As returning veterans struggle to make the transition from military to civilian life on campuses with younger students without their kind of life experience, colleges and universities are increasingly developing programs to address their needs.
Student loan debt outpaced credit card debt for the first time last year and is likely to top a trillion dollars this year as more students go to college and a growing share borrow money to do so.
With only an hour to spare, lawmakers reached agreement late Friday on a plan to finance the federal government for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends September 30.
For as long as there have been selective colleges, the spring ritual has been the same: Some applicants get a warm note of acceptance, and the rest get a curt rejection.
A proposal to let people have guns while driving or walking through state university and community college campuses cleared its final hurdle in the Arizona Legislature on Thursday.
BOSTON ? Back in January, study abroad officials scrambled to get students out of Egypt. Now they?re talking about whether — or when ? students can return. With the spread of unrest across the Middle East and the tsunami and radiation crisis in Japan, the question of where students should or shouldn?t be allowed to study abroad, in which countries and which individual cases, has never seemed more salient.
If the federal government shuts down on Saturday, some students will have to wait longer for their aid, federal oversight of colleges and lenders will lapse, and the Education Department?s controversial “gainful employment” rule could be further delayed.
In Nov. 2009, the unauthorized release of 1,000 e-mails between British and American climate scientists soon metastasized into a media (and, many say, manufactured) event. By seizing on two turns of phrase in one e-mail — that a ?trick? should be used to ?hide the decline? in a graph used in a 1999 World Meteorological Organization report — global warming skeptics painted a picture, largely successfully in some precincts of public opinion, of climate scientists as biased and the underlying science of global warming as in doubt.
I always have been troubled that instead of public policy being generated at our public universities, too much policy is created and controlled by powerful think tanks, organizations in which well-paid experts give advice and ideas on specific economic and political issues. They are funded mainly by large businesses and major foundations and they provide customized agendas and playbooks for elected officials and others who influence public policy.
The Sustainable Endowments Institute published its 2011 College Sustainability Report Card examining the environmental sustainability efforts at the colleges and universities with the 300 largest endowments in the United States and Canada. The top institutions receiving an overall “A” grade are: Brown University, Dickinson College, Luther College, University of Minnesota, Oberlin College, Pomona College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Yale University.
Laws protecting the public?s right to know about what its government is doing are one of those rare, beautiful things about which there are few, if any, gray areas. You?re either for it or against it. Those who suggest that certain public records should be exempt from public inspection because their creators are too immersed in big ideas, too blue collar or too powerless are missing this point. Transparency in government means getting used to the fact that there will always be people who will use open records laws to harass, intimidate or simply waste your valuable time.
An open records request by a conservative think tank in Michigan seeks all emails related to the collective bargaining standoff in Wisconsin from labor studies professors at three public universities.
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A student at Marquette University has been hospitalized with a possible case of bacterial meningitis. The school said on Sunday that the student lives off-campus. The student?s roommates have already received preventative treatment, and the university is contacting others who may have had direct contact with the student.
State Journal city editor Phil Brinkman?s explanation for that newspaper not covering the controversy over the Freedom of Information Act request for Prof. William Cronon?s emails is unpersuasive.
I doubt that Prof. William Cronon thought long and hard about working for the “government” when he signed on with the University of Wisconsin. He shouldn?t have had to….The Republican Party might want to consider that this sort of tactic is not a one-way street and make sure that all Republican office holders are using their government email addresses properly. Otherwise we can count on a lot more fishing expeditions from operatives in both parties.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin on Friday released some of the emails requested of a history professor by the state Republican Party but said she is withholding others that “fall within the orbit of academic freedom.” Stephan Thompson, deputy executive director of the state Republican Party, had sought the emails under the state?s open records law after professor Bill Cronon wrote an essay on his blog critical of the role the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council has played in pushing anti-union legislation in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Full-time faculty members at Madison Area Technical College earned an average base pay of $79,030 last year, more than the average professor earned at all University of Wisconsin System campuses except UW-Madison. Average take-home pay increased to $87,822 when sources such as summer school and overtime were factored in, according to a State Journal analysis of 2009-10 salary data, obtained through Wisconsin?s open records law. Officials say one reason MATC faculty are paid more than those in the UW System is because the technical college must compete with high-paying private-sector jobs to hire faculty to teach subjects such as plumbing, electrical fields and information technology.But another reason for the gap may be the way salaries are set. Raises for UW System faculty must be included in the state budget along with other state workers, while MATC faculty negotiate their salaries with the district board through union representation.
