ACUHO-I News Blog

Happy Monday, ACUHO-Isters! This week on Inside HigherEd there’s stories that address the “stained glass” ceiling; the magnetic power of “FREE” and data-driven action, among other topics. Enjoy!

STAINED GLASS CEILING: Are scholars who are gay or speak out on gay issues blocked from becoming deans at Catholic colleges? Would doing so preserve religious identity or squelch academic freedom?

HUGE PROBLEM, PROBLEMATIC ‘SOLUTION’: Emergency legislation to finance Colorado’s higher education system would let public institutions raise tuitions to make up for lost funds — but critics fear access institutions and needy students could lose out.

CURBING BOASTS ABOUT TEST PREP: Princeton Review — in strategy shift– agrees to stop marketing a series of claims about score gains. Some other companies will continue the practice.

WHEN EVEN LOW TUITION IS TOO MUCH: Tulsa Community College, like many two-year institutions, is not expensive, but it finds that eliminating charges attracts students.

USING DATA TO DRIVE PERFORMANCE: Unusual coalition of college leaders and policy makers promotes effort aimed at stimulating change in higher education.

Will your campus be able to respond and recover from an emergency? For other institutions at least, the results are mixed. A University of Central Florida survey reveals only 13% of respondents were “very confident” their campuses would respond well to potential disaster. (On the other hand, that’s a hard thing about which to be “very confident.”) The survey also revealed organizational and partnership strategies institutions have used to beef up their emergency preparedness and prevention.

On Inside HigherEd: Who will show up in the fall? Liberal arts at community colleges, and averting another financial disaster.

THE EARLY WORD ON YIELD: For many colleges anxious about how many admitted applicants would send in deposits, the story this year is about different rates for different programs, measuring applicant interest, strategies other than money … and about money.

WHAT ADJUNCT IMPACT? New research challenges previous studies suggesting negative student outcomes from having more exposure to instructors off the tenure track.

THE POST-CRISIS MBA: Business schools look for ways to better prepare students — and avert future financial meltdowns.

APPLYING THE LIBERAL ARTS: Two-year colleges in Wisconsin are hoping to offer a different kind of baccalaureate degree to their students.

‘I COULD BE ILLEGAL’: With a boycott, name tags and numerous studies, education researchers aim to shift debate on immigrant students and to protest the new Arizona law.

Former Student Sues Brown University Over Rape Accusation

This is the sort of situation that university administrators think about in the wee, sleepless hours.

Would this have turned out differently at your institution, or at another institution at which you’ve worked?

Would it have turned out the same?

What would you have done during such an episode without knowing what would happen next?

What would you have done, having the benefit of 20-20 hindsight?

This week’s news from InsideHigherEd.com has stories on community colleges, Title IX, and the iPad on college campuses.

THE COMPLETION AGENDA: At national gathering of community college leaders, the emphasis is on how to get more students to finish their programs.

HOW TO JUDGE COMMUNITY COLLEGES: First details released on plans for national accountability system. At meeting of 2-year college leaders, most support idea, but some worry that metrics could become too
influential.

REVERSING BUSH ON TITLE IX: Education Department withdraws 2005 policy allowing colleges and schools to use survey alone to show they have met students’ athletics interests and abilities.

MINOR BUMPS FOR IPAD: Despite some high-profile snafus, CIOs say Apple’s initial bruises in higher education are superficial.

This week on Inside HigherEd, a tough professor is removed from her post and her students’ grades are raised; the fallout from a “colorful” comment at Cornell, and an upcoming summit on community colleges, among other stories.

WHO REALLY FAILED? Louisiana State U. removes a tough grader from her course mid-semester, and raises the grades of her students. Faculty leaders see a betrayal of values and due process.

CLOSING ARGUMENT: Binghamton president plays down basketball scandal, foreseeing minor NCAA trouble and accusing SUNY system of overreaching. Critics say she’s missed the larger point.

A STRATEGIC LEAP ONLINE : Middlebury’s new language instruction venture, in partnership with a for-profit company, is turning a lot of heads. Not all of them are nodding.

AFTERMATH OF AN UGLY COMMENT: Two graduate students at Cornell say one of their professors called them “black bitches” — and many wonder why it’s taken so long for an open discussion of the incident.

