Education Industry News

Women, Minorities and the Sciences

2005-07-26T05:16:00.000-07:00

National Science Foundation programs aimed at increasing the participation of women and members of underrepresented minority groups in science, mathematics and engineering have produced significant results — but “there is still a long way to go before individuals from underrepresented groups have full access” to those fields, a report by an NSF committee says.

The study, "Broadening Participation in America’s Science and Engineering Workforce,” was produced by the foundation’s Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering. The panel takes as its starting point that America is producing fewer and fewer scientists at a time when foreigners who have traditionally come to the United States for graduate science study or to work in academe are increasingly turning elsewhere.
“This context further underscores the value and urgency of NSF’s efforts to expand our home-grown [science, technology, engineering and mathemetics] talent pool, and invite bright U.S. citizens from all backgrounds and regions into STEM,” the report says.
Those efforts — including grant programs designed to encourage undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral education and sponsor research on science and technology learning by underrepresented groups, programs specifically designed to support minority scientists, and policy changes aimed at “embedding diversity” in all NSF programs — have had an impact, the panel finds.
Between 1994 and 2003, for instance, as the number of NSF grant proposals over all grew by 33 percent, the number submitted by women rose by 73 percent, members of underrepresented minority groups submitted 69 percent more, and disabled people submitted 51 percent.
The rates at which those groups’ applications were successful were “comparable,” the report says, to the foundation-wide average of 31 percent. But the grants the successful candidates received were, on average, about 15 percent smaller than those awarded to non-minority males.
Despite those increases, far more needs to be done if women and members of underrepresented minority groups are to make their way into science and engineering fields in sufficient numbers, the panel concludes.
Among its recommendations:
While the foundation targets most of its funds to research-intensive universities, the study finds, “most women, minorities, and persons with disabilities ... start their higher education at other types of institutions, and are taught by pre-college teachers who were educated at other types of institutions.” The NSF should focus “attention on the role of community colleges and other institutions whose mission focuses on workforce preparation for underrepresented groups as a vital pathway for access” into science, math, and engineering fields.
The agency should enhance the research capacity of tribal colleges and encourage more faculty exchanges and scientific cooperation between the Native American colleges and other research institutions.
The NSF should conduct more research on why female and minority students are less likely to enter scientific fields.
— Doug Lederman

School owners accused of bilking $13 million in financial aid

2005-07-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

By PATRICK WALTERSAssociated Press WriterJune 30, 2005, 4:04 PM EDT
PHILADELPHIA -- A husband and wife who owned a vocational school with a location in New Jersey bilked the federal government out of $13 million in financial aid grants by falsifying school records, prosecutors alleged in an indictment released Thursday. Alexander Lebed, 36, and Larisa Lebed, 33, of Richboro, face more than 120 counts of fraud and money laundering in connection with Pell Grants obtained for CSC Institute from January 1999 through December. The couple allegedly received $4.3 million for themselves personally and put the rest toward promoting the scheme.

"They tricked and manipulated a system that was put in place to help people improve their lives through education and, in a sense, took the taxpayers to school," U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan said in a statement. Pell Grants are awarded to students who have not earned a bachelor's or professional degree, and they do not have to be repaid. The Department of Education uses a formula to determine if a student is financially eligible for the award, which had a maximum of $4,000 in 2002-2003. The federal government authorized the Pell funds to be disbursed directly to the school to pay the students' tuition and other costs for eligible courses. CSC Institute had locations in Philadelphia, Southampton and Cherry Hill, N.J., and offered training for adult students in business, medical and computer fields and English as a second language. It closed in February after the Education Department determined it was no longer eligible to receive financial aid. The Lebeds had employees falsify answers on students' financial aid applications, create fraudulent supporting documents and create fake records for ineligible students in the name of eligible friends or relatives who didn't attend the school, authorities said. Schools are allowed to keep entire Pell awards for some recipients who don't finish their classes. The defendants allegedly deceived the Department of Education so the school could keep whole Pell disbursements for students who had not attended classes, had withdrawn early or had graduated from ineligible short courses. In addition, the couple is accused of paying employees a bonus or commission of $25 to $150 for each student they enrolled _ a violation of department rules _ and ordering them not to tell anyone. The Lebeds have an unlisted telephone number and could not immediately be reached Thursday. A U.S. Department of Education spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the indictment.

FAMU Trustees Deal With an Array of Problems

2005-07-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Ledger Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE -- Forty-one employees have been fired because of payroll discrepancies. The school will lose its golf, swimming and tennis programs. Administrators must find $1.4 million to settle a dispute over a federal grant.The NCAA should announce within a month or two a long list of violations involving the school's football program.Those were some of the issues the Board of Trustees for Florida A&M University discussed Thursday, as leaders of the historically black university try to deal with a wide array of problems confronting the 118-yearold institution.But the news wasn't all bad. Interim President Castell Bryant, who learned the school was overspending its budget when she took over in January, also announced the university has balanced its nearly $400 million annual budget. She also the school was improving the accountability and efficiency of its programs.The trustees also agreed to begin their search for a permanent president with the creation of a search committee that will be announced in September. The last president, Fred Gainous, was fired last year."This has been a challenging time, a very demanding time," said Bryant, who has said she doesn't want to be a candidate for the permanent presidency. "I feel that we have come a long way on the road that we need to travel."Trustee Al Cardenas said while decisions like firing employees or eliminating sports programs are difficult, they are necessary to help the school in the long run."The pain lasts a lot less if you make the tough decisions up front," he said. He predicted FAMU, which serves 13,000 students, would "emerge as a healthy, vibrant institution sooner rather than later."But the scope and difficulty of the problems that school officials are dealing with were illustrated by the results of an ongoing payroll audit that Bryant ordered shortly after she became president.Based on an investigation of an April payroll, Bryant said 41 employees had been fired, including some 27 members of the school's Institute for Urban Policy and Commerce.Among the reasons for the firings was that some employees were being paid for work on the FAMU campus but actually lived in other cities or states and had other jobs.Some employees were collecting two checks from FAMU but were not showing up for their additional jobs or were leaving their primary jobs early to go to their secondary jobs.Altogether, Bryant said the audit revealed 286 employees were being paid for multiple jobs. She said some were legitimately being paid for multiple jobs, while the validity of other arrangements was still being investigated.Three incidents involving $323,000, have been turned over to the state attorney's office for investigation. Another 21 employees have been referred to the school's inspector general's office for more investigation.And mysteriously, 74 checks or electronic vouchers involving more than $3 million were never picked up or cashed. Those cases have been referred to the state Department of Financial Services for further investigation, Bryant said.Bryant said the payroll audit was continuing and she expected more results to be announced later.Meanwhile, as part of the effort to balance the school's budget, the trustees unanimously agreed to eliminate the men's and women's swimming and diving programs and the men's golf and tennis programs. It will save about $640,000, but will impact about 40 students who participate in those programs.Several trustees said they were uneasy with the decision."People of color are woefully underrepresented in these areas," said Trustee R.B. Holmes. "I'm very, very uncomfortable with cutting these four sports -- it literally gives me the hiccups."Golf coach Marvin Green said he understood the school had to "make a tough decision for financial reasons." He said six golfers would be impacted by the decision.But he also said it was important for a school like FAMU to have a golf program to help produce more minority golfers."The only way African-American golf is going to grow at the professional level is through the historically black colleges and universities," he said.The trustees and Bryant said they would look to other sources, including private fund raising, to try to revive the programs. In another budget adjustment, Bryant announced that the athletic budget would only pay to send the school's famed "Marching 100" band to two football games this season in Orlando and Atlanta. She said if the band travels to other games, the expenses will have to come out of another budget.The trustees were also told they could expect to hear from the NCAA in the next month or two about alleged multiple rules violations in the school's football program. Last month, the school fired longtime coach Billy Joe.Mark Walker, Joe's lawyer, asked the trustees to discuss the grounds of his firing to avoid a lawsuit. But school officials said Joe had been kept apprised of the investigation as it went forward to the NCAA.Bryant told the trustees that the school was working on an improvement plan for handling grant money from the National Science Foundation.In a related issue, she said FAMU has agreed to pay back $1.4 million of a previous NSF grant that could not be properly accounted for. Bryant said she wasn't sure where the school would get the money to reimburse the agency.

Tuition goes up 12% at Texas A&M

2005-06-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

Action results from Legislature providing less funding than the school soughtBy MATTHEW TRESAUGUECopyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Texas A&M University students will pay 12 percent more to attend classes this fall, continuing a statewide trend of escalating tuition rates.
President Robert Gates announced the increase Tuesday in the wake of a legislative session that produced fewer dollars than the university wanted.
Students will pay $137 per semester hour, up from $122.50 a year ago. The increase should generate about $12.5 million for the flagship College Station campus, officials said.
With most of the extra tuition money, Texas A&M intends to give faculty members and other employees a 3 percent raise, based on merit. The balance would go toward operating expenses, including rising gas and utility costs.
The regents had agreed in March to an increase between $3 and $19 per hour, depending on the amount of money state lawmakers provided.
"We were really hopeful going into the legislative session that we could keep it at $3," said K. Sue Redman, the university's senior vice president of finance. "It just didn't happen."
Student-body president Jim Carlson said he expected to pay more this fall, but the size of the increase troubled him, considering Texas A&M charged $101 per semester hour two years ago. "I'm disappointed," he said. "I wish it wasn't the case. I would like to see results in the future as far as how it benefits students."
Soaring costs have alarmed students and parents since the Texas Legislature deregulated tuition rates in 2003. Some lawmakers sought to regain control of tuition during the session that ended last month, but their efforts failed.
After two years of record increases, the University of Texas at Austin and University of Houston raised tuition about 5 percent for this fall. Prairie View A&M hiked tuition from $94 per semester hour to $113, an increase of 20 percent.
"More than anything, it's catch-up," said Dan Williams, vice president of finance and administration at Prairie View A&M. "We didn't give pay raises last year. We will have to do something for our employees' bottom line."
The situation could have been worse for the university. After warnings from campus leaders, lawmakers provided $4 million a year to pay off debts, eliminating the possibility of an additional tuition increase of $27.50 per hour.
matthew.tresaugue@chron.com

