With the economy in decline, charitable contributions to colleges and universities fell 11.9 percent in 2009, the steepest decline since the Council for Aid to Education started collecting national data on fund raising in 1969.
With a battered economy and volatile financial markets taking their tolls on donorsâ?? pocketbooks, private giving to American colleges dropped sharply in 2009, according to findings of the annual Voluntary Support of Education survey, which were released on Wednesday. Donations were down $3.75-billion from the previous yearâ??a decline of 11.9 percent, the steepest in the surveyâ??s 50-year history.
Gifts to colleges and universities declined almost 12 percent in the 2009 fiscal year, to $27.85 billion, according to the Council for Aid to Educationâ??s annual survey of voluntary support of education. It was the steepest decline in the surveyâ??s 53-year history.
The universities that raised the most money in 2009 were Stanford ($640 million), Harvard ($602 million) and Cornell ($447 million). Among public institutions, the top fund-raisers were University of California, Los Angeles ($352 million), University of Wisconsin-Madison ($342 million) and University of California, San Francisco ($300 million).
Wisconsin International University could be forced to change its name. So might Heed University. And a job applicant who recently tried to claim a phony degree from Madison Business College could be criminally prosecuted.
State lawmakers are considering a bill that would crack down on the manufacture and use of phony academic credentials in Wisconsin by criminalizing both practices. It would also prohibit unauthorized schools from using the words “college,” â??â??university,” â??â??state” or “Wisconsin” in their names.
Quoted: Former UW-Madison chancellor John Wiley
As students around the country anxiously wait for college acceptance letters, their parents are sweating the looming tuition bills at public universities. Tuition has been trending upward for years, but debate in statehouses and trustee meeting rooms has been more urgent this year as most states struggle their way out of the economic meltdown. The College Board says families are paying about $172 to $1,096 more in tuition and fees this school year. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is in the first year of a four-year tuition increase plan aimed at improving quality. In addition to statewide tuition increases of about 5.5 percent, in-state students at UW-Madison will pay an extra $250 a year each year.
As students around the country anxiously wait for college acceptance letters, their parents are sweating the looming tuition bills at public universities.
Florida college students could face yearly 15 percent tuition increases for years, and University of Illinois students will pay at least 9 percent more. The University of Washington will charge 14 percent more at its flagship campus. And in California, tuition increases of more than 30 percent have sparked protests reminiscent of the 1960s.
Noted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison is in the first year of a four-year tuition increase plan aimed at improving quality. In addition to statewide tuition increases of about 5.5 percent, in-state students at UW-Madison will pay an extra $250 a year each year.
For years, American colleges and universities have focused on getting more students to seek higher education. Now they want to make sure more of their students leave campus with a diploma. Despite deep cuts in state funding, public university systems around the country are launching campaigns to boost graduation rates, especially among low-income and minority students who trail their classmates in earning degrees.
Madison Area Technical College is offering an academy for adults.These arenâ??t 18-year-olds straight out of high school. The average age of the students is nearly 43. Most of them have recently lost their jobs, and some havenâ??t been in a classroom in 20 or 30 years. The idea behind the Center for Adult Education is to get unemployed people trained quickly in areas where there are jobs available.
The chancellor of UW-Extension and Colleges is proposing a way to increase the number of bachelorâ??s degree-holders in Wisconsin. David Wilson wants UW Colleges, the stateâ??s 13 two-year campuses, to begin offering a bachelorâ??s of applied arts and sciences. The degree would be geared at nontraditional adult students in rural areas.
The big item on David Wilsonâ??s to-do list before he leaves for Morgan State is getting in place a new baccalaureate degree â?? a bachelor of applied arts and sciences â?? in the UW Colleges system.
At the University of Iowa, multiple committees appointed by the provost are examining the institution to help chart a new course for its future in the wake of steep budget cuts.
But the work of one panel in particularâ??a group charged with scrutinizing the caliber of the universityâ??s 100 or so graduate programsâ??has triggered angst among some faculty members, alumni, and students who wonder if the process will result in their programsâ?? being eliminated.
Average college endowment returns plummeted 18.7% last year, the worst decline for higher education since the Great Depression, a report says. Overall, higher education endowments fared better than other indexes; the widely used S&P 500 was down 26.2% over the same period, the 12 months ending last June 30. And, the report notes, the economic forecast has improved for 2010.
Empty seats due to illnesses in University of Minnesota classrooms last semester went unchecked because of the Universityâ??s policy toward the second wave of the H1N1 virus.
For now, the University has reverted back to its original policy, and students must present proof from a doctor if they miss class due to illness. However, some experts predict that a third wave of the illness is possible, and the University is prepared once again to allow undocumented absences should that happen.