RETOOLING REMEDIATION: Six states enter project to reform developmental education at community colleges by altering state policy on funding formulas and course rules.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE SUMMIT: As White House plans fall gathering on community colleges, educators and lobbyists offer advice for what should be on the agenda.

Happy Monday, folks! At Inside HigherEd this week, there’s debate on providing the iPad for students, bilingual classes and other news.

IPADS ON CAMPUS: Their arrival sparks a debate among campus CIOs over whether colleges should start giving out Apple’s much-ballyhooed computing tablet to students.

BILINGUAL (HIGHER) ED: Two private universities — one in Puerto Rico and one in Colorado — collaborate to create growing for-profit arm in Florida, offering bachelor’s degrees in which every course is in Spanish and English.

TODAY’S ASSIGNMENT: PAY UP: Citing ethical concerns, some universities prohibit faculty from taking royalties for textbooks they require students to buy.

WHEN PROFESSORS GET THEIR POLITICS: Study finds that academics generally lean one way or another early in life, potentially bolstering theory that self-selection explains the large numbers of liberals in higher ed.

DISRESPECTING WHOM? Should a president order a scholar to shift from teaching one course a year to a 4-4 load? Does it matter if the professor is an icon of black literature? Is it suspicious if he criticized the selection of the president?

This week at Inside HigherEd, tuition discounting topped out in 2008,students’ progress at for-profit institutions, and a new for-profit school for African-Americans.

SLASHING PRICES: Average tuition discounting by private colleges hit a record high of 42 percent in 2008, and much of the help for students was not based on financial need.

HOW STUDENTS FARE AT FOR-PROFITS: Company-sponsored study based on federal data compares sector favorably with community colleges — but fails to persuade student aid experts.

FOR-PROFIT, FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS? New institution — launched with financial backing from early investors in Capella — will focus on black students. Who will benefit?

PREPAID BAILOUTS PRESENT DILEMMA: College savings plan participants may get state-sponsored rescue at the expense of low-income families, researchers say:

THE HUMAN ELEMENT: A community college professor says he has built a learning management system with a personal touch that could solve one of distance education’s most persistent problems.

The Yale Daily News posted pictures of student residences in the late 1800s and early 1900s, juxtaposed with current residences. The older photographs are part of an online exhibition curated by the Yale University Art Gallery. Though the black-and-white pictures don’t allow for a lot of detail, one can see well-appointed rooms with fancy rugs, full bookshelves and framed art on the walls.

Some of the present houses don’t compare so well; despite the color they add to the room, liquor bottles arranged along the mantel don’t have the panache of a well-mounted elk head. However, some of the present rooms look like cozy, comfortable spaces.

As we mentioned earlier in this blog, early residence hall rooms weren’t always so plush. At the first meeting of people who would later form ACUHO-I in 1949, housing directors discussed washers and dryers. Some felt a set was only necessary in women’s housing. Some only provided washers, but not dryers, for men. (Many men would have to share one washer.) I’m still puzzling over what the men did with their damp clothes; it doesn’t sound like a good situation to me.

What were the early residences like at your institution?

On Inside HigherEd this week: how the health care legislation will affect higher education; how student loans will change; pay stagnates for mid-level administrators; and  other news.

HEALTH CARE AND HIGHER ED: What the new legislation means for students, campus health centers and medical schools.

STUDENT LOAN BILL SCORECARD: A look at who fared well — and who didn’t– in legislation to overhaul the student loan programs.

TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE: For-profit player teams up with community college to free those willing to pay more from waiting lists. Is this an important new option or an abandonment of a commitment to equity?

THE 3-YEAR M.D.: Texas Tech announces option that could encourage more medical students to consider family medicine, and save them time and money. Major study will recommend similar move nationally.

NO INCREASES FOR MID-LEVEL PAY: Whether in academic affairs, student affairs, or the business side of the house, salaries were stagnant, survey finds.

Lots of fun stuff here: national and state legislation, tight budgets and related stress, as well as other news, at Inside HigherEd.

CAPITAL CITY RUMBLE: Years of political infighting between unions, lawmakers and system leaders come to a head at California State, and Sacramento is a particular hot spot.