Legislation seeks charter for new Internet university

2005-06-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

June 25, 2005
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --A charter for a new online university would be established under legislation before the General Assembly
The online school would be known as Ocean State University, would have no physical location, and would work with businesses to enroll workers.
Sodexho, a food and facilities-management company that runs school-lunch programs in Rhode Island, operated a similar program, called Sodexho University, for the past three years. But it lost its accreditation in April.
The proposed school would accommodate the 32 students in Rhode Island currently enrolled in Sodexho University, along with about 60 Sodexho employees elsewhere who risk losing their credits toward degrees, the Providence Journal reported Saturday.
"It's a last-minute rescue attempt, frankly," said Harry Lenderman, who is seeking the charter for Ocean State University and would be the school's founder.
One of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Peter L. Lewiss, D-Westerly, said he did not expect a hearing on the legislation this year.
"I introduced the legislation to start the discussion," Lewiss said in a statement Friday. "I realize there will not be time to have a hearing this year, but members will now be aware of this and I will reintroduce the legislation next year."
The General Assembly's session ends next week. State approval is required before some accrediting agencies review courses.
© Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Holmes CC president charged with six counts of embezzlement

2005-06-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

Associated Press
DURANT, Miss. - Holmes Community College President Starkey Morgan has been charged with six counts of embezzlement for allegedly pocketing more than $10,000 in college funds used to buy dog food and other personal items, District Attorney James Powell says.
The state auditor's office began investigating Morgan on May 31 following an inquiry from the junior college's trustees. Morgan is accused of embezzling between $10,000 and $12,000.
"It's embezzlement, but it's not checks. Each of the counts is more of improper use of his authority as president," Powell said. "He was getting the benefit. It would have been money out of his pocket instead of the college if he had paid for it like he should have."
Powell said Morgan used college money on three occasions to buy tires and have them mounted on a personal vehicle by college employees. The remaining charges were for buying dog food and paying a veterinarian bill and for using college employees to prepare his house and grounds for a wedding ceremony, Powell said.
Morgan was arrested Tuesday and was released on a $30,000 bond.
The state auditor's office said the investigation is ongoing.
Powell said Morgan faces a minimum one-year jail term on each count if convicted. The maximum penalty is 20 years each on four charges and 10 years each on the remaining two counts.
Morgan, reached at home by The Clarion-Ledger, referred questions to his attorney.
Holmes has campuses in Goodman, Grenada and Ridgeland. Morgan has led the two-year college since 1989 at an annual salary of $138,500.
The board of trustees placed Morgan on paid leave after a special meeting June 1 and appointed Glenn Boyce, a Holmes vice president in Ridgeland, to serve as interim president.

University of Connecticut's Computer Server Hacked

2005-06-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

University of Connecticut officials have discovered a 20-month-old security breach of a computer server that contains Social Security numbers and other personal information for about 72,000 members of the university community, the school said today. Officials don't believe that any information was compromised, although there was an opportunity for someone to access it. The violation was discovered this week.A computer hacker placed a "rootkit" program in the server in October 2003, said university spokesman Michael Kerntke. The program allows hackers to get into a computer and collect information while masking that the system is compromised.
Click Link for Full Story

EKU regents approve $263.6million budget; tuition, fee increases help fund 24% growth

2005-06-27T19:18:00.000-07:00

Hikes in tuition, fees will add $13 million

Associated Press
RICHMOND, Ky. -- Eastern Kentucky University regents approved a $263.6 million budget for 2005-06 that was bolstered by a nearly 23 percent increase in tuition and fees.
The budget approved Saturday is nearly 24 percent larger than this year's budget. The tuition and fees increase, approved by regents in April, will bring in more than $13 million.
The university is getting about $6 million more from the state in the next budget and $30 million more in grants and contracts funded by outside sources.
EKU employees will receive a 3.5 percent raise, and the university will devote more money to scholarships, its contingency fund, deferred maintenance projects and pay equity.
The board also made a change in the way President Joanne Glasser is compensated.
According to a university statement, the regents restructured Glasser's compensation to make the salary supplement that had been contributed by the EKU Foundation part of her university-paid base salary.
Orson Oliver told fellow regents that the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges recommends that a president's salary come from the university's budget, not a foundation.
The regents did not give Glasser a raise, but she will get the same 3.5 percent increase as other EKU employees. Her new salary is $234,470.
Glasser will be evaluated between now and fall, Oliver said.

Professors may strike at FAMU's law school

2005-06-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

Instructors cite lack of pay for summer classes
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

As many as 10 professors at Florida A&M University's law school who didn't get paid for the first session of summer classes have threatened to stop teaching if they don't get the salaries they were promised.
Interim Dean James M. Douglas said university officials thought the summer faculty's salaries were too generous, but provost Larry Robinson had pledged to pay them in full.
Summer instructors were promised about $20,000 each for teaching four credit hours at the Orlando campus, about the same salary as the past two summers, though only about $13,000 each had been set aside, Douglas said.
"I think a lot of it had to do with the processing of paperwork," Robinson said. "A lot of people are working extremely hard to make sure it does not happen again."
Interim President Castell Bryant said FAMU's human-resources office notified her earlier this week that it had just received a batch of faculty contracts for the ending summer term. That group probably includes faculty members other than those at the law school.
"That has nothing to do with the computer," Bryant said. "Somebody is not processing paperwork when they're supposed to."
Bryant didn't know yet how many faculty were affected. She said she's working to resolve the problem.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported in late May that an undetermined number of faculty received only partial paychecks for the first summer pay period. Bryant said then that everyone who didn't get paid would get their money within a few days.
FAMU has been under state scrutiny for financial mismanagement since audits cited untimely bank reconciliations, poor accounting practices, deficient check-writing controls and late vendor payments.
The school cut athletic scholarships in every sport and has enforced a spending moratorium on cell-phone, travel and other routine expenses.
Douglas said the law school's second summer session would begin Monday as scheduled.
He replaced former Dean Percy Luney earlier this month after an audit showed that a donor who gave $1 million for an endowed chair was being paid $100,000 a year by the school.
The Associated Press and Staff Writer Melanie Yeager contributed to this report.

OSU bids to turn ideas into cash

2005-06-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

By Jeff Bell
Business First of Columbus
Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET June 26, 2005

A nonprofit corporation is being launched to develop commercial enterprises for research coming out of Ohio State University Medical Center.
UMC Partners will seek commercial funding for business ventures that would apply science and research from the medical center, said Columbus tech-sector veteran Jeffrey Wilkins, who is serving as UMC Partners' president and chief executive.

Royalties from those ventures, he said, would go to the university's research foundation as would some of the proceeds from the sale of startup ventures launched by UMC Partners.
UMC Partners will also work with Ohio State's Office of Technology Licensing, said Wilkins, best known as the Internet pioneer who in 1969 founded CompuServe in Columbus, one of the world's first computer online services.
"UMC Partners will be like any other independent organization that might come to the university to license intellectual property," he said. "We feel this will open a series of new opportunities for working with commercial partners."
Eye on medical science
UMC Partners joins the established efforts to find commercial outlets for research done at Ohio State.
Much of that work is done by OSU's Office of Technology Licensing.
But UMC Partners will specifically target commercialization opportunities for medical research.
Dr. Fred Sanfilippo, chief executive officer of OSU Medical Center, has been a big proponent of such efforts in the life sciences since his arrival at Ohio State in 2000.
UMC Partners already has a few commercialization projects in the works, Wilkins said, but he declined to provide details until they are further developed.
OSU President Karen Holbrook said UMC Partners should help foster the university's role as a catalyst for technology-based economic development and increase OSU's collaboration with the private sector.
"Biotechnology and the entire medical field are exploding with possibilities and opportunities," she said in prepared text. "(UMC Partners) allows us to be responsive to the market in a leadership role."
Big names aboard
Wilkins said he is impressed with the quality of the board of directors that will oversee UMC Partners.
The board includes several leading business figures in Central Ohio and some top OSU administrators, including Sanfilippo and OSU Health System CEO Pete Geier.
Chemical Abstracts Service President Robert Massie is serving as chairman of UMC Partners. Other directors include Battelle Memorial Institute CEO Carl Kohrt, Limited Brands Inc. Chief Operating Officer Leonard Schlesinger and Mark Collar, president of global pharmaceuticals for Procter & Gamble Co.
"The interesting thing is the mix of skills," Wilkins said. "I'm very pleased with what we were able to do there."
The 60-year-old Wilkins said his job at UMC Partners will extend his involvement with OSU Medical Center and mesh with his experience in developing commercial applications of new ideas.
In addition to launching CompuServe, he founded CD-ROM manufacturer Metatec International Inc. in 1985 and led the company until 2001, when it began a reorganization.
Wilkins got involved with OSU Medical Center two years ago, serving as a consultant on technology commercialization projects and partnerships. He also was the medical center's interim chief information officer for a year until agreeing in May to lead development of UMC Partners.
"This is a natural follow-on for me," Wilkins said of his UMC Partners duties.
© 2005 Business First of Columbus

Oklahoma promises Stoops $3M bonus if he stays

2005-06-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

From wire reports
Bob Stoops will receive a $3 million bonus if he remains Oklahoma's football coach through the 2008 season under an amendment to his contract approved last week by the university board of regents.
The board also extended Stoops' contract by a year, through the 2011 season, and raised some of the incentives in the contract.
"This is another step to us ensuring Coach Stoops stays with us for a very long time," athletics director Joe Castiglione said.
Stoops earns $200,000 in base salary, but with outside income he is guaranteed $2.4 million in 2005. The contract provides for a $100,000 raise each year. He also can make almost $500,000 more if he achieves every incentive bonus.
School President David Boren stressed the raises and bonuses were funded mostly by private donors and ticket revenue.
If Oklahoma wins the Bowl Championship Series national title, Stoops would get a $250,000 bonus, an increase of $100,000 over the previous bonus.
"I appreciate any consideration the university shows me in the way of contract extension and incentives," Stoops said. "The administration has shown its gratitude for what we've done and its belief in what we still hope to do. I feel very fortunate to coach at the University of Oklahoma."
Stoops is 67-12 in six seasons with three Big 12 titles. The Sooners have played in three BCS title games in his tenure, winning one.

West Central Technical College President quits

2005-06-27T04:29:00.000-07:00

Janet B. Ayers, the president of West Central Technical College, quit suddenly last week after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution made inquiries about large pay raises in the last two year for the man she recently married. Several technical college presidents in the state have recently been caught up in nepotism controversies and one was forced to dismiss his wife as a college employee. Ayers told the newspaper that its figures were not accurate and that she did nothing wrong, but that she realized the raises didn’t look good, and she wanted to spare the college any problems.

