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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Organizing for America: President Obama's 2012 Budget



With the worst recession in generations behind us, President Obama has put forward a plan to rebuild our economy and win the future by out-innovating, out-educating, and out-building the rest of the world. But we cannot win the future if we pass a mountain of debt on to our children and our grandchildren.

That's why the President's 2012 federal budget takes responsibility for our deficits and puts the nation on a path to live within its means. It's a responsible approach that cuts wasteful spending and, as so many American families must do every day, it makes tough choices on things we can't afford. This plan institutes a five-year spending freeze that will reduce domestic spending to its lowest level since the Eisenhower administration.

Over the next decade, it reduces the deficit by more than $1 trillion -- two-thirds of it from spending cuts. Through this budget, the President meets his pledge to cut the deficit he inherited in half by the end of his first term.

In addition to responsible spending cuts, the President¹s budget makes targeted investments in America's incubators of growth: education, innovation, clean energy, and infrastructure. It reforms how Washington does business, putting more federal funding up for competition and reforming government to make it smarter, more effective and better prepared to meet the needs of the 21st century.

The President's 2012 federal budget restores responsibility to government and spending, while still working to help spur private-sector job creation and grow the economy for the long run. Please read below or visit WhiteHouse.gov for more information.

President Obama is committed to improving America’s schools and providing the opportunity of higher education to any student who wants it. The President’s plan:

Continues the maximum Pell Grant award that will help 9 million students afford college.
Reforms funding for K-12 schools by raising standards, encouraging innovative teaching techniques, and rewarding success.
Expands the Race to the Top concept to encourage competition for success in early-childhood education, school districts, university funding, and education-job training.
Trains 100,000 new science, technology, engineering, and math teachers.

Innovation has always been the heartbeat of American industry — and President Obama is committed to strengthening that trend. The President’s plan:

Invests $148 billion in research and development and biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health — and more than doubles energy efficiency research and development.
Works to put one million electric cars on the road by 2015, double the current share of clean-energy electricity by 2035, and reduce the costs to power buildings. To pay for this, the President is eliminating 12 tax breaks to oil, gas, and coal companies.
Simplifies, expands, and makes permanent the research and development tax credit.
Creates 20 new Economic Growth Zones, which provide tax incentives to economically-depressed areas to help jump-start investment and employment.

Having inherited a massive budget deficit, President Obama is dedicated to finally balancing the government’s checkbook. The President’s budget:

Freezes non-security discretionary spending for five years to reduce the deficit by over $400 billion and bring spending to its lowest level since President Eisenhower.

Cuts government infrastructure programs with an uncertain record of success and those programs the government simply can no longer afford.
Reduces Pentagon spending over the next five years, bringing defense spending down to zero real growth — including spending related to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Patches the Alternative Minimum Tax for three years so that middle-class families aren’t hit with a crippling tax increase. This is paid for by limiting deductions for high-income earners.
Works with Congress to simplify the tax system, eliminate special-interest loopholes, level the playing field, and reduce corporate taxes for the first time in 25 years — all without adding to the deficit.

Government reform is an effort to make sure that all Americans are well served, and that their tax dollars are never wasted. That’s why President Obama’s budget:

Cuts nearly $2 billion in administrative overhead costs such as printing, travel, and supplies.
Uses the Race to the Top model and creates competitive grant programs in early childhood education and college, transportation, workforce training, and energy efficiency.
Begins to reorganize government to be more efficient and works to ensure that America is more competitive.

EDUCATION
“When a child walks into a classroom, it should be a place of high expectations and high performance.”
– President Barack Obama
State of the Union address
January 25, 2011

INNOVATION
“We’re the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook. In America, innovation doesn’t just change our lives. It is how we make our living.”
– President Barack Obama
State of the Union address
January 25, 2011

INFRASTRUCTURE
“America is the nation that built the transcontinental railroad, brought electricity to rural communities, constructed the Interstate Highway System. The jobs created by these projects didn’t just come from laying down track or pavement. They came from businesses that opened near a town’s new train station or the new off-ramp.”
– President Barack Obama
State of the Union address
January 25, 2011

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
“I’m willing to eliminate whatever we can honestly afford to do without. But let’s make sure that we’re not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens. And let’s make sure that what we’re cutting is really excess weight. Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine.”
– President Barack Obama
State of the Union address
January 25, 2011

