University System News
USG NEWS:
www.wabe.org
http://wabe.org/post/state-archives-re-open-public-five-days-week
State Archives to Re-Open to Public Five Days a Week
By LISA GEORGE
Just two years ago, the Georgia Archives building was in danger of closing to the public because of budget cuts, but it will soon be open to the public five days a week. …The Archives will be open Tuesday through Saturday, starting July 15.
www.chronicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2014-06-12/georgia-regents-medical-center-files-build-columbia-county-hospital?v=1402616721
Georgia Regents Medical Center files to build Columbia County hospital
By Meg Mirshak
Staff Writer
The second of three Augusta hospitals vying to build a hospital in Columbia County formally filed for permission to do so on Thursday. Georgia Regents Medical Center filed the required certificate of need to build a $195 million teaching hospital in Grovetown. University Hospital turned in its application in late May and Doctors Hospital is on track to submit one as well. The proposed Georgia Regents hospital campus would be built on 50 acres near the Lewiston Road exit on Interstate 20 adjacent to 5010 Steiner Way, according to a news release. A 300,000-square-foot facility would provide 699 jobs.
www.marketplace.org
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/education/learningcurve/top-schools-are-online-dont-expect-discount
Top schools are online, but don’t expect a discount
by Dan Abendschein
It has been just over a year since Georgia Tech grabbed national headlines by annoucing it would offer an online Master’s degree in computer science for less than $7,000. Many prestigious universities are starting to offer graduate programs online. The difference between Georgia Tech and many of the others is price. In many cases, learning online does not come with a discount.
GOOD NEWS:
www.times-herald.com
http://www.times-herald.com/local/20140613-DDA-hospital-project-remains-on-track
University Of West Georgia Project Remains On Track
by CELIA SHORTT
Work on the new University of West Georgia campus at the site of the old Newnan hospital is continuing, and the project remains on schedule for classes to begin there in January 2015.
RESEARCH:
www.gpb.org
http://www.gpb.org/news/2014/06/11/georgia-tech-helps-develop-solar-powered-hybrid-car#
Georgia Tech Helps Develop Solar Powered Hybrid Car
By Grace Olson
First, there was the hybrid. Then, there were the plug-in electric vehicles. Now, we have the Ford C-MAX Solar Energi concept car. Think of it as a plug-in electric car with solar panels on the roof. With this vehicle, drivers don’t need a cord to get the power. The idea: leave the car in the sun and let the solar panels do the work. Innovative, yes, but there’s a problem—getting the solar panels to actually charge the cars take a while. That’s where researchers from Georgia Tech come in. Their job is to figure out how to make the panels more efficient. So the researchers turned to the same technology you see in a lighthouse.
www.nature.cm
http://www.nature.com/news/secrets-of-ant-rafts-revealed-1.15400
Secrets of ant rafts revealed
Architecture of flash-frozen ant assemblages offers inspiration for robot designers.
Emma Marris
To negotiate floods and cross streams, fire ants band together — literally — linking together to form rafts and bridges in a feat of social cooperation and biophysics. Now, engineers have made a close study1 of the ants’ architectural technique, pointing the way towards new approaches for robot designers and materials scientists. To understand the properties of the ant structures, David Hu, a mechanical engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, sought to observe not just the surface of the ant clumps but the structure and joints underneath.
Related article:
www.phenomena.nationalgeorgraphic.com
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/06/11/the-architecture-of-living-buildings/
The Architecture of Living Buildings
www.mashable.com
http://mashable.com/2014/06/11/global-warming-drought-flood-frequency/
Global Warming to Triple Frequency of Drought, Floods Along Indian Ocean
By Andrew Freedman
The frequency of extreme forms of a climate cycle that can cause devastating droughts and flood events from Indonesia to India to Kenya, may triple in the coming decades, according to a new study published Wednesday. The study, published in the journal Nature, ties manmade global warming to shifts in the behavior of a naturally-occurring climate cycle, known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)… Peter Webster, a professor at Georgia Tech who has conducted research on the IOD as well as the South Asian Monsoon, told Mashable that the models used in the study have flaws in how they simulate the climate system to begin with.
