Friday, October 7, 2011
Inside Higher Ed: Republicans Push Pell Changes
Education Week: Focus on Historically Black Colleges in Degree Completion
By Caralee Adams
To meet President Obama's goal to have the country lead the world in having the most college graduates by 2020, administration officials say every type of higher education institution — including Historically Black Colleges and Universities — need to ramp up completion efforts.
To help achieve this, the administration is committed to increased federal funding and leveraging support of the private sector, philanthropies and alumni to support HBCUs, John Silvanus Wilson, director of the White House HBCU Initiative, told a gathering of leaders from that community in Washington this morning,
To highlight the specific benchmarks for colleges, Wilson unveiled a new feature on the U.S. Department of Education website that went live today. From a U.S. map featuring every HBCU here, users can click on an individual campus to link to its website and to see the current number of degrees produced, the total degrees needed by 2020 to meet the President's goal and how that breaks down by year.
For instance, the four HBCUs in Maryland, (Bowie State University, Coppin State College, Morgan State University, and University of Maryland-Eastern Shore) generate 2,222 undergraduate degrees annually. They need to add another 16,522 degrees by 2020, or 300 degrees each year, cumulatively to help reach the goal.
"This is going to be no easy task," said Wilson. "And our work just got harder." Recent reports from Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation show the United States ranks 16th, down from 9th in terms of the most educated population. The country has not led the international ranking since 1995. South Korea is the current leader.
Wilson congratulated some campuses for upward trends in graduation, including Spellman College, in Atlanta; Lincoln University, in Lincoln University, Pa.; Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas and Alabama A &M in Normal, Ala.
"Our HBCUs have friends in the White House like we've never had before," said Wilson. He outlined the administration's support for federal funding for HBCUs, teacher preparation programs, and fully funding the Pell Grant program to help students pay for college. Wilson urged continued investment in the federal aid program for low-income students, which serve nearly two-thirds of students at HBCUs.
The administration is pushing to help HBCUs in three other strategic areas: capital expansion, by working with federal agencies and the philanthropic community; messaging to improve perception enhancement; and campus enrichment, including efforts to address the recruitment and retention of African-American males, Today, 70 percent of students at HBCUs are women.
Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Obama, also addressed the 2011 HBCU conference and urged support for the president's proposed American Jobs Act to revitalize communities hit hardest by the recession. Jarrett noted that with 16 percent unemployment in the African-American community —and nearly 30 percent among young black youth—action is needed now to create new training programs for minorities, fund construction projects for schools, and hire teachers.
Solving the nation's problems will take everyone, including HBCUs, said Jarrett. "You serve as a role model, a beacon of hope for our country," she told the conference attendees. With shrinking endowments, rising costs and falling enrollment, HBCUs have felt the pain of the recession acutely. "Everyone has to change the way they do business, and HBCUs have always been leaders in getting better outcomes with fewer resources," she said.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education: New House Bill Cuts Funds for HBCUs, Others
by Charles Dervarics
Federal funds for minority-serving colleges and universities are on the chopping block for next year as the House of Representatives is proposing deep cuts or outright elimination of many of these programs for the government’s 2012 fiscal year.
The bill from leaders of the Republican-led Appropriations Committee would terminate U.S. Education Department programs for tribal colleges and predominantly Black institutions while making significant cuts in programs for historically Black colleges and Hispanic-serving institutions.
The bill is generating strong opposition in the MSI community. “This is counterintuitive to our national goals,” said Edith Bartley, government affairs director at UNCF. “We can’t allow cuts to these basic capacity-building programs,” she told Diverse.
Funding for the Title III Strengthening HBCUs program would drop from $236 million to $152 million, a reduction of 36 percent next year, under the bill. Black colleges use these funds to build capacity on their campuses, including physical plant improvements, student services and faculty/staff development.
Hispanic-serving institutions would face the largest percentage cutback, as funding would fall by 84 percent, from the current $104 million to just $17 million in 2012.
The bill represents “a very dangerous pathway for Congress,” said Antonio Flores, president of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. Coming on the heels of an 8 percent cutback for HSIs in 2011, he said, “It will further erode our institutions and lessen opportunities for students.”
But in outlining the plan, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) House Appropriations chairman, said the bill makes tough but necessary choices in setting federal priorities.
