The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

With More Veterans Enrolling Colleges Provide More Services For Them

Although that lack of services geared toward students who served in the military may have been the norm in the past, recent research suggests colleges and universities nationwide are beginning to beef up their offerings to veterans on campus. That trend comes at least partly as a response to the most significant influx of student veterans since World War II. Read more at:
http://newsok.com/colleges-universities-beef-up-offerings-to-student-veterans/article/3702305

At-Risk Students Study Time Management To Prepare For College

While summer vacation is a time of rest or recreation for some high school graduates, this group was spending a week at a new boot camp run by the Opportunity Network. The students are focused less on academics than on life strategies, like how to manage busy schedules, financial aid and homesickness, and how to juggle it all. Hence the tossing of balls in the air. The boot camp was intended to give the students tools to find answers to their questions or concerns. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/07/05/preparing-for-college-by-studying-time-management/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Enrollment Surges As Hospitals Require Nurses To Earn College Degrees

That shift has contributed to a surge in enrollment in nursing courses at four-year colleges, particularly at the more than 600 schools that have opened “R.N. to B.S.N.” programs, for people who are already registered nurses to earn bachelor’s degrees. Enrollment in community college programs, the typical path to becoming a nurse, remains strong, but many of those schools are looking for new arrangements, like partnerships with four-year schools, to keep their graduates competitive. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/education/changing-requirements-send-nurses-back-to-school.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120624

Duncan Says Colleges Must Do More To Retain And Graduate Their Students

The Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said on Tuesday morning that the Obama administration has not done nearly enough to address the steep dropout rate among college students. Many college students are not completing college in six years, let alone four. Mr. Duncan told reporters and editors in a newsroom meeting at The New York Times that he wanted to “reward and incentivize universities to build cultures around completion,” and to shift federal resources away from those colleges with a high concentration of students who fail to graduate. Read more at:
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/education-secretary-targets-colleges-with-low-graduation-rates/?partner=rss&emc=rss 

 

From War To College

 If his door is open, you can bet student veterans are spilling out of Eric Glaude's office at Borough of Manhattan Community College. On most days, it's standing-room only because his broom closet of an office has become the de facto command central for student veterans. Their ranks at schools across the nation are likely to continue to climb as the drawdown in Afghanistan continues. The Post-9/11 GI Bill, enacted in 2008, has paved the way for hundreds of thousands of recent veterans to enroll in college. The road to a college degree is often bumpy. Some veterans may not have cracked a book in years and become overwhelmed by the relatively unstructured rhythm of student life, or they find themselves at odds with faculty or younger classmates. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-05-29/veterans-college-education/55267084/1

Time To Ditch College For All Policy

The college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness. Time to ditch it. Like the crusade to make all Americans homeowners, it's now doing more harm than good. It looms as the largest mistake in educational policy since World War II, even though higher education's expansion also ranks as one of America's great postwar triumphs. College became the ticket to the middle class, the be-all-and-end-all of K-12 education. If you didn't go to college, you'd failed. Improving "access" -- having more students go to college -- drove public policy. We overdid it. The obsessive faith in college has backfired. For starters, we've dumbed down college. Read more at:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/os-ed-robert-samuelson-052812-20120529,0,5331207.column

Nursing Is Top Choice For Second-Career College Students

Non-traditional students — those who don't begin college right after high school — are the norm in Heartland's nursing program. But, in this class, none of the 40 students is a traditional student. The nursing-as-a-second-career trend has been in place for several years. Some people who pursue nursing as a second career take advantage of accelerated, one-year nursing programs for people who already have a bachelor's degree. Read more at:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/health/2012/05/spotlight-older-students-choosing-nursing/561796

Programs Help College Dropouts Get Those Last Few Courses Needed For Graduation

The University of Rhode Island, reeling from a dropout rate among seniors that has doubled from last year, has joined a nationwide trend to encourage dropouts to return for a few last classes and finally earn a college degree. The school introduced a "Finish What You Started" program in recent months after discovering the dropout rate among its roughly 4,000 seniors had doubled to about 300 from 150 last year. URI joins several universities across the country with similar programs to bring back dropouts who had earned most of
their degree credits. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/sns-rt-usa-collegedropouts-repeatl1e8g2pn6-20120502,0,6355827,full.story

For First-Gen Students College Is Alien Territory

As more young people move beyond high school, the unique challenges that often face first-generation college students are becoming more apparent. A 2010 NCES study found a wide gap in the graduation rates between four-year students whose parents earned degrees (69 percent) and those whose parents never went to college (40 percent). The realization can hit when the student gets that first syllabus. Confusion, uncertainty, frustration, fear ... all the emotions kick in. Then comes the question: Who can I talk to? For first-generation students, the answer can be elusive, for college — both the campus and the concept — is such unfamiliar territory. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/sc-fam-0417-first-generation-college-20120417,0,2891546.story

Dual Enrollment Programs May Help College Seniors Stay Engaged

Some high school students have found a cure for the senior blahs: "Dual" or "concurrent" college classes let them earn high school and college credits for the same course. Some students go to a college campus, usually a local community college, while others study at their own high schools. Nationwide, more than a million high school students are taking at least one college class, it's believed. Unlike Advanced Placement courses, which are geared to high achievers, dual enrollment is usually open to a wide range of students. Some programs target students at risk of dropping out. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/sc-fam-0403-education-college-early-20120403,0,5325560.story