(WKOW) — The “gender gap” between college men and women has stopped growing and according to new research more men are now attending college than women.
The report released by the Washington-based American Council on Education shows more men are attending college and graduating with a bachelorâ??s degree, reversing a trend of female undergraduates outnumbering men and outperforming them academically.
The gender gap on campus â?? about 57% female, 43% male â?? is troubling, but itâ??s not getting any worse, a report says today.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Wednesday said poor graduation rates among some college basketball programs would improve if the NCAA linked postseason play to the number of student-athletes getting their diplomas. “They should make a rule that if youre below a certain point, you dont qualify for the tournament,” Duncan told reporters at the Capitol. “And I guarantee that would fix the problem in a hurry. I promise you that. Wed fix this thing overnight.” Duncan, who played basketball at Harvard University, said 25% of mens basketball teams in last years NCAA tournament graduated less than two out of five players.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly said Marv Van Kekerix will serve as interim chancellor for UW-Extension and Colleges.
In all the recent talk about boosting the number of Americans with college degrees, some worry that an essential element has been missing: whether the degree has value. On Wednesday, a national association of colleges called for a “far-reaching national commitment” to improve “the breadth, level and quality of studentsâ?? actual learning.”
Money appears to be high on the minds of this yearâ??s college freshmen, reflecting the influence last year of the struggling economy on enrollment, financial aid and life goals, a survey released today says. Students were more likely to take out loans, more likely to have an unemployed parent and more likely to say an offer of financial aid was “very important” in choosing a college.
Once upon a time coaches were respected and revered as pillars of their communities. The best of them sported images as never-flinching captains of their ships â?? flinty-eyed eminences who were tough, but fair. You could trust your kids with them. These days too many top coaches carry images as silver-tongued mercenaries who will skip town for money or glamour or when NCAA investigators reach the county line.
The recession has reached the executive suites of the nationâ??s public universities and colleges, putting a stop to a string of large annual pay increases for school presidents. A survey released Monday by the Chronicle of Higher Education showed compensation packages of chief executives at public schools leveling off in 2008-2009, rising a relatively modest 2.3%. One in 10 saw their pay decline. Some who did get raises or bonuses gave the money back to their schools.
College applicants are facing one of the toughest years ever to gain admission to the nationâ??s public colleges and universities as schools grapple with deep budget cuts and record numbers of applications. As cash-poor state governments slash budgets, colleges are capping or cutting enrollment despite a surge in applications from high school seniors, community college students and unemployed workers returning to school.
Also includes mention of UW-Madison/UW-Milwaukee partnership.
An intercampus program is designed to foster cooperation and attract more grant money. Looking for a bigger piece of the grant pie, UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee will mingle research ideas that support cooperation and promote partnerships among faculty, chancellors of the stateâ??s two doctoral-research universities announced Saturday.
….Students on campuses across America turned their concern about their future to the biggest polluters on campus — coal-fired power plants that still operate on more than 60 campuses. To end coalâ??s foothold on campuses, Sierra Club and its Sierra Student Coalition in September launched a campaign to educate and enlist hundreds of thousands of students to move beyond coal and fight for clean energy. This campaign has taken off like a prairie fire on a warm, dry spring day.
The entering and graduating classes at many of the nationâ??s leading public universities are looking less and less like the state populations they were founded to serve, a report said Wednesday. The follow-up to a 2006 analysis of federal data concludes that 50 public flagships, one in each state, “continue to enroll students who are far richer and far whiter” than most in their states, says Kati Haycock, director of the non-profit Education Trust, which released both reports.
Being in a power conference has its privileges. At Cincinnati, competing in the Big East means going to the Sugar Bowl to play Florida. It means a good shot at a place in the NCAA menâ??s basketball tournament. And thereâ??s having your name known nationally. But membership has a price. Cincinnati now depends on university subsidies for one-third of its athletic revenue â?? nearly double the amount it received in 2004-05. And it has accumulated $24 million in athletic operating debt, even with the subsidies.
Itâ??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. Are they worth the big-time costs? USA TODAY, through public-records requests filed to about a hundred Football Bowl Subdivision universities, examined several yearsâ?? worth of line-by-line athletic revenues and expenses. Often times, the sources of revenue, when adjusted for inflation, have increased since 2005.
(Story has a link to the database.)
More than $800 million in student fees and university subsidies are propping up athletic programs at the nationâ??s top sports colleges, including hundreds of millions in the richest conferences, a USA TODAY analysis found. The subsidies have reached that level amid a continuing crisis in higher education funding. At some of the schools where athletics is most heavily subsidized, faculty salaries have dipped, state-funded financial aid is drying up and students are bracing for tuition and fee increases.