GOVERNMENT REFORM
“Government has a responsibility to spend the peoples’ money wisely, and to serve the people effectively. I will work every single day that I am President to live up to that responsibility, and to transform our government so that is held to a higher standard of performance on behalf of the American people.”
– President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
April 25, 2009
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Dillard University 2011 Spring Open House and Auditions


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Dillard University Spring 2011 Open House RSVP Sign-In List


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STUDENTS OFFERED FREE ACCESS TO PRIVATE SCREENING OF MOVIE: "ADJUSTMENT BUREAU"


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Student Internship and Seminar Opportunities at The Washington Center



Tuesday, 15 February 2011

TO ALL STUDENTS:

Ms. Jackie McConvill, Senior Coordinator of Development and Special Events, is on campus today speaking to students about student internship and seminar opportunities at The Washington Center. Her last engagement on campus is scheduled for 5:00 p.m., in PSB 131-135. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to learn more about achieving your academic and leadership goals through The Washington Center.

David V. Taylor, Ph.D.
Provost, Dillard University
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MGI Career Fair 2011 Feb. 23rd, 2011 12:00-4:00PM Riverside Hilton New Orleans, LA


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Tomorrow's Academic Careers: Preparing the Teaching Portfolio


Three crucial cornerstones are the keys to the success of the teaching portfolio: the need to discuss expectations, getting started with portfolios, and gaining acceptance of the concept.

The Need to Discuss Expectations

The teaching portfolio will have value only when personnel decision makers and faculty members learn to trust the approach. Crucial to the development of trust is the periodic exchange of views between the department chair and professor about teaching responsibilities, ancillary duties, and specific items for the portfolio. This discussion should address expectations and specifics of what and how to report teaching performance. Otherwise there is a danger that the chair may erroneously conclude that the data submitted overlook areas of prime concern and may even cover up areas of suspected weakness. Such possible misunderstanding is largely eliminated by open discussion.

Since there is no guarantee that the current department chair will be in that position when the faculty member is being considered for tenure or promotion, it is a good idea to also talk with recently tenured faculty and to respected, older, straight-shooting professors who can give solid, realistic advice. The topics of conversation with the chair and with others are the same:

* What do the department and the institution expect of faculty in terms of teaching?
* What evidence of successful performance-both quantity and quality-is considered appropriate?
* How much evidence is enough?
* What are appropriate and effective ways to report the evidence?

Expectations are of great importance even in the case of a portfolio created for improvement and personal growth instead of personnel decisions. Departments and institutions have their own formulas for the evidence of teaching performance they seek in determining teaching effectiveness. They give differing levels of importance to student ratings, syllabi, curricular developments, philosophy, methodology, student learning, and other sources of information that might be included in a portfolio. Those differing levels of importance are why it is essential for professors to know accurately the relative importance given to the items that might be included in their portfolio.

Getting Started with Portfolios

Perhaps the best way to get started is for a group of faculty to develop general standards of good teaching. They should have enough flexibility to accommodate diverse approaches to teaching. The following guidelines should be helpful:

* Obtain public, top-level administrative support for the portfolio concept and an institutional commitment to provide the necessary resources to launch the program successfully.
* Start small.
* Involve the institution?s (or department?s) most respected faculty members from the start.
* Rely on faculty volunteers; do not force anyone to participate.
* Keep everyone-faculty and academic administrators-informed about what is going on every step of the way.
* Field-test the portfolio process.
* Permit room for individual differences in portfolios. Styles of teaching differ. So do the disciplines.

It is important to allow a year, or even two years, for the process of acceptance and implementation. During this period, draft portfolios should be carefully prepared, freely discussed, and modified as needed. All details of the portfolio program need not be in place before implementation. Start the program incrementally, and be flexible to modification as it develops. But remember that the quest for perfection is endless. Don't stall the portfolio program in an endless search for the perfect approach. The goal is improvement, not perfection.

Gaining Acceptance of the Concept

To say that the teaching portfolio approach is useful is one thing, but to get the approach off the ground is quite another. Some professors automatically resist by evoking various academic traditions. They say that faculty are not comfortable as self-promoters and have neither the time nor the desire to keep a record of their teaching achievements. But in truth, the world of college and university teaching is undergoing considerable change. In an age of accountability and tight budgets, the portfolio is an instrument focused on effective teaching. Professors need to produce better evidence of their teaching effectiveness and must do so in a clear and persuasive way for third-party inspection.

