Entries for July 2009

What was almost the largest donation in Florida Atlantic University's history is now another casualty of tough economic times, the New York Times reports. Barry Kaye, an insurance magnate, pledged $16 million to the university, but he said Tuesday he could no longer offer so much. Instead, Kaye will offer the university another $1 million on top of the $4 million he has already donated. This decision makes Kaye the third-largest donor in the university's history. Officials from the Boca Raton university said Kaye's decision would not affect the operations of any existing programs.

Academics and policymakers have been debating the question for years: Is the United States doing enough to attract young people to study science and technology in college? But what these experts have failed to question more thoroughly is whether students of these disciplines do well academically and whether they work in these disciplines upon graduation. A new report from the Department of Education's National Center for Education and Statistics aims to fill that research gap, Inside Higher Ed reports.

The report, titled "Students Who Study Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in Postsecondary Education," outlines the demographic profile of the 23 percent of students who choose to major in STEM fields as undergraduates. These students are disproportionately male, Asian or of foreign descent, and of traditional age.

Last week, President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the $4 billion Race to the Top Fund, which makes grants available to states but with strings attached, like easing restrictions on charter schools and linking teacher pay to student achievement. Now, the strings attached to a similar, even larger $9 billion grant fund for community colleges are clearer, and the extent of the requirements to earn the money has surprised some community college leaders, the Chronicle of Higher Ed reports.

The requirements, laid out in a House of Representatives student aid bill that is awaiting floor action, include setting goals tied to program completion, workforce preparation, and job placement. Though grant recipients could choose their own benchmarks, they would have to be approved by Duncan.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about Texas Tech's hiring of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Turns out some professors at the seventh-largest public university in the Lone Star State aren't exactly thrilled about Gonzales joining their ranks, the Daily Torreador reports.

A nine-page petition signed by 70 professors opposed Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance's hiring of Gonzales, who will teach a political science class in the fall and recruit minority students to the school. The petition, which was created by Walter Schaller, a Texas Tech philosophy professor, says that Hance's hiring of his friend Gonzales "cannot be seen as a commitment to ethical conduct."

If you go to college to study journalism like your favorite Paper Trail bloggers did, you hear a lot of emphasis on internships and real-life experience. That, advisers will tell you, is exactly what employers are looking for in prospective reporters. Well, how does being embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq for a few weeks sound for experience?

Three University of Alaska journalism students and their professor are headed to Iraq this week, the Chronicle of Higher Ed reports. They'll be embedded with an Alaskan-based Army Stryker Brigade combat team and write daily reports. They'll also update and maintain a blog, Short Timers, and regularly post first-person accounts on Facebook.

New York University students' uproar in response to antigay statements made by a law professor from Singapore have prompted the professor to cancel her plans to teach at the university this fall, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

Li-ann Thio intended to teach two courses as a visiting professor at NYU's law school—one on human rights in Asia and another on constitutionalism there. But when NYU students and graduates learned that she opposes repealing a Singaporean law that criminalizes sex between men, they began protesting her appointment. She also supports Singapore's imposition of a fine on a television station that depicted a gay couple and their child as a family unit and has generally denounced homosexuality in several public statements.

More than 750 members of the NYU community had signed an online petition that states that by hiring Thio, the law school is "acting in opposition of its own policy of nondiscrimination and undermining its commitment to advancing human rights worldwide." In a statement published Wednesday evening by the New York Times, Law School Dean Richard Revesz says that Thio told him she was "disappointed by what she called the atmosphere of hostility by some members of our community towards her views and by the low enrollment in her classes."

The dean also says that the law school did not know of Thio's controversial remarks when it selected her as a visiting professor. However, the dean says, if it had known, this fact alone would not necessarily have persuaded the law school not to offer Thio the visiting professorship because colleges and universities "benefit greatly from a diversity of perspectives, not from hiring only people who share the same views."

More than two years after the Virginia Tech massacre, the most deadly shooting in the nation's history, Virginia Tech officials have located gunman Seung Hui Cho's mental health records, the Collegiate Times and the Associated Press report.

