Sept. 5

Quick Takes: New Push by Cuomo on Loan Companies, Faculty Bonuses for College Performance, Concerns on Hookah Smoking, Palin’s Many Colleges, Budget Mess Endangers California Grants, $400M for Biomedical Institute, Did Jokes Kill a Grad Student Handbook?

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New York’s attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, is moving to sue one student loan company — Goal Financial — and to conclude agreements on acceptable marketing practices with a number of other loan companies, The New York Times reported. Much of Cuomo’s probe of the loan industry to date has focused on the relationships between loan companies and colleges. But the new focus of the suit and the agreements with other companies is on marketing: the gifts or other inducements students are offered, and the way loan terms are described. Goal Financial and its lawyers did not respond to the Times.
Kent State University’s new contract with faculty members provides bonuses if the institution reaches certain goals in research funding, retention and fund raising, The Akron Beacon Journal reported. While this approach — linking employee pay to institutional performance — is unusual, it is not unheard of. In 2005, Daytona Beach Community College tied all employee raises to enrollment shifts — and saw an enrollment increase.
About 40 percent of students in a recent study have smoked tobacco from a hookah, raising issues about their awareness of health risks, according to University of Pittsburgh researchers who have published their analysis in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Notably, one third of the students who engaged in waterpipe smoking had never smoked a cigarette, the researchers found.
Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, attended four colleges in six years (one of them twice) before earning her bachelor’s degree. The Associated Press on Thursday tracked Palin’s move from college to college. She attended (in order) Hawaii Pacific University, North Idaho College, the University of Idaho, and Matanuska-Susitna College, and then returned to the University of Idaho, where she earned a degree.
As California lawmakers remain unable to produce a state budget, community college students may suffer. The state may hold back checks for $1,551 that are owed to as many as 86,000 community college students, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Eli and Edythe Broad on Thursday announced that they were donating $400 million to the endowment of a joint Harvard University-Massachusetts Institute of Technology program already named for them, the Broad Institute. The Broads had previously given $200 million to the institute, which focuses on biomedical research.
The Graduate Student Society at the University of British Columbia has recalled 7,000 copies of a new handbook for grad students, apparently because of an abundance of satire, The Globe and Mail reported. The handbook featured numerous references to cranes, praising the university for being “devoted to bringing you the most number of cranes per tuition dollar,” for example, in reference to all the building projects on campus.

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Comments

Palin’s many college

What does this story have to do with higher education? The AP is not known for fair and balanced reporting when it comes to republicans. This is the type of story that MSNBC would gladly report. Could it be that you need to keep readers busy with trash articles?

Get back to work and avoid the politics.

Jim Moore, at 7:50 am EDT on September 5, 2008

6 Colleges...

I’m not a big fan of Republicans, nor do I buy the “vast left-wing media conspiracy” theory any more than I do the “vast right-wing media conspiracy” theory, but I also am confused about what relevance exactly the profusion of colleges Sarah Palin attended is supposed to have—presumably if she satisfied degree requirements somewhere and received a degree then the process by which she obtained it isn’t all that relevant. Rather than any kind of corruption or misconduct on Palin’s part, this story mostly implies a lot of packing and unpacking boxes.

There are all sorts of more interesting and potentially relevant aspects of Palin’s college career that would interest me more—such as her undergraduate major, student groups she may have belonged to, and whether or not she was a “traditional” aged student when she attended school (one explanation for all that moving would be if she was following a partner, which few 18-year-olds have to do).

So why the fascination with the number of schools? What’s the story AP?

Kate, at 8:35 am EDT on September 5, 2008

Palin’s College

While I ma no fan of Gov Palin, attending many colleges is not always an indication of a problem. I would point out that the vast majority of our enlisted military members attend multiple schools (and take longer than the traditional four years) due to mission requirements.

ric, at 9:05 am EDT on September 5, 2008

I have 8 schools, can I be Veep?

I attended UGA, then joined the Navy attended Florida Southern, Hawaii Pacific (I don’t remember Sarah), Leeward Community College, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Regents external degree program from the University of the a State of New York, (now Regents), and then USC followed by Augusta (GA) College, Penn State and wrapped up with Georgia and Penn State again. All told I got 4 degrees and two graduate level certificates out of it. And 6 years on a submarine in the same time period. Top that! I should be VEEP.No, I think Joe Biden should do it. He is way more qualified than any one running or nominated.

Wilbur Beauregard, at 9:05 am EDT on September 5, 2008

Palin’s Many College

So what if she moved colleges so many times? This tells me she was very determined to complete her degree and, despite the moves, she continued pursuing her education until she sucessfully completed it. Many of us have attended numerous colleges in pursuit of our education and really, what’s the big issue with it? It is not showing me any instability on her part, only determination and persistence to achieve the desired goal. Let’s get back to focusing on the real issues at hand and not just glorified and sensationalized media.

Anonymous One, at 9:05 am EDT on September 5, 2008

Sheesh!