Officials at a Florida college continue to pursue “all options and avenues” to locate 12 students and two faculty members who had been staying at a 4-star hotel in Haiti that toppled following Tuesdayâ??s devastating earthquake.
Lynn University President Kevin Ross said the group was registered at Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, a popular tourist destination that collapsed after the magnitude-7.0 earthquake in the impoverished nation. Among the group studying in Haiti were Dr. Patrick Hartwick, dean of the universityâ??s College of Education, and Dr. Richard Bruno, an assistant professor with the universityâ??s College of Liberal Education.
Do you have an opinion on whether or not affirmative-action preferences should be used in determining who gets into college?
Does the following tidbit alter your way of thinking?
The Swedish government plans to end affirmative action at universities since the practice has resulted in male students being given admissions priority for several popular programs, the Agence France-Presse reported.
A new study has found that five times as many high school and college students are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues as youth of the same age who were studied in the Great Depression era. The findings, culled from responses to a popular psychological questionnaire used as far back as 1938, confirm what counselors on campuses nationwide have long suspected as more students struggle with the stresses of school and life in general.
There are 4,000 foreign students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then many Wisconsinites and Madisonians cannot get in even with good grades. This is not right! Our state taxes help to support the UW, so why canâ??t our children get enrolled instead of all the foreign students?
A four-year degree doesnâ??t have to bury college-bound students in debt. Faced with state budget cuts and recession, some colleges and universities are stepping up their financial aid offerings. Many of those schools are on The Princeton Reviewâ??s list of 100 Best Value Colleges for 2010, four-year public and private institutions that strive for both quality and affordability.
A college education may be a lifetime investment, but college textbooks may only see use for a semester or less. And with many students pinching pennies because of tuition and tightening family budgets, some donâ??t see buying textbooks as worth the cost, which is typically between $700 and $1,000 per year.
Textbook rental programs have been sprouting up and growing for some time, but this week there are signs of a market shift with large, traditional bookstore companies going further than they have in the past in embracing the rental concept. And at the same time, those already in the market see the interest from traditional textbook players as a sign that their model is taking off.
Officials at major universities can say they treat academics and athletics with the same vigor. Just not with a straight face.
An Associated Press review found dozens of schools where special rules lowered the admissions threshold to let in star athletes, but those rules helped few others. That, despite the NCAAâ??s requirement that the same opportunities be given to students with other talents.
Sadly, itâ??s hard to imagine weâ??ll ever again get to the point where football and basketball players are expected to earn the same SAT scores as other prospective students. But, if the NCAA insists on handing out special privileges, it should at least hand them out evenly.
Veterans coming back from long overseas tours must cope with changes theyâ??ve undergone in dangerous, foreign environments, and in the way life at home has changed as well. Federal, state and county agencies have been preparing for their return, offering services that include preferential job placement and training and free college tuition with the added new benefit of money for living expenses. In addition to covering up to 100 percent of tuition, the federal GI Bill also pays for living expenses. In Madison, the stipend is $1,239 a month, said John Bechtol, assistant dean of students for veterans affairs at UW-Madison.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid FAFSA used to be really, really, really tough to fill out. An estimated 1.5 million low-income students probably are eligible for federal aid but dont apply, in part because they find the process so daunting. The new FAFSA, often used by states and colleges to determine aid amounts, was launched Friday for the 2010-11 academic year. More than 90% of families apply online, and technology is responsible for most of the changes so far.
I stumbled across the following opinion piece which appeared in the Boston Globe last month.
Itâ??s penned by Kara Miller, who teaches rhetoric and history at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. While the headline “My lazy American Students” caught my eye, I found the following two paragraphs to be especially noteworthy.
Wrote Miller: “Teaching in college, especially one with a large international student population, has given me a stark — and unwelcome — illustration of how Americansâ?? work ethic often pales in comparison with their peers from overseas.”
Roundup of campus news includes story about University of Louisville dean who was hired to lead UW-Parkside in 2008 is going to plead guilty to defrauding universities out of $2.3 million, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
A University of Louisville dean who was hired to lead UW-Parkside in 2008 is going to plead guilty to defrauding universities out of $2.3 million, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The newspaper says former Louisville education dean Robert Felner will plead guilty Friday, according to his attorney.
At Madison Media Institute, the definition of media goes far beyond radio and TV to include training in such careers as Web site design, 3D animation, music production and video production. Tuition at Madison Media Institute is $14,000 a year, significantly higher than at UW-Madison, where Wisconsin residents pay about $7,300 in tuition this fall or at Madison College (formerly Madison Area Technical College), which charges $101 to $136 per credit. Madison Media Institute only competes â??to a small extentâ? with UW-Madison and Madison College, says President Christopher Hutchings. â??Weâ??re a very focused school,â? he said.
