UNM takes heat on push for higher admission standards

By Megan ArredondoTribune ReporterMay 14, 2005
Students, faculty and community leaders voiced concerns about a plan to raise admission standards at the University of New Mexico main campus.
The Board of Regents listened to public input for nearly an hour before starting their meeting Friday.
President Louis Caldera presented the proposal, which he said would "raise the bar" while maintaining a commitment to excellence and diversity.
"We want students to succeed," Caldera said.
Low retention and graduation rates prompted the re-evaluation of admission standards. Part of this was attributed to the number of students admitted to UNM despite deficiencies in math, reading and writing. In 1996, 28 students deficient in all three subjects were admitted, and none has graduated.
The university's six-year graduation rate as of 2004 was 40 percent, which is not acceptable, Caldera said.
Part of the university's plan includes administering a standardized test to identify those who are not ready for a college-level course load.
The test, known as the Computer Adaptive Placement Assessment and Support System, is believed to be a more thorough assessment of a student's level of preparation, Caldera said.
Caldera is proposing that students who show three deficiencies on the test will be placed on a deferred admission status until they address at least one of the deficiencies. However, students in the top 10 percent of their graduating class or having a 3.9 grade point average would be directly admitted.

Full Story: http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_local/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19858_3778352,00.html

University of Chicago -- Faculty Changes

There’s a temptation, given the academic discipline involved, to try to lay the child psychiatry division at the University of Chicago on the couch to try to figure out how things went awry. But because many of the parties aren’t talking beyond the niceties that are typical in situations like this, the salient fact is that about two-thirds of the department’s key staff members will pack up their research grants and teams and head crosstown to the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Monday’s announcement by Illinois-Chicago of the migration caps several months of turmoil for the Chicago department, which was set off by the university’s decision in November to remove Bennett Leventhal as chief of the child and adolescent psychiatry section.
A nationally recognized expert on autism, Leventhal had headed the child psychiatry section for 15 years and had been acting or co-chairman of the entire psychiatry department in Chicago’s medical school for much of that time. But days after the medical school selected a new chairman for the psychiatry department last November, Leventhal was stripped of all administrative duties and told that his contract as a faculty member — like most professors at Chicago’s medical school, he is not tenured — would not be renewed.
Chicago officials declined to comment at the time on the decision about Leventhal, citing the university’s policy of not discussing “specific personnel actions” except with the involved individuals. But the furor surrounding its treatment of Leventhal led the medical school to issue a statement in January which it called the decision “part of an effort to create a strong and consistent new leadership structure in a department that has experienced administrative turnover.”
The statement also said that experts inside and outside the medical school had concluded that the department “was in need of new leadership, and that without a significant shift in leadership it would be difficult to continue to attract first-rate new faculty, as well as top students, residents and fellows.”
On Monday, a spokesman for Chicago’s medical school, John Easton, amplified on those comments in one way, saying that “customarily, following the appointment of a new chairman, all section chiefs step down and are then reappointed — or not.”

Full Story: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/05/17/psych

The letters went out Friday, via certified mail, to all full-time professors at Grand Canyon University. In a twist on the old college acceptance letters, many of the recipients got the thick envelopes, which included contracts for the coming year (with signing bonuses included).
Seventeen other full-time faculty members got thin envelopes — single page letters informing them that because “this has a been a year of challenge and change for Grand Canyon University, difficult decisions” must be made. “One area of correction,” the letter continued, “is the number of full and part time faculty on campus. It is in this context that I regret to inform you that you will not receive a contract.”
At least five of the instructors who were let go had tenure, even though they and other instructors at the college say that administrators had assured them repeatedly since a group of private investors bought the financially ailing Christian college in January 2004 that the institution would honor their tenured status.

In a e-mail message distributed around the campus, Grand Canyon’s CEO, Brent Richardson, attributed the layoffs to a “reduction and redirection in certain academic departments, positions and programs.” He called the actions “an expected and necessary part of the restructuring of GCU and the first change that impacts faculty in the way staff and even students have been impacted,” noting previous cutbacks in staff positions and scholarship adjustments for students.

