Higher Ed Matters
------------------------Looking for Equality in Opportunity------------------------ --(most post are links so click on headlines to read the articles)--
An interesting article regarding the proposed merger of Higher Ed in NJ.
Who’s the snob now? A few weeks ago Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum called President Barack Obama a “snob” for pushing for universal access to college. An ad that ran during Santorum’s 2006 Senate Campaign proposes the same idea. Click the heading above to read the article and watch the ad.
Universities are moving toward greener initiatives in an attempt to be more environmentally conscious as well as to save a buck. Banning bottled water is an interesting concept. The eco-friendly side is easy to see. It will drive down waste and thereby waste management costs. The flip-side is that you now take a way a healthy alternatives to sodas and sweetened drinks. Installation of drinking fountains and “hydration stations” is key in making this endeavor a positive one. Students will appreciate the greening of campuses but their health and wellness depends on the efforts made by the school to provide alternatives to packaged water.
US News and World Report will begin collecting graduation rate data. Initially the data will not be included in their annual ranking but may be published and included in the ranking in the future. “In future years, we may incorporate this information into the overall Best Colleges rankings, as many argue that graduation rates are an important outcome measure.” Graduation rates are important in measuring a school’s success rate? I’d say so.
Occupy Colleges Planning Walkout To Support Higher Education
NEW YORK — Thousands of U.S. college students will walk out of class Thursday in a coordinated day of protest against what may be another year of significant higher education budget cuts by state legislatures.
College students have organized a national day of action with student groups, unions and local Occupy Wall Street offshoots as well as the Occupy Colleges group. Students nationwide will protestever-increasing student debt and continued budget cuts. In addition, they’ll raise awareness of campus-specific issues.
“Occupy has been based around the interaction of local issues and global issues,” Artem Raskin with Occupy UCDavis said. “We try to tie it to specific issues on our campus, but at the same time keeping in mind that these local issues have implications as well.
In California, where students have been demonstrating since 2009 against raising fees, laying off staff, hiring outside contractors for services and partnering with U.S. Bank to turn student ID cards into debit cards, a coalition of unions and student groups are protesting at 20 campuses. A unifying goal is to build support for a ballot initiative that would raise taxes on millionaires that organizers said would increase state revenue and curtail further budget cuts.
Each California campus is also identifying its own issues. University of California, San Diego, protesters have issued demands for increased funding for areas and offices on campus. The students also demand that UC reverse all funding cuts, tuition hikes and layoffs over the past several years.
Demonstrators with Occupy UCDavis plan to hold a “funeral for public education,” at 11 a.m. on their campus.
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Read my whole story on HuffPost College
New Jersey is in the process of the biggest change in higher education every undertaken by any state. There is a proposal to incorporate Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and the Medical School at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital (UMDNJ). An odd tradeoff has been suggested, however. Rutgers is being asked to cut ties with one of its satellite campuses which will then become part of Rowan University. This is all a very complicated method of creating a more dynamic, yet affording higher education system in the state. While I do not know the statistics on the “brain drain” Governor Christie mentions, it seems intuitive that the state of New Jersey needs to address the cost and structure of its higher education institutions so that the bright minds in the state stay there. The governor also considers this smart economics. This is the first step in considering higher education a capital investment and an economic investment in the future.
Above is an article about a new initiative in Arizona. They are attempting to make it mandatory for students to pay a minimum of $2000 in tuition to attend one of their state schools. From the report, the only ones supporting this are the Arizona legislature. The students, institutions and anyone with common sense are opposing this. All of this is stemming from an increase in student aid that helped cover tuition for half of the state schools’ students. They were making progress in making college affordable and this is what the politicians reaction is? Come on Arizona…
Obviously an appealing thought. No real method of creating such policy is offered in the article but I’m curious if something like this is attainable. The cost of education and student loan debt is something that will need to be addressed in the near future before it becomes the next bubble to burst.