This is why people think there is a right/left-wing media consiricy! A short three sentence statement with no conclusion or interpretation is buried in them middle of a bunch of briefs and people are acting like it was the lead story on the main page and IHE, saying she should not be elected because of it.

It is simply of piece of information. It has to do with higher education because it relates her experience in college — it is one of the few higher educational related pieces of information that can be had for her.

Skip Allis, at 9:55 am EDT on September 5, 2008

Why does it matter how many colleges Gov. Palin attended? Is that news? Is that a “bad” thing?

Dr. Clyde Parrish, at 10:30 am EDT on September 5, 2008

Sarah’s Wonderful College Journey

Thanks, Skip; you’re right on target. In my experience (30 years or so), the college-hoppers who attend five or six institutions seeking a bachelor’s degree are most often looking for better financial aid packages, following partners, or lacking in direction. (Those in the military would be an obvious exception.) This info adds another layer to the mysterious SP; clearly she traveled more to attend college than she has as a public servant since her first trip overseas occurred recently.

RL Smith, Dean, at 10:30 am EDT on September 5, 2008

It may not be explicitly negative, but it’s surely not positive

I read the linked AP article. I’m not a Palin supporter, but I have to agree that it seems negative, as though the implication is that someone who transfers a lot among different schools may have something to hide in their academic record. It darkly says they were unable to uncover much information, as if that’s surprising considering that this was a quarter of a century ago.

Steve Foerster, at 10:30 am EDT on September 5, 2008

I’m with Skip Allis

The blurb about Governor Palin and readers’ reactions to above say more about the readers than her. It’s a political Rorschach test: you read your ideology into the news. If Fox News published this, would you assume anything malign? — TL

Tim Lacy, at 11:45 am EDT on September 5, 2008

Student Swirl...

To bring this to the policy issue involved: students who switch colleges often lose credits in the process. One could argue that the financial aid system funds students in inefficient ways. How much does it cost taxpayers (or families or institutions) to foot the bills of wandering students.

This story has NOTHING to do with Palin, but it brings up questions about student swirl, persistence, departure, financial aid, and transfer credit evaluation.

Perhaps, for once, this board can be used to discuss higher education policy rather than partisan political shenanigans.

Brad, at 11:45 am EDT on September 5, 2008

Thanks for the SP Blurb

Inside Higher Ed, thanks for sharing the Sarah Palin item. I’m glad a education site can share a few sentences about a potential VEEP’s education experience and I’m happy you didn’t feel the need to pass judgement.

P.S. I didn’t read the AP story, mainly because I don’t expect much of the AP.

Anonymous Coward, at 11:45 am EDT on September 5, 2008

what implication?

The majority of Americans who earn a college degree these days have earned credits at two or more schools. That’s a fact. Apparently the Alaska Governor is part of that trend, so that fact is newsworthy, if minor. I think Obama also was a transfer student. Reporting such facts is hardly bias, and only overly defensive readers would take the AP report or IHE to be biased for reporting these facts. Facts relevant to higher education are proper subjects for news reports, and this fact about the Governor is interesting.

ex-transfer coordinator, at 11:45 am EDT on September 5, 2008

Unfair to Graduate Students?

What’s the point of the story about the graduate students at UBC? Is this relevant to higher ed news? Clearly, it reveals a bias against graduate students [at least those at UBC]. For shame!

cts, at 11:45 am EDT on September 5, 2008

The wrong issue

As someone who thinks Obama is far too conservative, I’m no Palin fan — but it irritates me that public discussion in the next months seems destined to criticize her not for her stands on issues but for doing or being associated with the very things that liberal policies try to make available to all the country’s citizens: running for office without being part of the old boys’ club, having children outside the two-parent stay-at-home-mom paradigm, and now getting a college education however one can manage it. I don’t want Sarah Palin as my vice president, but I want her daughters and all of our children to believe they can improve their lives as best they can without fear of ridicule or scorn from people who took a different track.

ezry, at 2:15 pm EDT on September 5, 2008

VP’S moves

Three of the five moves were to institutions 70 miles apart in the same state,One (Hawaii)was and is known as a “party school” in her first semester The other was to a school in her home state for a “shape up” semester before returning to the lower 48 to finish her degree. To appreciate the north you have to leave it for awhile sometimes.

tim, at 7:40 pm EDT on September 5, 2008

Palin’s Many colleges

To Jim Moore:

Hear, hear!

My daughter attended two colleges while earning a BS in Physics. Does that mean she can’t run for Vice President? ?

Bob Avakian, at 8:30 pm EDT on September 5, 2008

Palin’s education sounds well done to me

Palin experienced living in highly varied regions, displayed great taste for picking areas of scenic beauty, and demonstrated desire and ability to take advantage of educational institutions while living in all of these areas. Sounds like a person with a great love of learning to me. I can’t see why anyone would consider that as inferior to the provincial experience afforded by attending just one college or university.

Prof Ed, at 2:10 pm EDT on September 6, 2008

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