Category Archives: Uncategorized

Inside Higher Ed: Little Talk of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

The U.S. Supreme Court may have unanimously squelched a First Amendment challenge on the part of law schools to a 1994 law tying federal funding to campus access for military recruiters back in March. But it left one door open for opponents of the so-called Solomon Amendment: “Law schools remain free under the statute to express whatever views they may have on the military’s congressionally mandated employment policy, all the while retaining eligibility for federal funds,” the court ruled in Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR).

Follow

Las Vegas Sun: Fewer students answer the call

Even as the White House and the Pentagon are calling for a “surge” of troops in Iraq, military recruiters say they are doing well in Las Vegas – although numbers indicate that a smaller percentage of Clark County high school students are enlisting compared with previous years.

Follow

The Independent: Oxford dons reject plan to hand powers to ‘oligarchy’ of outsiders

Oxford dons have rejected plans to hand over control of the 900-year-old university to business and political leaders.

Follow

People’s Daily Online: US foreign policy should not steer higher education

Founded in 1851, Northwestern University is a private institution and one of the best universities in America. According to America’s Best Colleges 2007 by the US New and World Report, Northwestern University was ranked 14th among national universities in America. Its Kellogg School of Business was ranked 4th among America’s 2007 top business schools by the US News. Its Medill School of Journalism is one of the best J-schools in America. Recently Yong Tang, People’s Daily Washington-based correspondent, did an exclusive written interview with Henry S. Bienen, President of Northwestern University.

Yong Tang: Why is American higher education so strong and unchallengeable in the world?

Bienen: American higher education is strong but not unchallengeable in the World. There are challenges from Europe and increasingly from India and China. American higher education is strong for many reasons. Here are my main ones: American higher education brings together teaching and research, teaching is a serious component for major research universities; American higher education is very open, we look for the best students and faculty wherever they come from, our campuses are open for free discussion of all ideas; Up till now, both private donors and the Federal Government have been very generous in financial support for higher education.

Follow

The New York Times: Public Universities Chase Excellence, at a Price

If there is any goal that the University of Florida has pursued as fervently as a national football championship for the Gators, it is a place among the nation’s highest-ranked public universities.

Follow

The Chronicle News Blog:

Bitter Dispute Over Botched Search Continues to Divide U. of Iowa — and Iowa

Two more University of Iowa groups have voted no confidence in the Board of Regents over its management of the search for a new president. The Staff Council, which represents about 5,200 staff members, approved a no-confidence measure on Wednesday by a vote of 38 to 1, with two abstentions. In a statement, the council’s president, Mary Greer, said, “Secrecy, micromanagement, and authoritarianism demonstrate the leadership’s lack of respect for the university community and the public.”

Follow

The New York Times: Ties Cut With Iran Institute Over Holocaust

Some of the world’s leading policy institutes announced Friday that they were breaking off relations with a group within the Iranian Foreign Ministry that organized a conference on the Holocaust in Tehran featuring discredited academics and Holocaust deniers.

Follow

The Birmingham News: College desegregation case ends after 25 years

After 25 years, Alabama’s higher education desegregation case is over except for some court-ordered expenditures that the state will have to meet for several more years.

Follow

Inside Higher Ed: Professor’s Attendance at ‘Conference’ Stuns Canada

he president of a Canadian university on Wednesday condemned the “conference” on the Holocaust held in Iran this week — amid shock at his institution and elsewhere in Canada at the news that one of his professors had presented a paper there.

Follow

The New York Times: Bricks or Professors? A University’s Choice

For much of its history, the institution that is now Florida State University here has struggled against an academic inferiority complex. The State Legislature dictated in 1905 that it serve only as a college for women, while men went to the full-fledged University of Florida in Gainesville. After going coed and achieving university status in 1947, Florida State became most famous for its football program. And even the team’s recent championships have been marred by players’ off-the-field crimes.

Follow

The Chronicle: Campus Speech Codes Often Violate Constitutional Rights, Watchdog Group Says

Most college and university speech codes would not survive a legal challenge, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a watchdog group for free speech on campuses.

