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Court Upholds Texas Admissions Policy
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2009 Comment (3)A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of the University of Texas-Austin and against two white applicants to the state's flagship public college who sued because they felt the school's admissions policies unfairly favored minority applicants, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks found that the university's admissions policies were narrowly tailored, especially in terms of race, and therefore constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2003 ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which upheld the University of Michigan Law School's use of race in admissions, guided Sparks's decision. "The Texas solicitor general summarized this case best when he stated, 'If the plaintiffs are right, Grutter is wrong,' " Sparks wrote in his decision.
Two Texans, Abigail Fisher of Sugar Land and Rachel Michalewicz of Buda, filed the lawsuit together last year. The suit argued that the university should not have started considering applicants' races when it had in place a more effective, race-neutral approach to achieve diversity. The suit refers to a law in place since 1997 that automatically grants admission to any of the state's public colleges or universities to Texas students in the top 10 percent of their high school class.
In Grutter v. Bollinger, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that colleges may consider race in admissions but must first give "serious, good-faith consideration" to "workable, race-neutral" alternatives to achieve diversity. Race-conscious policies must be narrowly tailored to promote a compelling government interest, the court said. Since Grutter, the University of Texas has reintroduced some consideration of race into the application process to ensure greater diversity than the 10 percent law can achieve.
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Montana Extends Its Registration Deadline
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2009 CommentThe Montana university system has extended registration and other deadlines for students fighting to prevent the wildfires that often ravage the state at this time of year, the Associated Press reports.
Student firefighters and those providing support services for crews will have two weeks after the start of the fall semester to finalize their registration, financial aid, and housing, the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education says. After receiving record rainfall in August, state and local officials view the current wildfire threat as low, but they want to be prepared.
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Financial Aid Appeals Are Up in Michigan
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2009 CommentFor the thousands of Michigan college students whose financial situations have soured like the economy since they applied for aid last spring, the financial aid appeals process could be their ticket back to college, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Although applications for federal financial aid typically are due in the spring, experts say it's not too late for families to seek more robust financial aid packages. Financial aid appeals have jumped about 60 percent at Western Michigan University and Northern Michigan University. Wayne State University saw a fivefold increase in appeals this summer, while Michigan State University's financial aid office saw appeals more than double.
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Should Your Professor Get 'Naked'?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2009 Comment (1)Many colleges and universities are investing in professors' increased use of technology in the classroom, but at least one dean is pushing for the opposite, something he calls "teaching naked," National Public Radio reports.
Jose Bowen, dean of the Southern Methodist University Meadows School of the Arts, is encouraging professors to stop using technology in the classroom and instead alter current lecture-based collegiate teaching models. Instead of having students come to class to ingest information being disseminated by a lecturing professor (likely one using PowerPoint or Blackboard), Bowen wants students to use these technologies to familiarize themselves with material before coming to class. He then hopes class time can be devoted to discussion of course material among students and their professor.
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Summer Reading Assignment: Newspapers
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2009 CommentSummer reading has long been an activity synonymous with books considered "classics," but this summer incoming freshmen at one Massachusetts college were asked to read the newspaper in lieu of a novel, the Boston Globe reports.
Students preparing to attend the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., were asked to read a newspaper, post interesting articles to an online forum, and use the forum to discuss those articles with their classmates. Faculty members hope the untraditional assignment will expand students' understanding of the world, improve their writing and critical thinking skills, and help them connect with one another.
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Colleges Guesstimate the Size of Their Freshmen Classes
Tweet Share on Facebook August 14, 2009 Comment (1)While the recession is making it more difficult for students and their families to afford higher education, the tough economic times also are making it harder for colleges to be sure their freshman classes are filled, the Washington Post reports.
Until September, when students arrive on campuses across the country, start classes, and pay their first tuition checks, colleges will not know how many members of their freshman classes "melted" away over the summer. Melt is a term used in higher education to quantify the number of first-year students who accept admission at a school, pay a deposit, but subsequently decide not to attend that college.
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Textbooks Come to the IPod
Tweet Share on Facebook August 14, 2009 Comment (6)College students will soon be able to view their textbooks using iPhones or iPod Touch devices, PC World reports.
CourseSmart, a California company that has already made more than 7,000 digitized textbooks from 12 publishers available to its subscribers through their computers, recently added E-textbooks for the iPhone to its offerings. Users can download the application that allows them to read the new iPod-friendly texts for free through Apple's App Store, but users are required to pay for the textbooks themselves at a fee that is about 60 to 75 percent of a traditional book's cost.
PC World writer Todd Weiss points out that there are some drawbacks to this new offering:
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University of Illinois President Promises Reforms
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2009 Comment (1)University of Illinois President B. Joseph White says he will reform the school's admissions policies in just eight weeks, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. White's pledge comes one week after a state panel blamed the school's administrators and trustees for an admissions scandal that erupted in May.
Planned reforms include abolition of the "Category-I" list, a classification that allowed applicants with favorable connections to university administrators to receive preferential acceptances to the 70,000-student university. White also said Illinois will build a "fire wall" around the admissions process to further protect it from the whims of influential university officials. "We must leave admissions decisions to the admissions professionals," he says.
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Hackers Breach Berkeley Journalism School's Server
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2009 CommentNearly 500 applicants to the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism might be at risk of identity theft after an online security breach, the Daily Californian reports.
Computer security experts realized in July that a hacker had entered a private segment of the school's Web server and might have accessed sensitive information, including the names and corresponding Social Security numbers of individuals who applied to the school between September 2007 and May 2009. Campus security officials say there is no indication that the sensitive information was stolen or misused.
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Reconsidering the University of North Dakota's Nickname
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2009 Comment (7)The tribal council of the Standing Rock Reservation narrowly voted down a tribe member's request to determine support for the University of North Dakota's "Fighting Sioux" nickname through a public vote, the Associated Press reports.
Although UND made plans to retire its nickname and logo in August 2010 after receiving criticism that the name and symbol were offensive, not everyone agrees with the critics. Archie Fool Bear, a supporter of the nickname, says he does not think Wednesday's 7-6 council vote against a referendum was decisive because two council members were absent and one abstained.