Full Story: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/05/18/canyon

Outsourcing the Faculty

Finding the right faculty role in distance education is a tricky question at many colleges.
At Delaware State University, already tense relations between professors and the administration may implode over the issue. The American Association of University Professors, the faculty union at the university, has filed a complaint with the state labor board over plans to hire an outside company to offer a master’s degree online. The controversy comes at a time that alumni leaders are also angry over the direction of the university, which some fear is at risk of losing its identity as a historically black institution.
The AAUP complaint charges that the administration is directly violating the faculty contract by offering a new degree program without faculty approval — and without faculty members playing any role in designing the curriculum or teaching it. Carlos Holmes, a spokesman for the university, said that the faculty group was distorting the contract. “The Faculty Senate is an advisory body and great weight is given to their recommendations, but they are not binding recommendations,” he said.
The controversial new master’s degree is in graphic arts and Web design and would be offered through a New York City company called Sessions.edu.

Full Story: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/05/17/delstate

UH tuition to rise 140% over 6 years

By Beverly Creamer Advertiser Education Writer
Calling it a tough but necessary decision, University of Hawai'i Regents voted unanimously yesterday to approve the biggest tuition increase ever for the state's public college system.
Under the increase, resident undergraduate tuition at the flagship Manoa campus will more than double by the year 2011 — from $3,504 to $8,400 a year — beginning with a $408 increase per semester effective in fall 2006. Increases at the other campuses will be smaller.
That amounts to about $100 per month more every year through 2011-12 for school at Manoa; $66 a month more for school at UH-Hilo every year; $60 a month more at UH-West O'ahu every year and about $30 more a month at a community college each year.
Regents said the increase was needed to bring costs closer in line with those of Mainland peer institutions and give the university the resources to hire tenure-track faculty instead of lecturers, reduce class sizes, add additional classes, fix decrepit laboratories and increase security and financial aid.
The result will be an additional $413 million in revenue through 2011-12, with the university ending up collecting about $200 million annually from tuition rather than $90 million now.
"This is going to improve the opportunities for students," board vice chairwoman Kitty Lagareta said in voting for the increase.
"It's a tough, tough decision," she said. "But ... I believe in my heart this is the right thing to do for the long term."
Grant Teichman, incoming student body president at Manoa, said the regents weren't listening to what the students said they could pay — $50 to $150 more per semester.

Complete Story: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/May/20/ln/ln01p.html

Drury University gets new President

John D. Sellars, the senior vice president for advancement and marketing at Syracuse University in New York, has been named to succeed John Moore Jr. as president of Drury University (of Springfield, MO).

College Waiting Lists Can Favor the Well-Off

As the clock ticks and financial aid gets short, private schools often select wealthier students. By Stuart Silverstein Times Staff Writer May 20, 2005 Many high school seniors dangling on college waiting lists and still hoping to land fall-term openings at their top-choice schools will instead get a lesson in real-world economics: It pays to be rich.Selective private colleges acknowledge that they sometimes take affluent teens over those from poor or middle-class families needing financial aid when deciding which students to admit from their waiting lists.The reason, college administrators say, is that financial aid budgets often have been tapped out by the time those admissions are decided in May and June. The money has been allocated to students admitted earlier whom the schools most wanted to attract, rather than the backup choices typically relegated to the waiting list."It's the financial reality of things," said Paul Marthers, dean of admission at Reed College in Portland, Ore.At Reed, where officials take pride in providing full aid packages to needy students, "Every year we have to decide, 'Can we give financial aid to students on the waiting list?' " Marthers said. Often by that point, "The financial aid is just used up."

