By Andy Thomason. A conference on the Charlie Hebdo massacre is back on at Queen’s University Belfast, days after the institution in Northern Ireland said it was canceling the event, a decision that drew the scorn of scholars. The Guardian reports that the university said its initial decision last month to call off the symposium had been prompted by organizers’ failure to fill out a risk-assessment form. The Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities rejected that rationale, saying instead that the university was worried about its security and reputation. More...
03 mai 2015
‘Charlie Hebdo’ Conference Is Back On After Cancellation Angered Scholars
Minority of Colleges Report ‘Socially Responsible Investing’
By Andy Thomason. A sizable minority of colleges manage their investments according to “socially responsible” principles, according to the results of a new survey by the Commonfund Institute. More...
Reviewer Suggests Female Researchers Recruit Male Co-Authors to Raise Paper’s Credibility
By Andy Thomason. Reviewer Suggests Female Researchers Recruit Male Co-Authors to Raise Paper’s Credibility. More...
U.S. Census Bureau Won’t Drop Survey Question About College Majors
By Andy Thomason. The U.S. Census Bureau will continue asking about college graduates’ areas of study in a major survey after it considered dropping the question, Science magazine reports. More...
Yale Eases Leave-of-Absence Policy in Response to Mental-Health Concerns
By Andy Thomason. Yale University has made it easier for students to take a leave of absence for personal reasons, The Wall Street Journal reports. The change was prompted by concerns that students with mental-health problems were being burdened by strict rules for temporarily leaving the college. More...
Bill in Congress Would Bar Colleges From Compelling Students Not to Sue
By Andy Thomason. A bill introduced in Congress on Tuesday would forbid colleges that receive federal financial aid to require students to agree to mandatory arbitration clauses, which have been used by for-profit colleges to prevent students from suing them. More...
College in Louisiana Must Pay $35,000 for Rejecting HIV-Positive Applicant
By Andy Thomason. A vocational college in Louisiana must pay out $35,000 for denying admission to an HIV-positive applicant, according to an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, The Times-Picayune reports. Compass Career College, a proprietary institution, must change its policies to avoid discriminating against people with HIV, pay $30,000 to the applicant denied admission to its practical-nursing program, and pay a $5,000 fine to the federal government. More...
Lawmakers Investigate Education Dept.’s Role in Forgiving Student-Loan Debt
By Andy Thomason. A group of Democratic lawmakers is pushing the U.S. Department of Education to more frequently forgive the loan debt of students who attended colleges that engaged in “fraudulent activities.”
Five U.S. senators and a member of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Monday, stating that the department should “take immediate action” to inform students eligible for debt relief — including those who attended the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges — of their options. More...
Wearable Teaching? College to Experiment With Apple Watch as Learning Tool
By Jeffrey R. Young. Even before the Apple Watch was released, professors and pundits began speculating on whether it and other wearable devices might play a role in college classrooms. On Monday researchers at Pennsylvania State University’s main campus announced that they would be among the first to test the device’s usefulness in the classroom. More...
How Corinthian’s Student Body Measured Up Against Other For-Profits: 4 Takeaways
By Lance Lambert. Corinthian Colleges Inc. made waves in higher education this week when it announced it would abruptly close its remaining campuses, displacing 16,000 students. The campuses — operated by the Corinthian subsidiaries Everest College, Everest Institute, Heald College, and WyoTech — were located mostly in California and other western states. More...
