Higher education bonds

CHICAGO - The University of Notre Dame will enter the market as soon as today with $150 million of triple-A rated refunding revenue bonds in a relatively rare debt issuance for the prestigious Indiana Catholic university.

DALLAS - The University of Texas System will offer risk-averse investors $250 million of triple-A rated Build America Bonds backed by the state's Permanent University Fund this week.

DALLAS — A $250 million sale of Build America Bonds by the triple-A rated University of Texas System tops a light docket in the Lone Star state this holiday-shortened week.

Moody’s Investors Service Tuesday revised its outlook for Gonzaga University’s debt to stable from negative, based largely on the its efforts to “significantly reduce” exposure to variable-rate debt.

Huntsville-based financial adviser Phil Dotts has been appointed to the Alabama Commission on Higher Education by Gov. Bob Riley. Dotts appointment, which runs through 2018, is still subject to Senate confirmation next year.

CHICAGO - Indiana's Purdue University plans to enter the market next week with roughly $50 million of certificates of participation divided into a tax-exempt tranche and a taxable series that will be issued under the Build America Bonds program.

DALLAS — Standard & Poor’s raised the underlying credit ratings for the Alamo Community College District and the Houston Community College System to AA-plus from AA as each prepares to bring maintenance tax notes to market.

The University of California this week announced plans to issue more than $1 billion of taxable Build America Bonds next week, as part of an issuance that will total $1.375 billion.

The New Jersey Educational Facilities Authority is seeking an investment adviser and a swap consultant to provide investment and derivative guidance for public and private higher educational institutions that borrow through the conduit.

SAN FRANCISCO - About 100 highly rated higher education, health care, and other not-for-profit issuers are using self-liquidity to support short-term debt, according to a Moody's Investors Service report published this week.

Slightly more than $154 million in federal stimulus cash will help Arizona’s three state universities replace a portion of the cuts they suffered in last year’s state budget.

SAN FRANCISCO - California's finance officials this week are expected to announce the size and shape of the state's upcoming cash-flow borrowing.

California announced Tuesday that it has closed a $199.9 million bond deal with the University of California through a private placement transaction, the fifth such placement the state treasurer’s office has conducted this year.

DALLAS - The University of Arkansas in Little Rock will ask the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees next month for a $31.6 million bond issue to build a new nanotechnology center and other facilities on the Little Rock campus.

DALLAS - Santa Fe is preparing to defease the debt of the College of Santa Fe under a plan to rescue the state's oldest private college.

The Treasury Department is seeking public comments on tax-advantaged college savings plans that involve municipal securities, including whether tax subsidies are the most cost-effective way to make college affordable for low- and middle-income families.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Using an analogy between "fish and chips" and derivatives transactions to frame his decision, a federal judge weighing the Alabama Public School and College Authority's bid to void a swaption has finally issued his first ruling nine months after the case was filed.

DALLAS - The Houston-area Lone Star College System had its underlying credit raised to AAA from AA-plus by Standard & Poor's as it prepares to come to market with $150 million of general obligation bonds.

Standard & Poor’s last week upgraded Northwestern Michigan College’s debt two notches to AA in recognition of its very strong reserves and good financial management.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $50.9 million of revenue bonds issued in 2003 by the University and Community College System of Nevada, now called the Nevada System of Higher Education.