Caution: Not only do some professors decline to embrace the portfolio concept, but some administrators do so as well. At some institutions, administrators are immediately negative at the sight of strangers bearing new ideas, and the portfolio is no exception. people being people, some operate comfortably in well-worn grooves and resist almost any change. Others resist out of an unspoken fear that somehow they are threatened.

If the teaching portfolio approach is ultimately to be embraced, an institutional climate of acceptance must first be created. How can that be done? The following guidelines should be helpful:

* The portfolio concept must be presented in a candid, complete, and clear way to every faculty member and academic administrator.
* Professors must have a significant hand in both the development and the operation of the portfolio program. They must feel, with justification, that they own the program.

* The portfolio approach must not be forced on anyone. It is much better to start with faculty volunteers.

* The primary purpose of the portfolio program should be to improve the quality of teaching, and its approach should be positive rather than punitive.

* The institution's most respected professors should be involved from the onset. That means the best teachers, because their participation attracts other faculty to the program. It also means admired teachers who are also prominent researchers; their participation will signal both the value of the portfolios and their willingness to go public with the scholarship of their teaching.

* The portfolio should be field-tested on a handful of respected professors. The fact that faculty leaders are willing to try the approach will not be lost on others.

* If portfolios are to be used for tenure and promotion purposes or to determine teaching awards, all professors must know the performance standards by which their portfolios will be judged. specifically, they must know what constitutes exemplary, satisfactory, and unsatisfactory performance.

* The portfolio program must recognize the teaching responsibilities of each faculty member and any special circumstances or conditions in effect when he or she was hired.

* Room must be allowed for individual differences in portfolios as long as those differences can be tolerated by the institution. Styles of teaching differ. So do disciplines and career points. The documents and materials in the portfolios of a professor of organic chemistry with twenty-five years of teaching experience will be different from those of a professor of organizational behavior with five years of teaching experience.

* Encourage collaboration. A portfolio mentor (coach) from the same discipline can provide special insights and understandings, as well as departmental practices, in dealing with portfolios. On the other hand, a mentor from a different discipline can often help clarify the institution's viewpoint, that is, the big picture. That can be significant since portfolios submitted for personnel decisions will be read by faculty from other disciplines.

* The portfolio should include only selective information. It is not an exhaustive compilation of all of the documents and materials that bear on individual teaching performance. Instead, it presents selected information on teaching accomplishments and activities. But in the process, it also addresses the why of teaching, not just the what.
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Faculty Focus: Online Teaching and Learning Strategies for First-Year Generation Y Students


By Loren Kleinman
There is an overwhelming amount of literature that addresses strategies to develop and facilitate teaching and learning in the online classroom as a way to engage and retain first-year students. Students and faculty in the online classroom are faced with a unique situation: classes without a physical classroom. Professors are also faced with a unique situation: creating a unified class that is engaged and well informed on the structure of the course in order to create a total learning environment (Quitadamo and Brown 2001).

Today, a vast number of first-year students come from the Millennial Generation, otherwise known as Generation Y, an age group born between 1982 and 2002. Despite myths of laziness, this generation is highly comfortable with the Internet and other technologies, thrive on quick (not too detailed) information, are multi-taskers and visual learners who prefer graphics before text such as hypertext, function best when networked, and demand instant gratification and feedback (Howe and Strauss 2000). Grasha and Yangarber-Hicks (2000) suggested that faculty are pressed with the task of integrating technology into their teaching philosophies, and that technology should be incorporated to engage the millennial first-year student as a means to learn content and support student retention.

First-year students from the Generation Y age group call for utilizing technology in ways such as online quizzes and tests that provide immediate feedback to the students on their performance, discussion boards, embedded media such as YouTube and Twitter feeds, Whiteboards, Podcasts, and automatic graded homework (Wilson 2004). If instructors do not work such strategies into their pedagogy they run the risk of student attrition.

