
        &lt;p&gt;New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner threatened to move up the Republican primary to as early as Dec. 6 of this year in order to ensure that New Hampshire remains the first state in the nation to hold a primary, Politico reported on Wednesday. Florida moved its 2012 primary to Jan. 31, prompting South Carolina and Nevada to push up their election dates, Politico reported. These states&rsquo; actions led Gardner, the sole controller of the date for New Hampshire&rsquo;s primary, to schedule the New Hampshire primary earlier than the Iowa caucus. Although representatives from the Republican National Committee tried to negotiate with Gardner, he has so far refused to communicate with GOP officials. The final deadline for New Hampshire to reschedule the election is Oct. 17, Politico reported.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Over 100 private nonprofit and for-profit colleges failed the Department of Education&rsquo;s &ldquo;financial responsibility&rdquo; test for 2010, according to Inside Higher Ed. Dartmouth received a score of 2.0 out of 3.0, while Harvard University received a 2.9, Yale a 2.2, Princeton a 3.0 and Cornell a 3.0, according to data from the Department of Education. The test, which is one of several ways in which the federal government measures the financial strength of a college and its subsequent ability to partake in federal student aid programs, calculates three ratios from the audited financial statements of an institution &mdash; a net income ratio, an equity ratio and a primary reserve ratio. Due to complaints that the test doesn&rsquo;t accurately portray an institution&rsquo;s financial health, a review panel created by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, the Council of Independent Colleges and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities will submit recommendations for the test&rsquo;s revision to the federal government, according to Inside Higher Ed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Amid increasing student preference for paper diplomas, the University of Notre Dame will stop offering diplomas printed on animal skin, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Notre Dame will join hundreds of colleges, including Dartmouth, in switching from parchment to paper diplomas. The change came when Herff Jones, Notre Dame&rsquo;s diploma provider, stopped making sheepskin available for purchase, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Although parchment is historically considered superior to paper, embossing, modern printing, gold print and high quality paper still provide modern options for the diploma designs, The Chronicle reported.&lt;/p&gt;

      