The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Cities Use College Tuition Reward To Increase Graduation Rates

A scholarship program that offers free college tuition as a reward for attending public schools in a Michigan city is catching on in other communities seeking to revitalize their urban centers. Many more are considering doing so. Officials from 82 cities, including La Crosse, Wis.; San Francisco; and Portland, Ore., met recently in Kalamazoo to discuss how to adapt the concept. "The spread of this movement nationally is something nobody really expected," says Michelle Miller-Adams, visiting scholar at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-07-01-Kalamazoo_N.htm

Graying Faculty Leads To Shift In Campus Politics

Baby boomers, hired in large numbers during a huge expansion in higher education that continued into the ’70s, are being replaced by younger professors who believe they are different from their predecessors — less ideologically polarized and more politically moderate. Yet already there are signs that the intense passions and polemics that roiled campuses during the past couple of decades have begun to fade. How many will actually retire in the next decade or so depends on personal preferences and health, as well as how their pensions fare in the financial markets. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/arts/03camp.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

Congress Proposes To Make College Tuition More Transparent

Because of complicated financial aid formulas, what undergraduates really pay for their degree is a much more complex equation. Now Congress is trying to take the mystery out of the forever rising costs of higher education by mandating that colleges provide students and their parents more information about how much the average student pays for school, what kind of tuition help they might be able to secure and which universities offer the best bang for the buck. Congress is also calling for an annual "blacklist" of schools with the steepest cost increases. Critics wonder whether the measures will provide real financial relief or create extra paperwork for colleges.Critics wonder whether the measures will provide real financial relief or create extra paperwork for colleges. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/content/education/chi-higher_ed2jul02,0,68250.story

New Orleans' Big Three IHEs Experiencing An Enrollment Spike

As the city struggles to repopulate after Hurricane Katrina, booming numbers of college students are enrolling. The city's three major universities — Tulane, Loyola and Xavier — have all seen spikes in the number of applications and projected enrollment of their freshman classes this year. Part of the reason: the city's post-Katrina identity as a place to go for young volunteers who want to put a battered community back on track. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-06-30-enrollment_N.htm?csp=34

Diploma Mills Expanding While Few Laws Exist To Stop Them

Monroe was one of more than 120 fictitious universities operated by Dixie and Steven K. Randock Sr., a couple from Colbert, Wash., who sold diplomas for a price, according to a three-year federal investigation that ended in guilty pleas from the Randocks to mail and wire fraud. The inquiry into their diploma mill, which operated most often as St. Regis University, provides the most up-to-date portrait of how diploma factories can harness the rapidly evolving power of the Internet to expand their reach. Officials say they are concerned by growth in the industry and about the potential for terrorists to use bogus degrees to obtain United States visas. Law-enforcement officials say there are many obstacles to prosecution. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/us/29diploma.html?_r=1&ei=5087&em=&en=cda8776052ae5696&ex=1214884800&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1214832894-mwaJ3wLUTeMu14Pw5lfzdg&oref=slogin

Career Services Turning Attention To Alumni Job Seekers

Not-so-recent college graduates are demanding more career assistance from their former schools as they face tougher employment markets. "This spring, I personally received more calls and emails from alums seeking job-hunting help than at any time in the past four years," says Aspasia Apostolakis Miller, an official of the Northwestern Alumni Association. U.S. universities have begun to respond by creating job-search programs. Nearly 20% now offer full-fledged efforts for alumni, up from just 5% five years ago. Read more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121485622574117001.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Are IHEs Living A Diversity Lie

To this day, few colleges have even tried to establish that their race-conscious admissions policies yield broad educational benefits. The research is so fuzzy and methodologically weak that some strident proponents of affirmative action admit that social science is not on their side. In reality, colleges profess a deep belief in the educational benefits of their affirmative-action policies mainly to save their necks. They know that, if the truth came out, courts could find them guilty of illegal discrimination against white and Asian Americans. Read more at:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121460672212612067.html

A Ranking Of The Major Criticisms Of The USN&WR Rankings

In 1983, U.S. News & World Report began its famed annual list of America's "top colleges." This list was originally compiled based on college presidents' reviews of rival institutions. At the time, this was simply another flashy magazine list to help sell issues. However, it quickly grew in popularity and would become an authoritative resource for enrolling students. Many criticisms have been directed at the college listing in recent years, however. The way the list is compiled is under a lot of scrutiny and some former participants are now boycotting the ranking system. Here are the top 12 criticisms of the U.S. News & World Report college ranking formula. Read more at:

http://www.universityreviewsonline.com/2005/10/top-12-criticis.html

Giving Parents A Better Way To Save For College

During tough economic times, socking money away for the kids' college fund may be the last thing on parents' minds. But efforts are under way to turn saving into something too good to refuse.Dickinson College, a liberal arts school tucked away in Carlisle, Pa., recently announced a guaranteed interest rate much higher than previously available through the Independent 529 Plan (I-529), which offers prepaid tuition accounts for 274 private colleges and universities (a list that's growing). In effect, those who pay for a portion of tuition now will be guaranteed to earn enough interest to cover that same portion in the future, plus an additional return on their investment – 4 percent, in Dickinson's case. Read more at:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0628/p04s01-usec.html

Making The Move From Commuter To Residential

The neighborhood around Georgia State University was for years a maze of boarded up storefronts, aging buildings and parking lots that emptied at the close of each day. But the downtown Atlanta campus is shedding its sleepy commuter school image thanks to plush new dorms, gleaming classroom buildings, Greek life and, yes, even football. Georgia State and other former night schools across the country are transforming into more traditional college campuses to boost enrollment and gain prestige. And each is creating a thriving community that spills over into surrounding neighborhoods, drawing restaurants and retail into once empty streets. Read more at:

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2008/06/30/commuter_colleges_go_residential_gain_enrollment/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Education+news