www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2014/06/13/tesla-puts-1st-intown-store-in-decatur-eyes.html?page=all
Tech expansion (2nd article down)
Urvaksh Karkaria
Staff Writer- Atlanta Business Chronicle
A Florida-based email and Web security Software-as-a-Service provider plans to open a software and engineering operation in Midtown Atlanta. Gulf Breeze, Fla.-based AppRiver LLC software helps businesses secure email communications and provides malware protection. Launched in 2002, AppRiver serves more than 8.5 million mailboxes for nearly 47,000 businesses. “We secure businesses from the cybercriminals — whether it’s email, the network or the machines,” AppRiver CEO Mike Murdoch said… AppRiver has leased about 3,000 square feet at Regions Plaza, which is adjacent to Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Information Security Center.
www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/atlantech/2014/06/scoutmob-cofounder-plans-designincubator-in.html
Scoutmob cofounder plans design incubator in downtown Atlanta
Urvaksh Karkaria
Staff Writer- Atlanta Business Chronicle
Michael Tavani is making an ambitious bet that downtown Atlanta can become a hub for consumer- and design-focused startups, the way Midtown is for enterprise software. The co-founder of Scoutmob — arguably Atlanta’s buzziest consumer tech startup — will locate his consumer-focused incubator, Switchyards, in a 1920s building across the street from the Tabernacle, on the Streetcar line and two blocks from Centennial Olympic Park…. Tavani suggested if Switchyards gains traction, it has the potential to attract more creatives and foot traffic to the rest of downtown. There is at least precedent. The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a tech business incubator at Georgia Tech, has helped turn Midtown into ground-zero for tech startups.
www.bizjournals.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2014/06/12/suniva-provides-cells-forflordias-first-solar.html
Suniva provides cells for Flordia’s first solar powered water treatment plant
Phil W. Hudson
Staff Writer- Atlanta Business Chronicle
Suniva Inc. will power Florida’s first solar powered water treatment plant. Jerry Guthmiller, president of Orange Park, Fla.-based JSG Solar Inc. said the system is the first of its kind in Florida … Norcross, Ga.-based Suniva, a Georgia Tech spin-off, began producing monocrystalline solar cells at its 100,000-square-foot Norcross facility in October 2008.
Editorials/Columns/Opinions
www.ajc.com
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/jun/12/rural-poverty-should-we-tell-students-flee-or-conv/
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
Rural poverty: Should we tell students to flee or convince industry to come?
As an editorial writer, I visited poor rural Georgia districts and came back realizing most of the students in the schools would have to move to succeed in life. I’ve covered small towns in other states, but few as deeply in the economic doldrums as those rural Georgia towns. The YEP — Young Education Professionals — blog offers two interesting perspectives on rural education and rural youth. I am sharing excerpts from both, but please follow the links and read the full pieces before commenting.
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/opinion/economists-agree-tax-amendment-means-jobs/ngJpt/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstub1#a0a0c292.3566685.735397
Economists agree: Tax amendment means jobs
By Kyle Wingfield – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you think getting Republicans and Democrats to agree is difficult, try bringing partisans of Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia together — especially when the issue is a contest that takes place in November… That’s the day Georgia voters will decide whether to amend the state’s constitution to cap the individual income-tax rate at its current 6 percent. This week, the person behind that initiative, Sen. David Shafer of Duluth, released a list of 17 economists — including three Bulldogs and one Yellow Jacket — who agree the change would give our state “a competitive advantage in attracting new jobs and businesses and in persuading existing businesses to expand.”