“To protect critical programs and services that many Americans rely on — especially in this time of fiscal crisis — the bill takes decisive action to cut duplicative, inefficient, and wasteful spending to help get these agency budgets onto sustainable financial footing,” he said.
Rogers said “excessive” federal spending put many education and other domestic programs “on an irresponsible and unsustainable fiscal path.”
In addition to the cuts for HBCUs and Hispanic-serving colleges, the House GOP plan would eliminate:
- a $9.6 million program for predominantly Black colleges;
- a major aid program for tribal colleges, funded at $26 million;
- a $13 million aid program for Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions;
- a $3.2 million program for colleges with significant enrollments of Asian American/Pacific Islander students; and
- a $3.2 million initiative for nontribal institutions with significant Native American enrollments.
Federal support for HBCU graduate institutions would remain at $61 million, while the House would continue a $9 million initiative supporting graduate programs for Hispanic students.
House Republicans may be targeting MSIs because they are getting mandatory funding from last year’s health care reform bill, Bartley said. That law also included several long-discussed changes in federal higher education aid, such as an extra $250 million a year for MSIs over 10 years.
But that pot of money is just for science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, programs, she noted. By comparison, the Title III HBCU program is the “foundation” of federal support, with broad use of dollars for academic and facility improvements.
“These would be deep, deep cuts at a time when there are major demographic changes taking place in the nation,” she added.
While the House Appropriations Committee has yet to pass its bill, plans to cut minority-serving colleges already may not fare well in the Senate. The Appropriations Committee in that chamber has unveiled a spending bill with level funding for the main HBCU and Hispanic-serving programs at $236 million and $104 million, respectively.
Tribal colleges, predominantly Black colleges, and the other small MSI programs also would receive continued funding at current levels.
While the Senate is holding firm against cuts now, Bartley said minority-serving institutions must be vigilant in contacting lawmakers to protect funding. The 2012 budget is only one front in the current budget battle, she said. This fall, a House/Senate “super committee” must produce $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction to meet terms of the federal debt ceiling deal negotiated during the summer.
“We’re in precarious times right now,” she told Diverse.
Elsewhere, both the House and Senate bills would maintain the current $5,550 maximum Pell Grant. However, the House would achieve $3.6 billion in savings through eligibility changes, such as reducing from 18 to 12 the number of semesters students are eligible for grants.
Rogers’ committee also said the House bill would eliminate Pell eligibility for students who attend less than half time and for those who lack a high school diploma or the equivalent.
Both the House and Senate would freeze funding for TRIO and GEAR UP programs at current levels of $826 million and $302 million, respectively.
TLT Group FridayLive! Oct 21 Extending Successful Teaching
FridayLive!
Extending Successful Teaching: From Classroom to Online; From Online to Online
Oct. 21, 2011 at 2pm ET - free to all.
NOTE: Login instructions for the session will be sent in the Registration Confirmation Email. Please check your Junk folder as sometimes these emails get trapped there. We will also send an additional login reminder 24 hours prior to the start of the event.
When 21 Oct 2011 2:00 PM - 3:00 PMLocation Online meeting info in Registration Confirmation Email [also check your Junk folder] and via email 24 hours prior to event startRegistrationOpen to the public - Free
If you're new to a TLT Group event, please become an Online Institute Registrant member for free to participate (and consider becoming an individual member!)
CUR - Posters on the Hill
CUR is calling for students to submit an abstract of their research that represents any of CUR's disciplinary divisions (Arts and Humanities, Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, Health Sciences, Mathematics/Computer Science, Physics/Astronomy, Psychology, and Social Sciences). In order to ensure proper review of applications, the above are the only disciplines that may apply. Should your research be inter-disciplinary, please select the division that most closely describes your research.
Abstract submissions will only be accepted by using our on-line submission form. Prior to submitting the form, students should gather the contact information for all co-authors, advisors and sponsors (if applicable), prepare a short vitae/resume, and poster abstract. A document listing the information required for submission can be found by visiting: http://www.cur.org/poh/pohsubinfo.html .
For more information, and the link to submit an application, please visit: http://www.cur.org/pohcall.html. Please note that CUR membership is required to submit an application. Either the student’s home institution must have an institutional membership, or the faculty mentor or student must have an individual membership. We will not review incomplete applications or applications that do not satisfy the membership requirement.
