The U.S. Department of Education and college financial aid offices need to remove barriers and give more guidance to homeless and foster youth to help them attend and succeed in college, says a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. This group of college students often struggles to pursue college, the GAO said, citing data showing they tend to have lower completion rates. Read more...
GAO on Barriers to College for Homeless and Foster Youth Students
Apollo Eliminates Mandatory Arbitration Clauses
Apollo Education Group, the parent company of the University of Phoenix and Western International University, announced Thursday that it would eliminate the use of mandatory arbitration clauses in students' enrollment agreements. Read more...
Kentucky Community Colleges Cut 500 Positions
The Kentucky Community and Technical College System cut more than 500 positions this week, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Read more...
Lawmakers Attack AIDS Art at Kennesaw State
"Art AIDS America," an art exhibit touring nationally (images above are from the show), closed Sunday at Kennesaw State University's Zuckerman Museum of Art, three months after it opened. In the final week at Kennesaw State, some legislators learned about the exhibit and criticized the university for hosting it, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Read more...
Asian-American Group Files Admissions Complaint
The Asian American Coalition for Education will today announce that it is asking the U.S. Education Department to find that Brown and Yale Universities and Dartmouth College discriminate against Asian-American applicants. Read more...
Stellenbosch Tries Again on Language Policy
Stellenbosch University on Sunday announced that its governing council had approved new principles for a language policy. Stellenbosch is one of South Africa's leading research universities, but the dominance of Afrikaans language courses at the university is seen as discouraging by many black students and potential students who are fluent in English and see Afrikaans as a relic of apartheid. Read more...
Universities Oppose Proposed Rules on Research Involving International Students
Organizations that represent research universities have been negotiating with federal agencies over proposed regulations that they fear would effectively prevent many international students from participating in studies financed by business. Read more...
Anti-Israel Protests Disrupts Film at UC Irvine
Members of the University of California at Irvine chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine on Wednesday night disrupted an event where the film Beneath the Helmet, about five Israeli soldiers, was being shown. The screening was organized by Students Supporting Israel, with backing from the UC Irvine Hillel. Read more...
Creating On-Ramps to Academe
By Coleen Carrigan and Eve Riskin. One common strategy for increasing diversity in STEM departments is to hire talented women away from other universities. But this zero-sum approach fails to increase the number of female STEM professors nationwide. Read more...
When Emotions Run High
By Elizabeth Suárez. Everyone agrees that communication is important, and most of us work hard to hone this essential skill. However, what if we were to look at the dictionary’s definition of communication compared to our own personal style of communication. Read more...