If there?s a sure lesson from the economic recession, it?s that perception matters.
As the federal government veers toward a possible shutdown this week, Republican lawmakers may have found some unexpected support for their quest to cut money for academic research: university researchers.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will announce today a set of thorough guidelines for how schools and colleges should respond to allegations of sexual assault. Among them are that institutions should consider such allegations under the “more likely than not” standard of evidence, rather than the stricter “clear and convincing” standard that some now use.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin announced Friday that she will release some of the emails from a history professor requested by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, but she is withholding others that “fall within the orbit of academic freedom.”
UW-Madison received an open records request from Stephan Thompson, deputy executive director of the state?s Republican Party, for email records of history professor Bill Cronon two weeks ago. On Friday, Chancellor Biddy Martin revealed in a letter to the campus community that the university will release those emails.
Wisconsin college students would have to pay more to attend the University of Minnesota under a proposal backed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker that his administration announced Thursday. Walker is asking the Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee to approve a change to the two states? 43-year-old tuition reciprocity program that would save Wisconsin money by making students who go to Minnesota pay more. The reciprocity program allows Wisconsin and Minnesota college-bound students to pay instate tuition even if they attend public universities in the other state. This year it costs about $3,000 more in tuition and fees to attend the University of Minnesota than it does to go to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Under the deal, the state of Wisconsin makes up the difference for students who decide to go to Minnesota. That subsidy would end under Walker?s proposal, which means Wisconsin students would have to pay all of the higher Minnesota resident tuition.
More Wisconsin college students may stay in-state if the reciprocity agreement between Wisconsin and Minnesota changes.
In contrast to some other states (yes, that means you, Wisconsin), Oregon?s politicians and the leaders of its public colleges and universities are on the same page about changes the state should make in how it manages higher education. But don?t blink, or you might miss the moment.
Even as casual sex ? often called “hookups” or “friends with benefits” ? is a dominant part of campus life, a new report by the National Center for Health Statistics indicates the percentages of men and women 18-24 who say they are virgins also are increasing.
It?s not always easy to add up the millions of dollars that major universities spend on their athletic departments. But each year, the NCAA collects dozens of revenue and expense items from each of its sanctioned schools. USA TODAY, through public-records requests filed to about a hundred Football Bowl Subdivision universities, examined several years? worth of line-by-line athletic revenues and expenses. Often times, the sources of revenue, when adjusted for inflation, have increased since 2005.
When the men?s Final Four coaches face off this weekend, more than bragging rights will be at stake. Collectively, the coaches stand to gain up to $1 million in tournament bonuses. But dangling incentives to make sure a coach gets athletes through school is controversial. On the one hand, a significant bonus might keep a coach?s focus on academics. On the other, should coaches be paid more for a fundamental part of their job?
Win or lose, the coaches in the NCAA Division I men?s basketball tournament will make $1.4 million on average this season, according to a USA TODAY analysis of contracts and other compensation documents. Coaches’ pay ? for both football and men’s basketball ? has continued to increase amid pay freezes and cutbacks on many campuses, prompting protests at some schools. At the same time, about a dozen athletic departments in Division I operate without university or student fee funding.
The week before spring break would have been a busy one for the undergraduates who run Reed College?s nuclear reactor in any case. Almost everyone had midterms, and a team of inspectors from the U.S. Energy Department was visiting to check the reactor?s old fuel rods with a high-tech camera and watch as reactor operators?all of them students?transferred the rods to lead-lined caskets so they can be shipped away later this year.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor William Cronon isn?t the only academic being targeted these days by folks wielding public records requests. A free-market oriented think tank has made a broad public records request to at least three Michigan universities which house departments that specialize in the study of labor relations, report both Talking Points Memo and Mother Jones.
