By Anne Curzan. This past Friday night was the 25th time that the American Dialect Society (ADS) has voted for the Word of the Year. We were reminded at the beginning of the meeting that this makes it only the 24th anniversary, so no champagne yet. … It was, as usual, a lively gathering, with standing room only in the back and even, at one point, chanting in support of one word on the ballot. More...
Measure of College Learning Tracks Smaller Gains After Tweaks
By Chronicle Staff. Report: “CLA+ National Results, 2013-14″
Author: Jessalyn James, program manager for assessment reporting and data management, Council for Aid to Education
Organization: The Council for Aid to Education, which promotes and tracks private giving to education and conducts research in the field.
Summary: In 2013 the Council for Aid to Education revised its Collegiate Learning Assessment, a test it introduced 11 years earlier to measure how well colleges help their students attain higher-order thinking skills. More...
Benefits of Study Abroad Are Not Universal, Paper Says
By Chronicle Staff. Report: “Travel to Learn: The Influence of Cultural Distance on Competence Development in Educational Travel”
Author: Erik van ’t Klooster
Organization: Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
Summary: Advocates of study abroad tout its advantages to students, saying it arms them with cultural skills critical in a global workplace. But new research from the Rotterdam School of Management suggests this isn’t always so. More...
Stanford U. Students Seek Admissions Files With Privacy-Law Requests
By Lawrence Biemiller. In a move that could make admissions officers across the country nervous, a group of anonymous Stanford University students who send out an irregular email called “The Fountain Hopper” are encouraging their classmates to request their complete admissions files by filing formal requests that cite the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. A Stanford spokeswoman confirmed to The New York Times that the university had seen an increase in such requests. More...
Obama Will Speak at Boise State U. and U. of Kansas
By Andrew Mytelka. President Obama will speak at two universities—Boise State University and the University of Kansas—in the two days after he delivers his State of the Union address, on Tuesday. He will appear at Boise State on Wednesday and at Kansas on Thursday. No further information was yet available on his plans. More...
Agency to Offer ‘Scorecard’ on College-Affiliated Debit Cards for Students
By Charles Huckabee. The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released on Wednesday the draft of a “Safe Student Account Scorecard” that it says will help colleges in their negotiations with financial institutions regarding college-affiliated debit cards and other financial services. The scorecard will enable colleges to avoid partnerships with institutions that offer accounts “with tricks and traps,” the bureau said in a news release. More...
Standard & Poor’s Issues Negative Outlook for Nonprofit Higher Education
By Andy Thomason. Standard & Poor’s Rating Services has issued a negative outlook for nonprofit higher education for 2015, citing, among other things, tension between rising costs to colleges and a focus on student affordability. In a report released on Thursday, the agency says the ensuing competition among colleges to attract top students will weigh heaviest on “those whose credit characteristics are already on the cusp of a lower rating.” More...
CUNY Disputes Magazine’s Account of Minority Students’ Admissions Hurdles
By Andy Thomason. The City University of New York has some serious bones to pick with an article in The Atlantic magazine that initially billed itself as an exposé of the difficulties minority students face in getting into the system’s colleges. More...
Loved Your Nanny Campus? Start-Up Pledges Similar Services for Grads
By Andy Thomason. Every year, legions of college graduates move to the big city full of hope and imbued with the belief that their best days are on the horizon. Then, adulthood happens. More...
U.S. Issues Guidance on Reporting Deals With Student-Aid Contractors
By Nick DeSantis. The U.S. Department of Education on Friday issued guidance to clarify colleges’ responsibilities for reporting deals with student-aid contractors, saying that a “significant number” of institutions had failed to report those relationships. More...