Apologies, disclosure, shameless self-promotion.
May 27, 2009 9:48 am by Erica R. Hendry
Graduation and covering all of IC’s enrollment issues threw me off the College Ave trail … I haven’t blogged in at least a month. Embarrassing.
But good news for me (and you) I’ll be updating more regularly now that I also work at The Chronicle. (Here’s where the disclosure comes in). The Chronicle has always been one of my biggest sources, but now that I’m interning here for the summer, it will be hard not to unconsciously blog about more of its stories. Though, as always, balance is a priority.
And finally, the shameless self-promotion: My first chronicle blog post , on The Chronicle’s wired blog. I won’t do much more of the self-promotion.
Happy Summer — and Happy Higher Ed-ing.
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How the recession could help higher ed
April 6, 2009 10:19 pm by Erica R. Hendry
However crazy it might sound,that was a serious point of conversation at a national conference last week hosted by the Network for Academic Renewal , a group of “people, programs and institutions working for educational reform.”
In the face of 663,000 more jobs lost across the country in March, scholars say this could be a time for colleges and universities to return to their core values and mission — things many say institutions have sacrificed as they’ve pursued status, over-ambitious building projects and reputations.
Several scholars also spoke of a need to renew faculty reputation as one of a profession, which they say would also require a renewed definition of what the professionalism would actually require.
Other points of interest included:
- “Colleges should work to retain faculty members by offering them more balance between work and family life.”
- Negative reactions to an increasing use of adjuncts.
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Add another one to that list.
March 10, 2009 3:21 pm by Erica R. Hendry
From the Syracuse-Post Standard:
“Nancy Cantor wants to cut her salary by 10 percent and impose the lowest percentage increase in tuition in 43 years.Internal Revenue Service records show Cantor was paid $550,000 in 2008.
The proposals are part of the $978 million budget Cantor will present today for the 2009-2010 year.
Under the plan, Syracuse is proposing a 4.5 percent increase for tuition and room and board. The total cost for a year at SU will reach $50,792.”
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March Madness
March 2, 2009 10:44 pm by Erica R. Hendry
I wish I were talking about the NCAA tournament.
But this month, colleges and universities will be taking “mad” measures to meet budget cuts approved earlier this month.
Here are just a few:
- Layoffs — err — Involuntary termination: New projections predict about 300 faculty positions will be eliminated this semester. Good news, for some, as the original projection was somewhere between 500 and 600, according to an article in the Yale Daily News. The typical annual attrition/turnover cycle won’t be enough to meet the 7.5 percent personnel cut handed to each department. Neither will leaving open positions vacant. In a letter to Yale managers Friday, Michael Peel, Yale’s vice president for human resources and administration, said the university will double severance benefits for those cut from one week of pay per year of service to two. All employees who are cut will also be guaranteed at least four weeks of pay, but no employee will get more than 52 weeks of pay, Peel said
- Thanks for “volunteering” … now get out: Trying a different approach than its Ivy counterpart, Cornell University is trying to encourage staff to take early retirement packages to relieve financial strain on the University while trying to avoid any involuntary action. The Cornell Daily Sun reported the university was offering two different packages for long-time staff members 55 years of age or older. The first,the “Staff Retirement Incentive program,” is a one-time only offer for staff who have worked for more than 10 years and agree to retire on or before June 30. The program will add to staff members‘ retirement account and also give them a lump-sum based on base salary. The second, Staff Phased Retirement Program is a more gradual retirement spread across the next three years. Beginning this week, staff will give up their positions and instead accept appointments of up to 20 hours a week for the remaining time they are enrolled in the program. It too adds to staff retirement plans. Tenured and tenure-track professors, as well as those with more than 25 percent sponsored funds, are not eligible, the article said.
- Leading by example: The presidents of several Iowa colleges and universities have turned down raises or bonuses they expected in 2009. University of Iowa President Sally Mason’s salary will remain at $450,000 for the 2009-10 year, and she will not receive the $80,000 bonus promised to her. Leaders at Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, and the schools for the deaf and blind will take similar action.
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Look, Kristof gets it!
February 20, 2009 1:34 pm by Erica R. Hendry
I meant to post this Nic Kristof column as soon as it ran last Sunday.
It’s one of those rare times a journalist who doesn’t report exclusively on education actually recognizes the industry’s importance.
Kristof’s column was inspired by the $100 billion President Barack Obama allocated for education in the new fiscal stimulus package passed last week. In it, he says he used to think our “greatest national shame” was health care — but now, he said , he believes it’s education.
(Wow.)
Kristof focuses a bit more on secondary education in his column, but much of what he said addresses or applies to higher education as well:
” … America’s educational edge created prosperity and equality alike — but that this edge was eclipsed in about the 1970s, and since then one country after another has surpassed us in education. Perhaps we should have fought the “war on poverty” with schools” — Nic Kristof
Now we can only hope the Kristof following gets it, too.
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Those subject tests don’t matter — Come on in!
February 17, 2009 10:57 am by Erica R. Hendry
A committee of the University of California’s regents has passed a proposal it hopes will expand the system’s applicant pool by allowing students to bypass the SAT subject tests. The board is expected to approve the policy, which would take effect in 2012, in its meeting today.