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/06/13/essay-says-colleges-and-universities-should-be-judged-employability#sthash.rUhK9b4U.dpbs
Employability Is Our Job
By Wendy Purcell
Universities, as seats of learning and powerhouses of research, are stepping up to assume a new role. In the wake of a global financial meltdown and consequent challenges to the fabric of many societies, universities are emerging as powerful catalysts and indeed drivers of socioeconomic growth – not only through research or technology transfer, but by assuming responsibility for preparing students for jobs in delivering today’s highly skilled workers and tomorrow’s innovators and leaders of industry. That’s why the employability of our graduates needs to take center stage and why I applaud the Obama administration’s recent call to action in this regard.
www.thebrunswicknes.com
http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/open_access/editorial/edit-fri#.U5sPySgRseV
Killing a bill will harm future generations
A bill in the U.S. Senate that would allow millions of young people in the United States to refinance student loans in order to take advantage of lower interest rates has been stopped in its tracks. It might even be off the tracks for good, given the unstable political situation in Washington. Opponents, for whatever reason or reasons, are unwilling to allow these young adults, many of whom are miles deep in debt, to refinance their loans. They’re blocking the measure that would allow it. Their concern is understood. These students took out the loans and signed a contract. They owe the money. They knew they would have to pay it back. What many of them did not know at the time – and chalk this up to the unflagging optimism of youth – is that payback would be difficult.
www.chronicle.augusta.com
http://chronicle.augusta.com/opinion/editorials/2014-06-12/borrow-more-repay-less?v=1402619799
Borrow more, repay less
Student-loan initiative will encourage increased debt, tuition hikes
By The Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
Too many young Americans are borrowing too much money to pay for college that is too expensive, in the hopes of getting jobs that are too hard to come by. And the president’s new “Pay As You Earn” student-loan initiative changes none of that. What this unilateral action does, however, is incentivize government expansion, put taxpayers on the hook for more subsidized student debt and ensure already-overpriced colleges continue their decades-long spiral toward unaffordability.
www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/catherine-rampell-eliminating-teacher-tenure-wont-improve-education/2014/06/12/26d1314c-f25d-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
Catherine Rampell: Eliminating teacher tenure won’t improve education
Making it easier to fire bad teachers isn’t going to magically cause the educational achievement gap to disappear. You need to be able to attract and retain more good teachers, too.
Unfortunately, no one wants to pay for that. This week a California judge declared that tenure and other seniority rules that make it hard to dismiss teachers “result in grossly ineffective teachers obtaining and retaining permanent employment,” which hurts the low-income and minority children that low performers disproportionately teach. Almost exactly 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, the California judge said that state statutes violate children’s constitutional right to equal educational opportunity. The decision looks likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court, and the plaintiffs’ lawyers said similar suits would soon be filed in other states.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/8-Things-You-Should-Know-About/146901/
8 Things You Should Know About MOOCs
By Jonah Newman and Soo Oh
Before Harvard and MIT released data last month on their first 16 edX MOOCs, we already knew a few things: Millions of people register for massive open online courses, though far fewer receive certificates of completion. Most MOOC participants already have a college degree, even those outside the United States. But there was a lot we didn’t know, especially about who took different types of MOOCs and how much of the course content they viewed. This information may be valuable to those looking to design and lead successful MOOCs. Here’s what we’ve learned from this first data release covering more than half a million students.
www.betanews.com
How the cloud is changing higher education
By Ian Barker
Cloud usage is changing more and more areas of our lives. You might expect the education sector to be at the forefront of this and a new infographic released by digital marketing specialists Pulp-PR shows how it’s being affected. A key finding is that four out of five students are expected to take some or all of their classes online by the end of this year. Higher education institutions are striving for greater efficiency and 55 percent think that using the cloud is a good way to achieve this. Among those colleges already using the cloud the most popular application is conferencing and collaboration on 68 percent, closely followed by storage and productivity suites tied on 65 percent. Messaging and computing power make up the rest of the top five cloud uses.
www.usnews.com
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/2014/05/27/building-a-market-for-better-colleges-and-experiential-learning
The Professor and the Market
Can higher education build real market-feedback mechanisms?
