The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Strike Ends At York But Not Without Concerns About Adjunct Faculty

The longest university strike in English Canada ends with back-to-work legislation this week. As full-time faculty at York University we are distressed at the impact of this strike on our 50,000 students, who
have confronted enormous disruption to their lives, finances and future. Dozens of current retirements are being replaced by part-timers who are arguably deserving of the tenure jobs being eliminated. Contract faculty teach 54 per cent of York's undergraduate courses for 7 per cent of its operating budget. More temporary faculty means less access to tenured faculty engaged in scholarly activity.Read more at

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/578782">http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/578782

Complicated Form Keeps Students From Applying For Financial Aid

An estimated 22,000 Florida university students are missing out on free money for school because they didn't fill out federal financial aid forms. It's a lapse worth about $24 million in grants throughout the state's 11 public universities, and financial aid officials say it is especially alarming given the dismal economy. School officials believe some students don't apply for aid because they are stymied by the formidable 11-page Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which requests detailed tax records and bank account information. Besides the challenge of the FAFSA, Day said students aren't always made aware that money is available. Read more at:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/local_news/epaper/2009/01/28/1128nopellgrant.html

Establishing Academic Cooperation Between The US And Iraq

A new initiative between Iraqi and American universities will increase academic cooperation between the two countries, an Iraqi official announced Thursday. Abed Theyab, the minister of higher education, said seven Iraqi university presidents will travel to the United States next month to attend the American Council on Education's national conference and meet with senior education officials. Theyab said the goal of this visit is to establish dialogue and links between American and Iraqi universities. Read more at:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i2P4pOIhVX_rSz0ofBps21qCkhwQD960SC1G1

Report Calls For K-12 And Higher Ed To Reduce Need For Remediation

Far too many students leave high school unprepared for the rigors of college and the workplace. Nearly a third of all incoming freshmen- 42 percent of first-year students at public two-year colleges-require remediation. At some postsecondary institutions, more than 90 percent of first-time freshmen need to take remedial classes. Remedial courses are offered at 99 percent of public two-year colleges and more than 75 percent of public four-year institutions. High schools, colleges, and universities have not worked together to establish expectations or common standards as to what students should know and be able to do. Read more at:
http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/bridging_gap

Questioning The Value Of A College Degree

Today's economic downturn has blindsided a generation of young people around the globe brought up to believe that a college degree guaranteed them financial prosperity. Whether in the US, China, or in countries in between, graduates from even marquee-name schools are feeling the crunch, prompting many rightly to rethink the value of their education. In light of the pervasive grim data, some are beginning to ask whether a college degree has been oversold. What's clear from the evidence in countries around the world is that we're entering a new era in which old assumptions about education and prosperity no longer apply.Read more at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0129/p09s02-coop.html

Some IHEs Think Now Is The Time To Load Up On Faculty Talent

Amid the gloom of hiring freezes across much of academia, some New England colleges are seizing on the opportunity to scoop up the brightest newly minted PhDs to bolster their faculty ranks and gain ground on their competition. They're able to do so amid the economic downtown by cutting back in other areas: delaying construction, limiting travel, even whit tling the number of applicants flown in for campus interviews. Applicants, meanwhile, are flocking to the open positions, stiffening competition in an already cut-throat field. Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/01/29/despite_crunch_some_colleges_go_on_hiring_spree/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Education+news

Ranking The Most Popular Colleges And Universities

So which colleges do students really want to go to? One way to find out is to look at a school’s yield, the percentage of applicants accepted by a university who end up enrolling at that institution in the fall. The figures in this table are from the fall 2007 entering class and show the admit yield and overall acceptance rate. If a school has a high yield (a large proportion of those admitted enroll), it means that the school is most likely very popular with a top reputation and that the students are highly motivated to go there. Read more at:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-colleges/2009/01/26/most-popular-colleges-national-universities.html?PageNr=1

Higher Ed Policy Screws Students Two Ways

Over the last 30 years, American higher education policy seems to have been designed to ensure poor economic performance in this country. In the economic stimulus package now being discussed, we can begin to reverse that course. If higher education is the key to economic success, we’re systematically denying opportunity to our younger generation. In less academic terms: We’re screwing our young people big time. We’re providing that screwing in two ways: For many, we’re pricing them out of the market so they’ll never have a chance to go to college. But for many others, we’re giving them the opportunity to go into crushing debt so that they can afford to go to school. Read more at:
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/38555472.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

How Much For That Internship

Faced with a dismal market for college summer internships, a growing number of anxious parents are pitching in to help -- by buying their kids a foot in the door. Some are paying for-profit companies to place their college students in internships that are mostly unpaid. Others are hiring marketing consultants to create direct-mail campaigns promoting their children's workplace potential. Still other parents are buying internships outright in online charity auctions. Critics of the programs say they deepen the divide between the haves and have-nots by giving students from more affluent families an advantage. Read more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310699999022549.html

Stimulus Plan Will Increase Aid To Higher Education

The economic stimulus plan that Congress has scheduled for a vote on Wednesday would shower the nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education’s current budget. In higher education, the bill would increase spending on Pell Grants, the most important federal student aid program, to $27 billion from about $19 billion this year. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/education/28educ.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss