February 22nd, 2011 by Admin | No Comments | Filed in News
For those who wonder how college tuition costs manage to keep rising year after year, apparently defying laws of economic gravity, Sewanee, a liberal arts college in Tennessee, has an answer: they canâ??t.
On Wednesday, Sewanee announced that it will cut its $46,000 annual bill for students by 10 percent in the fall.
The college, formally Sewanee: The University of the South, is betting that the drop in tuition â?? which at this point it can afford â?? will help it compete on two fronts: with the public universities that are siphoning off a growing share of the students it accepts, and with other private colleges where tuition is likely to increase by 4 to 5 percent this year, as it has for the last two years.
Bucking Trend, College Will Cut Price
Tags: college-tuition, help-it-compete, other-private, private, south, students, the-students, university
February 22nd, 2011 by Admin | No Comments | Filed in News
The newest university to open its doors in San Francisco has no official curriculum, no accredited course work, no grades and no paid teachers.
In an age of escalating college costs, however, the Free University of San Francisco â?? which resides in the basement of Viracocha, a store in the Mission District â?? has one very large thing going for it: no tuition fees.
Conceived by Alan Kaufman, 59, a poet and former instructor at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, the Free University is an oh-so-San Francisco experiment in divorcing education from commerce.
â??We donâ??t need walls, we donâ??t need desks to impart knowledge,â? Mr. Kaufman said. â??The idea of a free university is that itâ??s monetarily free, free of constraints, free of any kind of administration.â?
At the Free University, in a Store Basement, the Tuition Price Is Right
Tags: francisco, free-university, mission, monetarily-free, need-desks, the-basement, thing-going, university, viracocha
February 22nd, 2011 by Admin | No Comments | Filed in News
University of Texas System regents gave preliminary approval today, as expected, for a $56 million expansion of UT-Austinâ??s high-performance computing center.
The expansion of the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in North Austin is intended to keep the university in the forefront of research-oriented computing.
Officials said it would also put the university in a good position to apply for a federal computer grant that could be worth $54 million over four years, with a possible renewal for an additional $54 million.
UT Regents Approve $56 Million Computer Expansion
Tags: computing, forefront, four-years, million-over, north-austin, regents-gave, research, texas, texas-advanced, the-forefront
February 22nd, 2011 by Admin | No Comments | Filed in News
Central Baptist College President Terry Kimbrow announced at a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday, that the school would kick off its capital campaign for growth and improvements with a head start â?? a $5 million head start.
Kimbrow told attendees that the â??transformationalâ? gift from a couple who wished to remain anonymous was the largest single donor commitment in the schoolâ??s 60 years.
Conway Corp. also pledged their part in the schoolâ??s newly developed vision for 2020 in the amount of $750,000.
Kimbrow said that the breaking of ground on a new academic building on Saturday was the beginning of one of 10 major construction projects in 10 years as the school looks toward a goal of an enrollment of 2,020 students in 2020.
CBC Breaks Ground For New Academic Building, Announces $5 Million Gift
Tags: 020-students, central-baptist, kick-off-its, looks-toward, newly-developed, News, president, saturday, school, terry-kimbrow, the-school, told-attendees
February 22nd, 2011 by Admin | No Comments | Filed in News
Within hours of learning Gov. Scott Walker had proposed a bill slashing collective bargaining rights and benefits for public employees to help fix the state budget, leaders of the union representing teachers at Milwaukee Area Technical College called an emergency meeting to put a new three-year contract on the fast track.
Despite warnings from one union leader that they might be perceived as â??arrogant snobsâ? for winning the new contract while other public unions across the state were facing major cuts, the unionâ??s executive board endorsed the agreement, reached earlier that week after four months of bargaining.
Three business days later â?? on the same day the union membership approved the contract â?? the college board ratified it, effective immediately, preserving a pension at no cost to 1,933 workers and guaranteeing no layoffs for full-time teachers whose average total pay is more than $95,000. The union agreed to a two-year wage freeze, not filling 19 open full-time teaching positions, and concessions in health insurance, projected to save the college $11.6 million over three years.
The speed of the contractâ??s approval against the backdrop of high political drama in Madison upset one union leader.
MATC Fast-Track Contract Raises Instructor’s Objection
Tags: backdrop, board-ratified, college, contract, contract-while, health-insurance, milwaukee-area, open-full-time, scott-walker, state, winning-the-new
February 22nd, 2011 by Admin | No Comments | Filed in News
About seven years ago, a dean from Western Connecticut State University took Bethel Superintendent of Schools Gary M. Chelsey out to a lunch that could have been rather testy. The dean’s message: Your graduates aren’t prepared well enough for college.
