A new report says nationally, Hispanics are lagging behind other groups when it comes to going to college. The American Council on Education says Hispanics ? especially men ? are falling behind in higher education. In 1998, 20-percent of college-aged Latinos pursued an advanced degree. Ten years later that figure climbed to 28-percent. But whites went from roughly 40 to 45 percent in the same period.
….You?ve seen the news stories of late of gay teens and college students committing suicide after facing bullying. You?d think that even folks who have issues with the morality of homosexuality would find in their religious values a call to work with schools and parents to make sure students are not singled out for harassment and bullying because of their perceived or expressed sexual orientation.
Instead, religiously oriented groups like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council are trying to make sure that anti-bullying programs do not mention the reasons for bullying, that they only target the act of bullying.
The Wisconsin State Journal has a series of articles about the Madison Area Technical College?s quest for a referendum seeking $134-million to renovate and build structures on and around campus?the largest referendum for a Wisconsin technical college in the past 25 years.
They text their friends all day long. At night, they do research for their term papers on laptops and commune with their parents on Skype. But as they walk the paths of Hamilton College, a poster-perfect liberal arts school in this upstate village, students are still hauling around bulky, old-fashioned textbooks ? and loving it.
One in five colleges says that its public-safety department lacks appropriate training and resources to protect the campus against known risks, according to a report to be released on Wednesday by Margolis, Healy & Associates, a consulting firm on security issues.
How do furloughs work for educators? Let me be clear: I am both happy and thankful for being invited onto the tenure track my first go-around, given the precarious economic situation and academic job market in 2008-9. I?ve taken very little for granted in the past year or so.
Should folks in Wisconsin be paying attention to a higher education debate across the pond?
Tuition at some British universities could jump up to a level charged by top private institutions in the United States if the proposals by a government-authorized committee released last week are adopted, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The assessment, which could help the government devise a plan to tackle a financing crisis facing British universities, “encourages a market-oriented approach toward higher education,” according to The Chronicle.
….This trend away from federal support of higher education as a public good and a shift toward market forces as a private benefit also could be playing out much closer to home. In fact, UW-Madison this week will host a series of forums to discuss Chancellor Biddy Martin’s vision for a new business model for Wisconsin’s flagship university.
Dear Editor: Four years ago, students began signing a pledge to participate in the ?Wisconsin Covenant.? The agreement has enticed over 50,000 students to take college prep courses and maintain at least a B average. In return, the state of Wisconsin committed to reward these students with a place in the state university system and a financial aid package that would make college a realistic possibility.
Since the first group of future scholars has yet to graduate high school, this program has required very little funding. That will change, starting next year.Funding for the covenant is necessary for Wisconsin to uphold its end of this agreement.
Bettsey Barhorst is counting on her bottomless energy to shepherd through what is undoubtedly a tough sell: a $133.8 million referendum on a facilities expansion for Madison Area Technical College.
The National Academy of Public Administration elected a University of Wisconsin professor to its ranks, UW officials announced Thursday.
Why don?t more of our smartest, most accomplished college graduates want to become teachers?
People trying to improve education in this country have been talking a lot lately about boosting ?teacher effectiveness.? But nearly all such efforts focus on the teachers who are already in the classroom, instead of seeking to change the caliber of the people who enter teaching.
Three of the top-performing school systems in the world — those in Finland, Singapore and South Korea — take a different approach, recruiting 100 percent of their teachers from the top third of their high school and college students. Simply put, they don?t take middling students and make them teachers. They tap their best people for the job.
President Barack Obama asked Congress Wednesday to extend a tax credit for college students and their families to help more people receive college degrees in the country.
….Doyle created the Wisconsin Covenant Program to make a college education affordable for all Wisconsin students, invested heavily in the UW-Madison campus and boosted biomedical research, including stem cell research.
Doyle never wavered in his support for stem cell research, even though it infuriates abortion opponents who equate the destruction of embryos with the destruction of human life. In fact, when running for re-election in 2006, Doyle often talked about how stem cell research could help people like his mother, who suffered from Parkinson?s disease.