Cho shot and killed 32 people on April 16, 2007, before turning one of his guns on himself. Though the quality and effectiveness of the mental-health treatment Cho received at Virginia Tech's counseling center have long been in question, records of Cho's visits to the center have been missing until now. Lawyers in a civil lawsuit found the files at a former counseling center employee's home.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine says the state will release the records as soon as possible and that state police are investigating how the records disappeared in the first place because it is illegal to remove confidential records from the center. Kaine also expressed disappointment that the criminal investigation into the shootings failed to uncover the files.

On the second anniversary of the shootings this past April, family members of two slain students sued the state, the school and its counseling center, several top university officials, and a local mental-health agency, claiming gross negligence in the series of events that cleared a path for Cho to carry out his killing spree.

A drive-by shooting on the Texas Southern University campus Wednesday night injured eight people and cut short a rally being held to promote community service and voter registration, the Associated Press reports.

School spokeswoman Eva Pickens said spectators gathered at the event, which included a performance by Houston rapper Trae the Truth, dropped to the pavement when gunshots from a moving vehicle began streaming into the crowd. Campus police attribute the violence to a rivalry between two gangs, one from Missouri City and the other from Fresno, towns located between 30 and 40 minutes from the university's Houston campus.

Lucinda Guinn, who is managing Houston City Councilman Peter Brown's run for mayor in November's election, says she was dismayed that "an effort for bringing a very positive message to the community" would end in violence. Texas Southern is a historically black university with an enrollment of about 10,000.

This shooting follows other recent instances of gun violence that have left one college student dead and one alumnus critically injured. The Daily Lobo reported earlier this week that University of New Mexico student Kerry Lewis was shot and killed in his Albuquerque home on Friday, July 10. Police have made not yet made any arrests in connection with Lewis's death. The Daily Helmsman reported today that former University of Memphis men's basketball star Antonio Burks remained in critical condition after being shot during an armed robbery at a house in South Memphis.

Last night's budget settlement in California is good news for the Golden State. In fact, it might be the most exciting news the state has heard since the Lakers won the NBA championship. But not everyone is celebrating.

The plan to close the state's $26.3 billion deficit includes some serious cuts in the California state university system. In response to upcoming budget shortfalls, University of California President Mark Yudof has declared a one-year financial emergency for the college system, expanding his authority to slash the system's budget, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Yudof is expected to institute 4-to-10 percent pay cuts by September 1. He also said that university employees must agree to take from 11 to 26 unpaid days off—based on pay scale—or face significant layoffs. Those cuts, combined with higher tuition fees and lower admissions rates, will help the system handle a 20 percent decrease in state funding, Yudof said. But that announcement caused major protests from university employees, who do not believe the furloughs are necessary.

"The unions believe that the combination of wage cuts and tuition increases for the seventh year in a row will again enable the UC system to, in fact, make money on this deal," said Nora Hochman, an organizer for the Coalition of University Employees. "We think they have an obligation as a public university to use some of those resources to make up for the cuts."

Meanwhile, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that while the furloughs and cuts will seriously damage the university system now, the future of the state's colleges might be at even greater risk. Once money from the Obama administration's stimulus package stops flowing—and California has already spent a lot of its stimulus cash—California's university system might face some serious financial trouble.

"What is saving us in the short run could be setting us up for big problems in subsequent years," said Robert Turnage, assistant vice chancellor for budget at California State University.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is one of the most prominent African-American scholars in the world. He's written and edited more than 50 books. He's hosted several series and specials on television. He's received 49 honorary degrees from colleges and universities across the world. He was named as one of the 25 most influential Americans by Time magazine in 1997. And he's the director of the W. E. B. DuBois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University.

He's kind of a big deal.

That's why it was surprising when Cambridge, Mass., police showed up at Gates's house on Thursday and arrested him. The police were responding to an emergency call reporting a break-in in progress at Gates's house. When they arrived, Gates, who had been having trouble getting his door open, was already inside, friends said. Incensed by what he called racial profiling, Gates accused the investigating officer of being racist, the police report said. Police eventually arrested Gates outside of his home and charged him with disorderly conduct, saying Gates yelled repeatedly at the investigating officer and would not calm down.

