Higher Education Notes MSU officials say arson to blame for fire EAST LANSING - Arson may be to blame for a New Year's Eve fire at Michigan State University's historic Agriculture Hall, school officials said Monday. Investigators from the Michigan State Police and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have found a ''high probability'' of arson, MSU spokesperson Terry Denbow said. Denbow said evidence of an accelerant was found at the scene. Denbow said investigators haven't yet determined a motive for the fire and wouldn't release further information Monday. Fire officials have estimated that $400,000 in damage was done to the building. Water leaked to all the building's four floors. The water destroyed computers and office equipment throughout the northeast end of the building, which contained mostly office space. Denbow said MSU plans to have the building open - except for the damaged area - for the school's winter semester. Man who killed newborn released WYCKOFF, N.J. - A young man who pleaded guilty along with his high school sweetheart to killing their newborn son at a Delaware motel was released from a prison in Prince's Corner, Del., on Tuesday after serving 1 1/2 years for manslaughter. Brian Peterson had been sentenced to two years but was let out early because of time served before his guilty plea and good behavior. Prosecutors said Peterson and Amy Grossberg tried to conceal her pregnancy and the birth and then killed their son at a Newark, Del., motel in 1996. The baby's body was found wrapped in a plastic bag in a trash bin in the parking lot. The couple, both 18 at the time, had said they believed the child was stillborn when Peterson placed it there. But the medical examiner's office said the boy died of skull fractures. Grossberg was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. She is expected to be released in May after serving nearly two years. Grossberg was a student at the University of Delaware at the time of the crime. Peterson was attending Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania Starr among candidates for Hillsdale president Bill Brodbeck, chair of Hillsdale College's presidential search committee said contrary to news reports made in December, Former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr will not necessarily be the next president of Hillsdale. He said the media has blown the possibility of Starr becoming Hillsdale's next president out of proportion after National Review Editor William Buckley Jr. mentioned that Starr and Hadley Arkes of Amherst University would be good presidents for Hillsdale in a recent issue of the magazine. Brodbeck said the search committee, which Buckley is a member of, has met once. "We have about 60 persons on our list including Starr." The committee will meet again next week to finalize its list of candidates. The committee is searching for a president to replace President George Roche III, who retired in November, after rumors that he had a romantic relationship with his daughter-in-law, who later committed suicide. Prof. designs site to fight cheating A new Website designed by University of California at Berkeley doctoral candidate John Barrie aims to eliminate plagiarism could threaten the future of online stock essay and paper sites. Barrie designed www.plagiarism.org to cross check papers against a database of millions of online paper sources. - Compiled from wire reports. Originally on page 3A in the 1-5-2000 issue of the Daily.