Source: http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/27/qt

Quincy College official admits school hid extra money in budget

2005-06-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

By Associated Press
Thursday, June 23, 2005 - Updated: 04:10 PM EST

QUINCY, Mass. - A Quincy College official has admitted the school routinely hid some of its earnings as part of a budget practice intended to ensure enough cash would be available to cover union-negotiated pay raises, The Patriot Ledger reported.
In a Feb. 3 e-mail to chief financial officer Steve Higgins, the school's vice president of enrollment, Tom DeSantes, wrote, ``We used lines to hide revenue and raises,'' the Ledger reported Thursday.
Asked by the newspaper about the practice, DeSantes said, ``You've got me in a weird position. I can't deny that that's my e-mail.''
Higgins prompted the e-mail exchange after discovering a budget irregularity and asking about it.
``I got the impression they thought it wouldn't be appropriate to identify clearly to third parties, like contract people representing other parties, how much we had reserved,'' Higgins said.
Higgins, who was hired as chief financial officer in September, said he has ended the practice. For the upcoming budget year, money for potential raises will be stored in a reserve fund, he said. Previously, some of the money to pay for raises was funneled into a budget line item for the expense of depreciating assets.
DeSantes said his February e-mail to Higgins was intended merely to advise Higgins on how the college worked. He denied the college was trying to show a leaner budget.
``We were looking to have money in the next cycle to honor whatever raises may have been negotiated, not knowing when that might be finalized,'' he said.

Source: http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=91276

University of Tennessee approves tuition increase

2005-06-24T23:28:00.000-07:00

By Katharine Mosher, kmosher@nashvillecitypaper.comJune 24, 2005
The University of Tennessee (UT) Board of Trustees voted Thursday to accept tuition increases of 13 percent at UT-Knoxville, 9.7 percent at UT-Martin and 9.3 percent at UT-Chattanooga for the 2005-06 academic year.The increases translate into an additional $542 for students at the Knoxville campus, a $342 increase at Martin and a $402 increase at Chattanooga.The finance committee, which met for about an hour and a half Thursday, considered capping enrollment, cutting faculty and increasing out-of-state recruitment before concurring with the administration’s recommendations for tuition increases.“None of those are acceptable options in my opinion because they would have such a negative impact on the quality of the education that we provide and the opportunity for students to attend the university,” board member Jim Murphy said. Murphy said he felt the tuition increase was the only short-term option, adding it is not a good situation to be in.UT President Dr. John Petersen also informed the trustees of ways the university system has tried to reduce operating costs, even with 77 percent of the budget tied to personnel expenditures.UT-Knoxville eliminated two colleges and eight departments to redirect more than $20 million to funding for academics, according to Petersen.Administrative reorganization on the same campus freed up another $250,000, Petersen said. Though higher education budgets are dependent upon the state budget, Board member Susan Richardson-Williams said the board needs to plan for tuition increases further in advance than late June, roughly eight weeks before classes resume.“It’s tough on parents to budget for a certain amount when they apply for their kids to come to school in the fall, and then we come in here in late June and add some additional fees and tuition increases on them,” Williams said. Revenue from increased tuition will be used to enhance university libraries, diversity initiatives, student technology, employee salaries and department equipment.Roughly $770,000 is also earmarked to provide additional financial aid incoming UT-K freshman with the greatest financial need.

Full Story: http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section_id=9&screen=news&news_id=42424

Seattle's Ivy League-Style Public University May Boost Fees 78%

2005-06-24T23:27:00.000-07:00

June 24 (Bloomberg) -- College guides list the University of Washington as one of the ``public Ivies,'' a state school that approaches the academic quality of the eight private institutions of the Ivy League for a fraction of the price.
The gap may be narrowing. In Washington's capital of Olympia, Governor Christine Gregoire is considering boosting annual tuition at the Seattle school to $10,000 for state residents, a 78 percent jump from the $5,610 they pay now.
Rising enrollment and declining state funding have forced big increases at other U.S. public universities, where tuition has risen faster in the past decade than private rivals such as Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The schools are trying to soften the blow by boosting financial aid. Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, now charges $21,000 annually, with state residents eligible for a scholarship of as much as $12,700.
Opponents question whether aid will keep pace. At her office in North Seattle, state Representative Phyllis Kenney says she's already receiving e-mail from concerned students and parents.
``What sounds great on paper doesn't always work in reality,'' says Kenney, head of the state House of Representatives' Higher Education Committee. Kenney adds that she is concerned a tuition increase will hurt middle-class students whose parents make too much to qualify for some types of aid.
Tuition has risen 51 percent in the past decade at four-year public schools, compared with 36 percent at private schools, according to the New York-based College Board. At $5,132, average tuition for public universities is still one-quarter that of private schools.

Full Story: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aQhNjbaL.bWo&refer=us

Community college costs luring more students

2005-06-24T23:24:00.000-07:00

By Selicia Kennedy-Ross, Staff Writer
Money was a big factor in Michael Collins' decision not to attend California Baptist University in Riverside, despite a partial scholarship that would have covered half of the $10,000 tuition.
The Redlands High School graduate has opted to enroll at Riverside Community College instead and transfer to a four-year college later, possibly Arizona State University.
"I only had a half scholarship and I didn't feel like spending $10,000 to go to that school for a year,' said Collins, 18. "The baseball team at RCC is just as good if not better and it'll be less than half the price.
Two-year colleges are becoming the preferred path for many high school graduates who hoped to attend a four-year institution but are finding themselves unable to do so either financially or academically. As the California High School Exit Exam looms, community colleges are becoming the gateway to a four-year degree.
Valentina Doucette, who graduated from Beaumont High School on Friday, planned to attend UC Riverside.
Now the 17-year-old wonders whether her grades are good enough and has decided on a community college instead College of the Desert in Palm Desert.
Later, she'll transfer to Cal State Fullerton, her second choice.
"Universities are becoming more and more difficult to become accepted to,' said Valentina, who plans to become a teacher or study law. "Why waste my time going to a UC when I can go to a two-year and get the same exact classes, the same quality of education, the same quality of teachers for a cheaper price?'
Community colleges are more appealing because they are less expensive, allow more scheduling flexibility and even offer online degree programs, said Paul Rubalcaba, spokesman for San Bernardino Valley College.

Full Story: http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~12588~2929266,00.html

Pentagon creating database of students

2005-06-24T23:23:00.000-07:00

Privacy advocates blast effort to find potential recruits
By Jonathan Krim, Washington Post June 23, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Defense began working yesterday with a private marketing firm in Massachusetts to create a database of all US college students as well as high school students between ages 16 and 18, to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.

The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The database will include an array of personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade point averages, ethnicity, and what subjects the students are studying.
The data will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, one of many marketing firms that use computers to analyze large amounts of data to target potential customers based on their personal profiles and habits.
''The purpose of the system . . . is to provide a single central facility within the Department of Defense to compile, process, and distribute files of individuals who meet age and minimum school requirements for military service," according to the official notice of the program.
Privacy advocates said the plan seems to be an effort to circumvent laws that restrict the government's right to collect or hold citizen information by turning to private firms to do the work.
Some data on high school students already are given to military recruiters in a separate program under provisions of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. Recruiters have been using the information to contact students at home, angering some parents and school districts.
School systems that fail to provide that data risk losing federal funds, although individual parents or students can withhold information that would be transferred to the military by their districts. John Moriarty, president of the PTA at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Md., said the issue has ''generated a great deal of angst" among many parents participating in an e-mail discussion group.
Under the new system, additional data will be collected from commercial data brokers, state drivers' license records, and other sources, including information already held by the military.

''Using multiple sources allows the compilation of a more complete list of eligible candidates to join the military," according to statements provided by Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Ellen Krenke in response to questions. ''This program is important because it helps bolster the effectiveness of all the services' recruiting and retention efforts."
The Pentagon's statements added that anyone can ''opt out" of the system by providing detailed personal information that will be kept in a separate ''suppression file." That file will be matched with the full database regularly to ensure that those who do not wish to be contacted are not, according to the Pentagon.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/06/23/pentagon_creating_database_of_students/

Englert ousted as Manoa chancellor

2005-06-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

By Beverly Creamer and Treena ShapiroAdvertiser Education Writers
University of Hawai'i interim President David McClain announced yesterday that Manoa chancellor Peter Englert's contract will not be renewed when it expires at the end of July, in effect, firing him.

McClain said his recommendation was based on an evaluation of the Manoa campus leader.
Outgoing Board of Regents chairwoman Patricia Lee said the board would "stand behind" McClain's recommendation.
McClain would not go into detail on the decision but did say the situation "is not black and white. It wasn't all bad and all good. On balance were we making the kind of progress we needed to make? I decided not. And I made my decision accordingly."
Englert, a renowned scientist who is part of the international Mars project research team, will assume a tenured faculty position in the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology at an annual salary of $165,000, with $100,000 a year for three years as a "startup package" of research support funds.
Yesterday, Englert issued a statement that said he ends his three years as chancellor at Manoa "with pride in what my management team and I have been able to accomplish, but with recognition that there is much unfinished business."

Full Story: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Jun/23/ln/ln09p.html

UA Reaches $1 Billion Goal

2005-06-23T16:16:00.000-07:00

By Jeff SmithThe Morning News
FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas reached its $1 billion fund-raising goal Wednesday thanks to a gift by Tyson.The Tyson Foods Foundation donated $12.5 million to bring the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century total to $1.03 billion.University officials expect to announce more major gifts before the campaign officially ends a week from today."It's a great victory, and a great day for the university," said Dave Gearhart, the UA's chief fund-raiser.

The university celebrated the milestone with a tailgate party in the middle of Maple Street. A large banner that reads, "Thanks a Billion" hung in the backdrop on University House, which contains the UA fund-raising offices.UA System President Alan Sugg compared the day to the opening of Old Main to classes in 1875. Both the campaign and the beginning of the university required vision and faith in the future, he said.UA Chancellor John White said most of the success of the campaign will come to fruition in years to come.

Full Story: http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2005/06/23/front/01fzuacampaign.txt

University System of Maryland gets new President

2005-06-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

The University System of Maryland Board of Regents, the governing board for 13 public universities in Maryland, unanimously elected Regent David H. Nevins as the new Chairman of the Board. Nevins will begin his term on July 1, 2005 and is replacing outgoing Regent Chairman Clifford Kendall. Robert Pevenstein was named Vice Chair of the Board of Regents. Currently, Nevins serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Regents and is Chairman of the board's Finance Committee overseeing the system's $3 billion budget.

New President choosen for Indiana Wesleyan University

2005-06-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

Dr. Henry L. Smith has been chosen as the President-elect of Indiana Wesleyan University. He will become the 11th president of the 85-year-old University on July 1, 2006. The IWU Board of Trustees, in a special meeting, approved the recommendation of a committee that was appointed in April to seek a new president. Dr. Smith will succeed Dr. Jim Barnes, who will become IWU’s first Chancellor on July 1, 2006 – a day after he completes his 19th year as University president.

