Category Archives: Uncategorized

Inside Higher Ed: Women need not apply?

Does the president of Newman University have a problem promoting women?

Some faculty members and administrators say he does, and their claims received new backing when the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the university on Wednesday, charging it with discrimination against a former dean. In July, the university settled another discrimination case by a female administrator who had won backing from the EEOC, which tends to have a very high standard for getting involved in bias suits against universities.

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Inside Higher Ed: Q&A with authors of Remaking the American University

Three longtime observers of higher education explore the ways — positive and negative — that universities are changing in Remaking the American University (Rutgers University Press).

The authors are Robert Zemsky, a professor and chair of the Learning Alliance at the University of Pennsylvania; Gregory R. Wegner, director of program development at the Great Lakes Colleges Association; and William F. Massy, a professor emeritus of higher education at Stanford University and currently president of the Jackson Hole Higher Education Group. The three authors recently responded (jointly) to questions about their new book.

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Critics blast USDOE “propaganda” probe
Investigators looking into a massive, multimillion-dollar public relations campaign to support President Bush’s top education priorities acknowledge that taxpayer dollars were used in ways that often were not disclosed to the public, in clear violation of federal rules–but they stopped short of concluding that the government has engaged in any illegal propaganda.

Their report has raised the ire of many Democrats in Congress, who say it doesn’t go far enough in its rebuke. The Bush administration has devoted too much time–and money–to polishing its own public image, and not nearly enough on providing adequate funding to improve the nation’s schools, the president’s critics contend.

The report, from the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED’s) Office of the Inspector General (OIG)–the internal investigation unit responsible for policing ED programs–found that media relations firms, advocacy groups, and other private companies received nearly $5 million in grants to help galvanize public support for the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) without disclosing that they received taxpayer funds to do so, as required by law.

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Tallahassee Democrat: What’s become of Florida’s black college students?

While overall enrollment is up, there is a 9.5-percent decline in black freshmen on Florida’s campuses this fall, when compared to 2004. At six of 11 state universities, including Florida A&M University, Florida State University and the University of Florida, there are fewer black freshmen. And black men have had the most impact on this trend.

It is almost twice as likely for a young black woman to be sitting in a Florida university classroom as a young black man.

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After the city was inundated, the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau canceled all conferences scheduled to be held at its convention center through March 31, 2006. The desperate conditions made conferences scheduled for New Orleans hotels logistically impossible through the end of this year. The following conferences, where several hundred or more attendees were expected, will be relocated. While a few associations announced new venues for their conferences, many simply said that the meetings would be moved, with details to follow. More information, including instructions for changing airline and hotel reservations, is available on the groups’ Web sites, which are listed below.

List of conferences relocated out of New Orleans

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Chronicle of Higher Education: Scattered Lives: Shaken by Katrina, the region’s colleges begin to grasp the damage done

Hurricane Katrina swept thousands of people onto Louisiana State University’s doorstep, turning the 200-acre campus into a sprawling shelter last week. As classes began here in the eye of the storm’s aftermath, convoys of buses filled the parking lots, and streams of evacuees took refuge in buildings. Helicopters whirred overhead. Ambulance sirens wailed. U.S. Border Patrol agents and National Guard troops marched. All around, strangers became makeshift neighbors.

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Chronicle of Higher Education: After the storm, Admissions offers came from all directions”

In the days after Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast, hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the nation announced that they would open their doors to an estimated 100,000 students whose campuses had closed for the semester. But with the enrollment offers came tight deadlines, logistical challenges, and tough questions.

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Chronicle of Higher Education Hurricane Katrina interactive map

A gallery of photographs, an interactive map of the Gulf Coast, and other materials illustrate the hurricane’s impact on dozens of campuses.

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Inside Higher Ed: Scholars on the road

The house shook a little bit, but Judith Schafer, who teaches history at Tulane University waited it out. She said the storm wasn’t too bad. But then came the news that the electricity could be out for weeks. Schafer only had a week’s worth of gas for the generator. So she and her husband scooped up her 96-year-old mother-in-law and got out of dodge.

Like many faculty members who have been uprooted by Hurricane Katrina and sprinkled across the nation, Schafer headed for another university where she had contacts.

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Times-Picayne: Fire hits Dillard University

Though the rash of fires in New Orleans generally has abated, Dillard University got bad news Thursday as New Orleans Fire Superintendent Charles G. Parent announced that three ìmulti-storyî buildings on the campus have been severely burned.

