By Matt Reed. I loved the piece on Sinclair Community College’s student success efforts earlier this week in IHE.  It’s worth checking out, but the short version is that SCC has been doing student success initiatives long enough that it’s starting to do a sort of initiative triage, culling the ones that either haven’t worked or that provide far too little bang for the buck. Read more...

The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities sent a letter to U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary Ted Mitchell Thursday expressing disappointment in how the federal agency views the for-profit sector in the wake of the department's decision to provide debt relief to former Corinthian Colleges students. Read more...

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will not lose accreditation over the academic fraud that occurred there, but it will face one year of probation, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges announced Thursday. In October, the university released a detailed report about widespread and long-lasting academic fraud at the university. Read more...

Bill Gates is among a group of rich college dropouts people often cite when questioning the value of a college degree. He isn't buying that argument.
“Although I dropped out of college and got lucky pursuing a career in software, getting a degree is a much surer path to success,” Gates wrote on Wednesday. Read more...

The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a narrow ruling in a case concerning threats made on social media, dodging the larger questions about the First Amendment implications of online speech. In a 7-2 vote, the court ruled threats made online can't land someone in prison merely if a "reasonable person" -- a common legal standard -- takes them seriously. Read more...

By Thomas Ayers and Karen Goldstein. Like most campus administrators in higher education today, chief business officers are expected to handle a significantly wider-ranging role, work with a much more diverse set of constituents and possess a broader set of skills than ever before. Read more...

By Brian Rosenberg. The editorial pages of The New York Times seem to have become the destination of choice for people who want to say uninformed things about American higher education. Let me rephrase that slightly: They have become the destination of choice for people who want to say uninformed things that are designed to get readers angry at American higher education, which I presume is why The Times keeps them coming. In today’s America, anger sells. Read more...

By Scott McLemee. Reading the Emancipation Proclamation for the first time is an unforgettable experience. Nothing prepares you for how dull it turns out to be. Ranking only behind the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in its consequences for U.S. history, the document contains not one sentence that has passed into popular memory. Read more...

By Paul Fain. Credentialing has exploded in type and number in recent years, as job seekers earn a growing range of certificates, badges, experiential transcripts, industry certifications and licenses, in addition to traditional college degrees. Read more...