UA critical of PBS education documentary

2005-06-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

Show raps universities for packed classes, overuse of grad assistants, generous grading.LA MONICA EVERETT-HAYNESTucson Citizen

If higher education officials continue to put undertrained educators in college classrooms, let students slide with generous grading and price out low-income students, the nation will spiral into intellectual decay.
That's the thrust of a new documentary, "Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk," that showcases the University of Arizona as a sample research university.
John Merrow, the executive producer, criticizes classes of 100 or more students and universities' increased reliance on graduate teaching assistants.
"These are critical issues because the United States used to be No. 1 in the world in terms of people going to and completing college," said Merrow, who added that the U.S. now ranks seventh. "The rest of the world is about ready to eat us for lunch."
While UA administrators agreed that a comprehensive look at higher education was overdue, they don't agree with the way the 37,000-student UA campus is portrayed.
"It plays on the stereotypes of huge universities," said UA spokesman Paul Allvin, who has seen the documentary's first hour. "There is more to the UA than what these people have chosen to highlight."
Cade Bernsen, UA's student body president, agreed.

Full Story: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=062205a4_uaontv

UB feels pressure to keep up with its peers

2005-06-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

Simpson pushes for more students and facultyBy STEPHEN T. WATSON News Staff Reporter6/21/2005

The University at Buffalo needs to hire 250 new faculty and bring in 5,000 more students if it wishes to successfully compete with other public universities, UB officials said Monday.
Expansion is necessary, but it won't come cheap, UB President John B. Simpson said in outlining his vision for the university's future at a University Council meeting.
"We are just a lot smaller than we should be," he said.
As part of this effort, UB must improve its fund raising, which also lags compared to peer institutions, he said.
But Simpson offered few details about the initiative, including when the expansion will begin, how much it will cost and from where the money will come.
This expanded vision for UB comes out of a yearlong review of the university's operations. This planning effort sought to identify in what areas the university should focus in the years ahead.
Simpson told council members that faculty who participated in the planning process had two major complaints: UB is too small, and its facilities are inadequate.
In some cases, an academic unit at UB will be half the size - in faculty and students - of the comparable unit at large public schools in Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
In terms of faculty, Simpson said the school - which now has about 1,900 full- and part-time faculty - should hire 250 new instructors, though he did not say when that effort would begin.
Provost Satish K. Tripathi said the university is working with the deans of its various schools to hire approximately 50 new faculty by redirecting existing resources within the budget.
"A lot of programs are just too small to have a critical mass to really go anywhere," Tripathi said.
UB also pales in size in terms of its student population. Overall, UB has the equivalent of 25,000 full-time students. That figure is 30,000 at the University of Pittsburgh and 50,000 at Ohio State University.

Full Story: http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050621/1006695.asp

B.C. college abruptly closed

2005-06-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

By JANE ARMSTRONG
Tuesday, June 21, 2005 Page A7

VANCOUVER -- School's out forever at a Vancouver business college that suddenly closed its classrooms, leaving approximately 200 students -- about half of whom are from foreign countries -- in the lurch for tuition fees and robbing them of a graduation.
Dozens arrived at the private downtown school yesterday morning to find classroom doors locked, the office ransacked, computers removed and all courses at the privately run Corporate Communications Training College cancelled.
A sign on the door signed by college president Lance Bracken said the 21-year-old college has "ceased operations."
For distraught Canadian students, the abrupt closing is a huge inconvenience and disappointment. Many paid thousands of dollars in tuition and now won't get a diploma.

But foreign students, in Canada on temporary study visas, panicked at the prospect that they are no longer enrolled in a study program.
Some, who are scheduled to renew their student visas in the coming weeks, fear they could be sent home.
"My visa is based on this school and now the school is gone," said Pan Liu, 23, from China. "I have to have that certificate."
Ms. Liu was enrolled in a website design course.
British Columbia has nearly 600 career-training institutes similar to the closed Vancouver college. Many are geared to foreign students, particularly from Asia. Legislation that protects students if an institution folds is enforced by a provincial agency. By midmorning, a provincial representative had arrived at the college to speak with students.
Jim Wright, registrar of B.C.'s Private Career Training Agency, said students who prepaid tuition are eligible for a 50-per-cent reimbursement, and other colleges are encouraged to accept their credits and complete their training.

Full Story: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050621/BCCHIN21/TPEducation/

Compton Community College Accreditation Revoked

2005-06-21T07:07:00.000-07:00

Compton Community College, whose 6,000 students are primarily minority and low income, has lost its accreditation.
Compton is the first community college in California to lose its accreditation. Such a loss can result in students losing eligibility for federal financial aid. But college officials said that they would appeal the decision and the chancellor of the California’s community college system, Mark Drummond, said that he was committed to making sure that the students could continue their education. A spokesman for Drummond said that the chancellor was reviewing options, but declined to elaborate.
Drummond took the unusual step last year of having the state system assume management oversight of Compton, citing a series of problems there. California’s community colleges are highly decentralized and his action followed years of controversies involving the college, its board and its administrators.
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges’ community college group, in revoking accreditation, said that there had been significant improvements at Compton since the state takeover. But accreditors found that the remaining problems were serious enough to merit loss of recognition. Among the problems cited: poor governance, lack of education plans, lack of student support services, and an inadequate administrative staff.

Full Story: http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/21/compton

College, president head to court

2005-06-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

Board asking judge to toss Barry's lawsuit
By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff June 16, 2005
Details of the internal strife at Quincy College will go public this morning in Norfolk Superior Court, where the college's governing board is scheduled to square off against the president it put on leave three weeks ago.
College president Sean Barry sued its board of governors and chairwoman last week, requesting in his complaint that the officials be stopped from talking to the news media; that chairwoman Theresa Lord Piatelli be removed from discussion about his case; and that no further disciplinary action be taken against him. Barry also called on the board to reinstate him as president.
In the hearing slated for this morning, Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein is to hear a motion by Quincy College to dismiss much of Barry's lawsuit. The community college, which operates as a city department, has been reeling since a revelation two years ago that its surgical technology program was allowing students to graduate without the clinical experience required by potential employers.
Recent attention has focused on Barry's management practices. In April, a city audit found that problems with the scandal-ridden surgical technology program could be traced to the upper tiers of the administration. A few weeks later, a report from the state's Board of Higher Education indicated the college had made little progress since it voluntarily shut down the program a year ago. An investigation is now probing a possible misuse of tens of thousands of dollars of college funds for travel and entertainment -- the issue that prompted the board on May 25 to put Barry on paid leave.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/06/16/college_president_head_to/

Myers University President resigns

2005-06-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

Myers University President Paul Feingold has resigned abruptly from the university after spending four years as its leader. Feingold told the university Tuesday that he was resigning, said Michael Herzak, board of trustees chairman. The resignation is effective immediately. A press release gave no indication of the reason for Feingold's departure

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology President resigns

2005-06-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, IN) President Jack Midgley resigned over the weekend after months of criticism from students and staff and two votes of no-confidence. The business executive arrived on the Terre Haute campus amid high hopes he could successfully replace Samuel Hulbert, who retired after leading the college for 28 years.

NYU proposes not renewing graduate union contract

2005-06-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

By ELIZABETH LeSUREAssociated Press WriterJune 17, 2005, 9:59 AM EDT
NEW YORK -- New York University, the only private university in the country to recognize a union of graduate students, has proposed not renewing its contract with the union. In a memo to students, faculty and staff on Thursday, the school's executive vice president and provost said a team of deans and senior administrators who studied the issue proposed "that we should no longer use a union as an intermediary with our students."

The current contract with the 950-member Graduate Student Organizing Committee, an affiliate of United Auto Workers Local 2110, expires Aug. 31. The university said it would begin a 30-day period of notice and comment on the proposed decision. In the memo, the university also recommended the creation of a representative group of students to interact with administrators, a grievance process for graduate students and written rights and responsibilities for graduate and teaching assistants. "We think that we can sustain and advance the positive aspects of unionization," NYU spokesman John Beckman said by telephone. "We're dismayed that NYU is refusing to negotiate a second contact with us," Maida Rosenstein, president of Local 2110, said Friday morning. "The first contract that we won made a substantial difference to graduate students at NYU. It improved wages by 40 percent, it improved health benefits. Without the union, these things would never have happened. NYU is engaging in the same union busting a corporate employer would."

Full Story: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--graduatestudentsu0617jun17,0,1732926.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

Cornell president stepping down citing differences with board

2005-06-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

June 11, 2005, 9:35 PM EDT
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University President Jeffrey Lehman announced Saturday that he will step down at the end of the month, citing differences in strategic vision with the Ivy League college's board of trustees. Lehman, a Cornell alumnus who also is a law professor at the school, made his announcement at the end of his annual "state of the university" address to alumni attending Reunion Weekend.
Hunter Rawlings III, Lehman's predecessor, agreed to serve as interim president until a search committee identifies a new president, university spokesman Tommy Bruce said. Lehman's announcement, coming at the end of one of his most eloquent speeches, stunned alumni, family members, and Cornell staff at the weekend event, Bruce said. "There were audible gasps," he said. "Gasps, and then a standing ovation that wouldn't end." Lehman became Cornell's 11th president in October 2003. In his speech to alumni Saturday, Lehman noted recent achievements at Cornell. He said that in the past year, applications to Cornell rose by 17 percent, and alumni gifts have been at record levels for the past two years. "But as encouraging as these signs are for Cornells future, there is today an important obstacle to Cornells ability to realize its full potential," Lehman said. "Over the past few months, it has become apparent to me that the board of trustees and I have different approaches to how the university can best realize its long-term vision. These differences are profound and it has now become absolutely clear that they cannot be resolved." Lehman said he has notified Peter Meinig, chairman of the board, that he'll step down effective June 30.

Full Story: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--cornell-president0611jun11,0,210579.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

Nepotism at North Metro Technical College

2005-06-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

Being a college president has many burdens and one Georgia chief executive got an added one last week: dismissing his wife.
Steve Dougherty, president of North Metro Technical College, had to authorize the dismissal of his wife, Kate, who had held a part-time job at the college for about a year, helping with its “welfare to work” programs.
Kate Dougherty didn’t do anything wrong. But Georgia’s Department of Technical and Adult Education recently experienced a nepotism scandal. A senior official was forced to quit for hiring her sister’s boyfriend for a $72,000-a-year job for which he lacked qualifications, and then firing him when the relationship didn’t last.
Michael F. Vollmer, commissioner of the department, then set up new anti-nepotism rules, and he’s serious about them.

