Quick Takes

As legislators in California took steps to toughen their regulation of one of the state's two major university systems, they are poised to strengthen their ability to regulate the other, according to newspapers in the state. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that leading lawmakers plan to introduce legislation today that would strip the University of California of its cherished immunity from regulation by the Legislature, saying they have had enough of controversies over salaries and perks paid to top administrators and what they describe as the resistance to public disclosure and accountability. UC leaders have been acting "absolutely above the law," State Sen. Leland Yee told the newspaper. The proposed amendment to the Constitution would, if passed by the Legislature, require approval of a majority of the state's voters. The California State University System is already subject to the Legislature's actions, and on Tuesday the state Senate -- as if as a signal to the University of California -- approved a bill that would bar Cal State trustees from raising top administrators' salaries or giving them bonuses in years when state funds for the institutions have been cut, the Associated Press reported.

Having just brought the curtain down on a series of negotiations over possible changes to federal rules governing higher education, the U.S. Education Department is starting a new round of deliberations -- and this time, the Obama administration is putting its stamp on the process by exploring several accountability issues related to for-profit higher education. In a notice published in the Federal Register Tuesday, the department said its officials expected one rule making panel to examine possible rules to carry out changes Congress made to the Higher Education Act last summer related to the eligibility of foreign medical and nursing schools to participate in U.S. financial aid programs. But in addition to that set of issues, on which the department is required to regulate, said Daniel Madzelan, acting assistant secretary for postsecondary education, it will also explore a set of priorities that the "new team in town" -- the Obama administration -- is interested in pursuing. Several of those, Madzelan said, are "accountability measures to ensure that the institutions that are participating in our Title IV programs are complying with basic statutory requirements." Foremost among them is whether the federal government's current approach to regulating incentive compensation for college recruiters (which provides a series of "safe harbors" that protect colleges that meet them) is sufficiently rigorous; federal reviews of the compensation plans at several institutions since the safe harbor approach took effect early this decade, Madzelan said, have found that they comply with federal rules but led department officials to ask, "Is this really the kind of thing we want to have happen?" The department might also consider fleshing out regulations that require for-profit institutions to show that they are providing students with "gainful employment," Madzelan said. "We've never put any meat on those bones." Harris Miller, president of the Career College Association, said he could not tell if department officials seemed to be planning to toughen their scrutiny of his member colleges. "There have been no changes in the law" that would invite the department's examination, Miller said. "We know what the rules are, and our schools are supposed to be following them. We preach to our schools all the time the importance of following the regulations, and we look forward to participating in the department's process."

Quinnipiac University announced Tuesday that it is ending its men's indoor track team as a result of a federal judge's order last week that it abandon plans, pending further court review, to eliminate its women's volleyball team, The New Haven Register reported. The judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by supporters of the women's team, who cited irregularities in the way the university counted athletes as evidence of violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. A statement by the university, included in the Register article, says: "Mark Thompson, the university’s senior vice president for academic and student affairs, will immediately begin a comprehensive review of Quinnipiac’s offices of athletic compliance and the athletic director and where necessary, will make appropriate changes in the athletics department to ensure that Title IX reported participation numbers for all men’s and women’s athletic teams are accurate and adhered to by all coaches."

A fledgling group designed to represent the interests but also certify the work of international student recruiters took more formal shape Tuesday. The American International Recruitment Council announced at the annual conference of NAFSA: Association of International Educators that its members had adopted a set of standards for certifying reputable international recruiting agents and that it would pilot the process in the second half of this year, with the aim of starting it in early 2010. The new group hopes to bring credibility to an industry that uses a practice -- paying recruiters to help colleges enroll foreign students -- that troubles some college officials.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to cut state funds for physical education courses at California's community colleges could threaten the institutions' ability to sponsor intercollegiate teams, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The governor's plan would fund physical education as noncredit courses, which would severely cut back revenues that many two-year institutions in the state use to pay coaches for their teams, athletics officials told the newspaper.

Several states are cutting back the payments they make to help residents pay back student loans they took out to enter high-demand fields such as teaching and nursing, The New York Times reported. The loan forgiveness programs are typically sponsored by state lending agencies and nonprofit organizations in the student loan industry whose ability to finance the programs is impaired by the industry's shrinking revenues, the newspaper reported.