By Alejandro Crawford
In his inaugural address last September, Dartmouth College President Philip J. Hanlon emphasized that “we must fully harness the power of experiential learning – learning by doing.” Such learning, which challenges students to test their ideas in practice and refine them in light of experience, is a major emphasis at leading institutions of higher education today. As rates of economic disruption have accelerated, the ability to derive solutions for which there is no existing formula has become a survival skill for many careers. In the face of this, top global programs have intensified their emphasis on experiential education as a bet on future rankings and leadership. But are today’s colleges and universities structured in a way that is conducive to following through on this commitment?
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish/library-isnt-flat#sthash.XL4zetgi.dpbs
The Library Isn’t Flat
By Barbara Fister
…This clicks with my concern that, in trying to emulate the convenience and simplicity of Google and Amazon, libraries are (once again) putting too high a value on volume of information and too little on curation. We have told vendors that we want as much full text as possible in the databases we subscribe to, which has made it harder, not easier, for undergraduates to use a database like Academic Search Premier and find articles they can understand that have been published in journals whose titles their teachers will recognize. Librarians tend to assume that access to more information is always a good thing, and it’s an understandable position to take. Access is important. It is also understandable that librarians have lost faith in their own ability to curate wisely.
www.time.com
http://time.com/2853826/college-sex-assault-reports-campus-rape-data/
Here’s the Real Reason College Sex Assault Reports are Rising
Eliza Gray
It would seem an odd cause for optimism: the number of sex crimes reported by colleges rose 52 percent between 2001 and 2011, according to a government report released on Tuesday, even as overall crime on campuses dropped. Yet to many counselors and administrators, the increase is a sign that schools are getting better at handling sexual assault, a problem Time highlighted in a recent cover story. It sounds counterintuitive, but here’s why:
Education News
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/georgia-students-struggle-in-math-but-show-reading/ngKWH/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstub1#b3527ae2.3566685.735397
Georgia students struggle in math but show reading gains
By Ty Tagami – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tens of thousands of Georgia students struggle with math, though many are improving at reading, according to the results of the latest — and last — round of examinations on the state’s mandatory Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. Math competence is seen as crucial in an increasingly global and technology-based economy, yet more than one in 10 students in every tested grade failed to meet Georgia’s basic standard in math. Nearly one in five third graders failed the test. Reading was a bright spot though, with a bigger percentage testing above grade level.
www.gpb.org
http://www.gpb.org/news/2014/06/12/georgia-eighth-graders-improve-scores-on-crct#
Georgia Eighth Graders Improve Scores On CRCT
By Ellen Reinhardt
ATLANTA — The percentage of Georgia’s eighth graders exceeding standards in the CRCT tests increased this year, according to results released Thursday. Results for third through seventh graders were mixed. State School Superintendent John Barge says the score increase is good news, especially as the state prepares to face a new, tougher program next year.
www.myajc.com
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/clark-atlanta-land-objection-delays-morris-brown-s/ngKQt/?icmp=ajc_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_ajcstub1#0b82de58.3566685.735397
Clark Atlanta land objection delays Morris Brown sale
By Janel Davis and Nicholas Fouriezos,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday delayed for another week a judgment on the sale of cash-strapped Morris Brown College. The historically black college’s proposed $14.6 million sale of most of its property to Invest Atlanta and Friendship Baptist Church was put off until Wednesday after it could not reach an agreement with Clark Atlanta University. Both buyers and Morris Brown will get a portion of the campus property in the sale.
www.money.cnn.com
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/12/pf/college/public-universities-students/
In-state students getting squeezed out at public universities
By Timothy Pratt, The Hechinger Report
In her 18 years as a counselor at California high schools, Kirsten Barnes has seen hundreds of seniors apply for college. But few were as qualified as this one. The student had a near-perfect grade point average, took the maximum number of advanced placement classes, joined extracurricular clubs and was in the National Honor Society. But the University of California at Berkeley turned her down. “I thought, ‘Wow, a couple of years ago, she would’ve gotten in,'” said Barnes, who works at Hanford West, a Central Valley high school.
Barnes and other counselors have seen the public University of California system steadily enroll more out-of-state and international students, while the number of in-state students are declining.