Full Story: http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/la-me-waitlist20may20,0,4278213.story?coll=ktla-news-1

Student borrowers get a break

Kathleen Pender
Tuesday, May 17, 2005


The Department of Education issued a guidance letter on Monday that could potentially save many college students a boatload of money on their student loans. But they'll have to act quickly.
The letter says that students who are still in school and have government- guaranteed Stafford loans from banks or other commercial lenders can lock in today's record-low interest rates by consolidating one or more loans while they are still in school.
The ruling will put students with Stafford loans from banks on a more equal footing with students who have Stafford loans from the government.
The rate on Stafford loans is reset on July 1 each year. It is tied to the rate on three-month Treasury bills at the last auction in May. The rate on loans for students still in school is expected to jump from 2.77 percent today to between 4.5 and 5 percent on July 1.
Students can lock in today's low rate, rounded up to the nearest eighth, by consolidating one or more variable-rate loans into a fixed-rate loan. But their application will have to be received by the lender by June 30.

Full Story: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/17/BUGRVCQ42M1.DTL

Harvard to spend $50 million on diversity

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, under fire for comments on women in the sciences, said the school would spend $50 million over 10 years to promote diversity on its faculty and reform the way women in science and engineering are treated.
The announcement on Monday came four months after Summers triggered outrage among the faculty when he said intrinsic differences between the sexes may help explain why so few women work in the academic sciences.
After harsh criticism, Summers appointed a task force to study the representation of women and other minorities at the Ivy League school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Task force recommendations included appointing a senior vice provost for diversity and faculty development, improved recruitment and mentoring of junior faculty members.
"They also propose a series of reforms and enhancements to the way women pursuing science and engineering are treated at every point along the 'pipeline,' from undergraduates, to graduate students, to post-doctoral fellows, to the faculty ranks," according to a statement from Summers' office.
"There is no doubt that these initiatives will require significant additional expenditures," the statement said. "But we want to make clear at the outset that this is a serious effort calling for a serious commitment of resources."
There were scattered calls for Summers' resignation after reports of his comments in January. Two months ago, he lost an extraordinary but non-binding vote of confidence by Harvard's undergraduate faculty -- several of whom said they were more upset with his overall leadership style than his remarks.
But he refused to step down, instead making repeated apologies. Summers also pledged to change his tone, better listen to the Harvard community and do more to draw women to science and engineering at the prestigious Cambridge, Massachusetts university.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8513049

Keeler to boycott Loyola graduation

Cardinal objects to views of keynote speaker Giuliani on abortion

By William Wan, Sun Staff
May 19, 2005

Cardinal William H. Keeler told Loyola College of Maryland yesterday that he will not attend its commencement ceremony tomorrow because he disagrees with the keynote speaker, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who supports abortion rights.

The decision comes amid planned protests, led in part by a conservative Catholic group, outside tomorrow's ceremony at the 1st Mariner Arena in downtown Baltimore.
Loyola's interim president, David Haddad, received a strongly worded letter from the cardinal yesterday, saying Keeler would not attend - nor would any auxiliary bishops or any other representative of the archdiocese, college and archdiocese officials said.
"He just feels it's not appropriate given Giuliani's stance on abortion," archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine said. "I don't recall there being similar circumstances where the cardinal's had to make this decision."
Last night, college officials defended their choice of Giulani to speak at tomorrow morning's ceremony and their plans to award him an honorary degree.
"The college selected Giuliani because of his courageous leadership during the 9/11 attacks," said college spokesman Mark Kelly. "This is a 9/11 class. Their first week in school, 9/11 happened. It's had a huge effect on them. We decided his response and resolve was worthy of this honor."
The college does not always agree with every position of every speaker, Kelly said. Giuliani was selected as the speaker about five months ago.
A spokesman for Giuliani could not be reached for comment last night.

Full Story: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/bal-te.md.keeler19may19001649,0,5037184.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

KU touts results of tuition increase

By Terry Rombeck (Contact)
Sunday, May 15, 2005
In many corners of the Kansas University campus, it's tough to tell the state is in tight budget times.
New faculty are being hired. Computers are being installed. Salaries for student workers, teaching assistants, faculty and some staff are up.