But Chelsey had a message for the dean: If his students were unprepared, it might be partly because their high school teachers â??many of them graduates of WCSU â?? weren’t good enough, either.
“There was a little one-upmanship,” Chelsey says now. “There were a few moments of discomfort, but then right away, we said: ‘Let’s solve this problem. We’ve got to solve this problem.’ “
Out of their exchange grew a fruitful partnership to improve college preparation called “Building a Bridge to Improve Student Success.”
WCSU Reports Success Helping High School Students Get Ready for College
Tags: chelsey, dean, exchange, graduates, his-students, improve-college, improve-student, News, partly-because, prepared-well, problem, students, their-exchange
February 22nd, 2011 by Admin | No Comments | Filed in News
The University of Colorado this summer will shut down for good its mainframe computer system — which has stashed data for the system for nearly 50 years and at one point was a behemoth machine that weighed about 1,800 pounds.
With the arrival of CU’s new systems — including the transition this fall to a new student information system — the university no longer has use for its mainframe machine. The machine has stored transcripts, admissions data, billing information as well as housed payroll data for the entire CU system.
CU’s mainframe computer arrived to campus in the early 1960s, coinciding with the start of the information technology era, according to Terry Vaughn, manager of the decommissioning project. It was originally stored in Regent Hall on the CU-Boulder campus, but moved in the late 1980s. It’s now housed in a building on East Pearl Circle.
Vaughn helped move the machine in the late 1980s and recalls it being like moving a car. At one point, it was equivalent in size with three large refrigerators. Now, it’s about the size of a small dorm refrigerator.
CU-Boulder’s Mainframe Computer Retiring This Summer
Tags: admissions-data, decommissioning, housed-payroll, summer, terry-vaughn, the-information, transition, university
February 22nd, 2011 by Admin | No Comments | Filed in News
according to studies measuring substance abuse.
And a national study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2007 showed that about one-third of the 1.8 million admissions to alcohol and drug treatment programs are for people 18 to 29 years old.
The pervasive substance abuse by some college students has led to an expansion of college-based recovery programs and, at some colleges, residences dedicated for students in recovery.
St. Cloud State University is talking about opening a residence for students who have gone through drug or alcohol treatment and who want to start or resume their college careers. Although the discussions at St. Cloud State are in the early stages, university officials plan visits to see such programs at Augsburg College in Minneapolis and at Texas Tech.
College Officials Consider Recovery House For Substance Abusers
Tags: cloud-state, college, discussions, drug-or-alcohol, drug-treatment, mental-health, national-study, some-college, some-colleges, start-or-resume, substance, substance-abuse, texas, the-discussions
February 22nd, 2011 by Admin | No Comments | Filed in News
When Sade Adeyina’s college roommate started bugging her about studying abroad together, she never thought she could afford a semester in Italy.
Yet the friendly peer pressure — combined with financial aid and timely academic advising — led Adeyina to say “Arrivederci!” to Temple University in Philadelphia and head overseas for the first time.
Educators want more minority students to follow the lead of Adeyina, an African-American graphic design major. Foreign study is seen as crucial to student development and even as a key to national security, yet minority participation badly lags their overall presence on college campuses.
“It’s really a matter of persuading young students of color that this is possible for them and this is necessary for them,” said Peggy Blumenthal, executive vice president of the Institute of International Education. “You come back changed, more self-confident.”
Educators Seek Out More Minorities To Study Abroad
Tags: adeyina, executive-vice, financial-aid, follow-the-lead, friendly, graphic-design, institute, international, News, peer-pressure, seen-as-crucial, started-bugging, timely-academic, yet-minority
February 22nd, 2011 by Admin | No Comments | Filed in News
Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum to a national campaign to open that part of society to firearms.
More than half the members of the Texas House have signed on as coauthors of a measure directing universities to allow concealed handguns. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2009 and is expected to do so again. Governor Rick Perry, a Republican who sometimes packs a pistol when he jogs, has said he is in favor of the idea.
Texas has become a prime battleground for the issue because of its gun culture and its size, with 38 public universities and more than 500,000 students. It would become the second state, following Utah, to pass such a broad-based law. Colorado gives colleges the option, and several have allowed handguns.
Supporters of the legislation argue that gun violence on campuses, such as the mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Northern Illinois in 2008, show that the best defense against a gunman is students who can shoot back.
Texas Bill Allowing Guns On Campus Is Poised To Pass
Tags: adding-momentum, allow-concealed, gives-colleges, governor-rick, guns-on-campus, issue-because, members, News, texas, texas-house, the-legislation, virginia, virginia-tech
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