Graveyard Shift Classes
Abby Goodnough at The New York Times reports that the move to community colleges by increasing numbers of students is prompting the schools to get creative with their scheduling:
Winston Chin hustles on Tuesdays from his eight-hour shift as a lab technician to his writing class at Bunker Hill Community College, a requirement for the associate’s degree he is seeking in hopes of a better job.
He is a typical part-time student, with one exception. His class runs from 11:45 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., the consequence of an unprecedented enrollment spike that has Bunker Hill scrambling to accommodate hundreds of newcomers…
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Similar booms have forced many of the nation’s 1,200 community colleges to add makeshift parking lots, rent extra space and keep thousands of students on waiting lists this fall. While Bunker Hill offers two midnight classes — the other is Psychology 101 — and Clackamas Community College in Oregon holds welding classes until 2 a.m., others have added classes as early as 6 a.m. to make room for the jobless and others whom the recession has nudged back to school…Continue reading New Meaning for Night Class at 2-Year Colleges >>
More Military Veterans Could Become Teachers
Michael Riley of the Denver Post is following a story on two U.S. Senators who would like to pass legislation that would pave the way for more military personnel to put their skills to use in the Nation’s classrooms:
Sens. John McCain and Michael Bennet want to put more battlefield veterans in classrooms as teachers, teaming up as a seasoned senator with military expertise and a freshman lawmaker who was superintendent of Denver Public Schools.
But in co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill known as Troops to Teachers, McCain, R-Ariz., is also handing Bennet, D-Colo., a potential campaign plum, an unusual move given McCain’s role recruiting GOP front- runner Jane Norton to race against the vulnerable Democratic appointee.
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Although it provides financial assistance for veterans to train as teachers, the existing program has tougher qualification requirements and limits the number of schools that can participate.
The senators’ bill would increase the authorized funding from $30 million a year to $50 million. Another 1,150 schools would be eligible to participate just in Colorado, many of them in poor and underserved areas. It also would reduce from six to four the number of years of noncombat active duty someone must serve to be eligible…Continue reading McCain, Bennet on front line to turn vets into teachers >>
Surprise! Student Loans up as Tuition Rates Rise
Scott Jaschik at Inside Higher Ed reports on the effects of rising tuition on student loans:
To no one’s surprise, tuition is up this year, with the largest percentage increases coming at public institutions that face significant cuts in state appropriations.
The College Board released its annual studies on tuition and financial aid trends Tuesday, and tried to put a non-alarmist spin on numbers that are scary to many students and their families. For instance, board officials noted that, after adjusting for inflation, the average net price paid for tuition and fees by public four-year college students is lower in 2009-10 than it was five years ago. But whether those figures will comfort parents writing checks — or legislators hearing complaints from those parents — is doubtful…Read the complete report, Tuition Is Up, Loans Are Shifting >>
As Private Lending Sources Dry Up, Students Rely More on Federal Student Loans
Robert Tomsho is reporting in The Wall Street Journal today that the credit crisis is affecting what types of loans are available for students and parents:
More college students are relying on federal student loans instead of increasingly scarce private ones as tuition costs continue to rise, new data indicate.
According to reports issued Tuesday by the College Board, the volume of private student loans — those not made or guaranteed by the government — fell by 52% in the 2008-09 school year as recession-battered lenders tightened credit standards or abandoned what had been one of the fastest-growing sectors of the financial-aid market.
The New York-based college-admissions nonprofit said students and their families took out an estimated $11 billion in private student loans for the 2008-09 school year, down from $22.8 billion in 2007-08. All loan figures were given in constant, or inflation-adjusted, 2008-09 numbers.
The private loans, which generally have higher interest rates and more stringent terms than those made or guaranteed by the federal government, are often the last recourse for students who have maximized borrowing under federal programs…Continue reading Students Rely on Federal Loans to Pay Rising Tuition: Private College Financing Dried Up as Credit Crunch Hit Lenders; Costs Up 6.5% for Public Schools, 4.4% at Private Ones >>
Veterans Still Waiting for Gi Benefits to Pay for Educational Expenses
In Congressional testimony, the head of the Veterans Administration stated that payment of post 9/11 education benefits will be delayed until the Spring semester, reports Jack Stripling of Inside Higher Ed:
In testimony before the House of Representatives Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, Keith M. Wilson suggested a deluge of applications, outmoded technology and poor communication had all contributed to a backlog of nearly 30,000 unpaid benefits packages. Under the harshest questioning of the day, issued by Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.), the director of the education service at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs made an emotional appeal.
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To fully process an application, the department has to use four separate computer systems – none of which are integrated at this point, Wilson said. Consequently, it takes about 1 ½ hours to fully process a single application, he said. The department has hired an additional 230 people to help handle the applications, and the computer system should be fully automated by December 2010…Continue reading ‘Hot Seat’, on Inside Higher ED >>
National Center for Responsible Gaming report
Though binge drinking and deaths on college campuses related to drinking have attracted national attention, the National Center for Responsible Gaming has issued a report that suggests that gambling has become epidemic on college campuses.