And students are paying for it all.
This school year marked the halfway point of a doubling of KU tuition rates over five years. KU leaders say they're convinced the investments made with the tuition money will transform the university for generations to come.
"We're a school on the move instead of a school that's getting budgets slashed," said Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, senior vice provost. "If it hadn't happened, we would be financially strapped."
At KU, base tuition rates have increased from $2,333 per year in the 2001-2002 school year to $4,163 this year, for an undergraduate Kansas resident taking 15 credit hours. All schools -- except the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the School of Social Welfare -- also have school-specific additional tuition of $12 to $107.95 per credit hour, and all students are required to pay fees of $287 a semester.
KU will propose another large tuition increase to the Kansas Board of Regents on Thursday. Though officials won't say exactly how much the new rates will be until then, tuition is expected to be around $4,840 for the 2005-2006 year for resident undergraduates.

Full Story: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/may/15/ku_touts_results/

Demand for higher education skyrocketing in California

State may run out of room
By Kenneth Todd Ruiz, Staff Writer
An anticipated spike in demand for higher education during the next several years could force California to break its 45-year-old promise to make college available to everyone.
Unless steps are taken to absorb the more than 800,000 new students expected during the next eight years, there may not be room in the already-crowded UC, Cal State and community college systems for all of them, said Abdi Soltani, executive director of The Campaign for College Opportunity, an Oakland-based nonprofit that promotes access to higher education.
"Unless we solve this issue, and the state develops a plan and ensures we provide the space, then those students will not have an opportunity to go to college," Soltani said.
Demand is greatest for the state's many affordable community colleges, said Murray J. Haberman of the California Postsecondary Education Commission.
Projections from CPEC, the state's planning agency for higher education, show the Inland Valley near the top of the list in growth. On average, the state expects a 40 percent increase at the community college level by 2013, but San Bernardino County is well over that at 59 percent.
Schools throughout the state, and locally, are already pushing capacity.
Although Chaffey and Mt. San Antonio colleges are not turning students away, the classes they need most can be difficult to get.
"Pretty much any (general education) classes are going to be full, just because everyone needs them" said Jason Wang, a 19-year-old Mt. SAC student from Claremont.
Wang, who plans to transfer to Cal State Los Angeles, said that two years will not be enough to complete the classes he needs at Mt. SAC.
In three years, the number of high school graduates will increase by 45,000 per year and continue to climb, according to the state Department of Education.

Full Story: http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~21481~2873185,00.html

NCAA ponders future of Indian nicknames

By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY
After wrestling with the politically delicate issue for more than four years, the NCAA may be close to rendering a verdict on the use of Native American mascots and nicknames — from Indians and Braves to Redmen and Savages — by 30 of its member universities.
The governing body will conduct the first in a series of summer meetings next month and could decide by August whether it can and should impose a ban on Indian imagery, which critics charge is demeaning and even racist.
Ultimate responsibility falls to the NCAA's highest body, the 17-member Executive Committee, which meets in early August.
Whether the association will or legally must continue to yield to individual campus discretion — as the NCAA does on such matters as minority hiring — is uncertain. Targets range from Florida State (Seminoles) and Utah (Utes) to lower-division institutions with particularly provocative nicknames: Southeastern Oklahoma (Savages) and Carthage, Wis. (Redmen).
"What we can do is educate, get the information out there to you," says Southwestern Athletic Conference Commissioner Robert Vowels, who heads the Minority Interests and Opportunities Committee. "I can't sit here and say right now that we can enforce something or establish a penalty structure."
One possibility, says the NCAA's Corey Jackson, who works closely with the committee, is a lever the association has applied to the issue of flying the Confederate flag or incorporating in their state flags. Two states that do, South Carolina and Mississippi, are barred from hosting association championships.
The NCAA's attention to the mascot issue grew out of the flag flap four years ago.