Full Story: http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/13/nepotism

3 Colleges added to the AAUP Censure list

2005-06-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

The American Association of University Professors on Saturday added three colleges to its list of censured institutions, and took two institutions off the list. The net change leaves 47 colleges on the list of colleges “not observing the generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure.”
The association voted at its annual meeting to censure Meharry Medical College, the University of the Cumberlands, and Virginia State University. Southern Nazarene and Wingate Universities were voted off the list. In addition, the association condemned recent actions at Benedict College and at the City University of New York.
Institutions are placed on the list following investigations by an AAUP investigating committee and a review by the association’s Committee A on Academic Freedom. Typically institutions are only removed from the list after negotiations with the association and changes in policies.
Joan W. Scott, chair of the academic freedom committee, said that the cases of censure this year illustrated a continuing problem with “autocratic presidents” who ignore faculty rights.
Two of the colleges censured Saturday (Meharry and Virginia State) along with one of the colleges criticized (Benedict) and the only college added to the censure list last year (Philander Smith) are historically black. Scott, a professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, N.J., said that she thought there was “a culture of autocracy” at some historically black colleges. A similar problem exists at small religious colleges, she said, a group that is also disproportionately represented on the AAUP’s censure list.
“Too many presidents at these institutions have a sense of being outside the general rules of shared governance,” she said.

Full Story: http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/13/aaup

University of Minnesota regents likely to back dramatic chnages

2005-06-13T05:08:00.000-07:00

Today's vote on President Bruininks' proposal to overhaul the university is seen as a test of leadership.
BY PAUL TOSTO
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS - University of Minnesota regents today are expected to back a controversial plan to overhaul the university's academic programs and schools, setting in motion some of the most dramatic changes in decades to the Twin Cities campus.
The plan will close or merge several colleges, including General College, which for nearly 75 years has offered low-performing students the chance to enter the university, catch up and graduate with a degree. It also creates new programs, particularly in design.
Regents haven't said publicly how they'll vote, but observers believe overwhelmingly they'll back the package pressed by University President Robert Bruininks -- both because they agree with much of it and because Bruininks has put so much of his professional credibility on the line that a no vote might cripple his ability to lead the U.
"I think Bruininks is going to get support from the regents," said Nils Hasselmo, the former University of Minnesota president who now heads the Association of American Universities.

Full Story: http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/local/11861426.htm

Cornell University President resigns

2005-06-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

Most of Jeffrey S. Lehman’s speech to Cornell University alumni Saturday consisted of what reunion attendees expect from such presidential addresses. Praise for a music professor’s Pulitzer Prize and a student’s Rhodes Scholarship. A report on applications (way up). An update on fund raising (setting new records).
But in the final minutes, he stunned the audience by announcing that he was leaving the presidency, after only two years in office, because of disagreements with trustees. “Over the past few months, it has become apparent to me that the Board of Trustees and I have different approaches to how the university can best realize its long-term vision. These differences are profound and it has now become absolutely clear that they cannot be resolved,” he said.
The hundreds of alumni present were totally quiet during the surprise end to the speech, gave the outgoing president at rousing standing ovation, and then — like faculty members and students at the university — tried to figure out what happened. Lehman, the first Cornell alumnus to serve as its president, was popular with many alumni (as well as with students and faculty members). And while he has had his share of controversies in two years in office, none of them appeared to be of the sort that ends a presidency.
In an interview Sunday evening, Lehman said that the Cornell presidency was “a dream job” and that there was no one reason for his departure. He offered the analogy of a long car ride. “Let’s say you are driving down a road for 18 months and it’s smooth and then you hit your first bump. You think, ‘it’s still a smooth road,’ and then you hit another bump, and then in a few months, you realize you’ve hit 20 bumps. None of them is a mountain, but this is a bumpy road,” he said.

Full Story: http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/13/cornell

Audit cites irregular spending at SUNY

2005-06-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

Comptroller lists 'inappropriate' expenditures by foundation
Yancey RoyAlbany bureau
(June 10, 2005) — ALBANY — The State University of New York's Research Foundation made questionable expenditures — such as paying tuition for a SUNY employee's child to attend an out-of-state college and providing extra housing allowances to college presidents — according to an audit released Thursday by state Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
The audit found that the foundation made millions of dollars of purchases without competitive bidding and paid $1.3 million to the lobbying firm of Bill Paxon, a former Republican congressman from Amherst, Erie County, even though it wasn't clear what the firm did for SUNY.
The audit covered an 18-month period ending Dec. 31, 2003. The foundation is an arm of SUNY that administers gifts and grants.
Hevesi called the foundation's practices "highly inappropriate and unfair to the students and faculty on all SUNY campuses — and indeed to all New Yorkers."
Foundation officials disagreed. "We believe that the expenditures singled out in the report were all in support of the university's mission," said spokeswoman Cathy Kaszluga.

Full Story: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050610/NEWS01/506100409/1002/NEWS

Harvard's Summers Says U.S. Shouldn't Shut Out Foreign Students

2005-06-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers said restrictions that make it more difficult for foreign students to study in the U.S. have become ``a serious issue'' for the nation.
He said in a speech today in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that the U.S. has never been more misunderstood in the world and one of the ways that will change is if U.S. students study abroad and students from other countries are encouraged to continue their education here.
``Wars can start or end depending on what leaders do or do not understand about history or religion or culture,'' Summers said, according to a printed copy of the speech delivered to the Harvard Alumni Association. ``Economies can grow or contract depending on what policy makers do or do not understand about economic theories.''
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, the U.S. has clamped down on visas for students from other countries. Some of the attackers that flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were in the U.S. on student visas.
In today's speech, Summers said that while the U.S. needs to guard its citizens, it can't shut out foreign students who could build the foundations of understanding that could end wars, promote economic growth and contribute to medical and scientific breakthroughs.

Full Story: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=au_wz6aqfxqg&refer=us

David Rockefeller Gives University $100M

2005-06-10T05:05:00.000-07:00

By PAT MILTON
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 9, 2005; 6:13 PM

NEW YORK -- Philanthropist David Rockefeller is celebrating his 90th birthday by donating $100 million to the Manhattan university founded by his grandfather, the Standard Oil Co. magnate.
Rockefeller, whose birthday is Sunday, is listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 100 wealthiest Americans, with an estimated $2.5 billion. He plans to join family in southern France for a big birthday bash.

"Now that I am getting to be 90, I thought it was time to take stock of my past and present," Rockefeller told The Associated Press on Thursday. "It was time to provide more funds to these institutions that I have been involved in since I was a child."
Rockefeller University received its gift Wednesday.
In April, the philanthropist donated $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art, which Rockefeller's mother helped found. That gift came on top of a $100 million donation years ago and a $5 million-a-year commitment for the rest of Rockefeller's life.
Rockefeller said that with opportunity comes responsibility, something his grandfather and parents instilled in him.
The latest gifts bring Rockefeller's total lifetime donations to more than half a billion dollars. And he says additional donations are coming.
Rockefeller, who retired nearly 25 years ago as chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, said he plans gifts for Harvard University, where he studied as an undergraduate, and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, which was created by his late wife.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060901424.html

Wentworth Institute selects 1st female president

2005-06-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

(Boston) Boston-based Wentworth Institute of Technology, a technical college, announced on Wednesday that its Board of Trustees has appointed Dr. Zorica Pantic-Tanner as president. She becomes the first female president in the 100-year history of the Institute. Pantic-Tanner comes to Wentworth from the University of Texas at San Antonio. http://www.wit.edu/WITnews/pantic-tanner.html

University of Washington gets new provost

2005-06-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

After more than two years, the University of Washington has a new provost, ending the management shuffle sparked by the controversial departure of President Richard McCormick. Phyllis Wise, dean of the division of biological sciences at the University of California, Davis, will assume the No. 2 job at the UW Aug. 1, subject to approval by the UW Board of Regents.

Does Harvard 'brand' matter anymore?

2005-06-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

By Greg Farrell, USA TODAY
Harvard. Just the name exudes superiority, if not smugness. From its "Veritas" coat of arms to the Georgian-era brick edifices that dot its campus, everything about this storied institution, founded in 1636, smacks of that most un-American trait, elitism.

As Harvard prepares to confer degrees on yet another batch of graduates Thursday, academic experts scratch their heads at how this institution maintains its reputational dominance in an era of academic parity. But a marketer would understand the Harvard aura in a nanosecond: It's the ultimate brand, at least in the academic world.
"There isn't any doubt that brand matters and that Harvard is the prestige brand," says Stanley Katz, director of Princeton University's Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. "It's the Gucci of higher education, the most selective place."
Never mind the price tag (upward of $40,000 per year for tuition, room and board), or the fact that guides such as the U.S. News & World Report ranking of colleges and universities say the differences between Harvard and other top-ranked schools are microscopically small. The gulf that separates Harvard from the rest in terms of reputation remains enormous.
"It used to be the case that of students who were admitted to Harvard and Princeton or Harvard and Yale, seven of 10 would choose to go to Harvard," Katz says. "It may be more now. There is a tendency for the academically best to skew even more to Harvard. We just get our socks beat off in those cases."

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/money/2005-06-06-harvard-usat_x.htm

St. Olaf College

2005-06-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

St. Olaf College president Christopher Thomforde will leave his position at the end of the 2005-2006 school year, the Northfield, MN college said Monday. Thomforde has served as St. Olaf's president since January 2001. A Princeton and Yale graduate, Thomforde was president of Bethany College in Lindsborg, KS., before being selected for the St. Olaf presidency. Both colleges are affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Study suggests smaller board, autonomy for UNC campuses

2005-06-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

The Associated PressThe body that oversees the 16-campus University of North Carolina needs no more than 15 members and local trustees should be given more authority, a new study says.The independent study released Monday by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni also said the governor, not the General Assembly, should select members of the UNC Board of Governors."Essentially, it's an issue of accountability," said council President Anne Neal. "The governor is essentially not at the table," Neal said. "The power to appoint is the power to lead. This (would allow) one person to set the agenda and take responsibility."The council is a Washington organization started a decade ago in part by Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney and former chief of the National Endowment for the Humanities.Phyllis Palmiero, a senior consultant to the council and former executive director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, wrote and researched the report. She concluded that North Carolina should retain its higher education system, with an overall governing board that makes policy for the 16 UNC campuses and keeps watch over strategy, cost controls and quality measures.Palmiero commended the board for its hard work and clear commitment to its biggest priority - affordable access to higher education. But the system could be improved, she said.