Research suggests that Generation Y first-year students have a high attrition rate as a result of their level of expectations and enthusiasm for the college experience, which often leads to disillusionment. According to Education Dynamics' November 2008 survey by California State University-Northridge, reasons online students drop out include financial challenges (41%), life events (32%), health issues (23%), lack of personal motivation (21%), and lack of faculty interaction (21%). Among online students who dropped out of their degree or certificate programs, 40% percent failed to seek any help or resources before abandoning their programs. Nearly half (47%) of students who dropped out did so before completing one online course.

Allen and Seaman (2007) suggested that part of the reason for online student attrition is that faculty, staff, and the strategic alignment of the college is not vested in the value and legitimacy of online learning. Allen and Seaman (2007) also suggested that colleges that have a vested interest in online education's value and legitimacy have higher faculty engagement and less student attrition. Institutions that see online education as a "long-term strategy" are successful in student degree completion. Their study "Online Nation," supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and based on responses from more than 2,500 colleges and universities, considered five questions important to the success of online education programs, including barriers to the adoption of online education and why institutions provide online learning. Allen and Seaman's study provided insight into the framework and strategic alignment of online education. However, while the study uncovered statistics on faculty and administrator engagement as relating to quality and graduation rate of students, Allen and Seaman (2007) failed to reveal how generational differences contributed to student retention or attrition.

This study proposes that by incorporating flexibility, content, and community features into the first-year Generation Y online classroom instructor perceptions of student engagement may improve. Incorporating teaching and learning strategies and pedagogy that aim to listen to students needs, facilitate learning and discussion, and provide resources and access to tutoring and library services, will allow students to be more effective online learners. Access to online education alone is not enough to encourage student completion of academic degrees.

Loren Kleinman is the assistant director of Academic Support Centers-NJ at Berkeley College.

The reference list for this article is available online @: http://facultyfocusemail.com/a/hBNWTpJB8X3cvB8Yiz8AAAexbPM/article
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Epigeum: Join an international collaboration and access world-class online faculty development


EPIGEUM Online Courses | POD Member Discounts | Feb 28 deadline

Dear Colleagues,

As part of POD's business partnership with Epigeum, the following announcement/advertisement, with PDF attachment, is being sent to current POD members.

Very best wishes,

--Hoag

--------------------

REMINDER – 2 weeks left: Early bird-subscription: University & College Teaching online collaboration

Just a reminder that there are just two weeks left for anyone wishing to take advantage of this unique Epigeum offer to POD members. Places are going fast so please register your interest with us as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Pre-betas for courses by Barbara Gross Davis (Berkeley), Graham Gibbs (Oxford), and Sally Kuhlenschmidt (Western Kentucky) are all available for review. Marilla Svinciki’s course should be ready for review this Wednesday.

-------------------------------
Early-Bird Subscription: University & College Teaching online collaboration

A limited offer to POD members

Do you need help training your adjuncts and GTAs in how to design and deliver compelling courses to students? Would an online solution co-developed with POD members, help you significantly ramp up quality when budgets are tight, and your faculty developers find it hard to support the whole campus?

Epigeum, the higher ed e-publisher, is launching nine new online courses this summer covering all the basics needed by GTAs and adjunct faculty to deliver inspirational classes.
• The authors include many well known experts in faculty development including Marilla Svinicki (Texas-Austin), Nancy Chism (Indiana), Barbara Gross Davis (Berkeley), Mike Theall (Youngstown) and Graham Gibbs (Oxford University).
• The course development is being supported by an international collaboration of 16 universities including Indiana University, the University of South Florida, Western Kentucky, NYIT and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.
• Each course is being built to an unusually high pedagogic standard with extensive video case studies and interactive simulations. Topics include designing a course program, lecturing, supervisions, marking and assessment, teaching around patients, and group work.
• The courses can be easily accessed online by your adjunct faculty and GTAs. They can support and enhance current workshops, or be used on a stand alone basis (with or without online tutors) for those who cannot attend face to face sessions.
In this unique offer, Epigeum is pleased to offer POD members a unique opportunity to access all nine new online courses on a campus wide basis at one third of the normal cost, with a further 5% discount if you cite your POD membership in placing the order. We are doing this by releasing a very limited number of 10 ‘Associate Membership’ spaces in the current collaboration supporting the development of the material.

See attachment brochure for full price details. This unique Associate Membership offer gives you a three year campus license for the cost of just one year, and the opportunity to participate in post course evaluation. The 10 places are expected to go very fast and the deadline for confirmation is the 28th Febraury 2011. Please contact us as soon as possible if you are interested in this offer.