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/other/2005-05-15-native-americans-ncaa_x.htm

State to pad MEAP scores

Marks will be revised after 4th- and 7th-grade students did poorly on the tougher writing test.
By Mark Hornbeck / The Detroit News

LANSING -- Scores were alarmingly low on the statewide fourth- and seventh-grade writing tests this year, prompting education officials to decide the exams were probably just too tough for students to handle.
The Michigan Education Assessment Program office has pulled back the results of the writing tests taken in those grades so officials can figure out how to prop up the dismal scores. That could slightly delay the release of the results, which were due out next week.
"After analyzing the test and the results, assessment experts determined this year's writing 'prompts' (essay questions) were more difficult than previous years, requiring a revised scoring scale so the results are statistically comparable" to past scores, said Martin Ackley, spokesman for the Department of Education.
Some lawmakers and parents expressed skepticism about revising the scores, particularly in light of the state's goal to boost the substandard performance on writing tests by those two grades in previous years.
State education officials have stressed that they consider writing and other communication skills nearly as important in producing world-class students as proficiency in math and science.

Full Story: http://www.detnews.com/2005/schools/0504/29/A01-166339.htm

Bad, then better news for Apple

From eSchool News staff and wire service reports - May 5, 2005

It's been a bad-news and better-news couple of weeks for executives at Apple Computer.
First Apple's ed-tech nemesis, Dell, wrested away a major contract with a high-profile school division in Virginia; then Apple got a solid win in Georgia, but at a sharply lower initial threshold than had originally been envisioned.
On May 2, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer-maker announced final approval of a contract that will supply more than 17,000 iBook G4 laptops to students at four pilot high schools in and every teacher within Georgia's Cobb County School District.
If all goes as planned, by 2006, the three-part project called, "Power-to-Learn," could provide as many as 63,000 machines to every middle and high school student in the school system, making it the largest student laptop venture in the nation. But the local school board on Monday approved only the first phase of the program.
"The Power to Learn program represents a giant step forward for education in Cobb County," said district Superintendent Joseph Redden after the official contract was signed.
That development in Georgia also marked a step forward for Apple, which late last month suffered a major setback when school board officials for Virginia's Henrico County Public Schools (HCPS) parted ways with the company and agreed instead to purchase machines from one of its fiercest competitors.
Citing reasons ranging from maintenance and technical support to software and price, school division officials inked a new four-year agreement with Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, bringing to an end HCPS's one-to-one initiative with Apple, which began in 2001.
Four years ago, HCPS hooked up with Apple to deploy more than 23,000 laptops to every middle and high school student in the system. The deal, part of a four-year lease program with the company, had an estimated cost of $18.5 million during the first two years and became one of the most publicized and closely watched one-to-one computing initiatives in the country. (See "Laptops to transform learning for 23,000 Virginia students.")
Though the project endured a number of growing pains--especially during its first year, as administrators struggled to update antiquated security policies and equip the network infrastructure for the transition--the program has become something of a blueprint for ambitious districts and even a couple of states (Maine and Michigan) seeking to pursue similar projects.

Full Story: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showstoryts.cfm?Articleid=5657

New President for Cascadia Community College

After nearly a year without a permanent president, it appears Cascadia Community College in Bothell, Washington will have a new leader as soon as July. The Cascadia Board of Trustees announced yesterday afternoon that from a list of three finalists it had chosen William Christopher, currently president of the Rock Creek Campus of Portland Community College in Portland, to lead the school.

The Metropolitan State College of Denver

The Metropolitan State College of Denver's board of trustees on Wednesday unanimously approved a three-year contract for its new president, Stephen Jordan, formally ending a nearly two- year search. Jordan is currently serving as president of Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington.

Former Pierce College President named LACCD President

Former Pierce College President Darroch "Rocky" Young was named Wednesday to head the Los Angeles Community College District, overseeing nearly 130,000 students and a $2.2 billion construction campaign. Young has been senior vice chancellor for the nine-college district since January 2004. He previously was president of Pierce and worked at Santa Monica College, earning praise for improving the campuses' performance.

Students say UMass being too selective

Goals at Amherst spur strong debate
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff May 5, 2005
AMHERST -- Since he was hired to lead the University of Massachusetts flagship campus three years ago, John V. Lombardi has been busy laying plans to improve the university. He has expanded private fund-raising and plans to rebuild much of the campus. By boosting recruitment, he has increased the applicant pool by nearly 25 percent in hope of attracting more high-achieving students.

