Higher Education News
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Recent Headlines:
Insite Higher Ed News, 11/20/08
USA Today report finds athletes on hundreds of Division I teams are overrepresented in one major at their colleges, raising questions about whether NCAA’s academic rules are driving choices.
Students Warming up to Digital Books
NACAS, 11/19/08
Inside Higher Ed News, 11/19/08
Searching for fast solutions to budget shortfalls, some colleges are turning to mandatory employee furloughs. Some question whether this approach is fair or strategic.
Inside Higher Ed News, 11/13/08
California and New York governors propose a round of midyear budget reductions for higher education, and more states are expected to follow suit.
Encouraging Interdisciplinarity
Inside Higher Ed News, 11/06/08
Consortium of research universities considers steps to support cross-departmental research by making changes at faculty and administrative levels.
Athletic Eligibility in the Digital Age
Inside Higher Ed News, 10/14/08
NCAA considers allowing players to use online and other non-traditional courses to meet their sports participation requirements.
Inside Higher Ed News, 10/13/08
Ballot referendum to rid Massachusetts of its income tax could have devastating impact on its system of public higher education.
Inside Higher Ed News, 10/10/08
Many of the trends seen in campus information technology over the past few years, such as an increasing focus on security risks and a greater likelihood to support legal music and movie downloading services, continued apace in the past fiscal year.
Inside Higher Ed News, 10/9/08
While white and Asian American young people are outpacing previous generations, the gaps for other minority groups are large enough that the current generation is, on average, heading toward being less educated than its predecessor.
University of Texas to offer free electronic textbooks in the spring
Austin American Statesman, statesman.com 10/6/08
If test phase is successful, e-books could shave hundreds of dollars from annual textbook bills.
Inside Higher Ed News,10/2/8
The financial headlines out of Washington and Wall Street could not be scarier, with words like “collapse” and “crisis” and “failure” spilling out of news reports to an extent not seen in decades. (Analysts are expressing widespread hope, if not exactly confidence, that the U.S. Senate’s passage Wednesday of a federal rescue plan for the financial markets, if followed by House passage Friday, will put out the raging fire.)
Greentree Gazette, 9/22/8
Is it going to be the rage—or just a short-term fad? Work-week adjustments are happening on campuses for a variety of reasons. Here are close encounters with three of them.
In Quest for Carbon Neutrality, Late Out of the Gate
Inside Higher Ed News, 9/22/8
In first major benchmark of Presidents Climate Commitment, charter signatories report on their current greenhouse gas emissions. Many miss the deadline.
PA State University System Snuffs Out All Smoking
AP Online, 9/15/8
With virtually no warning, smoking at 14 of Pennsylvania's state-owned universities has been banned anywhere on campus — even outdoors.
Community Colleges Growing and Growing Up
Greentree Gazette, 9/2/8
Posted by request of Dr. Bob Hassmiller, CEO Of NACAS
A summary of statistics and further links from the Community College 2008 Special Analysis, published by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
New Report: Green Efforts Improving on Campuses
Campus Technology, 8/26/8
More campuses in the United States have shifted their focus to environmental and sustainability programs, but funding and staffing issues have prevented them from implementing green initiatives on the scale campus administrators would like, according to a new report released recently by the National Wildlife Federation.
Inside Higher Ed, 8/26/8
With a slew of new announcements and partnerships, some publishers, colleges and even bookstores seem poised to offer e-textbooks as a serious alternative for students.
New Report Says Digital Textbooks Are Off-Track
The Wired Campus/Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/26/8
A growing number of textbook publishers are offering digital editions these days, but a new study by a student group argues that many of those digital editions do not have the features that students want.
Weak Economy Spurs Growth for Community Colleges
USA Today, 8/23/8
...While the shift solves one funding problem, it potentially raises another. Community college officials in some states, including Texas and Virginia, are concerned the precarious nature of their own finances — brought about by rising costs and state government budget shortfalls — could limit their ability to handle the anticipated influx of new students.
Guide Created to Help Campuses Develop Climate Action Plans
Green School and University Online, 8/14/8
...the National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology program has decided to help campus administrators determine the best way to improve their environmental performance and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The result? The "Guide to Climate Action Planning: Pathways to a Low-Carbon Campus," sponsored by the Society for College and University Planning, the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and The Energy Action Coalition.
Inside Higher Ed, 8/14/8
Starting in the fall of 2009, first year students at Bowdoin will not be allowed to keep cars on the campus, as the college aims to reduce its environmental footprint.
Congress Votes to Fund the Sustainability Movement in Higher Education
NCSEonline.com, 7/31/2008
Today Congress passed all provisions of the Higher Education Sustainability Act (HESA) as part of the new Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HR 4137). HR 4137, expected to be signed into law shortly by President Bush, creates a pioneering "University Sustainability Grants Program" at the Department of Education. It will offer competitive grants to institutions and associations of higher education to develop, implement and evaluate sustainability curricula, practices, and academic programs.
Shop Smart to Save Money on Textbooks
NACS Media Room, 8/12/2008
Textbooks and course materials provide college students with vital information they need to do well in class. However, many students come to college unprepared for their expense.
Why "Nonprofit" Does NOT Mean "Lose Money"
Inside Higher Ed, 8/11/2008
It was just a tidbit of information, offered toward the end of a presentation slotted in that sleepy, after-lunch-at-a-jampacked-conference hour. But the nature of the tidbit caught the audience’s attention: On average, full-time faculty members at the University of New Mexico’s Gallup campus were being subsidized to the tune of $10,554 apiece.