For more information about these courses, or to see a sample, please contact wendy.harbottle@epigeum.com, or go to www.epigeum.com/component/programmes/?view=programme&programme=22

With kindest regards,

David Babington-Smith
CEO, Epigeum
http://twitter.com/Epigeum
www.epigeum.com



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Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy Multidisciplinary Call for Abstracts Extended


Friday, February 11, 2011

Dear Colleague:
On behalf of the Xavier University College of Pharmacy's Center for Minority Health & Health Disparities, we are pleased to invite you to attend and participate in the Fourth Health Disparities Conference to convene March 27-29, 2011 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, La.

We are soliciting abstracts for oral and poster presentation. More specifically, we seek scientific and/or informative abstracts that reflect the focus of the conference. This year's conference will focus on replicable multidisciplinary collaborative models and approaches from the clinical, research, and community arenas that integrate all levels of providers to improve health outcomes and eliminate health disparities. Selected abstracts will be presented during poster sessions or oral presentations during concurrent scientific sessions. Further, authors for limited abstracts will be given an opportunity to prepare an article for publication in a leading journal.

The planning committee looks forward to welcoming you to New Orleans to share your experiences and knowledge. We also hope you will have time to enjoy our city and what it has to offer!

For the Committee,
Leonard Jack, Jr., PhD, MSc, CHES
Program Chair
Associate Dean for Research
Director, Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education
Endowed Chair of Minority Health Disparities
College of Pharmacy
Xavier University of Louisiana
http://xula.the1joshuagroup.com/Support_Files/Abstract_Submittal_Guidelines.pdf
http://xula.the1joshuagroup.com/Support_Files/XULA-COP_Program-Announcement.pdf

IMPORTANT DATES
February 15, 2011
Early Registration Discount Deadline

February 23, 2011
Deadline for all abstracts due to the Organizer by 4:00 PM (EST).

February 25, 2011
All abstract acceptance notifications will be sent via email.

February 28, 2011
Lodging Reservation Discount Deadline

March 14, 2011
Pre-Registration Discount Deadline

This program is sponsored by the Center for Minority Health & Health Disparities Research and Education at Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy. The mission of the center is to provide the infrastructure that is required to conduct research and provide clinical experiential training and community outreach aimed at eliminating health disparities.

Funding for this conference was made possible {in part} by Grant Number 5 S21 MD 000100-10 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). National Institutes of Health (NIH) Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Fourth Health Disparities Conference | 1513 East Cleveland Ave. | Bldg. 100-B, Suite 110 | Atlanta, GA 30344-6947
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The Teaching Professor Conference in Atlanta, GA, May 20-22, 2011


Coming to The Teaching Professor Conference in Atlanta, GA, May 20-22?
Act fast to save on your registration fee!
If you're planning to come to The Teaching Professor Conference May 20-22, you should register now to save on your registration fee. Hurry! February 18 is the last day to save!

The discount is just one way we strive to make The Teaching Professor Conference the best possible value. We also include in the low conference fee every workshop, every plenary session, many of your meals and a nice assortment of extras. We've even negotiated special rates at our headquarters hotel, the Sheraton Atlanta, in the heart of downtown.
It's going to be a great conference! There will be a lot packed into its three days: You can expect thought-provoking, idea-filled sessions on everything from student engagement to outcome assessment, from active learning to course redesign. You'll hear from some of the best presenters in all of higher ed, and you'll be surrounded by colleagues who, like you, are passionate about the art and science of teaching. Expect healthy debate, lively discussion, and an exhilarating exchange of ideas.

Our full list of workshops is now available online @: http://teachingprofessoremail.com/a/hBNWr$XB8X3cxB8Ye8FAAAexbav/workshops?track=email

It's all waiting for you in Atlanta... and at a reduced price, if you act now! Get full registration details! (Here's another reason to hurry: Last year's conference sold out. We don't want you to lose your spot!)
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Inside Higher Ed: Maximum Pell, at All Costs


February 15, 2011
WASHINGTON -- In a 2012 budget blueprint that administration officials portrayed as austere and Republicans derided as profligate, President Obama kept his promise to privilege spending on education and research -- though not without some potential pain for programs important to colleges and students.