Madison Area Technical College has long been overshadowed by UW-Madison, its bigger, high-profile sister. But like community colleges across the country, MATC has recently been thrust into the spotlight by the poor economy. With an 11 percent increase in enrollment this fall, President Bettsey Barhorst is charged with the critical task of figuring out how the college will train future workers.
The tiny, rectangular rooms with twin beds separated by only a few feet. The buffet-style dining halls. The communal bathrooms, whose patrons sometimes pad around carelessly in bare feet. There are few living arrangements, doctors say with a shudder, that are more fraught with contamination possibilities than the college dorm. â??I would call them a public health challenge, to say the least,â? says Dr. Margaret Spear, the director of university health services at Penn State, where roughly two-thirds of the students live in dorms.
The collapse of Dubaiâ??s overheated economy has left the outposts of Michigan State University and the Rochester Institute of Technology in the United Arab Emirates struggling to attract enough qualified students to survive.
While the change in emphasis on the name at Madison College (aka, Madison Area Technical College) has received a lot of attention, itâ??s really the sea change at the school that should be noted.
Illegal immigrants could not receive grants through a state program to help good students afford college, according to new draft rules. The program would offer two-year grants to students who can show financial need, the rules written by the Office of the Wisconsin Covenant say. The rules still must pass a legislative review.
Former Wisconsin coach and now the universityâ??s athletic director Barry Alvarez said: “Weâ??re irrelevant for the last three weeks of the football season because weâ??re not playing.”Â
International Student Services not only offers a range of assistance to foreign students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but it also works to bring international and American students together through a variety of programs, says director Laurie Cox.
The BRIDGE Program, for instance, is designed to help new international students connect with U.S. students. And through the International Reach program, international students give short presentations about their home countries and culture at such venues as elementary schools and local senior centers.
â??In that way, weâ??re not just internationalizing the campus, but the community as well,â? says Cox.
When Jin Hoe Ng decided to leave Malaysia more than two years ago to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his knowledge of the state and campus was limited.
He knew Wisconsin was â??an agriculture state famous for cheese and dairy products,â? that the universityâ??s student population â??lacks racial diversityâ? and that UW-Madison â??is a party school.â? Similarly, Indiaâ??s Hardik Modi knew UW-Madisonâ??s industrial engineering program was â??highly ranked,â? that Madison is a â??great university townâ? and that it â??gets really cold here.â?
Yet like hundreds of thousands of others from across the globe, fear of the unknown did not deter Ng and Modi from traveling to the United States to earn a college degree.
The UW-Madison Odyssey Project is a free, six-credit course taught by university faculty.
UW-Madison: All ceremonies are at the Kohl Center.
The Odyssey Project provides six free credits at UW-Madison to jump-start college coursework for people who have gotten sidetracked along the path to higher education. On Sunday, for the first time, a student who started in the 7-year-old program will see it to the idealized end — graduating from UW-Madison. Kegan Carter, a 32-year-old mother of three, participated in the programâ??s very first class in 2003.
Three major library associations sent a letter Thursday to the U.S. Justice Department asking it to keep a close eye on Google to make sure it does not exploit its position as the owner of the worldâ??s largest digital book database to gouge libraries with exorbitant licensing fees.
On a campus that has been a hotbed of student protests against Nikeâ??s labor practices, Provost Phyllis Wiseâ??s recent decision to join the companyâ??s board of directors has been met with a mix of anger, consternation and some degree of hope. While protesters are understandably concerned that Wise has literally gotten on board with one of their least favorite corporations, there are some who buy Wiseâ??s argument that she can be a force for change in her new position.
This was the year when the frenzy to gain early admission to the nationâ??s most selective colleges seemed likely to subside, at least in part because a student admitted under a binding early program cannot seek competing financial aid offers as leverage to negotiate a better package.
The Big Ten Conference is actively pursuing a 12th team, although the process is in the preliminary stages and could take up to 18 months before a school is identified and a recommendation is made.
The Big Ten might be getting bigger. The league said Tuesday it will explore options over the next 12 to 18 months for expansion. Big Ten presidents and chancellors decided this month that the timing is right to study adding a 12th school.
Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a bill that would require members of the UW Board of Regents to come from all over the state. He said the Regents might begin to lobby for the campuses in their districts, rather than keeping the best interest of the entire University of Wisconsin System in mind.
Gov. Jim Doyle on Monday vetoed a bill that would have required geographic diversity among University of Wisconsin System regents, saying the change would undermine the systemâ??s governance. The bill, approved by lawmakers last month, would have carved the state into seven geographic districts and required governors to appoint at least one regent to the 18-member board from each starting in 2012. Supporters of the change complained Doyle had appointed too many regents from Madison and Milwaukee, which was unfair to campuses in other areas.