Full Story: http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050607/APN/506070741&cachetime=5

Edward Waters Reaches Settlement To Keep Accreditation

2005-06-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

POSTED: 3:07 pm EDT June 3, 2005
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Edward Waters College has reached a settlement with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools that should let the college keep its accreditation.
The motion filed in federal court Friday stays the lawsuit EWC filed after its accreditation was revoked for plagiarism, pending a meeting by the SACS June 23 in Ponte Vedra Beach.
EWC attorney Mike Freed is optimistic the association will go along with the settlement, which would mean the lawsuit would then be dismissed.
EWC challenged the revocation by saying the SACS didn't follow due process or its own rules in revoking the accreditation, and maintained the punishment was too harsh, given the infraction.
EWC officials have warned that loss of accreditation, and the subsequent loss of federal tuition assistance for students, could be disastrous for the school. Students at non-accredited schools are also not eligible for scholarships from the United Negro College Fund.
An estimated 90 percent of the college's students receive financial aid.

Full Story: http://www.news4jax.com/entertainment/4566669/detail.html

Nebraska lawmakers demand regent's resignation

2005-06-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

Embattled University of Nebraska Regent David Hergert found no support from the Legislature Thursday as overwhelmingly said Hergert should resign for breaking campaign finance laws to win his election.Hergert reached a settlement with the Accountability and Disclosure Commission in April after admitting to accepting an illegal campaign loan and failing to file reports on time. He agreed to pay a $33,000 fine.
Full Story: http://www.theomahachannel.com/news/4562328/detail.html

Enrollment up at Maine Community Colleges

2005-06-07T08:06:00.000-07:00

Two years ago Maine converted from a technical to a community college system with the hope of attracting a greater share of students directly from high school. That mission has been accomplished.Enrollment is up 41 percent in that category, Alice Kirkpatrick of the Maine Community College System said. But that 41 percent increase is seen as only the start. The expectation is that an even greater percentage of students graduating from high schools across the region and the state in the next two weeks will choose the community college path to a higher education, Kirkpatrick said.
Full Story: http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/1674135.shtml

US student census finds record boom

2005-06-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

Schools facing challenges with staffing, language
By Ben Feller, Associated Press June 2, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A record 49.6 million students filled US schools in 2003, breaking a mark set by their baby boomer parents and giving educators a new generation of challenges. The growth is largely due to all the children who were born in the late 1940s to early '60s and have since become parents themselves, the Census Bureau said yesterday. Rising immigration played a part, too, in pushing enrollment past the 1970 record of 48.7 million.
''You could have predicted this back in 1970 when we had all those kids," said Mark Mather, a demographer for the Population Reference Bureau, which assesses population trends. ''We knew they were going to have kids of their own. We have this classic echo effect going on."
Even if it is not surprising, the record tally of students poses steep challenges for schools: recruiting teachers, helping children who do not speak English, keeping class sizes manageable, and finding enough financial aid for students who go on to college.
In population rings outside urban areas and in Western states such as Nevada and California, for example, the growth has been concentrated, increasing demands on schools.
''They just really don't have the fiscal capacity to match this," said Scott Young, senior policy specialist in education for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In districts outside Atlanta, Houston, and Las Vegas, enrollment has soared more than 20 percent in the past five years, said Bruce Hunter, who directs lobbying for the American Association of School Administrators. His group has identified about 400 such districts.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/06/02/us_student_census_finds_record_boom/

New Audits Pan 'UConn 2000'

2005-06-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

Two separate audits have strongly criticized the University of Connecticut's construction management practices, saying that poor oversight, lax budgeting and inadequate communication and staffing resulted in cost overruns and building and health code violations in several recent building projects.The wide-ranging audits, requested by the university's trustees and presented to the board Wednesday, focused primarily on problems with the university's ambitious $2.3 billion UConn 2000 construction program.

Full Story: http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-trustees0602.artjun02,0,5439785.story?coll=hc-headlines-education

Harvard Business School Dean to Step Down

2005-06-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Kim B. Clark Named President of Brigham Young University-Idaho

BOSTON, June 6—Harvard Business School Dean Kim B. Clark announced today that he will step down on July 31, 2005, in order to accept the role as President of Brigham Young University-Idaho shortly thereafter. Clark was named Dean of HBS in 1995; he is the eighth Dean in the School’s ninety-seven-year history.
“I have been fortunate to lead the finest business school in the world during a remarkable period of renewal and growth,” said Clark. “As I move on to a new phase of my life, I look back on my tenure at HBS as an extraordinarily rewarding experience, both personally and professionally. This is a unique and very special place that is totally dedicated to its mission of educating leaders who make a difference in the world, and I am proud to have been part of this School for nearly three decades.”
Clark also noted, "I have thoroughly enjoyed working with President Larry Summers, and helping him carry out his vision for Harvard University. I greatly appreciate the support he has offered me in leading Harvard Business School during one of the most exciting periods in its history."
"Kim Clark has been an extraordinarily effective leader of Harvard Business School, and someone whose wisdom, perspective, and openness have contributed a great deal to the University," said Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers. "HBS has thrived under his leadership, further strengthening its faculty, enhancing the experience of students, pursuing research that bridges theory and practice, and extending its international reach. It has also forged important new connections with different parts of Harvard. I join Kim's many admirers in saluting his accomplishments and wishing him all the best in the new challenge before him. He will remain a valued colleague and friend."

Full Story: http://www.hbs.edu/news/060605_clark.html

Boston University's New President Is Called Consensus Builder

2005-06-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

The man chosen Saturday to be the next president of Boston University, Robert A. Brown, comes from a humble background in San Antonio, where he was raised by a single mother and became the first in his family to go to college.As provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown has overseen many endeavors that are anything but humble, from a $300 million genomics collaboration with Harvard University to the costly and architecturally bold Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center, to dramatic forays into new disciplines such as computational biology and biological engineering.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/06/06/bus_new_president_is_called_consensus_builder/

Perex named Chancellor of San Jose-Evergreen Community College District

2005-06-07T05:36:00.000-07:00

Rosa Perez, president of Cañada College in Redwood City, CA was named chancellor Friday of the San Jose-Evergreen Community College District. District trustees selected Perez, 55, after a national search. They are scheduled to approve her compensation package June 14, said Mike Hill, the interim chancellor. The former chancellor, Geraldine Evans, who left the district last year, earned $191,885 annually.

Colleges slip in racial diversity

2005-06-07T05:33:00.000-07:00

Colleges sports programs made some progress in hiring women the past year but slipped slightly when compared to five professional sports leagues in racial diversity, according to a report released Thursday.The study by Richard Lapchick, head of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, compared college sports to the NBA, NFL, WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer in racial and gender diversity. College sports received an overall grade of B on the report card, trailing the WNBA (overall A) and the NBA (B+). Colleges received a B+ for their hiring of women, a slight improvement over last year's B grade. Only the WNBA, which had an A, scored higher in that category.

Full Story: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8074544/

Conservatives see liberal bias in the classroom

2005-06-07T05:31:00.000-07:00

So far this year, at least 14 state legislatures have considered bills aimed at colleges that would restrict professors and establish grievance procedures for students who perceive political bias in teaching. None have become law, but the movement has momentum: Four state universities in Colorado, for instance, adopted the principles under legislative pressure in 2004."The last six months [have] been kind of a watershed for the academic-freedom movement," says Bradley Shipp, national field director for Students for Academic Freedom, a group founded by conservative activist David Horowitz in 2003. "It is going to filter itself down to the K-12 level."
Full Story: http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2005/0606/p01s03-legn.html

Alumni turn to Alma Mater

2005-06-07T05:28:00.001-07:00

Colleges and universities have come to realize that their relationship with their alumni is a two-way street. If they want support from their graduates, they must give them something back in return."Schools are taking seriously the question of what's in it for the alumni," says Steve Calvert, director of alumni relations at the University of Denver. They now understand, he says, that it is not the faculty and staff but the alumni who are "the permanent constituency" of the university.The change in attitude comes at a time when the proportion of alumni who contribute to their alma mater is in decline--from 13.1 percent in 2002 to 12.4 percent last year. To build relations with graduates, colleges are launching initiatives to address a range of issues alumni face as they move through different life stages, including motherhood and retirement. "We are trying to figure out what is it that will make alumni support their institution," says Andrew Shaindlin, executive director of the Caltech Alumni Association in Pasadena, Calif.
Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-06-01-college-alumni_x.htm

2005-06-07T05:28:00.000-07:00

A community college professor has been charged with using his students' names and Social Security numbers to obtain department store credit cards.Bradley Neil Slosberg, 49, of Winter Haven, was arrested Friday on charges of criminal use of personal identification and scheming to defraud, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said. Slosberg and his girlfriend, Deborah Hafner, stole the identities of at least three of the students from his anatomy and physiology class at Polk Community College, sheriff's office spokeswoman Carrie Rodgers said.
Full Story: http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/06/id.theft.ap/index.html

University of Connecticut weighing plans for Veterinary School

2005-06-07T05:10:00.000-07:00

A board of trustees committee listened to various options on the topic Wednesday. Among them was a consultant's report indicating it would cost between $35 million to $95 million to build the school for 100 students. It could take up to $14 million a year to operate, the report said. Other reports suggested partnerships with an existing veterinary colleges.Andrew Maccabe, associate executive director of the Association of American Veterinary Colleges, told the trustees there is a high demand for certain types of veterinarians. He cited a need for veterinarians in infectious disease work, food security and biomedical research.

Full Story: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/state/hc-02082351.apds.m0447.bc-ct-brf--jun02,0,6738597.story?coll=hc-headlines-local-wire

Air Force to Investigate Cadet's email

2005-06-07T05:09:00.000-07:00

On the eve of his graduation, the top cadet at the Air Force Academy sent a religious-themed e-mail to thousands of fellow cadets, even as the academy is grappling with complaints that some evangelical Christians are harassing others at the school.The Associated Press obtained a copy of the e-mail sent Tuesday by Wing Commander Nicholas Jurewicz to the freshmen, sophomore, and junior classes--about 3,000 cadets total. ''Wing commander" is the title held by the top senior at the school in military ranking.
Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/06/02/air_force_to_investigate_cadets_e_mail/

Leaders Pressed on University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's Fiscal Ills

2005-06-07T05:02:00.000-07:00

State lawmakers yesterday accused the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey of "scandalous" financial practices and vowed to continue pressuring the administration to permanently change the way the state-funded health care university is managed.During a four-hour hearing in New Brunswick, the Assembly Health Committee raised questions about an array of UMDNJ spending issues, from hundreds of millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to millions more spent on outside consultants with political connections, to the multimillion-dollar errors now delaying the new outpatient care building in Newark.

