The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Latest Issue Of EDUCAUSE Review Now Online

The May/June 2009 issue of EDUCAUSE Review is now available. This issue focuses on the intersection of information technology and learning. One feature article discusses faculty development programs to help them gain 21st century teaching skills. Among the usual department features is a podcast summary about information literacy and IT fluency that includes no academic librarians. Read more at:
http://www.educause.edu/er

Learning Communities Improve Remedial Education

"I love math. I never thought I'd say that," says Dinh, 34, who recently passed the first math class she has taken in more than a decade. It was a remedial course. The course was part of what educators call a learning community; students who enrolled in her math class also were required to take a course called College Success Skills. Learning communities represent one of several ideas being tried nationwide as educators search for better ways to help more students succeed in college. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-05-26-comcol-main_N.htm

Is Higher Education's Bubble About To Burst

Economic benefits are not the sole measurement of value. Intellectually, spiritually, and morally, American higher education is in crisis, with the worst damage manifested at the most expensive institutions. It’s often at the costliest universities that students are able to graduate with a degree in English without ever having read Shakespeare, a degree in history despite ignorance of the Civil War, or one in art history without ever having encountered the Renaissance. In their own ways, universities indulge in some of the worst faults of the corporate sector, overcharging their customers in order to allow managers and staff to engage in wasteful or destructive activities that could never be justified on their own. Read more at:
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/96989/Bursting_the_Higher_Ed_Bubble

College Group Just For Men Creates Some Controversy

A group of University of Chicago students thinks it's time the campus focused more on its men.
A third-year student from Lake Bluff has formed Men in Power, a student organization that promises to help men get ahead professionally. But the group's emergence has been controversial, with some critics charging that its premise is misogynistic. Others say it's about time men are championed, noting that recent job losses hit men harder and that women receive far more bachelor's and master's degrees than do men. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-u-of-c-mens-group-28-may28,0,5781148.story

CCSSE (CESSIE) Helps Community Colleges Boost Standards

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement, aimed at helping schools boost student success, was created on the premise that all students should be held to high standards but learn best when colleges create the right environment. The survey — known as CCSSE (pronounced "Cessie") — measures five categories linked to student engagement: academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, student effort and support for learners. Data for all participating schools are posted at www.ccsse.org. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-05-26-comcol-cessie_N.htm

Disconnect Between Public Schools And IHEs Tied To Remedial Courses

More than a million college freshmen across the nation must take remedial courses each year, and many drop out before getting a degree. College instructors say that even well-run high school courses often fail to teach what students need to know in college. Poorly run public schools are a part of the problem, but so is a disconnect between high schools and colleges. Now the Obama administration is pressing states to get public school and higher education authorities working together. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/education/28remedial.html?_r=1&hp

Cutbacks To Loan Forgiveness Programs Will Hurt Some Majors

When a Kentucky agency cut back its program to forgive student loans for schoolteachers, Travis B. Gay knew he and his wife, Stephanie — both special-education teachers — were in trouble. From Kentucky to Iowa to California, loan forgiveness programs are on the chopping block. Typically founded by their states to help students pay for college, the state agencies and nonprofit organizations that make student loans and sponsor these programs are getting less money from the federal government and are having difficulty raising money elsewhere as a result of the financial crisis. Curbing the programs will make it harder to lure college graduates into high-value but often low-paying fields like teaching and nursing. Read more at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/your-money/student-loans/27forgive.html?_r=2&scp=3&sq=college&st=cse

State Funding Would Be Based On Degree Completion Not Enrollment

States fund public colleges primarily based on how many students are enrolled. But a number of legislatures are considering policies that would link funding to whether students graduate. Lawmakers in Ohio appear likely to adopt a plan, introduced this year, that would base 100% of higher education spending on course and degree completion. The concept of rewarding institutions that meet certain goals has been around for about 30 years, but the newer proposals focus more on student outcomes and involve more money. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-05-26-college-funding_N.htm

College Towns Are Still Good For Jobs And Economy

Research universities tend to be great environments for business, as they’re flush with cheap, highly talented labor (recent grads), and the massive research and development budgets universities have. Plenty of the world’s top companies, including Dell( DELL- news - people ), Cisco Systems ( CSCO- news - people ) and Google ( GOOG - news - people ), began in university settings. There are also business booms in college towns like College Station, Texas (home to Texas A&M and up 2.06%); Baton Rouge, La. (up 2.16%), which Louisiana State calls home; and Durham, N.C. (up 2.49%), where Duke University have been major drivers of economic activity. Read more at:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/19/college-towns-jobs-lifestyle-real-estate-jobs.html

Scholarship Helps Low-Income Students Obtain Ivy League Diplomas

Sidney Frank made millions marketing Jagermeister and other alcohol brands. Three years after his death, he's a big hit with students at the Ivy League college he briefly attended. He's a big hit not because of what he sold but because he's given dozens of them what he couldn't afford as a young man: an education at Rhode Island's Brown University. On Sunday, 49 students from low-income families became the first four-year Sidney E. Frank Scholars to graduate from Brown, owing virtually nothing except gratitude to the late liquor magnate. Read more at:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/05/25/brown.graduates.sidney.frank/?iref=mpstoryview