But Lombardi has faced aggressive opposition from an unexpected source in recent months: student government leaders, who say that, by setting more ambitious goals, the university is abandoning the less-advantaged students it was meant to serve.
''We have 20 prestigious private schools in Massachusetts. The public university is supposed to serve the people," said Eduardo Bustamante, a junior and president of the undergraduate student government until last month.
Convinced they must act now or watch their public university drift from its mission, Bustamante and a small, tight-knit group of student leaders have launched a formal campaign, Take Back UMass, to ''return UMass to its legacy as an accessible and diverse public university," according to the group's website.
This year, instead of working with administrators as is typical on many campuses, the UMass student government has staged a half-dozen noisy demonstrations to demand more diversity on campus and more support for minority students. Minority enrollment, which peaked in the mid-1990s, dropped off at the end of the decade and has been mostly flat since then. Students have blitzed legislators with angry letters and phone calls, and they organized a boycott of classes last month to protest a restructuring of student services.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/05/05/students_say_umass_being_too_selective/

Baylor University -- President

Baylor University's board of regents unanimously chose William D. Underwood, one of the school's law professors, to serve as interim president, effective June 1. Underwood, 48, will succeed outgoing President Robert B. Sloan Jr., who announced in January his intentions to become chancellor after a long battle with opposing factions over the future of the university, which is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Sloan has been Baylor's president since 1995.

Lebanon Valley College Names New President

Lebanon Valley College formally welcomed Stephen C. MacDonald as its 17th president Saturday. MacDonald has been acting president for the past year. He was the only candidate the board of trustees really considered after David Pollick left to become president of Birmingham Southern University, Chairman William Lehr said in October after the board formalized MacDonald's position.

Questionmark Perception Assessments Linked to Dokeos Open Source Management System

Wednesday May 4, 9:33 am ET
STAMFORD, Conn. and BRUSSELS, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 4, 2005--Testing and assessment software provider Questionmark today announced that the Dokeos Development Community has integrated Questionmark(TM) Perception(TM) with the Dokeos(TM) Open Source Learning and Collaboration Management system.
Questionmark Perception enables trainers and educators to create, deliver and report on assessments without programming experience or knowledge of HTML.
The Dokeos2Perception connector allows students and instructors to seamlessly link to Questionmark Perception within the Dokeos platform. Institutions can maintain student and instructor profiles within Dokeos while taking advantage of the powerful assessment features of Perception.
Dokeos managers can automatically link assessment participants with the Perception database and schedule Perception assessments. When they create or delete classes in Dokeos, the information is automatically synchronized with the Perception database.
"We are excited about our work with the open source community and Dokeos in particular," said Questionmark President Eric Shepherd. "Questionmark recognizes the vital and expanding role that open source systems are playing in education and is committed to integrating, partnering and collaborating with this vibrant community. The Dokeos community has assumed an important leadership position by defining how commercial vendors and open source can collaborate effectively. We look forward to growing our associations and relationships with other open source communities around the world."
"Questionmark is helping educators get better value from their e-learning programs," said Dokeos Director Thomas De Praetere. "The assessment capabilities of Questionmark Perception complement the learning management tools provided by Dokeos. We are very pleased to be working together with Questionmark."
About Dokeos
Dokeos is free and open source e-learning management software translated in 31 languages and helping more than 1,000 organizations worldwide to manage learning and collaboration activities. Dokeos is also a company that helps organizations launch and develop blended learning programs. Complete information is available at www.dokeos.com
About Questionmark
Questionmark has produced testing and assessment software since 1988. Questionmark Perception allows people to create question files without programming experience or knowledge of HTML. Powerful reports help instructors track individual and class performance and provide diagnostic information that can be used to improve both instruction and assessments. Some 2,000 businesses, government agencies and educational institutions in more than 50 countries use Perception. Complete information is available at http://www.questionmark.com.

Carlow University gets new President

For the first time in its history, Carlow University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) has tapped a layperson as president, selecting Mary E. Hines, the current head of Penn State University's Wilkes-Barre campus to lead the Oakland school. Hines pledged to honor Carlow's Catholic traditions while pursuing growth.

