Author: jplucas

In a move being hailed by some Jewish organizations as a major and welcome shift, the U.S. Education Department?s Office for Civil Rights has signaled that it plans to step up its efforts to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism under a federal law that bars colleges from discriminating based on national origin or ethnicity.

College tuition costs shot up again this fall, and students and their families are leaning more on the federal government to make higher education affordable in tough economic times, according to two reports Thursday. At public four-year schools, many of them ravaged by state budget cuts, average in-state tuition and fees this fall rose 7.9%, or $555 a year, to $7,605, according to the College Board?s “Trends in College Pricing.” The average sticker price at private nonprofit colleges increased 4.5%, or $1,164, to $27,293.

Tuition is up (no surprise) and this year the percentage increases for public and private four-year colleges and universities are higher than they were last year. Generally, the percentage increases at public institutions are larger than those at privates (which are more expensive to start with).

Nonprofits have long used the honor roll, a list of benefactors prominently displayed, to inspire others to make gifts.

As their state financing dwindled, four-year public universities increased their published tuition and fees almost 8 percent this year, to an average of $7,605, according to the College Board?s annual reports. When room and board are included, the average in-state student at a public university now pays $16,140 a year.

Despite their lofty SAT scores and sterling academic credentials, some Northwestern University students apparently need remedial instruction when it comes to selecting appropriate Halloween costumes.

A student at Emory University told a fellow reveler at a fraternity party early Saturday morning that he was gay. In return, he was allegedly showered with anti-gay slurs and dragged out by his neck as onlookers cheered, according to the Emory Wheel. Though the incident is still under investigation, it has already prompted calls for greater campus harmony.

As many states face billion-dollar deficits and struggle to maintain their quality of education with increasingly stingy budgets, few have remade their higher education systems as aggressively as Ohio has. Under Gov. Ted Strickland, the structure and financing of higher education have undergone dramatic changes, not least of which is a performance-based funding system that awards institutions government money based on retention and educational attainment.

Credit-card companies paid $83.5-million to colleges, their foundations, and alumni organizations last year under agreements that allow them to market credit cards to students and alumni, according to a report released on Monday by the Federal Reserve Board.