By Richard Ekman. Our fascination with numbers stems from our faith that numbers are more precise than words. But journalists and public officials too often use numbers that are so simplified as to be misleading. The quick numbers on low salaries and high unemployment rates for liberal arts graduates, for example, suggest the opposite picture from what the details reveal. That is, new liberal arts graduates may earn less at first than classmates who majored in professional fields, but over time this gap closes. These glib statistics reveal more informative patterns just below the surface. Meanwhile, other simple numbers fester to create myths of their own. More...

By Tim Goral. Saying “We've got a crisis in terms of college affordability,” President Obama outlined a three part proposal to reign in the cost of higher education before a capacity crowd at the University at Buffalo Thursday. The appearance was the first of the president’s two-day bus tour through New York and Pennsylvania designed to call attention to high education costs.
“We can’t go about business as usual,” Obama said. "Our economy can't afford the trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt.”
The centerpiece of the proposal rests on tying financial aid to college performance, based on a new college rating system, before the 2015 school year. Higher-rated schools would qualify for larger federal grants, making them more affordable. More...

By Lauren Williams. While location is key when it comes to campus dining, students also appreciate delicious, unique food options. Here are some schools that have added meal options that have become a hit with students:
School: Purchase College (N.Y.)
Eatery: Terra Ve Café
Why its food makes the meal: It’s a restaurant-style experience that serves a diverse amount of vegan and vegetarian options, including sushi, hot and cold sandwiches, grilled entrées, pizza, and dessert. Purchase College surveyed its students before adding this option to better fit its student demographic. It’s also the first completely vegan/vegetarian restaurant on a college campus in the U.S. More...

By Karine Joly. In higher education, we love, hate, and thrive on college rankings. The annual U.S. News and World Report top colleges list—as well as rankings by other news organizations—is anticipated with excitement and trepidation. When it comes to the numbers game of college admissions, it’s important to secure a spot near the top of these lists. Improving your institution’s rank means an automatic increase in general visibility. It also often results in a better chance to convert more college-bound high school students into serious prospects and highly motivated applicants. More...

By Carolyn Fox. The City of Boston has teamed with edX to create BostonX. It will offer free online college courses throughout the city. And it will make MOOCs (massive open online courses) available at community colleges and libraries throughout the city.
BostonX is still in its infancy but the city hopes to make MOOCs more available and accessible to residents and visitors. Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino envisions neighborhoods as "mini campuses" around the city. He believes that this will only increase the city's impact and standing on the nation and world as at the forefront of education. More...

By Bennett Hall. A wave of new construction is changing the face of Oregon State University
Half a block from the student union in the heart of the Oregon State University campus, the new home of the College of Business is steadily taking shape.
With a massive red crane looming over the construction site, contractors have been working for weeks on the four-story, 100,000-square-foot Austin Hall. By the fall of 2014, what’s now a hulking concrete-and-steel skeleton will be a sleek, modern educational facility, with 10 classrooms, a 250-seat auditorium, dozens of offices and a cafe. It’s a major upgrade for the college, which long ago outgrew its home base in aging, 52,000-square-foot Bexell Hall and currently teaches classes in a hodgepodge of locations scattered across the campus. More...

By Allison Sherry. At more than two dozen public, private and for-profit colleges in Colorado, thousands of former students have stopped paying on their federal student loans — and at least one school faces federal sanctions because the default rate is so high. Schools blame the state's soft economy for the growing default rates among students attending all kinds of schools in Colorado. Just over 8,800 Colorado students, or 10.1 percent, failed to make an on-time repayment on a federal loan for nine consecutive months, according to 2010 data, the most recent available. The rate tops the national rate of 9.1 percent. More...

By Josh Dulaney. College is starting up again, but are local students ready for it? According to ACT, which administers one of the two major tests used by colleges to admit students, readiness for higher education remains a sore spot among the vast majority of graduating high school students. Just 39 percent of ACT-tested 2013 graduates met three or more of the four benchmarks in English, reading, math and science, according to the yearly report, The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2013, which was released Tuesday. Perhaps of more concern, 31 percent of graduates did not meet any of the benchmarks, according to the report. California students fared better, but not by much. According to the report, 33 percent met all four benchmarks, compared to just 26 percent nationwide. More...

By Jeff Amy. As they present their annual request for capital spending, leaders of Mississippi’s eight public universities say they’re pleased with the Legislature’s pledge to borrow $100 million a year to cover the schools’ needs. The College Board adopted the plan at its meeting last week. Each institution adopted 10 top priorities, an amount totaling $634.4 million across the system. Top priorities range from another $30.5 million to pay for the new medical school building at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson to $300,000 to upgrade sprinklers at the Cedar Brook Apartments at the University of Southern Mississippi. Higher Education Commissioner Hank Bounds said the board knows lawmakers won’t contribute the amount needed to cover the total request. However, he said the future map for capital spending laid out in the 2013 bond bill is enough to sustain the universities. More...

By Cathy Sandeen. In my former role as a dean at the University of California Los Angeles, I helped thousands of typical American college students gain the knowledge and skills needed to become informed, engaged citizens and progress in their chosen careers. But as the dean of UCLA Extension, these "typical" students were a diverse group of nontraditional learners searching for ways to earn postsecondary degrees and credentials, often while juggling family responsibilities and jobs that meant frequent stops and re-starts for their postsecondary experience -- very different from the first-time college students attending UCLA straight out of high school but representative of the current face of American higher education. More...