I’ve been traveling a bit lately so I’m getting caught up on my news. In case you missed it:

The Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts’s highest court, last week ruled that BU’s environmental review of the school’s infectious disease lab (now under construction in the South End) was inadequate in assessing alternative sites and scenarios of accidental release of pathogens and needs to be redone and submitted for state approval. The ruling doesn’t stop construction, but it calls into question whether BU will get the necessary state permits for its biosafety level 4 lab, according to the Globe.

In the continuing story about the planning of Harvard’s Allston campus, there’s been a bit of a kerfuffle about the new Harvard’s president Drew Faust and her position on the expansion. Last Wednesday, the Globe came out with an article saying that Harvard was “rethinking” the Allston plans, but she quickly refuted the article, coming out the next day with her own statement reaffirming her commitment to “to moving aggressively and ambitiously forward…”

Still, some caution is called for. For one, Allston residents are quite concerned about how Harvard will change their neighborhood. They’re asking Harvard to provide a school and health center. According to the Harvard Crimson, Harvard can’t begin building the new stem cell science center in Allston next spring until it signs an agreement to provide certain benefits to the community. The university presented a draft document to Allston residents last week that said Harvard would provide free math and science tutoring and make physical improvements to the neighborhood.