Gardner-Webb University

Gardner-Webb University (Boiling Springs, North Carolina) provost Frank Bonner was named president of the university by school trustees Monday. Bonner came to the school in 1987 as dean of the college. He became provost and senior vice president five years later

Sierra Nevada College -- President

Starting June 1, Paul Ranslow will take the helm as Sierra Nevada College's new president. Ranslow said he's excited to start working with SNC faculty and students and is looking forward to working with the community. "I think SNC should be looked upon as a real resource for Incline Village and all of Lake Tahoe, as well as the whole region," Ranslow said. "Historically small colleges have really been supported by the local community."

Corel K-12 Site License Makes The Grade For Education Market

Wednesday May 4, 12:11 pm ET
Canadian Provinces Choose Corel Software For More Than 2 Million Students and Teachers
WordPerfect Retains Premier Position in Ontario Schools
OTTAWA, Canada--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 4, 2005--Corel today announced two significant public sector wins with the education ministries of Ontario and Prince Edward Island selecting Corel software for more than 2 million students and teachers across the two provinces. The provinces are taking advantage of Corel's innovative, new K-12 site license which gives North American schools unparalleled access to the company's award-winning education portfolio.

Under the terms of Corel's flexible licensing program, publicly funded schools across Ontario will have immediate access to WordPerfect® Office 12 and CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite 12 while, in Prince Edward Island (PEI), classrooms province-wide will now have access to Corel's premier photo editing package, Paint Shop(TM) Pro® 9. Ontario is upgrading their products as an extension of a longstanding relationship with Corel and Prince Edward Island is acquiring this software as part of a new relationship with the company.
Maximizing Budgets with Flexible Corel Licensing
Today's announcement marks another significant validation of Corel's efforts to provide the most flexible licensing programs in the industry, tailored to the specific needs of customers. The K-12 site license allows schools to select any combination of five software solutions from Corel for graphics, desktop productivity and digital photography at one set price, providing education buyers with the ability to customize their choices based on the needs and priorities of each school district.

Full Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050504/45702.html?.v=1

ETS, eCollege Deliver Online Course Evaluations to Florida CC

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) and course management system purveyor eCollege said they would team up to deliver online course evaluations beginning this spring to all students at Florida Community College at Jacksonville). The system is part of a FCCJ plan to move all of its
existing paper-based course evaluations to the online environment, and to integrate them within the FCCJ student portal. Nearly 135,000 course evaluations are completed annually by the more than 60,000 students FCCJ serves. The ETS, eCollege-ETS solution, announced in January, combines eCollege's course evaluation technology and infrastructure with ETS' Student Instructional Report II instruments. The solution will be integrated into FCCJ's existing portal where students already go to access services, including their course grades. FCCJ will continue to manage when surveys become available to students through the portal, and when summary
reports then become available to faculty and administrators.

Professor accused of sexual assault

82-year-old says sex was voluntary By Paul Brooks and Jeremiah Horrigan pbrooks@th-record.com jhorrigan@th-record.com New Paltz – An 82-year-old SUNY New Paltz English professor has resigned in the wake of criminal charges that he sexually abused and assaulted a female student. But Professor Wade C. Thompson says the sex was voluntary. "She much enjoyed her part," Thompson said in a telephone interview yesterday. "When she left, she left a very happy girl." New Paltz police arrested Thompson on one count of second-degree assault, a felony, and one count of third-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor. The female student told police the incident happened at Thompson's home on North Oakwood Terrace the morning of April 19. She said that Thompson subjected her to unwanted sexual contact and repeatedly struck her with a blunt object, which resulted in physical injuries, police said. Police did not release the name of the victim. Authorities could not be reached last night for further details of her account. Thompson declined to give the woman's name but disputed the police's version of the events. "Whatever happened was voluntary on her part," he said. "The sea change in her attitude came later. I couldn't help that. She apparently had remorse, so she is blaming me." The 41-year-old woman, a senior at the college, had pursued him for some time, including the three semesters he had her as a student, Thompson said. She had given him books, flowers and candy.

Full Story: http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/04/27/prof.htm