News
Quick Takes: 'Profound Alarm' About Attacks on Iraqi Academics, U. of California's Online High School, TRIO Plan Draws Fire, U.S. Finding of Research Misconduct
July 6, 2006
- The American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association have released a joint statement expressing "profound alarm" about attacks on academics in Iraq. The statement said that violence against colleges and professors is widespread and that the government seems unable to do anything about it. "Virtually every Iraqi institution of higher education is at risk," the associations said.
- The University of California, which has offered individual online courses for high school students, is creating a full online high school in which selected students could take all of their courses online, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The UC Online Academy will open in August, with as many as 125 students starting the program in 9th grade.
- A proposed change in Education Department regulations governing the Upward Bound Program would "usurp the legislative powers of Congress" and is "completely unacceptable," the Council for Equal Opportunity said in a statement Wednesday. The council, which lobbies on behalf of the federal TRIO programs for low-income students, of which Upward Bound is one, objected to a proposal put forward by department officials Monday that would shift funds to ninth graders who performed poorly on statewide assessment tests in eighth grade. The council's director, Arnold Mitchem, said that the Bush administration, having been rebuffed by Congress in its attempts to strip the program of funds in recent years, is now engaging in what he called "an almost stealth attempt to change the rules, tossing this policy grenade during a long holiday weekend."
- A former doctoral student at the University of Iowa engaged in research misconduct by falsifying records included in work supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute and has agreed not to work on federal projects for three years, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research Integrity announced Wednesday. In a notice published in the Federal Register, the agency said that Lingjie Zhao, who is no longer enrolled at Iowa and could not be reached for comment, had doctored data and documents submitted for publication and to her dissertation committee.
