President Obama challenged college and university officials on Friday "to put affordability front and center as they chart a path forward." The president’s not-so-subtle message was that America’s system of higher education should cut waste and inefficiency, just as he has urged America's government to do, to counter spiraling tuition costs...
President Obama, saying the country has to be more competitive in the world, called anew Friday for overhauling the system of college lending...Specifically, he called once more for ditching a system in which the federal government for years has in some measure essentially acted as a middleman for banks and lending institutions making college loans to the young...
A new admissions policy set to take effect at the University of California system in three years is raising fears among Asian-Americans that it will reduce their numbers on campus, where they account for a remarkable 40% of all undergraduates. University officials say the new standards -- the biggest change in UC admissions since 1960 -- are intended to widen the pool of high school applicants and make the process more fair. But Asian-American advocates, parents and lawmakers are angrily calling on the university to rescind the policy, which will apply at all nine of the system's undergraduate campuses...
On the west end of the Boise State University campus, professor Michael Humphrey lives on the third floor of a residence hall with his wife, 2-year-old daughter, their Labrador Retriever Booba — and nearly 30 college students...Nationwide, about 200 colleges have developed more than 600 living-learning residential programs in an attempt to further engage students outside the classroom and allow them to live on campus with others who have similar interests...
Mark G. Yudof, president of the University of California, says America needs to adopt new models of financing and operating its public research universities if they are to thrive into the future. The federal government, he argues, might need to step in and provide direct aid to colleges. States have to decide to put more money into higher education. And institutions need to rethink how they do business, including by considering options like three-year undergraduate programs and doing more with technology to deliver instruction... (paid subscription required)
As state tax revenues plummet, some lawmakers and higher-education leaders are once again looking at loosening the bonds between state governments and public colleges to save money and give colleges the freedom to bolster their bottom lines in new ways...Operating more like private institutions not only would be a buffer from the recession and the volatility of state budgets, some college officials argue, but also may well be vital to the survival of many public colleges... (paid subscription required)
The call typically comes from a banker, bringing word of a fairy godmother. This is followed quickly by a check arriving in the mail — or two checks, the larger earmarked for scholarships for women and minority students, the smaller to be spent at the recipient’s discretion. The only catch, for at least a dozen colleges and universities that have benefited from the surprise largess over the past two months, is that the donor must remain anonymous...Indeed, the mysterious sprinkling of nearly $70 million on schools including Binghamton University in New York, Montclair State University in New Jersey, the University of Southern Mississippi and, with an announcement on Thursday, Michigan State University, has become a sweet diversion and a huge lift...
English and foreign language departments promote male associate professors to full professors on average at least a year -- and in some cases, depending on type of institutions, several years -- more speedily than they promote women, according to a study being released today by the Modern Language Association. Over all, the average time for women as associate professor prior to promotion is 8.2 years, compared to 6.6 years for men.The study follows years of complaints by academic women that they are left "standing still" -- the title of the report -- after they earn tenure, while male colleagues advance. While the finding may not surprise women, some of the survey results may...