Graduate schools are seeing steady growth as both recent college graduates and people already in the workforce seek to boost their job prospects in a still-dragging economy. “We see an increase in graduate school applications and enrollments whenever the economy really turns south,” says Nathan Bell, director of research and policy analysis for the Council of Graduate Schools. In its report last month, it said the number of applications to U.S. graduate schools grew 8.3% from 2008 to 2009.
Dropping out of college after a year can mean lost time, burdensome debt and an uncertain future for students. Now there?s an estimate of what it costs taxpayers. And it runs in the billions. States appropriated almost $6.2 billion for four-year colleges and universities between 2003 and 2008 to help pay for the education of students who did not return for year two, a report released Monday says.
As a scientist, I shouldn?t have a stake in the upcoming midterm elections, but unfortunately, it seems that I — and indeed all my fellow climate scientists — do.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has threatened that, if he becomes chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, he will launch what would be a hostile investigation of climate science.
The education gap facing the nation?s work force is evident in the numbers. Most new jobs will require more than a high school education, yet fewer than half of Americans under 30 have a postsecondary degree of any kind. Recent state budget cuts, education experts agree, promise to make closing that gap even more difficult.
Less than a month before midterm elections, students, faculty members, and advocacy groups held rallies on campuses across the country on Thursday to show elected officials their support for public higher education.
WASHINGTON — Young adults with college degrees are now more likely to be married than those who are less educated, a reversal of longtime trends as the struggling economy pushes weddings to all-time lows.
About 62 percent of college-educated 30-year-olds were married or had been married, compared with 60 percent of those without a bachelor’s degree, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data.
It was well after midnight, and the invitation-only party for Yale University undergraduates was reaching a peak. In the upscale nightclub Elevate, not far from campus, more than 100 students in semiformal attire were on the dance floor as Journey?s ?Don?t Stop Believing? pulsed over the sound system. In a throwback to childhood, a buffet table held platters of chicken nuggets and French fries.
Regardless of whether they are ignoring their professor in the classrooms of Humanities or the walking through the autumn leaves of Bascom Hill, thousands of University of Wisconsin students are glued to their smartphones.
Sixty percent of parents have saved money to help put their child through college, and those who are doing so project they are on pace to save a little more than $48,000, on average, by the time their kid turns 18 according to a new national study released by Gallup and Sallie Mae.
Wow. Does anyone else feel like they?re falling a bit behind the curve?
The report also indicates nearly a quarter (24 percent) of parents who are saving to put their child through college are risking their own financial future by using retirement accounts.
To keep his state?s current budget balanced, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland?s administration plans to give colleges and universities in the Buckeye State only 11 monthly payments instead of 12 in fiscal year 2011, which wraps up June 30. According to the Columbus Dispatch, that means June?s scheduled payment of $127.5 million would be pushed into July.
….With the budget situation in Wisconsin far from rosy, one has to wonder how the next governor is going to handle this state’s deficit and what impact those decisions will have on public higher education here.
Calling community colleges the “unsung heroes” of America?s education system, President Obama drew national attention to the sector on Tuesday and stressed the critical role it plays in keeping the country competitive.
Students seeking a postsecondary degree, especially one in fine arts, have another option in Milwaukee.The Art Institute of Wisconsin, located in the P.H. Dye House in the Third Ward, opened its doors for the first time Monday to more than 75 students seeking four-year degrees in advertising, digital filmmaking and video production, fashion marketing, graphic design, media arts, and Web design, and a two-year associate degree in graphic design.
Graduates of Wisconsin?s two law schools still won?t have to take the bar exam to practice in the Badger state. Wisconsin Supreme Court justices on Monday decided to keep Wisconsin?s so-called diploma privilege intact. Critics argue the practice is discriminatory but supporters say University of Wisconsin and Marquette University law grads are prepared well to practice here.
When a student kills himself, it?s a painful experience for a campus. Certainly that is the case with the recent death of Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University?s Busch campus, in Piscataway, N.J., Beyond the grief, the circumstances around Mr. Clementi?s death raise questions of not only how colleges can help students in crisis, but also how, and if, they can prevent the sort of malicious behavior that can contribute to such a crisis.
PISCATAWAY, N.J — The shocking suicide of a college student whose sex life was broadcast over the Web illustrates yet again the Internet?s alarming potential as a means of tormenting others and raises questions whether young people in the age of Twitter and Facebook can even distinguish public from private.
