Category: Higher Education/System

Wren Singer, director of freshman orientation at the University of Wisconsin, calls them the ââ?¬Å?wink-wink, nudge-nudge parents,ââ?¬Â the ones who typically make themselves known during parent sessions at orientation. When the topic turns to how parents might talk with their child about drinking, ââ?¬Å?One parent in the back will say, ââ?¬Ë?Oh, but kids will be kids,’ and everyone will laugh. You see it in their faces ââ?¬â? relief: ââ?¬Ë?Oh, yeah, kids will be kids.’ ââ?¬Â

NEW YORK (AP) — For decades, getting more students into college has been the top priority of America’s higher education leaders. But what’s the point, a growing number of experts are wondering, when so few who go to school finish a degree?

University of Wisconsin System officials asked the attorney general Monday for her opinion on whether a practice at the Eau Claire campus of banning resident assistants from leading Bible studies in their dorm rooms is constitutional.

….UW-Eau Claire resident assistant Lance Steiger, who challenged the policy, said he was happy to see the UW System seek an outside opinion on the practice. But he said a lawsuit was possible if the school does not change its policy.

Some of the hardest-working, most engaged students at community colleges also are achieving the lowest academic results, a report out Monday says.

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) says students who are considered high-risk � typically defined as being less academically prepared, minorities, the first in their families to go to college or older than their peers � are generally more engaged in school than their colleagues.

University of Wisconsin student fees, historically used to pay for student services and activities, are increasingly being tapped by administrators to build student unions, fitness centers and student health clinics as state funding dwindles, members of the Board of Regents were told Thursday.

The fees have reached more than $500 per year at all four-year campuses and as high as $1,148 at UW-Green Bay. At the flagship UW-Madison, student fees have increased 33 percent over the last five years to $662 this year.

Regent Thomas Loftus of Sun Prairie asked for a clearer picture of how student fees have been used, the process to approve increases, and what they mean for the affordability of attending college.

Everybody has an irresponsible friend who cadges money one week to pay his electric bill and then goes out the next and buys himself a big-screen TV.

Congress is that freeloading friend. And America’s children and working families are about to get handed the bill for the television.

Entering Michigan State University as a freshman, Joseph Montes assumed he would complete his degree in four years. Two majors, multiple part-time jobs and three internships later, the 22-year-old fifth-year senior from Lake Orion, Mich., isn’t necessarily disappointed that it didn’t turn out that way.

Congress could vote this week to make it harder for low- and middle-income families to provide their children with a college education.

Republicans in Congress are trying to cut $50 billion in overall spending, and have targeted $14.5 billion in student financial aid cuts over the next five years. The House will vote on Thursday.

Ames, Ia. � University of Iowa student Zachary Kmiec was amid the throngs of students nationwide this year who abandoned their home campuses in favor of a shoulder-to-shoulder bash in another college town that resembled Mardi Gras and surpassed Animal House. This year, he went to Madison, Wis., for the Halloween celebration.

CONSIDER the cadences of daily life that result from something as prosaic as a course schedule. This boring bit of housekeeping establishes a campus’s circadian rhythms, its bursts of activity and its lulls. It is the master calendar that dictates when plazas fill and when they empty.

And consider Friday. Most colleges and universities offer fewer classes on Friday, and while freshmen and sophomores might have to take required classes, juniors and seniors can easily schedule their way around the day.

�A majority of college and university students (54% of first-year students and 63% of seniors) say they often discuss ideas from readings or classes with others outside of class; more than nine out of 10 do this at least sometimes.
�Three of 10 first-year students report studying just enough to get by.
�African-American and Asian-American students are the least satisfied with their college experience.
�High-profile student athletes generally take part in effective educational practices at the same level as other students.
�Students who worship frequently or engage in other spirituality-enhancing practices such as meditation also participate more in a broad cross-section of collegiate activities.

Nearly half of college seniors are ââ?¬Å?swirlingââ?¬Â through school ââ?¬â? that is, they have taken or are taking classes at multiple institutions on their way to earning a bachelor’s degree, a report released today says. And, it says, those seniors tend to be less engaged in their education compared with peers who have spent their college years at one school.

As UW-Madison’s 3,000 teaching assistants enter their 28th month of working without a contract, some TAs are showing signs of frustration with their union leaders.
The Teaching Assistants Association and the state have been locked in a contract dispute over wages and benefits. The chief sticking point is health care – the state wants the assistants to start paying a modest monthly premium for their coverage, and the assistants, worried about the prospect of spiraling costs in the future, have refused.

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) — Yale is banning drinking games from this year’s football game against Harvard and will shut down all tailgate parties after halftime — a move some alumni say could put a damper on one of college football’s oldest and most storied rivalries.

By mid-October, the leaves on campus are turning, homecoming games are being celebrated, and � at any number of colleges � bigotry in one form or another hurts some students deeply.

Jason Zogg has a nightmare scenario in his mind, and it makes him both angry and scared.

He has earned his degree from the state University at Albany. He is seeking a job. An employer has narrowed his choices to Zogg and another new college grad. Both job candidates have virtually the same qualifications, work experience and academic background.

This year’s freshman class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the largest and most diverse in school history, university officials say.

The class also scored high in its test scores and class rankings, the university said.

The school reported 6,142 freshmen, up nearly 9 percent from last year. The freshman class includes 778 minority students, up 8 percent from last fall and 24 percent from 2003.

Activists are gathering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to plan how to fight for affordable higher education.

The Democratizing Education Convention starts today and continues through Sunday. The idea is to bring together the various interest groups and figure out how to all work together, said Ben Manski, one of the organizers.

“The vast majority of those affected by the austerity measures imposed on higher education and by corporatization have not been included in the discussions about solutions. We’re working to build a democracy movement in higher education for the rest of us,” Manski said.