But a joint statement was released today announcing that the charges against Gates were dropped, and Cambridge police will not comment further on the situation.

"The city of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and Professor Gates acknowledge that the incident of July 16, 2009, was regrettable and unfortunate," the statement said. "This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department. All parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances."

Funding for a Harvard University program that has offered Gardisil vaccinations to female students at a subsidized rate for the past two years will run out at the end of the month, the Harvard Crimson reports.

Fifteen university student organizations worked together to lobby in favor of the subsidy soon after Gardisil came on the market in 2007. With the subsidy, the cost of the three-shot treatment dropped from $154 to $25 per shot. This FDA-approved vaccine protects recipients against four types of human papillomavirus (HPV), including the two types that cause more than 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, according to the CDC.

Student leaders fought to extend funding for the two-year subsidy soon after the program began, but some say the subsidy is less important now because the vaccine's use has become so widespread in the past two years. "Very few students have mentioned the vaccine to me," says Susan Marine, director of Harvard College Women's Center, which lobbied for the subsidy in 2006. "I think a lot of people know about it and have it, or are choosing to get it at their family doctor."

The program apparently increased the number of students who were vaccinated against genital warts and cervical cancer. Before Harvard began subsidizing the cost, the University Health Center had administered the three-shot immunization series to 141 students. In the past two years, UHS has vaccinated 1,126 students. About 85 percent of the students immunized were covered under the University's Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plan.

Physical and emotional violence on college campuses knows no gender bias, according to a recently released study covered by Inside Higher Ed.

Based on a survey of 2,000 students who visited health clinics at five universities in Wisconsin, Seattle, and Vancouver during the 2006-07 academic year, the study shows that nearly equal rates of young men and young women (17 and 16 percent, respectively) interviewed at the clinics reported experiencing violence during the previous six months.

The study, published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that men reported the highest incidence of physical abuse, while women reported the highest rates of emotional abuse. It also found that men suffered abuse most frequently at the hands of their friends, roommates, or acquaintances, while women reported physical abuse at the hands of a family member three times more often than men.

Elizabeth M. Saewyc, a nursing professor at the University of British Columbia and the study's lead researcher, says the findings surprised her. She "wasn't quite expecting the rate of violence to be as high," she said.

Across the Atlantic, the world's best cyclists are competing in the Tour de France. In Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, six high school guidance counselors from across the country are participating in the "Tour d'Admission," a 12-day, 400-mile bicycle tour of more than a dozen colleges in the three states, the New York Times reports.

This new take on visiting colleges began a few years ago as the brainchild of Taylor Smith, then a counselor at Episcopal High School in Jacksonville, Fla., who sought to combine his love for cycling and his desire to use his summer vacation months to visit colleges. That first year, Smith took the trip with his wife. They visited schools between Niagara Falls and New York City. In subsequent years, more counselors/cycling enthusiasts joined Smith for tours of schools in Minnesota and Iowa.

Though the group travels at a moderate pace of about 12 mph, some days' rides can exceed 60 miles, a task not for those who are out of shape.

As Lauren Cunniffe, a counselor at the Stoneleigh-Burnham School in Greenfield, Mass., puts it, colleges are often best observed slowly, like from a perch atop a bicycle. "You see so much more," Cunniffe says. This year, the counselors visited Elizabethtown College, Franklin and Marshall, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Delaware, St. Johns College in Annapolis, Md., and other schools.

A new class at Ball State University takes students out of the classroom and into the virtual world. In fact, there isn't even a set-in-reality meeting place, and the students and their instructor don't interact face to face.

So much for office hours.

The 2010 graduation-day scheduling conflict at Oregon's flagship university has finally been resolved.

The University of Oregon's commencement will be held on its originally planned day, the Daily Emerald reports. The ceremony will take place on Saturday, June 12, 2010.

A planning and scheduling committee at the school worried that commencement would conflict with the NCAA track and field championships, which will be held at the university's Hayward Field June 9-12. The committee had concerns about hotel availability, and the school moved the graduation date up to accommodate both events, which some critics said interfered with Oregon's finals week.