The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

New Law Should Cut Textbook Costs

College students will be able to shop around more for deals on textbooks, thanks to a new law that took effect this month. The Higher Education Opportunity Act requires colleges to release required book lists at the time of class registration. Publishers must disclose prices and revision information to schools. Proponents say the law will give students more time to take advantage of textbook buy-back programs, book rentals and prices that are often lower online than in college bookstores. They expect it will also force professors to pay more attention to the cost of books they assign. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/2010-07-30-textbooks30_ST_N.htm

Six Massachusetts Colleges Become Universities

Merchandise — hats, teddy bears, and 15 varieties of T-shirts — will be outdated by the fall, when the school unveils a new logo for Bridgewater State University, its new name, as part of a law signed yesterday that will rebrand six state colleges as universities. Three other state colleges will retain their names, but become part of the new state university system. School officials said the change will enhance student and alumni résumés, help the schools compete for grants, and attract better faculty members. “A lot of folks will tend to take a second look at us now,’’ said Katy Abel, spokeswoman for the state Department of Higher Education. “I think I’m just stating the obvious here: A university name brings a certain level of prestige.’’ Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/07/29/for_six_state_colleges_a_new_outlook/

No Pay But Students Lining Up For These Internships

Pennsylvania State University sophomore Elysia Mann, 18, is spending her summer in New York City working at two fashion internships — both unpaid. Although she's working 48 hours each week for no compensation, Mann says this is something she "has to do" if she wants to go into the fashion industry. Mann is one of tens of thousands of college students with unpaid internships this summer. Even with the recession, students are willing to dish out hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars to cover expenses for internships far from home.Despite the financial burden, the pipeline is crowded with young people trying to get a foot in the door, especially in a tight economy. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-07-27-internship27_ST_N.htm

Academic Real Estate Development In New York City Threatened By Slow Economy

Real estate development was the first casualty of the Great Recession, but a half-dozen New York City colleges are in the midst of an unprecedented building boom. Yet just as some of these schools get ready to send shovels into the ground, a weakened economy threatens to undermine even the best-laid plans. All of this could spell bad news for the campus expansions planned by New York City universities. Read more at:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-07-27/news/nyc-college-building-boom-bubble

MBA Programs Adding Courses On Social Media

Harvard Business School (Harvard Full-Time MBA Profile) and Columbia Business School (Columbia Full-Time MBA Profile) have joined a growing list of business schools that are adding courses on social media to their MBA curricula, addressing the corporate demand for social-network-savvy employees. The two schools are among at least six that have added courses in the past year that allow students to learn about Internet marketing and social media strategy, according to course syllabi and faculty associated with the classes.Social media classes are one way of preparing students for careers in a promising field. Read more at:
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jul2010/bs20100726_143420.htm

Interview With Authors Of New Book On What's Wrong With Higher Education

Hacker and his coauthor, New York Times writer Claudia Dreifus, use this cautionary tale to launch their new book, a fierce critique of modern academia called Higher Education? "The question mark in our title," they write, "is the key to this book." To their minds, little of what takes place on college campuses today can be considered either "higher" or "education." They blame a system that favors research over teaching and vocational training over liberal arts. Tenure, they argue, does anything but protect intellectual freedom. And they'd like to see graduates worrying less about their careers, even if it means spending a year behind the cash register at Old Navy. I spoke with Hacker about how American students are being neglected by celebrity professors, shortchanged by rising tuitions, and led astray by college football. Read more of this interview at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/07/whats-wrong-with-the-american-university-system/60458/

Louisiana Library Network Members May Lose Funding For Databases

Last month, staff members at the Louisiana Library Network, known as LOUIS, learned that the Board of Regents was eliminating its portion of funding for the program, about $2.7 million, beginning this fiscal year. For the past several years, the board has funded about 67 percent of LOUIS, with the remaining funds coming from all libraries that are part of the system.  Charles Triche, UL's director of libraries, said maintaining access to the LOUIS system is key for students and faculty members, many of whom rely on it to write reports and research papers or prepare materials for classes. Without funding from the Board of Regents, Triche said one option under consideration is having each member library pay higher annual fees for LOUIS. UL's share could increase to about $245,000 each year, but Triche said where that money would come from remains a question mark. Read more at:
http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20100726/NEWS01/7260304/Regents-cutting-archive-funding

Good To Be An IHE In Kansas

State and local governments in Kansas spend a greater share of their revenue on highways and higher education than most states, a new Census Bureau report shows. Kansas governments spent about a third of their revenue in 2008 on education. The report said Kansas governments got 6.5 percent of their money in 2008 from higher education — most of it in the form of tuition paid by state-university students. Read more at:

 http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/27/2110642/kansas-spends-most-on-highways.html#ixzz0uzxCfI4R 

In Tough Times Number of Homeless And Hungry Students Increases

For many college students and their families, rising tuition costs and a tough economy are presenting new challenges as college bills come in.This has led to a little-known but growing population of financially stressed students, who are facing hunger and sometimes even homelessness.UCLA has created an Economic Crisis Response Team to try to identify financially strapped students and help keep them in school. There's a definite increase in the number of homeless students nationwide, according to the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. But nobody has firm numbers. Read more at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128778321&ft=1&f=1001

IHEs Create Remote Campuses To Capture Suburbanites

For Garza, 26, joining the first group of students at the University of Houston-Clear Lake's new Pearland campus next month was an easy decision. After all, driving to the Clear Lake campus could have taken twice that long. The University of Houston and most other universities are even farther away. In a world where funding is tied to enrollment, universities no longer wait for students to come to them. "In this instant gratification society, nobody goes any distance to do much of anything," said James Douglas, executive vice president at TSU. "People are saying, just as we have department stores and grocery stores all over the city, maybe we ought to have higher education all over the city." Read more at:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7122678.html