Milwaukee voucher students are more likely to graduate and enroll in college than their public school counterparts, according to a new study from researchers the state asked to evaluate the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.The finding is one of eight that researchers with the University of Arkansas? School Choice Demonstration Project say demonstrate the ?neutral to positive? results of the 20-year-old voucher program.
The U.S. Department of Education has fined Virginia Tech $55,000 — the maximum — for waiting more than two hours to alert students about a gunman who eventually killed 32 people and himself in the notorious 2007 rampage.
The NCAA?s new president is adamant that, on his watch, there?ll be no straying from college athletics? most time-honored tenet: “It?s grossly unacceptable and inappropriate to pay players ? converting them from students to employees,” Mark Emmert says. But as the NCAA basketball tournament?s Final Four gathers here this week ? capping a three-week showcase that generates more than $771 million a year in television rights alone ? Emmert acknowledges it?s time for a serious discussion about whether and how to spread a little more of the largesse to those doing the playing and sweating.
A conservative public policy center is seeking emails from labor professors at three Michigan state universities, looking for references to the Wisconsin union battle ? and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
Periodically we consult with universities abroad about issues of academic governance because together we bring scholarship on governance and experience in national and institutional policy to bear on questions about academic freedom, mission, and regulation. In the midst of this work, we sometimes are asked questions that require us to go back to the basic tenets of how higher education works. A colleague in Central Asia who is steering the creation of a university that hopes to become a world-class research institution recently asked us why any college president would want to share power with a board of trustees. Why would he or she give up the freedom of action enjoyed under a distant ministry of education, which, in some cases, offers presidents or rectors broad authority?
In this very chaotic and difficult budget year, where funding cuts in the neighborhood of 20 percent are becoming commonplace for higher education, another troubling movement is under way: to use the funding crisis to further dilute the public responsibilities of some of the country?s leading universities.
Cornell soon could join the growing ranks of universities with full-time Muslim chaplains working alongside the Christian and Jewish chaplains already common on college campuses.
The Chronicle of Higher Education posted a short Q & A with Duke professor Charles Clotfelter, who just published a new book titled “Big-Time Sports in American Universities.” The cover of the book features a packed Camp Randall Stadium on a Badgers football game day.
….In his book, Clotfelter said he tries to explain to readers what role commercial sports play at American universities, and what the costs and benefits associated with big-time athletics are.
The proposed settlement in the long-standing class-action lawsuit over Google?s vast book-scanning project is dead, at least in its current form. In a ruling on Tuesday, the federal judge overseeing the case rejected the settlement, saying that it “would simply go too far,” even though “the digitization of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many.” But he also urged the parties to consider revising the settlement, and suggested an approach that would deal with his major concerns.
Google says that by scanning and enabling digital access to millions of books from research library collections, it will give students, researchers, and others unprecedented power to search and discover within digital archives.
On the face of it, the budget proposal that Ohio Governor John Kasich released this week looks like terrible news for state universities. Not only would Kasich?s plan slash higher education spending by 10.5 percent but it also would cap tuition increases at 3.5 percent a year.
In January, as protests turned chaotic in Cairo, New York University hastened to evacuate 50 students and staff members from three sites across Egypt. Less than a month later, when an earthquake hit New Zealand, Cornell University quickly relocated students whose heavily damaged campus there had suspended classes.
For the past decade, women have outpaced men on key measures of college success. They attend college and graduate at higher rates, according to several studies, and they tend to earn higher grades. Yet on many campuses, student government is dominated by men, echoing gender gaps in state and national politics. At the 50 colleges ranked highest by U.S. News & World Report, less than a third of student presidents are women. Three of 12 major colleges in the Washington area have female student presidents: the University of the District of Columbia, Marymount University and Trinity Washington University, where nearly all students are women. The American Student Government Association estimates that 40 percent of student presidents nationwide are female, including those at community colleges. The share is believed to be lower at four-year colleges, though precise figures were unavailable.
