By Susan O'Doherty. In 1970, when I entered college, I was less than enthusiastic about the school my parents had chosen for me. I had had my heart set on Middlebury, mainly because my favorite high school teacher had gone there, repeatedly told me I would love it, and had offered to push my application through. Two of my good friends were going to McGill and Cornell, both of which sounded brainy and exciting. Read more...
Deep Concern on My Profession
By Susan O'Doherty. I have been part of two projects that made me very grateful to be an American.
In the mid-1980s, I served as chief development writer for the campaign to restore the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Part of my job was to read the oral histories of immigrants, to incorporate their stories into our written material. Read more...
Transfer Credits at UConn
New data from the University of Connecticut reveal transfer students from the Connecticut Community Colleges system lost on average 12 transferable college credits when they moved over to the flagship university.
The data are detailed in a report from Gateway Community College in New Haven and was based on reports UConn gave the state's Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee. Read more...
149-Page Dissertation Without Punctuation
A Ph.D. candidate in architecture at the University of British Columbia has successfully defended a 149-page, 52,438-word dissertation without any punctuation, The National Post reported. Patrick Stewart, the doctoral candidate, said that there are no rules at the university requiring punctuation. Read more...
Historians Urge Japan to Confront Its Past
More than 180 historians -- most of them working at American colleges and universities -- this week issued an open letter to Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, calling on his country to be more open to discussing the atrocities of the World War II era. The letter focuses on the "comfort women," women whom the Japanese military forced into sex slavery in many of the countries Japan occupied. Read more...
New Analysis of Economic Value of College Majors
Many of the findings of the newest report by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce will surprise exactly no one. The study, on the economic value of various college majors, analyzes the wages of 137 disciplinary areas. Read more...
Is Clinton Preparing to Propose Debt-Free College?
For weeks, there has been speculation that Hillary Clinton was preparing a plan to promote debt-free college. That speculation really took off Wednesday when Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, referenced the idea in an interview with CNBC. Asked about how Clinton would appeal to younger voters, Mook said, “What voters are looking for in this election is someone who’s going to be a champion for everyday people. Read more...
University Leaders Make Pledges Toward Greater Gender Equality
Five university presidents have signed on so far to the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign by making specific commitments to improve gender equality within their institutions, Time reported. Read more...
For-Profit Ordered to Pay Refund for Claim on Credit
The Oregon Justice Department has ordered Penn Foster College to refund a former student's tuition and to change its claim about accreditation, The Oregonian reported. The former student complained to the department when Portland Community College declined to accept credit he had earned at Penn Foster and told him that the credit was from a national accreditor and that Portland Community College only accepted regionally accredited transfer credits. Read more...
Students Want to Diversify Rutgers Mascot
The Rutgers University mascot, the Scarlet Knight, is someone in a costume depicting a white, blue-eyed man. But now the Rutgers Student Assembly has passed a resolution calling for diversity in the costume, so that it might sometimes portray the figure as races other than white, or as female, NJ.com reported. Read more...