By Andy Thomason. The Obama administration on Monday announced new limits on a federal program that passes military arms to local police departments, including campus police forces, The New York Times reports. The ban, on high-caliber firearms and other items, arose out of the national soul-searching that followed the protests last year in Ferguson, Mo. More...
How Public Colleges Use Merit Aid to Recruit Students Who Can Pay
By Chronicle Staff. Report: “The Out-of-State Student Arms Race”Author: Stephen Burd, senior policy analyst
Organization: New America
Summary: The report uses information from the Common Data Set to describe the use of merit-based student aid at public colleges and universities. More...
Israel-Boycott Debate Spurs Fight Over Definition of ‘Anti-Semitism’
By Peter Schmidt. Allegations of anti-Semitism leveled at advocates of economic sanctions against Israel have spurred a fight over how colleges should define speech that victimizes Jewish students. Some Jewish groups want colleges to use a definition of anti-Semitism crafted by the U.S. State Department, but many critics of Israel argue that the State Department’s definition is too expansive and covers statements about Israel that should be considered fair game. More...
U. of Hawaii Board Votes to Disinvest in Fossil-Fuel Companies
By Andrew Mytelka. The University of Hawaii’s Board of Regents voted on Thursday to divest the system’s financial holdings in any companies involved in the production of fossil fuels, Pacific Business News reports. More...
Judge Orders Texas Tech to Restore Professor’s Post
By Heidi Landecker. Texas Tech University must restore the teaching responsibilities of a professor who says his anti-tenure views cost him a deanship and an honorary-professor title, The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reports. James C. Wetherbe had accused the university’s former provost, Robert Smith, of reducing his teaching load and failing to award him the Paul Whitfield Horn Professorship because of his outspoken views against tenure. More...
Wis. Lawmakers Reject Governor’s Plan to Scrap For-Profit Oversight Agency
By Nick DeSantis. State legislators in Wisconsin have voted down a controversial proposal by Gov. Scott Walker to eliminate an agency that oversees for-profit colleges, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. More...
U.S. Delays Requirement on Tuition Breaks for Veterans
By Nick DeSantis. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced last week that it was pushing back the deadline for states to comply with a law that requires public colleges to charge veterans lower in-state tuition rates, regardless of their state of residency. More...
Co-Author Asks for Retraction of Much-Cited Gay-Marriage Study
By Andy Thomason. The data underlying a popular study that ostensibly showed that short conversations could change opinions on same-sex marriage may have been faked, the blog Retraction Watch reports. A co-author of a paper describing the study, “When Contact Changes Minds: An Experiment on Transmission of Support for Gay Equality,” has asked that the journal Science retract it. More...
U.S. Senator’s Bill Would Make Public 4-Year Colleges Free for All
By Andy Thomason. Bernard Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont and long-shot candidate for the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination, introduced a bill on Tuesday that would make attending all four-year public colleges free. More...
Obama Sets Limits on Program That Sent Grenade Launchers to Campuses
Professor’s Online Comments About ‘the Blacks’ Were ‘Noxious,’ Duke Says
By Andy Thomason. A political-science professor at Duke University is in hot water over a comment he posted online generalizing about “the blacks” and “the Asians,” The News & Observer reports. More...