More than 28,000 students applied to be part of UW-Madison?s freshman class in the fall, a record number and the biggest increase in at least 20 years. It?s a bump of 3,214 students, or 12.6 percent, from last year?s 25,522 applications. Adele Brumfield, UW-Madison?s director of admissions, attributes the increase to a number of factors: an increased presence internationally with UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin?s trips to China, prestigious awards for professors, $1 billion in research expenditures and more recruiting trips.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s School of Veterinary Medicine and School of Education each earned Top 10 recognition in U.S. News and World Report?s annual rankings of the “Best Graduate Schools.”
UW-Madison is best in the nation for its graduate programs in curriculum and instruction, educational psychology, rehabilitation counseling and printmaking.
Colleges and universities here have sent students and professors home and wound down to basic functions amid fears of a meltdown at a nuclear plant 160 miles north of the city. The government has also imposed rolling blackouts and asked institutions to restrict their use of power.
Thoughts of my own college days came late last week when President Barack Obama talked about the need to preserve the federal Pell Grant program for low-income students.
Catching up on a couple higher education-related items …
** How far would the University of Wisconsin-Madison men?s basketball team advance in the NCAA Tournament if winning was based on outcomes in the classroom? The Badgers would falter in the first round according to results of Inside Higher Education?s annual Academic Performance Tournament.
** A photo of UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin anchors the front page of this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education. The article is headlined: “Flagships Just Want to Be Alone.” The deck headline explains: “Hard times strain relations between big public research universities and their states.”
Universities nationwide are moving to establish on-campus recovery programs, some including residences, for students who have gone through drug or alcohol treatment. Plans are in the works for programs at Southern Methodist University in Texas and for a facility near New York University. Those schools would join Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Texas Tech and Rutgers University in New Jersey, which have established programs. It?s part of a trend of schools realizing they should provide resources for students with substance abuse problems, says Matt Russell, an associate director at Texas Tech?s College for the Study of Addiction and Recovery.
Operations at dozens of colleges and universities across Japan have almost ground to a halt following Friday?s huge earthquake and tsunami, which has left swathes of the eastern Pacific Coast in ruins.
The percent of state aid coming to UW-Madison has dropped over the years, but the university is still doing a little better than the average of its peers when it comes to the state dollars spent directly on students, according to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the 2008 fiscal year, UW-Madison got about $8,600 per student, compared with an average of $8,400 at the nation?s major public research universities, the Chronicle reported. The amount of aid per student given to UW-Madison declined by 7 percent in five years.
The percent of state aid coming to UW-Madison has dropped over the years, but the university is still doing a little better than the average of its peers when it comes to the state dollars spent directly on students, according to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
For many young people, the excitement of attending college is often followed by the stress brought on by new challenges.
Pennsylvania became the latest state where higher-education leaders prepared to battle a new Republican governor, as campus leaders there tried on Wednesday to come to grips with a budget proposal announced the day before that would slash state spending on public campuses in half.
The Wisconsin Senate, without the participation of Democrats, voted Wednesday to approve legislation that would end the right of University of Wisconsin System faculty members to unionize.
The legacy of the Wisconsin Covenant may be as much about helping students develop aspirations for college as it is about funding them. While it?s unfortunate Gov. Scott Walker intends to end state support for the program, after making good on aid to students already enrolled ? we think it has held a laudable ? if far from perfect, place in Wisconsin?s educational landscape.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by the University of Wisconsin at Madison of a federal appeals court ruling that could require many public colleges and universities to permit the use of student fee money to pay for explicitly religious activities, including those involving prayer.
Ohio State spokesman Allen Kraus said the school received about 29,000 applications for next school year. Madison has received 28,564 as of Feb. 15, spokesman John Lucas said. Both figures equate to a 10 percent increase over last year.