In many of its priorities and emphases, the president's proposed budget for 2012 stood in stark contrast to legislation put forward by House Republicans on Friday to fund the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year, which ends in September. While the GOP measure would slash the maximum Pell Grant by $845, end funding for several other student aid programs (as well as the AmeriCorps national service program), and slice billions of dollars from agencies that support academic research, the Obama budget for 2012 keeps those and other programs largely intact. (See related article on science funding.)

That doesn't mean, however, that the Obama budget would be pain-free for colleges and students. Given the enormous growth of the Pell Grant Program in the last two years, for instance, the program now faces a $20 billion deficit by the end of 2012, and the administration had to make "tough choices" to sustain the maximum grant at $5,550, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a call with reporters Monday.

The department's 2012 budget calls for ending a three-year experiment that allows students to qualify for two Pell Grants in a calendar year, to allow them to attend college year-round, and for eliminating the subsidy in which the government pays the interest on student loans for graduate students while they are in school. (The subsidy for undergraduate students would remain in place.)

"These are painful cuts, make no mistake about it," Duncan said.

Higher education leaders and advocates for students typically howl in protest when political leaders of any party or political persuasion threaten programs dear to them, and they did not hide their disappointment with the president's proposed cuts Monday. "It is regrettable that the administration is proposing to maintain Pell by making cuts to other student aid programs that provide much needed funds to students," said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

But recognizing the context in which the 2012 budget appears, with Republicans having emerged from the 2010 elections emboldened to shave the deficit and pushing much deeper cuts, Draeger and other college officials wrapped their disappointment in words of understanding for the choices the administration would make. "[M]aintaining funding for the Pell program, which could be facing a $20 billion shortfall in FY 2012, is our highest priority," Draeger said. (Note: This paragraph has been updated to clarify some information.)

"It is clear the administration has put a lot of effort and care into producing a budget that strives to protect and preserve student financial aid," Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, said in a prepared statement. "While the higher education community does not agree with all the choices made, we support the overall objective of ensuring a viable array of student aid programs anchored by the indispensable Pell Grant Program."

Protecting Education

Unlike House Republican leaders, who in their first crack at a Tea Party-friendly federal budget plan cut disproportionately from health, education and labor programs, President Obama's 2012 budget blueprint generally shields what he calls "investments" in education, research and a few other key areas in an overall budget that begins a five-year drive to freeze most federal spending and reduce the deficit. The Education Department's overall budget would grow by 4.3 percent in 2012 under the president's budget.

"Education is an investment that we need to win the future -- just like innovation is an investment that we need to win the future; just like infrastructure is an investment that we need to win the future," the president said in unveiling the budget at a Baltimore math and science school. "And to make sure that we can afford these investments, we’re going to have to get serious about cutting back on those things that would be nice to have but we can do without."

Those things the country "can do without" appear to include relatively few of the many programs that matter most to colleges. The administration's 2012 budget would eliminate a handful of programs that have long been targeted by presidents of both parties, including the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership Program (which provides matching funds to states to encourage them to award need-based financial aid) and the Byrd Honors Scholarships.

But it would sustain some programs that have been vulnerable in recent years, such as the Perkins Loan and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant Programs. (The Perkins program would get a facelift much like the one the administration proposed in 2009, when a restructuring of the loan program for needy students got dropped during the endgame for the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2010.)

The administration's proposal would sustain the vast majority of other Education Department programs for students and colleges at their 2010 levels, as seen in the table below.

Some other priorities for higher education would take a meaningful hit. Funds for career and technical education in the Education Department, some of which flow to community colleges, would drop by about $250 million. Duncan said that the programs under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act "haven't lived up to their promise" and that the administration wants to "strengthen them before we invest in them further." Among the casualties would be a separate, $103 million stream of funds for the Tech-Prep Program, which provides funds to states for partnerships between school districts and (mostly two-year) postsecondary institutions.

The Obama budget would also create a new competitive grant program (modeled on the Race to the Top Program for elementary and secondary education) that would reward states that align high school graduation requirements with colleges' entry and placement standards, strengthen transfer and articulation between colleges, and institute performance-based funding for colleges. (If you guessed that it had the phrase "college completion" in its title, you were right: it's called "the College Completion Incentive Grants Program.")

It's All About Pell

But virtually all of the attention in the days and weeks going forward is likely to be about the Pell Grant -- the administration's efforts to sustain it at its current levels, and attempts by Congressional Republicans to cut it back.