Please be sure that both portions (the electronic application and the electronic recommendation letter) are submitted by October 18, 2011. Please encourage your students to submit. This is a highly competitive program, which makes for a very exciting experience for the students and their faculty advisors alike.
For more information about the Posters on the Hill program, please visit http://www.cur.org/postersession.html Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Robin Howard
Senior Director
Membership Services, Operations and Information Technology
Council on Undergraduate Research
734 15th St, NW, Suite 550
Washington, DC 20005
http://www.cur.org/
robin@cur.org
(202)783-4810x203
(202)783-4811 fax
USA Today: State lawmakers push to allow guns on college campuses
September 29, 2011
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
State lawmakers across the USA are pushing a growing number of bills this year that would legalize carrying guns on college campuses, according to groups tracking the trend.
This year, at least 14 states have introduced 35 bills that would allow students and faculty to carry concealed weapons on state colleges and universities or loosen restrictions on gun bans on campuses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Meanwhile, two states, Maryland and Washington, have introduced bills to prohibit guns on campuses. None of the bills has passed so far.
Last year, nine states introduced bills that would legalize gun carrying on campus while another nine states proposed barring the practice, according to the group. In Texas alone, six bills introduced this year would make it legal to bear arms on campus, says Brenda Bautsch, an education-policy analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures.
"We're seeing more bills," she says. "And there are far more bills to allow guns than to prohibit them."
The emboldened effort to legalize guns on campuses comes on the heels of a ruling by the Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday that repealed a university gun ban. In that case, a student was suspended from Western Oregon University for possessing a handgun. The court overturned the university's ban on guns, saying the state university system did not have the authority to prevent students or faculty from carrying weapons on any of its seven universities if they were licensed to do so.
The Colorado Supreme Court is deciding on another case that would allow guns on university campuses. Utah so far is the only state with a law allowing concealed weapons on state campuses, Bautsch says.
The issue of whether to allow guns on campuses has been hotly debated since the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, where student Seung Hui Cho opened fire on campus, killing 32 people and wounding 25. Opponents say allowing guns would not make campuses any safer for students and the mix of guns with alcohol and drugs found on some campuses could lead to increased incidents involving guns.
People legally licensed to carry a gun shouldn't give up their Second Amendment arms Educational Foundation, which represented the student in the Oregon court case.
"People who are licensed to carry guns in Oregon meet a certain criteria," Starrett says. "They do not suddenly lose their minds when they step on a college campus."
Two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings favorable to individual gun owners have emboldened states to introduce legislation that would allow guns on campuses, says Andy Pelosi, head of Gunfreekids.org, an advocacy group that opposes guns on campuses. The group has fought some form of guns-on-campus legislation in 23 states this year, he says. Since 2007, 65 similar bills have been defeated in 32 states.
"It's definitely been a very active year, to say the least," Pelosi says.
Job Fair | 2011 POD Conference
Please plan to attend the Job Fair at the upcoming POD Conference.
Date: Friday, October 28
Time: 9:00–10:15 AM
Location: Crystal Ballroom B/E (1st Floor)
This an informal "meet and greet" opportunity, with tables for each institution that sends a representative to the conference. We will also have separate tables for display of vitae/resumes and position announcements. If you have an opening and plan to attend the Job Fair, please reply to this email with the following information so that we can prepare a table for you: Institution, Center Name, Open Position, Contact Person, and Representative(s).
Answers to the most frequently asked questions are below. If you have additional questions please don't hesitate to contact me.
Angela
Angela R. Linse, Ph.D., Executive Director and Associate Dean
Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, Penn State University
(814) 865-7812 arl15@psu.edu
-------------------------
POD Job Fair FAQ
Who should attend?
Active and potential job seekers, representatives from institutions with open positions, and representatives from institutions that expect to have an open position.
How many CVs/resumes should I bring?
Bring 10 paper copies or mini-CDs with your vita or resume; the less bulk the better for potential employers.
Will my current employer find out if I attend?
We ask all attendees to not discuss or make assumptions about other attendees.
How many job announcements should I bring?
Bring 10-15 announcements.
I will not be able to attend the conference. May I send a CV/resumeor job announcement for display at the job fair?
Yes! Follow the shipping instructions at http://www.podnetwork.org/conferences/2011/index.htm#shipping and be sure to mark your materials:
POD Network Conference—Job Fair. Please send me email to if you’ll be sending materials.
