Faced with one of the most challenging fund-raising environments anyone can remember, colleges and universities are appealing to donors to help meet the swelling demand for financial aid. Using such demand “as a fund-raising tool totally makes sense in this environment,” said Richard J. Krasney, a wealth manager and philanthropy adviser. “More than ever, people want to know that their money is being used to address current needs”...
When the new GI Bill was signed into law last summer, advocates said its education benefits would significantly expand veterans' higher-education options. Beneficiaries would receive substantially more money than they did under older programs, enough to pay for the most expensive public institution in their state instead of only covering community-college tuition. But some public-college leaders say the program, which takes effect on August 1, may have less impact on their enrollments than proponents originally claimed... (paid subscription required)
Schemes for tying state support of public colleges to performance tend to share the same flaw: They are vulnerable to dying off before they can show how well they perform. Such was the consensus among several experts on state higher-education policy who took part in a panel discussion of performance-based financing systems today at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association... (paid subscription required)
Students who need the most help planning for either college or a career after high school often do not receive it. Virginia Community College System officials, however, believe they have found a way to assist these students, who are sometimes overlooked by their guidance counselors in favor of their gifted or at-risk peers. Their method? Meet these students where they are, right in the halls of their high schools...
Tenure-track jobs are harder than ever to find, with the economic mess prompting many colleges to grow even more cautious about hiring anyone on the tenure track. Tenure-track openings are being put on hold. Searches are being called off every day. Many who worry that higher education has created a faculty of two tiers -- the privileged tenured class and the overused and abused adjuncts -- have been told that this year is simply not the year in which to promote change. In this environment, Denison University might seem an unlikely institution to bolster the ranks of its tenure-track faculty...