Related article:
www.clilck2houston.com
http://www.click2houston.com/news/money/In-state-students-getting-squeezed-out-at-public-universities/26453602
In-state students getting squeezed out at public universities
Pushback may be looming
www.diverseeducation.com
http://diverseeducation.com/article/64861/?utm_campaign=Diverse%20Newsletter%203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=0e876395df5f4b0984aea0c4f2ba33fe&elqCampaignId=173
International Students Being Made to Feel at Home in U.S.
by Lekan Oguntoyinbo
When Emmanuel Abu arrived in Huntington, West Virginia, from his native Nigeria to begin college at Marshall University last fall, everything seemed to have been planned out to ensure a smooth matriculation. A representative from the college picked him up at the airport. Like other international students, Abu’s orientation lasted several days. He received an extensive tour of the campus that made him feel comfortable and intimately familiarized him with it. Through a special program for international students, Abu received comprehensive support that helped him to successfully acclimate to an American college classroom. …Such comprehensive programs, typically partnerships between universities and private for-profit companies, are increasingly commonplace. Most of the partnerships are holistic, designed to enhance the success of international students by ensuring their academic, housing, assorted student services and other miscellaneous needs are met adequately. For decades, U.S. colleges and universities have invested heavily in recruiting international students. Now the next step is focusing on retention.
www.articles.philly.com
http://articles.philly.com/2014-06-12/news/50511436_1_amy-gutmann-penn-grads-civic-engagement
Penn grads: Want to change the world? Now, there’s a prize
By Susan Snyder, Inquirer Staff Writer
Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a strong desire to change the world and an excellent plan for how to do it? A new Penn program may fund you. Penn president Amy Gutmann has created “engagement prizes” of up to $150,000 – $50,000 for living expenses and $100,000 for project execution – for students with the most promising plans to improve local, national, or global conditions in the year after their graduation.
www.nytimes.com
Efforts by Colleges to Curb Assaults Focus on Fraternities
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA and STEVEN YACCINO
EVANSTON, Ill. — At the University of Tennessee this year, some fraternity pledges had hot sauce poured on their genitals. At Emory in Atlanta, pledges were required to consume items “not typical for eating” and to engage in fistfights. And at Wesleyan in Connecticut, a few months after the university reached a settlement with a woman who said she was raped at a fraternity house, another woman said that she was raped at a different fraternity house. Facing a barrage of bad publicity and lawsuits, a growing number of federal investigations and a recent White House task force report, colleges are under intense pressure to curb sexual assault, binge drinking and hazing. They have increasingly focused their efforts on fraternities.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/06/13/stanford-refuses-expel-student-sex-assault-case#sthash.l1ib52Nu.dpbs
Stanford Refuses to Expel Student in Sex Assault Case
Stanford University has declined to expel a student found by the institution to have committed a sexual assault, The Bay Area News Group reported. While the university will allow the student to complete his senior year and graduate, it will withhold his degree for two years and bar him from enrolling in a graduate program until 2016, which is a year longer than his original punishment.
Related article:
www.mercurynews.com
http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_25945425/stanford-wont-expel-student-sexual-assault-case
Stanford won’t expel student in sexual assault case
www.registerguard.com
http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/31703535-75/sexual-survey-freyd-violence-university.html.csp#
Scholar’s sexual violence study rejected
A spokeswoman says the UO will do a campus climate analysis, but its model is still to be determined
By Josephine Woolington
The Register-Guard
The University of Oregon has rejected a proposal from a UO professor and sexual violence expert to conduct a “campus climate” survey that could reveal accurate rates of sexual victimization on campus. Psychology professor Jennifer Freyd asked the university last month to fund the survey, which she proposed administering if the UO gave her access to email addresses of 1,000 randomly selected students and $30,000 to pay students to participate in the 30-minute survey. Freyd, who has studied institutional betrayal and sexual violence for more than two decades, presented her research to the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault earlier this year and advised U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who has been working to combat military sexual trauma and campus sexual assault.