Cruel gossip and vengeful acts once confined to the schoolyard or the dorm can now make their way around the world instantly via the Internet, along with photos and live video.
In a flash, Tyler Clementi?s story appears to have proven that many gay college students are vulnerable to torment and harassment, despite increasing efforts on campuses to promote tolerance and provide resources. Moreover, the Rutgers University student?s death has shed light on a continuing debate among college administrators about the best way to serve students who may be uncertain about their sexual identities or are taunted for being gay.
The gender gap among college majors once dominated by men is narrowing, and younger generations of women account for nearly half of science and business graduates, a USA TODAY analysis of new Census data shows. In 2009, about 47% of science and engineering degree holders ages 25 to 39 were women, compared with 21% among those 65 and older. For business majors, about 48% of younger graduates were female ? more than double that of older generations.
The University of Wisconsin System won an $800,000 grant to help adults get college credit for past experiences, such as corporate training, work experience, or military service. The grant, given by the Lumina Foundation for Education, will allow schools in the UW System to conduct “prior learning assessments,” measuring the learning people have gotten outside the classroom. Then, the student can get college credit for that prior learning.
Wars in the past have been fought over oil. Wars in the future, experts say, will be fought over water. And it seems that the opening skirmishes are taking place on campuses, over water in little blue bottles.
The University of Wisconsin has some of the country?s top doctorate programs across a broad variety of subjects according to a new report from the National Research Council.
If you did not feel great urgency about the Wisconsin economy three years ago, the impact of the Great Recession has probably changed your mind. It has changed ours. That is why we both agreed to serve on the steering committee consisting of representatives from business, government and education that commissioned the Wisconsin Competitiveness Study. We strongly support the recommendations of the completed study, entitled ?Be Bold Wisconsin? — especially the two recommendations that would radically alter the economic development infrastructure in the state.
(Wisconsin School of Business Dean Mike Knetter and Marquette University School of Business Dean Linda Salchenberger)
The advance briefing for reporters covering Tuesday?s release of the National Research Council?s ratings of doctoral programs may have made history as the first time a group doing rankings held a news conference at which it seemed to be largely trying to write them off.
President Barack Obama announced an education initiative Monday to recruit 10,000 science and math teachers over the next two years.
Surveys by ACT (the non-profit company behind the ACT test) show one-third of freshman do not become sophomores at the colleges where they started. ACT doesn?t track how many students drop out in less than a year, transfer to another school or return later. But just under half get degrees from the colleges where they first enrolled (within three years for associate degrees or five years for bachelor?s degrees).
More students are enrolled at the University of Wisconsin System?s two-year campuses than ever before. More than 14,000 students attend classes at the UW?s 13 campus centers or are enrolled in an online program, a 4 percent increase compared to last year and the sixth consecutive year of growth.
Disgruntled students, employees and shareholders have filed a flurry of lawsuits against for-profit colleges since a federal investigation last month found deceptive practices at 15 campuses. The Government Accountability Office report was released Aug. 4, and class-action lawsuits have now been filed in California, Colorado, Arkansas and Utah by former students and employees, who argue in most cases that a school lied to them or misled them.
Stagnant scientific education imperils U.S. economic leadership, says a report by leading business and science figures. Released Thursday at a congressional briefing attended by senators and congressmen of both parties, the report updates a 2005 science education report that led to moves to double federal research funding.
A few weeks ago, news outlets across the nation marked the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with countless articles and broadcasts, and Sally K. Mason, the University of Iowa?s president, found herself bemused by the one element of the coverage. Together the eight colleges and universities in New Orleans suffered just over $1-billion in damage during Katrina. Meanwhile Ms. Mason?s institution alone suffered an estimated $743-million in damage in June 2008, when the flood-swollen Iowa River scoured low-lying parts of the campus and closed 22 buildings.
As I write, the leaves are turning color, and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers are actually ahead in the early stages of the first half against Southern Cal in Twin City Federal Stadium, also known as the House That Bob Built (for Bob Bruininks, the U of M?s president).
Ninth graders only have eight days left to sign the Wisconsin Covenant, which ensures them a spot in a Wisconsin college or university if they work hard in high school. Gov. Jim Doyle called on high school freshmen on Tuesday to sign the pledge, joining more than 50,000 students from around the state who already have done so.