Spending on the grants, which have long been the bedrock of the American student financial aid system, has exploded since 2008, due to several factors: significantly increasing college enrollments (with much of the growth among for-profit institutions), the economic downturn that changed many students' financial situations for the worse, and 2008 changes that expanded the number of students eligible for the grants.

The program has long had bipartisan support, and Republicans insist that it retains that support, even as House Republicans, in the legislation they put forward Friday to fund the rest of the government's 2011 operations, propose cutting the maximum grant to $4,705. "Nobody should be comfortable with huge cuts like these," Representative John Kline, the Minnesota Republican who heads the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said Monday in response to a reporter's question about whether he would be "comfortable" with the $800 cut in students' grants. But given the enormous expansion in the program's costs, Kline said, Republican leaders "thought it was important" to include Pell in their overall efforts to rein in federal spending.

Administration officials made a different set of choices in recognizing that the Pell program cannot continue to grow at any cost -- "responsible decisions that are necessary so that students can continue to pay for college," Duncan said.

Duncan said that administration officials had seen "no evidence" yet that the 2008 change in the Higher Education Act that allowed students to effectively get "two Pells" in a year to study in the summer was "accelerating students' college completion time." And the program had proven to be 10 times costlier than anticipated, to a tune of "numbers ... in the multiple billions" of dollars, Duncan said, calling the initiative "unsustainable."

Officials at the California Community Colleges said their data showed that about 23,000 students at the system's 112 colleges had received a second Pell Grant in the 2009-10 academic year, and that the students -- more than half of whom are Hispanic, black, or Asian -- had higher average grade point averages and number of earned credits than did other full-time students who did not receive Pell Grants.

Duncan said that while the year-round Pell program certainly helped some students, "in tough budget times, we saw it as a bigger priority to maintain the maximum Pell Grant of $5,550, rather than having a smaller number of students get $11,000."

The other people who might see themselves as having been thrown overboard by the administration to sustain Pell are the nation's graduate and professional students with student loans, who would lose the benefit they now enjoy of having the federal government pay the interest on those loans while they are in graduate school. Administration budget documents said that the subsidy "has no effect on encouraging students to pursue graduate education."

The in-school interest subsidy has been a target of deficit-cutting Congressional Republicans and of financial aid policy makers when they envision a sounder and fairer student aid system -- not just as it applies to graduate students, but for all student loan borrowers.

Robert Berdahl, president of the Association of American Universities, said his group is "concerned that the President’s proposal to eliminate the in-school interest subsidy on loans to graduate students as a means of covering some the costs of the Pell program may discourage American students from attending graduate school at a time when the nation needs to encourage its own best talent."

But Jason Delisle, a budget analyst at the New America Foundation, included the subsidy as one of his "key questions" about the administration's 2012 budget plan for education.

"The president’s proposal would end this benefit for graduate students arguing that it does not encourage students to attend graduate school, is not well-targeted to borrowers who need extra repayment help, and is unnecessary because of other loan repayment and forgiveness benefits available on federal loans," Delisle wrote. "These arguments seem to apply just as well to the in-school interest subsidy for undergraduate students. Why did the administration propose eliminating the benefit on these grounds for graduate students but opt to maintain it for undergraduate students? Are the policy’s weaknesses only applicable to graduate students?"

Among other highlights of the Obama budget:

The National Endowments for the Humanities and for the Arts would each see their budgets drop by $22 million, or nearly 13 percent. The cut would return the humanities endowment roughly to its budget for 2008, said Jim Leach, the agency's chairman. "It reflects NEH’s obligation to help restrain spending in a time of great fiscal challenges for the nation."
The Education Department budget would eliminate the TEACH Grant program, a several-year-old program aimed at encouraging teachers to work in high-need fields, and replace it with a new competition for states. The $185 million competitive program would let states give $10,000 scholarship to would-be teachers who attend the "most effective" teacher education programs.

Obama Administration's Key 2011 Funding Requests Related to Higher Education
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9_KwJdDOiGrNTM3MTY3ODAtZGZjZS00MDVhLTg2YTgtM2Q1YjExYTliM2Vl&hl=en

— Doug Lederman

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Union Graduate College Selects CampusVue Student: A Case Study from Campus Management


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