Will there be space to conduct private interviews?
Sorry, no. The Job Fair is for informal conversations; interested parties should plan to schedule interviews at a later time during the conference.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS: 19th Annual Georgia Conference on College & University Teaching
19th Georgia Conference On College & University Teaching
Friday & Saturday February 3-4, 2012
KSU Center - 3333 Busbee Dr. Kennesaw, GA 30144
CALL FOR PROPOSALS 19TH GEORGIA CONFERENCE ON COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY TEACHING
Conference Web Site:
Looking for a low cost, interactive, and collegial conference on teaching in these tight budget times? Please consider submitting a proposal to the Georgia Conference on College & University Teaching.
About the Conference
The Georgia Conference on College & University Teaching is an interdisciplinary conference designed to provide college and university faculty with the opportunity to discuss and share experiences and innovative teaching techniques. Since 1993 faculty from all 34 University System of Georgia colleges and universities, as well as many other schools in the Southeastern region have attended. The conference offers concurrent sessions on teaching techniques and emerging issues in higher education in a relaxed, congenial atmosphere. There are also opportunities for participants to network and establish professional contacts with fellow educators.
Call For Proposals
We invite you to submit proposals for workshops, symposia, paper and/or poster presentations. Proposal topics might include: innovative pedagogy, particularly research-based innovations that focus on student-centered learning; course and program assessment; diversity and inclusiveness in the curriculum; teaching with technology; interdisciplinary teaching; graduate education; and mentoring of students and faculty.
Following the principles of effective teaching, we are seeking engaging, lively presentations that model an active-learning approach. Preference will be given to proposals that emphasize practical, research-based approaches that can be adapted by participants from a variety of disciplines for immediate use in their college/university classes or academic programs.
PLEASE NOTE: We do not encourage proposals that are solely focused on teaching and learning in a single discipline or research focused on K-12 teaching and learning. In both content and title, proposals should address how an innovative technique developed in the context of one discipline can be adapted to other disciplines.
To submit your proposal, please visit the conference website: http://www.kennesaw.edu/cetl/conferences/gaconf/2012.html
Submission Deadline:
Friday, November 11, 2011 no later than 11:59 p.m.
Notifications of acceptance or rejections:
Friday, December 2, 2011
We look forward to receiving your proposals!
Cordially,
Dr. Michele DiPietro
Executive Director
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Kennesaw State University
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Graduate Enrollment Declines in Part Because of Caution About the Economy
October 2, 2011
By Audrey Williams June
Caution on the part of graduate-admissions counselors and potential students has been a key factor driving a nationwide dip in first-time graduate-student enrollment, the first such drop in seven years, says a report released in September.
Some universities have significantly scaled back some of their postbaccalaureate programs, although most institutions have not made widespread reductions. A number of campuses, both private ones that have seen endowment losses and public ones confronting cuts in appropriations, have chosen to trim enrollments in some programs to make sure that they do not commit to more new students than they can afford to support or put the financial support of current students at risk. Programs in the humanities were more likely to see cuts than those in the sciences, which are often supported by federal grants. Graduate students also shied away from programs in fields that aren't known for awarding stipends, like education, business, and public administration, which all saw declines in enrollment, according to the enrollment report by the Council of Graduate Schools.
That report found that between the fall of 2009 and the fall of 2010, enrollment of new students fell by 1.1 percent.
At the University of Chicago, the humanities division cut the number of incoming Ph.D. students after the economic downturn began to squeeze the college's coffers. Just before the recession hit, the division had committed to providing all of its 120 or so new graduate students with five years of tuition, a stipend, two summers of financial support, and health insurance. Now the division is taking in fewer students, with about 80 new enrollments in the fall of 2009 and in the fall of 2010. This year 84 new students enrolled.
"I don't want to be one of those people who brings in a huge number of people and then says, Half of you are not going to succeed," said Marla Roth, dean of the humanities division at the University of Chicago. "We did that to make sure we could support the students who were here already and then to be honorable to the students who we're bringing in." Each student costs the university well over $75,000 per year, she said.