Linda Randall says her daughter, Randi-Lyn, a student at Radford University in southwestern Virginia, is not a “die-hard” follower of the Highlanders sports teams. Even so, by the time Randi-Lyn graduates in 2012, her parents probably will have paid an average of nearly $1,000 a year in fees to the school?s athletics department. They just didn?t know it from the school?s billing statements or website.”We?re looking at five years because she changed majors. That?s $5,000,” Randall says. “I don?t think I?d have as much of a problem with it if I knew I was paying it. With what we?re paying, it doesn?t seem right.” Like most other schools in NCAA Division I, Radford relies on student fees to help support ever-expanding athletics budgets. Many schools, including Radford, do not itemize where those fees go for those who pay the tuition bills, USA TODAY found in an ongoing examination of college athletics finances. The amounts going to athletics are soaring, and account for as much as 23% of the required annual bill for in-state student.
Democrats? dreams of passing an immigration bill before the midterm elections died Tuesday, when Senate Republicans blocked a measure that could have carried legislation benefiting undocumented college students.
Illinois students and their parents pay more to send freshmen to the state?s flagship university than all but one other Big Ten public school.
All great businesses start with a bright idea. The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine today release their eighth rankings of 25 top graduate and undergrad university programs for budding entrepreneurs, whose bright ideas can turn into successful businesses.
Note: UW-Madison graduate program rated No. 19.
For the typical student attending a four-year public university, the financial investment in college begins to pay off at about age 33, a report says Tuesday. Compared with a high school graduate, the typical four-year college graduate who enrolled in a public university at age 18 has earned enough by then to compensate for being out of the labor force for four years and for borrowing enough to pay tuition and fees without grant aid.
The New York Times has made reference to research universities consistently over its many years of publication. But in the last half century, the newspaper has grown less interested in the universities and more interested in their researchers, according to a new study.
For years, young people here who wanted off the Menominee Indian reservation signed up for military service. That was one of the most promising routes to a steady paycheck for young adults in Menominee County, the poorest county in the state ? and one of the poorest in the country. But Verna Fowler started the College of Menominee Nation 17 years ago in her basement in order to give them another option. One of 36 federally-recognized tribal colleges in the country, it?s succeeding at something that the University of Wisconsin System hasn?t traditionally done well ? bringing higher education to Native Americans.
Chynna C. Haas had just about had it with the University of Wisconsin at Madison by the fall of her sophomore year.
It?s hard to spot one of the most underrepresented minority groups at many four-year colleges: students and faculty members from the working class.
“Who?s sleeping in your bed?” That?s not a line from the latest campus campaign to promote safe sex. It?s Bedbugs 101. The question appears on information posters in Pennsylvania State University dormitories, bringing students? attention to the creepy-crawlers who just may be hitching a tuition-free ride.
For the first time, more women than men in the United States received doctoral degrees last year, the culmination of decades of change in the status of women at colleges nationwide.
The number of women at every level of academia has been rising for decades. Women now hold a nearly 3-to-2 majority in undergraduate and graduate education. Doctoral study was the last holdout – the only remaining area of higher education that still had an enduring male majority.
UW-Madison junior James Richardson scoffed when he checked his bank statement after he paid his last tuition bill. He found a total of $4 left in his account. Although frustrated with his depleted funds, he managed to muster a smile.
The default rate on federal student loans continued to rise last year, with the rate for students at for-profit colleges ? already the highest ? rising the fastest.
One of Kay Monigold?s first big headaches when she bought a small cable TV business in Illinois and Indiana in late 2007 was a startup cable channel specializing in Big Ten sports.
Total student loan debt exceeds total credit card debt in this country, with $850 billion outstanding, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com, websites that provide information about student aid and scholarships. Consumers owe about $828 billion in revolving credit, including credit card debt, according to seasonally adjusted numbers in a report on July credit from the Federal Reserve.
Money can buy many things to help children excel academically, like tutors and private school educations. But as those children go off to college, the one thing otherwise protective parents typically do not spend money on is making sure their children do not become victims of a crime.
When the Indian education minister spoke last autumn of inviting overseas education providers to set up campuses in the country, he mentioned the likes of Harvard, Yale and Oxford.