SHARED SACRIFICE: Consolidating jobs, laying off staff members and rethinking departments inform a painful budget strategy at UC Davis.

REVAMPED AID BILL ON TRACK: Compromise legislation, clearing several key hurdles, would provide billions for Pell Grants, minority institutions — and, in a late reversal, community colleges.

WHEN WRITING CLASS MOVES ONLINE: Composition association finds that colleges are just beginning to consider implications of shifting key part of the curriculum away from face-to-face instruction.

THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE TOURNAMENT: Inside Higher Ed tracks what would happen if the Division I NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament were decided by participating teams’ outcomes in the classroom.

This week at Inside HigherEd, a B.A. that takes three years to earn; Virginia’s governor issues an order protecting non-discrimination policies, and other news.

FAULT LINES: Budget cuts are taking their toll on City College of San Francisco, where limited course offerings bar student access and unfilled vacancies leave jobs undone.

REVERSAL IN VIRGINIA ON ANTI-GAY BIAS: Governor issues order protecting colleges’ nondiscrimination policies from demands by attorney general that they be changed.

EXPRESS LANE TO A B.A.: A year after politicians and pundits started talking about three-year degrees, more colleges are starting programs or considering them.

CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVES: College leaders in the U.S. urged to enhance unity of North American higher ed on same day European academics issue study on how unified their institutions have become.

NEW BATTLEGROUND FOR PUBLISHERS: With demand for online assessment and e-tutoring tools growing, good textbooks alone are no longer enough to win over professors.

This week on Inside HigherEd, students want to go to Haiti to help…but sometimes the best help is to stay out of the way. Professors, Facebook, and students…what happens when the three collide? (See our post on that topic here.) Community colleges take an economic opportunity to acquire more space. (Is anyone here doing this?) Also, are high school guidance counselors helping their charges?

SPRING BREAK IN A DISASTER ZONE: Despite warnings urging them to stay home, college students plan trips to earthquake-damaged Haiti.

NOT SO PRIVATE PROFESSORS: Faculty try to shield their personal lives from students, but the suspension of a Pennsylvania professor over Facebook postings shows there’s no such sanctuary online.

MARCH ON EVERYWHERE! Protesters from all sectors of eduction rally across the nation, and the Bay Area increasingly resembles the center
of a movement.

BUYER’S MARKET: With enrollments booming and dollars in short supply, community colleges look to vacant commercial properties and land swaps to acquire more space.

BAD ADVICE, NO ADVICE: The high school counselors who guide students through college admissions receive poor grades in a new national
survey.

This week on Inside HigherEd, reaching out to gay applicants and drop-out insurance for parents of little faith, among other stories.

PROTESTERS RECEIVE COY EMBRACE: March 4 demonstrations across California and nation will call for greater higher ed support, but college leaders give tepid public endorsement to volatile grass roots movement.

HIGHLIGHTING E-READERS: Colleges release analyses of major experiments with Kindles — and find students use less paper with the devices, but want better note-taking ability.

OUTREACH TO GAY APPLICANTS: Like many colleges, Penn has undergrads help woo admitted students with similar interests or ethnic backgrounds. Now the university is recruiting based on sexual orientation too.

FAMILY VALUES AND THE NCAA: Amid criticism from gay rights advocates, athletic association pulls advertisements from pro-family group that sparked Super Bowl controversy.

DROP-OUT INSURANCE: Is the market to assure parents of tuition refunds about to take off?

We all love those numbers we get from the United States Census.

There are 2.8 million students living on-campus.

There are 2,252 institutions offering housing in the United States.

The U.S. Census also counts:

Students in college or university housing by state
Total number of higher education students overall
Numbers of students in specific sorts of majors
The number of non-traditional-age students.

These stats are a great resource for us; I have some of them posted in front of my desk because I refer to them so often. ACUHO-I members are thrilled these statistics exist. And they’re free for public use.

So help the Census out, won’t you? The decennial census is this year. This is the big one, where baseline numbers for things such as students in residence halls per state are counted. It’s to our benefit to do this. Refer to this letter from the Department of Education and this Chronicle of Higher Education article for details.