Full Story: http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1117777401309220.xml&coll=1

UNM takes heat on push for higher admission standards

2005-05-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-06T20:56:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

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

MBA programs are getting extreme makeovers

2005-04-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special to USA TODAY
The master of business administration degree just isn't what it used to be, thanks to a reinventing of the way executives are trained at more than 50 business schools nationwide.
Fast fading are the days when students spent two graduate years mastering management theory and honing a specialty in finance or marketing to serve them in any number of industries. Instead, business schools are aiming to graduate more well-rounded managers who are as strong in communication as in technical analysis but geared often for a career in one particular industry.
Spurred by a mix of factors, from declining application numbers to feedback from unsatisfied employers, many of the nation's smaller business schools are carving out a niche by overhauling their MBA curricula. Over the next three years, about 300 business schools are expected either to add academic programs or substantially revise their curricula, according to a 2004 survey by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International. More than 50 programs already have made significant revisions, association president John Fernandez says.
"Business wants a better developed student, a more broadly developed student," Fernandez says.
To get there, business schools are in some cases remaking the MBA from the ground up. Miami University (Ohio), for instance, laid to rest in 2003 the two-year traditional MBA program that treated each business subject separately. Next month, the program rises anew to confer the same degree in just 14 months. Formal management topics are now tackled in summer "boot camp." After that, students approach actual business problems through broad themes such as "product, service and customer development" and "the competitive environment," culminating in a six-week field experience abroad.

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-04-19-mba-usat_x.htm

Middlebury College Merger

2005-04-28T21:18:00.000-07:00

Middlebury College has always been known for its undergraduate programs in the liberal arts, especially in languages. The college has become increasingly popular with applicants in recent years, but officials have struggled to figure out whether and how to expand its small graduate program.
The college may have an unusual solution: taking over a graduate school.
The Monterey Institute of International Studies, a California graduate school with a strong academic reputation but struggling finances, approached Middlebury about a possible deal, and the two institutions are in serious discussions about an acquisition.
For Middlebury, assuming control of the institute could make it an immediate player in graduate education, expand its visibility on the West coast, and help build its connections to Asia (a strength of Monterey by virtue of its academic priorities and its Pacific location).
For Monterey, the deal could mean survival. While institute officials declined to discuss specifics, the college has been in financial trouble for some time. Two years ago, it briefly explored the possibility of becoming part of the University of California at Santa Cruz, but those talks fell apart amid California’s budget crisis.

Full Story: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/04/21/mid

Temple University To Add USA Technologies' e-Suds Online Laundry Service Campuswide

2005-04-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday April 27, 6:00 am ET
- Temple embraces e-Suds as part of its embracing state-of-the-art technology solutions
MALVERN, Pa., April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- USA Technologies (OTC Bulletin Board: USTT - News), Caldwell and Gregory, and Temple University today jointly announced the single largest installation of the e-Suds online laundry service yet undertaken on a college campus.

Temple University, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ranked among the biggest universities in the United States with 34,000 students, is installing the e-Suds computerized laundry service in 40 laundry rooms this summer.
"We are excited to bring this amazing technology to a university recognized for its leadership in information services," said John Gregory, President of Caldwell and Gregory, the distributor providing USA Technologies' e-Suds solution. "Being a school that embraces new technology and that strives for the betterment of their resident life, I saw Temple and e-Suds as a perfect match."
"Temple University has always been a leader in technology breakthrough, and in fact The Princeton Review named Temple the fourth-most 'connected campus' in the United States in its annual 'Top 25 Most Connected Campuses' survey," said Joe Smallberger, Senior Software Developer, Temple University. "We see adding e-Suds to our resident housing as another means to reinforce Temple's ongoing dedication to providing students, faculty and staff with consistent access to state-of-the-art technology and customer value services."
e-Suds, by USA Technologies, allows students to go online to check the availability of washers and dryers. A student uses their Blackboard Transaction System cards to activate and pay for the service, and receive an e-mail on their personal computers or cellular phones when the laundry is complete.

Full Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050427/nyw040.html?.v=6

WebCT Announces the Beta Release of WebCT Campus Edition 6

2005-04-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

A host of new features will allow faculty to easily create engaging course environments; New infrastructure will enhance data integrity and reliability

LYNNFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2005-- WebCT, provider of higher education's most flexible and widely used e-learning solutions, today announced a new version of WebCT Campus Edition(TM). WebCT Campus Edition 6 takes WebCT's market-leading course management system to the next level, delivering unprecedented advancements in ease of use as well as cutting-edge teaching and learning functionality.
WebCT Campus Edition 6 will be generally available at the end of the second quarter. A beta version is being installed now at a number of test sites as well as at colleges and universities enrolled in the WebCT Campus Edition 6 Campus Partner Program, including these new participants: California State University, Sacramento; Corning Community College (N.Y.); Johnson County Community College (Kan.); Southern Texas College; University of Nottingham (UK); and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The Campus Partners are working closely with WebCT to establish best practices for upgrading that the entire WebCT community can learn from.
"We're adopting WebCT Campus Edition 6 because we're excited about the powerful new features and think our faculty members will be, too," said Mike Cooling, operating system analyst, university computing services, California State University, Sacramento. "We are also glad to be working closely with WebCT to help define best practices for deployment with which other institutions can succeed as they move to Campus Edition 6."
WebCT Campus Edition 6 is based on a new technology infrastructure that runs on a relational database back end (Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server) and application server (BEA WebLogic). This new infrastructure provides significant benefits for Campus Edition customers, including enhanced reliability, security and data integrity.

Full Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050425/255245.html?.v=1

Two-Thirds of Most 'Digitally Savvy' Community Colleges Choose WebCT

2005-04-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

Tuesday April 26, 10:30 am ET
Digital Community Colleges Survey Examines How Colleges Are Deploying Technology
LYNNFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2005--More than two-thirds of the country's most "digitally savvy" community colleges use WebCT course management solutions, WebCT announced today. Moreover, nine of the top 10 most digitally savvy large urban community colleges use WebCT.
"Community colleges are a critical market for e-learning solution providers, since they often serve a non-traditional student population consisting largely of motivated adult learners with rigid work and family schedules," said Carol Vallone, WebCT's president and CEO. "These students thrive on distance-learning opportunities and on after-hours interaction like animated discussion. For busy community college faculty, ease of use and flexibility in their course management systems is critical, and these are almost certainly the reasons these institutions are opting for WebCT."
The Center for Digital Education and American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) on April 6 named 31 digitally savvy community colleges (there was one tie) for 2005 from a total pool of more than 200 community colleges. Community college officials responded to a set of 24 questions in the survey that addressed online capabilities, such as admission, registration, bookstores and grades. Additional questions focused on the availability of technology tools and training for teachers and faculty, along with strategic plans across departments and within curriculum planning. Colleges were ranked according to a four-point scale, providing Web site addresses and background data for final verification and validation. For more information on the institutions, please visit: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/050406/084155.html.

Full Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050426/265642.html?.v=1

eCollege(R) Provides New Level of Flexibility for Managing Large-Scale Online Programs

2005-04-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

Tuesday April 19, 9:00 am ET
- Advancements Increase Efficiencies for Centralized Program Administration
DENVER, April 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- eCollege® (Nasdaq: ECLG - News), a leading provider of value-added information services to the post-secondary education industry, today announced the release of its enhanced Program Administration System, providing a new level of flexibility for administrators to more effectively manage large-scale online programs. The enhancements are part of eCollege's overall product advancement framework, which includes a focus on operational efficiency to help institutions drive the profitable growth of their online programs.

eCollege's unique Program Administration System is an integrated toolset that enables administrators to centrally or divisionally manage the overall planning, preparation and execution of online programs across multiple schools and campuses. The new advancements provider greater convenience by empowering administrators with a flexible solution that enables them to centrally create terms, create and duplicate single or mass courses, and manage enrollment, registration, communication and reporting processes. The advancements can help reduce operational costs and improve the speed and ease of processes such as large volume course creation and duplication.
"While we have always provided a cost-effective and efficient means for program management as part of our unique outsource solution, we wanted to give customers even more options for increased operational flexibility," said Oakleigh Thorne, chairman and CEO of eCollege.

Full Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050419/latu011.html?.v=7

WebCT unveils first-of-its-kind program harnessing e-learning data to drive education excellence

2005-04-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Quality Assessment Innovation Project will help WebCT Vista institutions collect, organize, analyze and assess data about student learning activities

LYNNFIELD, Mass., April 18, 2005 - WebCT, provider of higher education's most flexible and widely used e-learning solutions, today announced the Quality Assessment Innovation Project, a first-of-its-kind initiative to help colleges and universities improve education by analyzing the student performance data they collect in the WebCT Vista academic enterprise system. The project builds on WebCT's announcement earlier this year of the WebCT Vista PowerSight Kit, software for harvesting institutional data on e-learning.
The four participating institutions in the Quality Assessment Innovation Project will use WebCT Vista's PowerSight Kit to extract data on student activities, compare it against student achievements, synthesize it with other campus data, and leverage it for accreditation and program improvement. WebCT's goal in creating this project is to encourage and expedite innovation in higher education and to make it easy for institutions to measure their results. Each participating institution will partner with WebCT to execute a project using its own data, collected in its WebCT Vista implementation.
The first project participants are:
City University (London), sponsor: Dr. Susannah Quinsee, head of e-Learning and associate director of library information services;
The University System of Georgia Board of Regents, sponsors: Dr. Catherine Finnegan, associate director of assessment and public information; and Associate Professor Libby V. Morris, Ph.D., graduate coordinator for doctoral programs in higher education at the Institute of Higher Education, The University of Georgia;
Santa Barbara (Calif.) City College, sponsor: Andreea Serban, Ph.D., associate vice president, information resources, director of institutional assessment, research and planning; and
Weber State University (Utah), sponsor: Dr. Kathleen Lukken, associate provost.
The WebCT Vista PowerSight Kit gives institutions unprecedented access to the untapped wealth of detailed quantitative data about student learning that the academic enterprise system automatically collects when learners participate in the online course environment. The kit is part of WebCT Vista and will soon be available as a module for the WebCT Campus Edition course management system.