That same motivation also pushed Yale University to "slightly reduce" its Ph.D. programs in the fall of 2010. Yale supports its graduate students with money from the income the university earns on its endowment, which amounted to $19.4-billion at the end of the fiscal year that ended June 30. But when the recession caused the endowment to shrink, and its subsequent income to fall, the university couldn't afford to cover the costs of as many students.
The cuts in graduate students weren't across the board, said Thomas D. Pollard, dean of the graduate school, and they played out differently in various programs. In all, 10-percent fewer offers were made to applicants for graduate programs in the fall of 2010.
The cuts were "carefully engineered" to help the graduate school weather the temporary decline in its finances, Mr. Pollard said. "We're going year by year," he said.
Tight Budgets
At some institutions, officials said they weren't surprised that fewer students had enrolled. Steven W. Matson, dean of the graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said applications for the fall of 2010 were "as high, or higher," than in years past, but in tight budget times the university has less money available to support graduate students, particularly new ones. The incoming graduate-student class that year ended up being "slightly smaller" than it was the year before.
"I worked hard to minimize the impact of any budget cuts on the students who are already on campus," said Mr. Matson, who cautioned the directors of graduate programs to "be circumspect in the admission of new students."
At Bowling Green State University, administrators are grappling with how to increase overall graduate enrollments after a 13-percent drop. In the fall of 2010, the university had 2,899 graduate students. This fall, 2,519 graduate students are enrolled.
Officials said they were expecting a steep drop in the wake of a policy to shift away from heavily discounting tuition for graduate students and a restructuring of the graduate school. "We're trying to encourage programs to go after paying students," said Michael Ogawa, interim dean of the graduate college.
Mr. Ogawa said graduate programs in the humanities seem to be losing the most students, judging from the anecdotes he's heard, because "fee-paying students just aren't there." There is also anecdotal evidence that "more students than we're accustomed to" have signed contracts and then not shown up, Mr. Ogawa said. "It's probably an issue of personal finances, but we don't know for sure."
Meanwhile, the graduate-student numbers at some universities run counter to the national trend.
At Emory University, new graduate-student enrollment has rebounded after officials there purposely curbed it two years ago to help cut the graduate school's budget. The goal then, said Lisa Tedesco, the graduate-school dean, was to respond to budgetary pressures while sustaining the commitment Emory had made to students already in the program.
"We didn't want to cut their financial support, their health insurance, or their funds for professional and career development," Ms. Tedesco said.
The entering class in the fall of 2009 was 319 students, down from more than 400 in the previous fall. This fall, following the addition of two new master's programs, first-time graduate-student enrollment is back where it was before the cuts, at 411 students, Ms. Tedesco said.
"That's not saying person-for-person and program-for-program we're the same, but with new approaches to budgets and sharing between units, we've been able to get back to where we were over all," Ms. Tedesco said.
Elsewhere, Cornell University saw first-time enrollment for postbaccalaureate students increase by 9.8 percent from the fall of 2009 to the fall of 2010. The number of first-time doctoral students, who typically receive four or five years of support at Cornell, rose by 16.8 percent.
Barbara Knuth, dean of the graduate school, said that sharp increase is probably linked to the money available to support such students. Cornell "has been quite successful," she said, in securing federal stimulus money for research that was, in turn, used to support doctoral students through federally financed research assistantships.
The number of new students seeking master's degrees increased at Cornell, too. Professional master's degrees, such as in engineering or landscape architecture, saw an increase of 5.9 percent between 2009 and 2010, while the number of new students seeking other types of master's degrees increased by 8 percent. Master's students typically pay for their education, and doing so during a recession may mean that "those students see that degree as a good investment," Ms. Knuth said.
Other colleges hope their potential students will come to the same conclusions about the worth of their degrees. Still, some administrators say they are seeing signs that people are weighing their decisions very carefully.
At Florida State University, the rhetoric and composition program's new-student enrollment has been relatively steady in recent years, at about eight students. The program has about 23 master's and Ph.D. students. Even so, Kathleen Yancey, a professor of English and director of the graduate program in rhetoric and composition, said potential students this year seem to be weighing more carefully where to attend graduate school and, perhaps, even whether to pursue a graduate degree at all.
"Usually people will write and say, This is who I am, and I'm interested in your program and what can you tell me about it?" Ms. Yancey said. "But this year we've had some people who seem to be very, very intentional. We have one person doing a three-day visit in October and another coming in November."
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