www.nytimes.com
Colleges Focus on Alcohol and Drugs as Serious Crime Dips
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Colleges have become more aggressive about punishing alcohol and drug offenses, even as the rate of serious crime on campuses has dropped, according to a government report released Tuesday. The annual report from the Education and Justice Departments found that in 2011, colleges and universities started disciplinary proceedings for alcohol or drug offenses against 162 of every 10,000 students, not including those who were arrested. That was up from 132 in 2001.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/article/Are-There-Really-Too-Many/147069/
Are There Really Too Many Administrators? Maybe Not, Study Suggests
By Peter Schmidt
Washington
Colleges might be spending much less on administrative functions, and much more on the sort of work typically associated with faculty members, than they get credit for, suggests a study being presented here on Friday at the annual conference of the American Association of University Professors. The study, based on a survey of employees at the University of Texas at Austin classified as “other professional,” found that people falling into such a category were generally less involved with administration and more engaged in research, teaching, or public service than is widely assumed.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/13/aaup-conference-sessions-focus-academic-freedom-relation-social-media#sthash.Ze6oG5xu.dpbs
‘Can I Tweet That?’
By Colleen Flaherty
WASHINGTON — From censored tweets to viral videos of professors’ partisan “rants,” numerous faculty members have found themselves in hot water over how they’ve used or been portrayed on social media in the past year. For faculty members at most colleges and universities, social media is a kind of “wild west” in which there are few – if any – articulated policies protecting professors’ right to tweet, post or otherwise share professional or personal thoughts (or to keep their thoughts private). That’s a problem, said Henry Reichman, professor emeritus of history at California State University at East Bay and chair of the American Association of University Professors’ Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. …“We need policies, but what we need are good policies,” said Reichman, emphasizing that faculty members and their elected leaders should be involved in drafting such social media policies “from the get-go.”
www.laboratoryequipment.com
http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2014/06/university-fined-127-k-research-animal-deaths
University Fined $127 K for Research Animal Deaths
By Associated Press, Mark Thiessen
The Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks has been penalized $127,100 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture after 12 musk oxen died from malnutrition at the school’s large animal research station earlier this decade. An administrative law judge for the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued the civil penalty for violating of the Animal Welfare Act. An animal rights group that initially filed a complaint over the deaths in 2011, prompting a USDA investigation, announced the penalty.
www.ohio.com
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/ua-trustees-approve-balanced-budget-for-2014-15-staff-cuts-tuition-hike-among-steps-taken-1.495085
UA trustees approve balanced budget for 2014-15; staff cuts, tuition hike among steps taken
By Doug Livingston and Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writers
UA trustees agreed Wednesday to plug an $18.9 million shortfall for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1, with additional state funding and higher tuition and fees for a declining number of students. The university also will continue to curtail expenses by trimming staff positions, forgoing strategic investments and realizing long-term savings on a large-scale energy efficiency project. Chief Financial Officer David Cummins said the $367 million operating budget — 0.7 percent larger than the current year’s revenues and expenses — “could have been worse, quite frankly.” This is the third year in a row that UA has shaved expenses and increased charges to cover a shortfall.
www.chronicle.com
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/final-gainful-employment-rule-is-expected-in-october/79777?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Final Gainful-Employment Rule Is Expected in October
by Andy Thomason
The Department of Education plans to finalize its controversial gainful-employment rule in October, according to a notice scheduled for publication in Friday’s Federal Register. The rule, which proposes cutting off federal financial aid to programs whose graduates have high rates of default or high levels of student-loan debt relative to their incomes, has been the subject of long and contentious debate.
www.insidehighered.com
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/06/13/top-senate-republican-seeks-block-college-ratings#sthash.NRChhkhp.sLXaxIgW.dpbs
Top Senate Republican Seeks To Block College Ratings
Senator Lamar Alexander said Thursday that he plans to attach an amendment to the labor, health, and education appropriations bill that would stop the Obama administration from moving ahead with its college ratings system. Alexander, the top Republican on the Senate’s education committee, said in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday that the amendment would prohibit the U.S. Department of Education from “using any federal funding to develop, refine, publish or implement a college ratings system.”