists pushed back against that idea during a meeting with Lariviere late last week.

• Time magazine wrote about a new book by Shane Lopez, a professor of the practice in the KU School of Business, called “Making Hope Happen.” Lopez tells the magazine what he’s learned about how hope and how it helps in business and academics.

• Carol Holstead and Doug Ward, both associate professors of journalism at KU, authored a blog post for the Chronicle of Higher Education about how instructors can use social media, Facebook and Tumblr in this case, to get students engaged.

I’m choosing to believe that if I’m hopeful that I’ll receive KU news tips from you, it will happen. Please help this come true by getting those tips in to merickson@ljworld.com.