An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education reported the measure would increase the number of California high-school graduates considered for admission by about 40 percent, which would give admissions officers at each of the nine campuses more flexibility in choosing an incoming class, and hopefully, avoid any shortfall in enrollment that could translate to a budget crisis.
Officials also said the change would reduce the number of applicants who are guaranteed admissions based on their grades and test scores. It could also increase the number of applicants from students with different socioeconomic backgrounds, which in turn could increase the student body’s racial and economic profile.
California is the only state university that requires SAT subject tests, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Nationwide, 72 percent of colleges require the ACT or SAT, while only two percent require subject tests, according to association.
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Obama: Man of change, man of … raised test scores?
February 3, 2009 9:50 pm by Erica R. Hendry
Researchers from three top American universities think so.
Since last Fall, teams from universities like Northwestern and San Diego state have studied what they call the “Obama Effect” — “the elimination of a performance gap between black and white Americans in an academic test.”
Teams gave tests to a group of 84 black and 388 white Americans (proportionate to U.S. racial percentages) four times throughout the 2008 campaign and election season: two “non-salient times,” one week before the National Convention and one month before the election, and two “salient times,” the day following the National Convention and the day following the election.
In the “non-salient times,” the white subjects scored an average of 12 out of 20 questions correct, while black subjects had 8.5 correct answers. But during the two “salient” tests, given immediately after Obama’s nomination acceptance speech and after his election victory, black performance improved, researchers said.
So far, professors and race studies experts are split on how true they believe the tests to be. But Northwestern University enrollment officers say they’ve seen a 21 percent increase in black applicants this year.
“It certainly sounds plausible,” said Marx, one of the lead researchers of the study. “Obama is really getting a lot of people excited and I could see how that could translate into more minority students applying to schools.”
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Affirmative Action is here to stay — at least in Maryland
January 30, 2009 11:44 pm by Erica R. Hendry
As some colleges and universities are looking to enrollment as a way to make up for major budget deficits, a study by the University of Maryland reports eliminating affirmative action would have serious “negative ramifications.”
The study, published in the Journal of Public Economic Theory, studied admissions patterns in universities with differing levels of competitiveness across the country, including how institutions responded to historic problems of attracting minority students as well as the “on-paper qualifications” of minority applicants, in order to get a better understanding of how the practice “plays in diversifying the nation’s colleges and universities.”
Researchers found if affirmative action was eliminated, the population of minority students at universities would decrease 35 percent.
Total minority undergraduate enrollment across the country more than doubled from 1.9 million to 4.7 million between 1976 and 2004, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The same survey says white undergraduate enrollment grew by only 15 percent during the same period.
A few other states have experimented with eliminating affirmative action policies. The good old Sunshine State of the West passed Proposition 209 in 1996, which amended the California state constitution to ban public institutions from considering race, sex or ethnicity when admitting students. It passed with 54 percent of the vote. In November 2006, Michigan’s state constitution was similarly amended with the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.
Across the country, fewer students and their families — white or otherwise — are going to have the ability to pay for higher education in the coming years. From a financial standpoint, as well as a demographic one, doing anything to turn off students doesn’t make much any sense.
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Higher ed never sleeps
January 19, 2009 3:16 pm by Erica R. Hendry
but after one long semester, I needed to.
While I took a break from College Ave, higher ed news came more quickly than ever. I’ll spend the next few weeks trying to bring everything up to date.
But for now …
As colleges and universities prepare to release budgets (read: tuition hikes) for the next academic year, a new study may give students a better idea of where their money is going — and what administrators are doing with it.
The study — analyzed in an article in The New York Times last week — showed students are not only “covering more of what it costs to educate them,” but also that what they do cover might not go toward what they thing it does.
The report, sponsored by the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability, examined nearly 2,000 private and public non-profit colleges and universities, which amounts to more than 75 percent of higher education enrollment, from 2002 to 2006.
The study found a number of trends , including:
* Most of the new money in higher education is coming directly from tuition and fees — and the private gifts, grants and contracts colleges do receive is restricted by the donor, and therefore, not available for “core educational programs.”
*Nearly 75 percent of spending increases at private research universities were fueled by an increase in tuition.
*The share of costs represented by student tuition rose from about a third to nearly one-half at public four year institutions, and at private colleges, students pay between 75 and 85 percent of the full cost.
* Nearly all of the revenue institutions did receive from student tuition increases (about 92 percent)
were used to offset other losses
The authors of the study wrote they hope their research forces colleges and universities to be more “transparent” with, and more accountable for, their spending. But the study’s data is from records predating the country’s current economic recession. Were they to analyze data from the past two fiscal years, the results would inevitably be worse. Either way, nothing is likely to change unless students start to demand some transparency, too.
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Another one bites the dust
December 10, 2008 2:12 am by Erica R. Hendry
Yesterday, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo reached a $675,000 settlement with the College Board.
The national association, most known for for writing and administering the SATs as well as providing college and university profiles, was targeted by Cuomo for giving discounts to institutions that put the non profit on their preferred lender lists, the associated press reported, which essentially led students to loans that weren’t necessarily their “best or least expensive options.”
The $675,000 settlement, which includes New York and Connecticut, will be used for programs that help students find the lowest-cost loan options.
The loan business was less than 1 percent of the College Board’s $618 million revenue in 2007, Bloomberg news reported.
Feed for College Ave.