Category: Higher Education/System

As legislatures nationwide debate whether to legalize medical marijuana, colleges and universities in states where laws have been adopted say their campuses will remain drug-free. Universities say they have to keep medical marijuana off campus because they don?t want to risk federal funding.

They?re often called the elite eight, boasting U.S. presidents, Nobel Prize winners, Wall Street CEOs, world leaders?as well as famous actors and musicians?among their alumni. But they?re incredibly expensive and getting more so?prompting many students and families to ask: Is an Ivy League diploma really worth the money?

Republicans dominated state elections in November, promising to shrink the size and cost of government to help erase tens of billions of dollars in budget shortfalls. But the proposals they?ve floated since taking office look more like political point-scoring than serious cost-cutting.

The president of Northwestern University said Thursday that he was ?troubled and disappointed? by a psychology professor?s decision to present his students last week with a demonstration outside class that featured a couple engaging in a live sex act using a prop.

Republicans dominated state elections in November, promising to shrink the size and cost of government to help erase tens of billions of dollars in budget shortfalls. But the proposals they?ve floated since taking office look more like political point-scoring than serious cost-cutting.

Universities pushing for the Supreme Court to strengthen the presumption that a 30-year-old law gives them the right to own inventions that arise from billions of dollars of federally financed research were hit with some pointed challenges to that interpretation during oral arguments on Monday in a case known as Stanford v. Roche.

Along with the meaning of life and the origin of the universe, college students across the country have another existential question to ponder: the wisdom of allowing guns in class.

While Badger alumni and students around the world laud the unique experiences and academic opportunities often associated with the University of Wisconsin, the Princeton Review recently named UW one of the nation?s ?best value? institutions.

The chancellor of Ohio?s recently established university system, Eric Fingerhut, announced his resignation Tuesday, a year before his five-year term was to expire and four months after his political ally, former Governor Ted Strickland, lost his re-election bid.

The idea of large-scale matching grants has been tested in California, where the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation committed $110 million, to be matched by smaller grants, for 100 endowed positions at Berkeley. A model that combines private philanthropy and the government also has been realized; the University of Wisconsin at Madison announced in December that it received a $20 million matching grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the State of Wisconsin to support the humanities. Both institutions were among the 10 top public research institutions that Birgeneau mentioned during his remarks as potentially benefiting from a larger federal role. And Wisconsin?s flagship is making quiet moves to separate from the rest of the UW system.

A cynic might think the schools are angling to stay below the Education Department?s radar. As part of an ongoing plan to help keep spiraling tuition charges in check, the department will annually publish online, starting in July, a list of schools with the highest percentage increases in tuition and fees in a three-year period, along with the 5% of colleges reporting the highest overall sticker prices.

The economy may be bouncing back, but college-bound students in search of an affordable education face a bumpy ride. Federal stimulus money, which helped many public universities hold tuition down, is about to dry up. Some private schools, including Williams and Dartmouth, are paring financial aid. House Republicans have proposed cutting the maximum Pell Grant given to needy students.

Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum to a national campaign to open this part of society to firearms.

In a 2012 budget blueprint that administration officials portrayed as austere and Republicans derided as profligate, President Obama kept his promise to privilege spending on education and research ? though not without some potential pain for programs important to colleges and students.

President Obama released a budget on Monday that would make millions of dollars in cuts to student aid to preserve the popular Pell Grant program.

In a 2012 budget blueprint that administration officials portrayed as austere and Republicans derided as profligate, President Obama kept his promise to privilege spending on education and research — though not without some potential pain for programs important to colleges and students.

As much of the world recently watched footage of assaults on journalists and protesters in Egypt, America?s academics received word of a danger to their own free expression. Frances Fox Piven, a professor of political science and sociology at the City University of New York?s Graduate Center, was getting death threats from followers of Glenn Beck, the conservative commentator.

It was exhilarating for Maricela Aguilar to stand on the steps of the federal courthouse here one day last summer and reveal for the first time in public that she is an illegal immigrant.

The American Council on Education, joined by six other national higher education groups, is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a lower court?s finding that the University of Wisconsin at Madison improperly denied funding for some activities of a Roman Catholic student group.

Study abroad staff evacuating their students Monday and Tuesday all noticed a trend: many students did not want to leave. Were it up to them, they would still be watching the events from dorm rooftops, talking to local activists about chasing down police, and scrambling to collect souvenirs. Of course, security experts, parents, and university staff observing a volatile, precarious political situation had another view of things, and insisted the students come home. By the time pro-Mubarak forces clashed with protesters Wednesday, many of those who had wanted to stay were already out of the country.

Two miles from the site of Super Bowl XLV, inside the University of Texas at Arlington?s new 234,000-square-foot multi-disciplinary research building, Mario I. Romero-Ortega, an associate professor of bioengineering, investigates how robotic arms could be more reliable and lifelike for amputees returning from war.

Republicans leading the U.S. House of Representatives proposed on Thursday a 9-percent single-year cut in nondefense discretionary federal spending, making clear the huge challenge confronting President Obama and his pledge to largely spare scientific research from the overall need for deep budget reductions.

The nation?s colleges and universities received charitable contributions of $28 billion in 2010, an increase of 0.5 percent from the previous year, according to the annual survey by the Council for Aid to Education.

Universities in Egypt were closed on Sunday and American institutions with students in the country were monitoring their safety while making arrangements to get them home, as antigovernment protests and sporadic outbreaks of violence continued in the capital and other cities. With airlines observing a 4 p.m.-to-8 a.m. curfew imposed by the Egyptian government, however, thousands of people trying to leave were stranded at the international airport here.

The University of Wisconsin Foundation?s endowment grew by 13 percent between June of 2009 and June of 2010, according to this chart in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

As of June 30, 2010, the UW Foundation — the private, nonprofit fundraising arm of UW-Madison — had an endowment valued at $1.55 billion according to figures compiled by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, in partnership with the Commonfund Institute. A year earlier, the UW Foundation?s endowment was valued at $1.37 billion.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Obama called for college campuses to ?open their doors to our military recruiters? and the Reserve Officer Training Corps.

A year after their worst declines since the Great Depression, college endowment earnings gained sharply last year, though not enough to make up for ground lost during the recent recession, a study out Thursday shows.

“Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine.”

In a State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Obama proposed a five-year freeze in discretionary spending on nondefense programs and vowed to veto any bill containing earmarks. But the president said he would spare education and research from the freeze and spending cuts, calling them vital to the nation?s long-term growth and competitiveness.

TWITTER INFLUENCE: UW-Madison was rated the fourth most influential college on Twitter, according to Klout, a company that rates social media influence. UW-Madison came in behind No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Syracuse and No. 3 Harvard. The survey rated how well the university?s Twitter account was managed, as well as engagement from professors, alumni and others.