Following are recommendations the task force developed for college gambling policies:
- Establish a campus-wide committee to develop and monitor a comprehensive policy on gambling.
- Ensure that college policies are consistent with applicable local, state, and federal laws.
- Strive for consistency and universal application with prohibitions and restrictions on gambling and alcohol use at special events.
- Promote campus-community collaborations that focus on reducing problems with student drinking and gambling.
- Encourage adjustments in disciplinary actions applied to violators of gambling rules if the student seeks assistance from health or counseling services.
- Make reasonable accommodations for students focused on recovery from a problem with gambling or alcohol.
- Measure student attitudes, behaviors, and problems with gambling through campus surveys or by incorporating such measures into existing campus health-related surveys.
- Promote campus-wide awareness of (1) pathological gambling as a mental health disorder that has a high rate of comorbidity with alcohol use and other addictive disorders, and (2) responsible gaming principles.
- Employ evidence-based strategies to identify and help students with gambling and alcohol problems.
- Strengthen the capacity of counseling services to identify and treat gambling disorders.
Should ‘Undocumented’ Students Receive In-State Tuition Benefits?
Lynn Bartels is reporting in The Denver Post today that Democrats in Colorado are pushing for legislation similar to that in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas which allows children of illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition rates:
A Democratic state lawmaker is quietly lining up community support for a bill that would allow undocumented students to pay in-state college tuition.
Denver Rep. Joe Miklosi sponsored a similar bill in the House in the 2009 legislative session that died after fierce debate in the Senate. But supporters are not giving up.
“I believe in creating educational opportunities. I don’t believe in creating a second-class citizenship that leads to hopelessness,” Miklosi said.
He said that when he talks to people about his proposed bill, he points out that most of the 11 states that have OK’d in-state tuition for children whose parents illegally entered the country are conservative.
“We’re talking Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas,” Miklosi said. “These are states where the Republican business leaders go to the Senate president and speaker of the House and say, ‘We need a more educated workforce. Can you please pass this bill?’ “
Education jobs created – at least for legislators.
Bill Sizemore and Julian Walker report on PilotOnline.com today on how some VA lawmakers are supplementing their taxpayer-funded incomes with other taxpayer-funded jobs in the state education sector, boosting not only their current salaries, but also their taxpayer funded pensions.
On July 1, 2008, state Sen. Tommy Norment boosted his state paycheck nearly tenfold with the stroke of a pen. That’s when he accepted a part-time faculty appointment with the College of William and Mary, his law school alma mater.
His annual salary for teaching two courses: $160,000.
That means Norment now wears two hats with regard to William and Mary: well-paid employee and powerful advocate in the General Assembly.
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By comparison, Bill Janis, a relatively junior member of the House of Delegates from Henrico County, is paid $2,000 per semester for teaching a course on the legislative process at William and Mary.
In an interview, Janis, a Republican, said he’ll probably discontinue his William and Mary work after two semesters because the paycheck and time commitment to travel to Williamsburg once a week “probably didn’t make up for the cost of gas.”
“Like Jefferson said,” Janis added, “I will leave office with hands as clean as they are empty.”
Another lawmaker, Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, is facing investigations by a House ethics panel and a federal grand jury after revelations that he was lobbying for a $40,000-a-year job with a teacher training center at Old Dominion University while working to secure the center’s startup funding…Continue reading Sen. Norment’s dual roles for W&M: employee and advocate
Manhattan Institute’s ‘Minding the Campus’
The Center for the American University at the Manhattan Institute has an online magazine and discussion forum called Minding the Campus: Reforming our Universities. Their “about” pages explain:
While universities pledge to respect diversity in its many forms-ethnic, cultural, religious-they all too often stifle diversity of thought. On far too many campuses, professors and administrators promote an ideological orthodoxy that leaves little room for critical inquiry or for different points of view. Many Americans by now have read or heard the stories: controversial speakers heckled, silenced, or disinvited; student newspapers expressing provocative views stolen or destroyed; professors and administrators who dissent from orthodox viewpoints harassed or even dismissed; and students pressured into ideological conformity in the classroom…
and:
…There is an undeniable divide between the Academy and larger society; a curtain has been drawn around the academy, inside of which the protection of certain ideas has trumped intellectual exchange and a search for the truth. There should be no easy or protected answers in our schools. In the modern academy, many certainly do not know all of the ideas worthy of consideration. Minding the Campus hopes to change that, as a project devoted to a revival of intellectual pluralism and the best traditions of liberal education. We hope to foster a new climate of opinion that favors civil and honest engagement of all sides, offering an engaged debate for readers concerned with the state of the modern university. We intend to provide a simple central resource, providing day-to-day original content and drawing upon the best from established magazines and publications, as well as from less-visited corners, from professional journals to blogs and student publications. In connecting resources from disparate worlds, we hope to connect their readers, fostering potential for real discussion and change. A conversation about America’s Universities is needed; look for it here.
To find out more, visit MindingTheCampus.com
WSJ Readers: No, Obama should not have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Wall Street Journal ran an online poll today, asking its readers: Should Barack Obama have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? As of 6:30PM (Mountain), the result with over 22K votes, was an ovewhelming No.