College and Company Link Up to Lure Foreigners
NYTimes.com, 8/7/2008
In an unusual partnership that began last fall, Northeastern University is using Kaplan, Inc., a for-profit education company, to find students for — and help run — an academic program for international students to spend a year on campus, improving their English and acclimating to American higher education, before starting one of Northeastern’s degree programs.
The Greenest Colleges in America
MSN.com, August 2008
This year, The Princeton Review announced its first-ever Green Ratings, based on surveys that asked hundreds of colleges to report on things like energy usage, recycling programs, food services and, of course, academic offerings.
UConn Will Discontinue the Use of Cafeteria Trays
courant.com, 8/2/2008
The cafeteria tray, as much a mainstay of college dining halls as chocolate chip cookies and soda machines, will disappear this fall at the University of Connecticut. The idea is to cut down on the half-eaten rolls, uneaten desserts, un-drunk sodas and other goodies students piled on their trays in the buffet line and then realize they are too full to eat. Besides eliminating wasted food, UConn predicts trayless dining will have the side benefit of keeping a lid on food costs and reducing the amount of water used to wash the trays.
Equipping Community Colleges' New Leaders
Inside Higher Ed, 8/4/2008
It is well-established that the higher education work force is aging, particularly in the upper/senior ranks of both faculty and administrators. And that higher education as an industry isn’t particularly well-equipped to purposefully prepare the next generation of leaders.
Inside Higher Ed, 7/24/2008
To facilitate more interactive teaching, one college considers a different type of classroom. The barriers to building it are instructive of sometimes conflicting trends in college planning.
Inside Higher Ed, 7/23/2008
There's a lot of talk about all that colleges are doing for the environment. What aren't they doing?
In Class from 8 A.M. to 9:50 P.M.
Inside Higher Ed, 7/2/2008
A Tennessee community college offers students the option of maintaining full-time status by taking classes only on Fridays.
Study Shows Growing Interest in E-Books
NACS News, 6/27/2008
A recent study by ebrary, a company that provides electronic content and technology to libraries, publishers, and other businesses, shows that out of 6,452 students surveyed worldwide, 49% never use e-books. That leaves 51% of students who do, a staggering number compared to just a few years ago.
Inside Higher Ed, 6/27/2008
...in what some administrators see as a possible response to the recent downturn in the U.S. economy, some ... institutions cannot keep up with the rising demand of upperclassmen who want to live on campus for a more practical purpose: to save money. While it is too early to tell whether the economy is to blame for this newfound demand, some campus administrators find that it exacerbates an already strained housing system.
Leadership in a Decentralized Company
Knowledge@Wharton, 6/25/2008
Posted at request by Dr. Bob Hassmiller, NACAS CEO
"I found MANY similarities to Johnson and Johnson's decentralized approach to running their company and auxiliary services management. Good reading in an interview with their CEO!" - Dr. Bob Hassmiller, NACAS CEO
Inside Higher Ed, 6/24/2008
When the bottom fell out, where were the disaster plans? As the economy took a dive in the first half of this year, and states started slashing budgets, higher education leaders were often left scrambling. Unsure where to cut their budgets on short notice, university officials turned to predictable — though not always strategic — solutions.
Higher Learning Adapts to a Greening Attitude
WashingtonPost.com, 6/22/2008
The environmental fervor sweeping college campuses has reached beyond the push to recycle plastics and offer organic food and is transforming the curriculum, permeating classrooms, academic majors and expensive new research institutes.
Redefining Where Salary Gaps Linger
Higher Ed News, 6/19/2008
New analysis of start of academic careers finds gender equity except at research universities, where women face 9% deficit. Black and Latino professors found to earn more than others.
Employee Ideas Help Stanford Hospital Save Millions
Yahoo! News/CBS 5 San Francisco, 6/18/2008
Video showing how employee ideas helped save $140 million in operating costs.
Higher Ed News, 6/13/2008
One university's unconventional approach to outsourcing international student recruitment and services -- involving multi-million dollar payment from a corporate provider -- raises questions.
Colleges With Federal Contracts Will Have to Use New Employee-Verification System
Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog, 6/13/2008
All colleges and universities entering into federal-government contracts will be required to use the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify system to establish the immigration status of newly hired employees and all employees working on such contracts, under an executive order signed this week by President Bush.
University Used Instant Messages to Communicate After Fire
Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus, 6/11/2008
In the wake of a devastating fire at Our Lady of the Lake University last month, university officials didn’t rely on phone calls or e-mail to keep the university community connected. They couldn’t. The fire was in the campus’s main building and had knocked the entire e-mail and phone networks out for about three days. Instead, the community relied on an instant-messaging service.
Outsourcing to free email services is full steam ahead
Greentree Gazette, 6/4/2008
MICROSOFT. GOOGLE. YAHOO! The three big players in email services have enticed colleges and universities by the thousands to let them host their email services. For Wendy Woodward, director of Technology Support Services at Northwestern University, the decision to switch from WebMail and outsource their email to Google was easy. “Approximately 90 percent of our students had Gmail accounts already,” she says. “They were already using Google and forwarding their Northwestern email to their Google mail accounts.”
