By Craig Douglas. Western New England University lacks the size and branding power to generate much attention in Massachusetts, or elsewhere for that matter. But its responses to the changing winds in higher education are worth a closer look among the many schools at risk of being swept out to sea.
To be sure, Western New England is fighting the tide, too. Its law school enrollment has been steadily sinking since 2009. Full-time undergrad numbers have teetered, while part-time and summer enrollments are off 20 percent over that same 5-year span. Other red flags — weaker selectivity rates among freshman applicants, a growing reliance on tuition discounts, meager endowment returns — appear to highlight a school struggling to keep up with the times. More...

By Lance Whitney. The search giant says it will no longer collect student data to use for advertising purposes. Google says it is no longer mining the accounts of Google Apps for Education users for advertising data. Revealing the new policy in a blog post Tuesday, Bram Bout, director of Google for Education, also said that Google has removed a toggle to enable and disable ads in the Apps for Education Administrator console. Removing the toggle means that ads in the Apps for Education suite are now automatically turned off, and administrators cannot turn them back on. Google Apps for Education provides the usual lineup of apps for email, calendar, and document creation but is geared toward students and teachers. More...

By Scott Rothschild. States are funding higher education below pre-recession levels, according to a new report.
But while 42 states last year started to restore some of those reductions, Kansas was among eight states that continued to cut, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report said. The report said that across the nation the higher education cuts have led to reduced educational services or steep tuition increases or both. More...

By Tiffany Chan. This year, 75 students with autism or intellectual disabilities participated in the program. More young people with autism and intellectual disabilities could soon be enrolling in college. 22News found out about a pilot program that has tremendous success. The new program brings people with autism and intellectual disabilities into more college classrooms. Students with autism or intellectual disabilities ages 18 to 22 experience barriers between high school and adult life, limiting their access to a proper education. A pilot program called Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment, or “ICE,” allows students with disabilities to enroll in classes at public universities while still in high school. More...

By Elizabeth Segran. Can a budding labor movement improve the lives of non-tenured faculty—and, in the process, fix higher education?
Mary-Faith Cerasoli has been reduced to “sleeping in her car, showering at college athletic centers and applying for food stamps,” The New York Times recently reported. Is she unemployed? No, in fact, she is a college professor— but an adjunct one, meaning she is hired on a short-term contract with no possibility of tenure. More...

By Julian Walker. In his second high-profile deviation from state practice since January, Attorney General Mark Herring has moved to let the offspring of those living in the United States illegally pay in-state tuition at Virginia public colleges and, in the process, bucked a General Assembly that rejected such policy.
With an immigration debate ongoing in Congress, Herring informed state colleges and universities of his determination, then publicly unveiled it Tuesday in two events in Northern Virginia and the state Capitol. More...

By Stephanie Mlot. College students typically begin a new year equipped with textbooks, a class schedule, and financial debt. But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is adding a new component: bitcoin.
Two student members of the MIT Bitcoin Club raised $500,000 for a project that will allow the university to distribute $100 in bitcoin to every undergraduate this fall. All 4,528 students will receive their own wad of online currency to invest, spend, or donate. More...