Dillard has several dormitories that have multiple floors, but Parent didnít know which buildings burned, and he wouldnít speculate. Nor would he guess what started the fire. But he said he believed the damage, inflicted Wednesday, was severe.

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Chronicle of Higher Education: As a Community College in Mississippi Digs Out, Staffers and Students Look to a Difficult Future

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s administrators, employees, and students are beginning to pick up the debris of their campuses, homes, and lives after Hurricane Katrina plowed through this state just over a week ago.

Classes are scheduled to resume on Monday, exactly two weeks after the storm came ashore, at the four campuses of Mississippi’s largest community college, which had enrolled about 10,500 students for this fall.

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From Inside Higher Ed:What about the community college students?

Newspapers nationwide are full of uplifting stories about students who fled New Orleans and have been enrolled by colleges all over the country.

Cornell University has registered 165 Tulane University students and found housing for most of them. The University of California at Berkeley is accepting as many as 50 undergraduates from New Orleans colleges. Camden County College has just enrolled a freshman from Tulane and a sophomore from Xavier University. Among other efforts to help these students, the U.S. House of Representives on Wednesday passed a bill to ease some student aid rules for those whose colleges were closed, and another bill was introduced in the House to do even more.

As laudable as these efforts are — and they clearly are helping thousands of students — some worry that another group of students may be particularly vulnerable and unable to benefit from the generous offers from colleges all over the country. These are students at community colleges. Some 20,000 of them have been displaced from their colleges and unlike many students at four-year colleges in New Orleans, many of these students do not have families or financial resources elsewhere. They literally cannot get to colleges that are offering aid, many of which are focusing on students from their regions.

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Inside Higher Ed: Law School in Exile

In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison hit the campus hard, especially the law library, where more than 200,000 volumes were submerged under water and countless other materials were damaged or destroyed. So when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, law professors were ready to reach out and help their colleagues. And on Tuesday, the law school of Loyola University New Orleans announced that it would relocate for the fall semester to the University of Houston.

The University of Houston has agreed to find offices for Loyola law professors, open libraries and other facilities to students, turn over all classrooms to Loyola on Friday afternoons and weekends, as well as one large auditorium throughout the week. Several hundred of Loyola’s 800 law students are expected to start the fall semester in Houston soon, where they will be taught by a cadre of at least 20 Loyola professors.

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From the Working Class Studies Listserv (with a few additions):

AFL-CIO*
https://secure.ga3.org/08/UCF_Katrina_Relief

Air Line Pilots Association
http://crewroom.alpa.org/DesktopModules/ALPA_Documents/ALPA_DocumentsView.aspx?itemid=1847&ModuleId=803

Amalgamated Transit Union
http://www.atu.org/docs/about_atu/about_announcements.html

American Federation of Teachers
http://www.aft.org/news/2005/katrina/whatcando.htm

Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International
Union
http://www.bctgm.org/Special/FH_IDRF%20letter05.htm

Communications Workers of America*
https://secure.ga3.org/08/cwa_katrina_relief

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, Moving Picture
Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts
http://www.iatse-intl.org/news/pr_090105.html

International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and
Reinforcing Iron Workers
http://www.ironworkers.org/news/news_details.php?news_id=243

International Association of Fire Fighters*
http://daily.iaff.org/083105KAdd.htm

International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders,
Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers
http://www.boilermakers.org/hurricane.htm

International Brotherhood of Teamsters
http://www.teamster.org/05news/hn_050830_2.htm

International Longshoremen’s Association
http://www.ilaunion.org/LetterFromJohnBowersKatrina.PDF

International Union of Operating Engineers
http://www.iuoe.org/cm/training_site/relieffund.html

International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
http://www.iupat.org/news/relief.html

Laborers’ International Union of North America*
http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=94825

National Air Traffic Controllers Association*
http://www.natca.org/mediacenter/hurricanekatrina.msp

National Education Association
http://www.nea.org/presscenter/katrinahelp.html

Seafarers’ International Union
http://www.seafarers.org/HeardAtHQ/2005/Q3/sdrf.xml

Service Employees International Union*
https://secure.ga3.org/08/katrina

Sheet Metal Workers International Association
http://www.smwia.org/news/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=231

UNITE HERE
http://www.unitehere.org/hurricanerelief.asp

United Steelworkers
http://www.uswa.org/uswa/program/adminlinks/docs//Katrina%20Letter%20-%20United%20States.pdf

*Accepts immediate online donations.