Under the Quality Assessment Innovation Project, The University System of Georgia will use PowerSight-collected data in two ways: to prove students' technology literacy to accreditors and to evaluate the effectiveness of the university system's eCore curriculum. USG will be able to supplement data the WebCT PowerSight Kit collects with records in its student information system and surveys.

Full Story: http://www.webct.com/service/ViewContent?contentID=25774969

Four Universities Partner with LiquidMatrix to Meet Broad Range of Business Needs

2005-04-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

Monday April 18, 10:15 am ET
ActiveCampus e-Recruitment Solutions Integrate with ERP Systems from Multiple Vendors
BUFFALO, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2005--LiquidMatrix Corporation today announced that four higher education institutions, each utilizing a different enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, have selected LiquidMatrix's ActiveCampus solution to help them achieve their business objectives. The four institutions are: Faulkner University, Alabama; Saint Joseph College, Connecticut; West Virginia University; and University of Maryland.
The breakdown of institutions and associated ERP system is: Institution ERP System
----------- ----------
Faulkner University Oracle
Saint Joseph College Jenzabar EX
West Virginia University SunGard SCT Banner
University of Maryland Homegrown ERP

LiquidMatrix's ActiveCampus product suite helps institutions build powerful multi-faceted e-Recruitment and enrollment solutions. ActiveAdmissions, part of the ActiveCampus suite, affords an easy-to-use approach to develop and manage: personalized e-recruiting, targeted e-mail communications, Web content management, and integrated online applications.
"LiquidMatrix remains focused and dedicated to providing the best solutions to all higher education institutions, regardless of their ERP system," said Gary Guyton, LiquidMatrix president and CEO. "ActiveCampus provides the functionality and integration institutions need to conduct their complex e-Recruitment efforts more efficiently."

ActiveAdmissions improves online communications and facilitates transactions with prospective students, alumni, and all Web site visitors. LiquidMatrix works closely with each institution to fully integrate ActiveAdmissions with its respective ERP environment.

Full Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050418/185697.html?.v=1

Vantage Learning To Further Educational Needs in South Korea Through Partnership with Digital Daesung

2005-04-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

Monday April 18, 11:28 am ET
Partnership with Korean company provides educators and students with Vantage Learning's customized web-based learning tools to enhance English reading and writing skills
NEWTOWN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2005-- Vantage Learning (www.VantageLearning.com), the leading provider of online assessment and automated essay scoring, today announced its partnership with Digital Daesung, a South Korean education leader specializing in learning centers, e-learning, educational content, and testing services. Digital Daesung will offer Vantage's off-the-shelf and customized educational and commercial web-based solutions to enhance the English reading and writing skills of primary and secondary school students throughout South Korea.

Digital Daesung was founded in March 2000 to raise student achievement through research-based teaching, accurate testing systems, interactive professional development and integrated use of technology in the classroom. Digital Daesung currently manages more than 173 Daesung N School Centers for secondary school students and more than 440 Daesung Genex Schools for primary school students, where participants are achieving annual academic gains well above national norms.
In addition to Digital Daesung's current offerings, students throughout the country will have the opportunity to use Vantage Learning's suite of products, including MY Access!(TM) and Learning Access!(TM). MY Access! is Vantage's online writing tool powered by IntelliMetric(TM), its award-winning artificial intelligence scoring engine; Learning Access! is a suite of online diagnostic tools for assessments of student knowledge in reading, writing, math, and science,. Vantage Learning's products will be offered primarily through Digital Daesung's learning centers throughout South Korea.

Full Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050418/185841.html?.v=1

101communications Acquires T.H.E. Journal, Leading Franchise in Education Technology Market

2005-04-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesday April 19, 7:00 am ET
CHATSWORTH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2005--101communications, a leading B2B media company, has acquired the assets of ETC Group LLC, publisher of T.H.E. Journal, the largest circulated, and oldest continually published, journal serving technology users in K-12 and higher education. The acquisition also encompasses the magazine's website, www.thejournal.com; three e-mail newsletters; T.H.E. Institute, its professional development division, and EduHound, a popular resource directory for educators, students and parents.

"The education technology market is an important, and growing, vertical market," said Jeffrey S. Klein, President and CEO of 101communications. "The acquisition of T.H.E. Journal, combined with Campus Technology, our higher education franchise, gives us a strong leadership position in the education technology marketplace, enabling us to cover the entire market from kindergarten through higher education," said Klein.
"T.H.E. Journal has a rich history of serving readers and advertisers, and we are delighted to add this venerable publication and market leader to our Education Technology Group," he continued.

T.H.E. Journal, founded in 1972 as Technological Horizons in Education, is the original and foremost publication dedicated to covering the application of technology to the instructional and administrative learning environment. Published monthly, the magazine reaches more than 160,000 education professionals. T.H.E.'s online offerings serve an audience of more than 50,000 eNewsletter readers, and its Web site delivers 1.2 million impressions per month. Included in its digital products is EduHound, an online resource in English and Spanish that provides links to more than 15,000 K-12 education sites.

Full Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050419/195353.html?.v=1

Renaissance Learning, Inc. Teams Up with Sagebrush Corporation

2005-04-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday April 19, 8:00 am ET
- Partnership Provides Educators Greater Access to Accelerated Reader
WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis., April 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Renaissance Learning®, Inc., (Nasdaq: RLRN - News), a leading provider of learning information systems and school improvement programs for pre-K-12 schools, today announced a partnership with Sagebrush Corporation, which will further strengthen the distribution of its reading products. Sagebrush, a leader in providing technology, services, and educational resources to K-12 schools will distribute Renaissance Learning's reading solutions, including Accelerated Reader, STAR Reading, STAR Early Literacy, Fluent Reader, and Read Now. Renaissance reading solutions have been adopted in more than 63,000 schools.

"We are excited about this renewed partnership with a company so highly regarded by K-12 educators, librarians, and administrators," said John Hickey, chief executive officer and president of Renaissance Learning. "Partnering with Sagebrush further positions Renaissance Learning as an industry leader, now having relationships with all the major tradebook resellers in the K-12 market."
Renaissance Learning's reading solutions are available with a centralized web-accessible database called Renaissance Place, which offers schools and districts access to all student data anytime, from any web-enabled computer. Renaissance Place offers reports providing information to parents and educators on daily individual student progress and formative feedback, and schools and districts are now able to make data-driven decisions based on comprehensive information.

Full Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050419/cgtu025.html?.v=6

ECollege chalking up top honors in EPS growth

2005-04-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

By Roger Fillion,
Rocky Mountain News
April 16, 2005

Five years ago, eCollege.com was on life support, its stock in the tank and its cash reserves burning up at an alarming rate. The Denver online education company was given a life expectancy of about a year.
Times have changed.

For 2004, eCollege took top honors in the percentage growth in earnings- per-share category of The Colorado 50 for posting a whopping gain of 2,833 percent in its diluted net income per share. Profits skyrocketed to 88 cents per diluted share for all of 2004, from 3 cents in 2003.
Yes, there were special factors: An $18.5 million tax benefit recorded in the fourth quarter added about 84 cents a share to the company's 2004 per-share diluted net earnings.

Also, eCollege's September 2003 purchase of Datamark Inc. skewed the year-vs.-year comparison of diluted net earnings. Datamark made a hefty contribution to eCollege's 2004 results.
But the online education company's 2003 diluted net earnings included Datamark's numbers only for November and December, making the year- vs.-year earnings increase appear larger.
ECollege CEO Oakleigh Thorne joked to a reporter that he was "sorry" the company hadn't generated "real growth" in its diluted net earnings of nearly 3,000 percent.
No matter. Wall Street still likes eCollege.
Why? Analyst Mark Marostica of Piper Jaffray & Co. noted that online education is posting strong growth and universities increasingly recruit students through marketing.

Full Story: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_3704616,00.html

Blackboard expands into European Markets

2005-04-15T06:02:00.000-07:00

New Marketing Director in Europe and UK-Based Communications Firm Hired
WASHINGTON, DC, Apr 14, 2005 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB), a leading provider of e-Learning software and services to more than 2,200 universities and K-12 schools worldwide, is expanding awareness of its software products and services across Europe. Additional resources include: -- A new marketing director, based in Amsterdam
-- A new UK-based communications agency
-- A new Applications Service Provider (ASP) Data Center in Europe (to
open later this year)
Blackboard is pleased to announce the arrival of Dave Hayward as Marketing Director, Europe. Mr. Hayward will serve as a dedicated in-market resource to assist Blackboard in meeting the e-Learning needs of institutions across the region. Mr. Hayward joins Blackboard with a decade of experience working as a marketing executive at Oracle Corporation.
Blackboard has also retained The EuroPR Group, a London-based Independent PR Consultancy to support its European marketing and communications efforts. EuroPR Group will work closely with Mr. Hayward to generate awareness and excitement about how Blackboard is enabling academic institutions across Europe to enhance the educational experience. More than 350 learning institutions currently license Blackboard software products and services in Europe, some of which are hosted by Blackboard's ASP Services from servers based in the United States

Full Story: http://www.blackboard.com/about/press/prview.htm?id=695468

SkillSoft's Perspectives User Conference to Highlight Integrated Enterprise Learning in Las Vegas, May 2 - 5

2005-04-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

Thursday April 14, 9:18 am ET
- Industry Analysts Elliott Masie and Josh Bersin Will Keynote; Presentations Will Focus on Maximizing Human Capital, Use of Informal and Formal Learning, and Supporting Employee Productivity
NASHUA, N.H., April 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SkillSoft PLC (Nasdaq: SKIL - News), a leading provider of content resources and complementary technologies for integrated enterprise learning, today announced the agenda of its Perspectives user conference. The event will be held at Green Valley Ranch Resort, Las Vegas, from May 2 - 5. Attendees will have access to keynotes, breakout presentations and workshops on a variety of topics, such as management training, global deployment of learning initiatives, rapid development, third-party LMS strategies and ROI. Customer presenters and panelists include learning executives from TELUS, Yahoo!, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Computer Sciences Corporation, Merck, ADP, Mellon Financial Corp., Kronos and University of Iowa.
Attendees may choose to participate in any of five half-day workshops at no additional cost. The workshops, held on May 2, cover SkillPort, SkillSoft's learning management system; rapid development of learning programs; internal marketing; achieving a learning "utopia"; and third-party LMS strategies.

Full Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050414/neth018.html?.v=6

Frostburg State University gets new President

2005-04-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

Frostburg State University (Frostburg, MD) President Catherine R. Gira announced her retirement Tuesday from the post she has held for nearly 14 years. She will step down June 30, 2006. She became president of the university Sept. 1, 1991, after serving nine years as provost of the University of Baltimore.