The group examined publicly available policies at more than 300 institutions — those highly ranked in U.S. News & World Report, as well as other big public universities — and concluded that 93 percent of them prohibit speech that is protected by the First Amendment.

Follow

The Chronicle News Blog: Canada Commemorates Campus Killings in Montreal 17 Years Apart

White roses and candlelight vigils are part of ceremonies today on most Canadian campuses and in many communities to mark the 17th anniversary of the shooting deaths of 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique by Marc Lepine. He ordered all of the men out of the classroom and shot the women, then killed himself. An antifeminist manifesto and hit list was found on his body. The Montreal Massacre, as it became known, fueled gun-control legislation.

Follow

The Advocate:

The governor ordered an investigation of one of her top aides following sexual harassment complaints in his role as head of Southern University’s governing body.

The Governor’s Office hired an independent attorney, Mark Falcon, to look into the complaints from unidentified Southern University System employees against Johnny Anderson.

Follow

Contra Costa Times: Threat risk shutters Cal programs abroad

School’s lawyers advise student programs in dangerous regions leave university vulnerable to lawsuits

Follow

The Daily Evergreen: Regents approve police patrols

The WSU Board of Regents voted Friday to make a permanent change to the law that allows police unrestricted access to residence halls. The regents unanimously passed a motion that changes the legal definition of guests to residence halls. The regents solidified the law they made under emergency rules in September, citing students’ safety as a paramount concern.

Follow

Front Page Mag: MSU Settles Academic Freedom Lawsuit
Missouri State University has settled a lawsuit brought by a former student who accused a faculty member and the school of violating her First Amendment rights.
Emily Brooker, who graduated from MSU last spring, will have her academic record cleared, be paid cash for her attorneys’ fees and have her tuition fees waived for graduate school as part of the settlement.

Follow

IndyStar.com: Black students at IUPUI set new deadline

Black students issued a new deadline Sunday for university officials at IUPUI to answer their call to improve race relations on campus.

IUPUI black student representatives set a 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline to meet their demands. In their final statement, “You Didn’t Listen,” given at a town hall forum Sunday night, they said that if the university doesn’t meet the deadline, they would call for the immediate resignation of certain administration, campus and community life staff members.

At a town hall forum Sunday night, black student leaders said the administration so far has responded inadequately to requests made 10 days ago.

Those demands — including a campus center for black students, an African-American studies program and $78,000 for black groups — must now be met by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

If the university misses the deadline, the students will call for the resignation of certain administration and campus staff members. The black student leaders would not say who those officials might be or comment about their earlier threats to sue.

Follow

The Salt Lake Tribune: Educator urges mobility for degrees, proof of skills

When today’s sixth-graders graduate from college, they’ll get a plastic card instead of a diploma. It will embody aspects of a degree, transcript, résumé and recommendation letter. At least that’s the vision of Clifford Adelman, a senior analyst at the Institute for Higher Education Policy who spoke to Utah’s higher education leaders Friday. He urged them to embrace a movement toward more transparent degrees that is well under way in Europe, but not in America.

Follow

Washington Post: A Conflict on Integrity Surfaces

As Gallaudet searches for its next president, the university is wrestling with divisions that go beyond the recent protests, with faculty and staff charging that some administrators have compromised academic standards and jeopardized the institution’s integrity and performance.

Follow

Toronto Star: Dean of Baghdad University gunned down

Gunmen killed the Shiite dean of Baghdad University’s school of administration and economics on Thursday, four days after the murder of a prominent Sunni academic.
Jassim al-Asadi had been driving with his family in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Azamiyah when the unidentified shooters pulled alongside and opened fire, police Lt. Ahmed Ibrahim said. Al-Asadi’s wife and son were also killed in the attack, Ibrahim said.
The shooting follows the killing on Monday of geologist Essam al-Rawi, head of the University Professor’s Union and a senior member of the hardline Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, which is believed to have links to the anti-Shiite insurgency raging against U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies.

Follow