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Higher education institutions throughout Texas, and other states, are taking steps to meet the educational needs of students displaced by the effects of Hurricane Katrina. This message board, KatrinaCollegeStudents.org, has been established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board as a clearinghouse establishing a central point at which colleges and universities can provide the latest information and answer questions about the opportunities they are making available to these students

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Wiki News has compiled a listing of universities and colleges offering admission to students displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

The listing is organized by state and includes web links and details on offers from individual institutions.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Colleges_offering_admission_to_displaced_New_Orleans_students

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Dillard U update

SC colleges reach out to Katrina victims

UMR assists students affected by Katrina”

First displaced student enrolls at SDSU

Dickenson College takes in displaced students, donates to aid damaged universities

U of Iowa Hurricane Katrina relief includes expertise, enrollment, supplies, space

Boston Globe: More colleges accepting displaced students

San Jose Mecury-News: Some displaced students to attend U of Minnesota

RPI opens doors to students affected by Katrina

The Athens News: Ohio University lends aid to Katrina victims

Nashua Telegraph: Displaced students welcomed elsewhere

Daily News: College plans suddenly changed by Katrina

Notre Dame, St. Mary’s focus on fundraising

<a href=”http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/12571691.htm”<ku concert to benefit Katrina victims

Portland State assisting in hurricane relief effort

Displaced students taken in at U Michigan

U of Chicago welcomes students uprooted in Katrina’s aftermath

Brown U to accept 100 displaced students

Katrina’s aftermath affects LA Tech

Talladega College opens doors to students affected by Katrina

Wesleyan College offers slots to displaced students

<a href=”http://www.purdueexponent.org/index.php/module/Issue/action/Article/article_id/697″<purdue offers help to hurricane victims

Displaced students regroup

A stormy college start

BGSU: Finding a home for college students

MIT give a helping hand to Katrina victims

Katrina hits home at Cornell

Students affected by Katrina look for answers

UConn brings hope to hurricane victims

Emory U responds to Katrina

Wheelock College offers emergency enrollment to displaced students

Help HBCUs in Katrina’s path

Schools prepare to help hurricane victims

Finding refuge for those displaced

Conn. schools offer clases to displaced students

TAMU expects to house four Tulane teams

USM Hattiesburg campus to resume classes

UVa: Displaced students arrive at university, start classes today

School over before it starts

UTPA, STC ready for displaced students

Columbia U opens arms to Katrina victims

NC State: Hurricane victims enroll

Students find help at UNO

Washington U in St. Louis aids students

U of St Mary opens door to NO students

SUNY Albany accepts students from hurricane area

U North Dakota opens doors to students affected by Katrina

Rochester area colleges help displaced students

Colleges mobilize in wake of hurricane

UCF grants enrollment to displaced students

Oklahoma State U helping New Orleans students

New Jersey colleges respond to Katrina’s fury

AICUNJ members offer enrollment to displaced students

UIC offering assistance to Katrina victims

NMSU accepting displaced students

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Special Report: Katrina

Tulane U. and Loyola New Orleans close for the semester; other gulf-area colleges reopen this week


Colleges make a range of offers for displaced students seeking fall enrollment


Southern colleges and Sloan Foundation join to offer free online courses to displaced students


Education Department eases rules for colleges accepting students from hurricane region


In flood-zone planning, governments make predictable mistakes, scholars say


The view from 2002: A Chronicle columnist wrote three years ago about dire forecasts for New Orleans


Katrina Update: Announcements from colleges affected by the hurricane, and from associations and government agencies


Share information and updates about the post-Katrina situation here


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Tulane U. and Loyola New Orleans Close for the Semester; Other Gulf-Area Colleges Reopen This Week

As federal and state officials continued to recover bodies and clean up the wreckage from Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans announced that they would close for the fall and reopen for the spring semester. Several other colleges on or near the Gulf Coast announced they would reopen within the week.

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Conceding Defeat — for a Semester

Tulane University announced Friday and Loyola University on Sunday that they would not open for the fall semester in the wake of the damage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The universities’ announcements came as leaders of key higher education groups issued guidelines for colleges to use in helping students unable to attend college in New Orleans.

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