Quick Takes
U.S. Announces New Rule Making Process, Focused on 'Integrity' and Foreign Schools
The U.S. Education Department announced Wednesday that it would hold two rounds of negotiations to help it craft new federal regulations governing foreign institutions and a set of issues concerning the "integrity" of federal financial aid programs. The announcement, which came in the Federal Register, suggests that the department is preparing to ramp up its regulation of wrongdoing by colleges; the list of issues it wants the "integrity" committee to discuss includes "misrepresentation of information provided to students and prospective students." The notice is likely to intensify speculation among financial analysts that the Obama administration plans to intensify its scrutiny of the for-profit sector of higher education, since several of the issues it identifies (such as incentive compensation paid to recruiters) are most prevalent there.
Protests at Wyoming Over Naming Center for Cheney
The University of Wyoming is facing protests over its decision to name a center for international students after Dick Cheney, the former vice president, who donated $3.2 million that was used for the program, the Associated Press reported. Those circulated petitions and planning a protest for Thursday, when Cheney will be on campus, say that the university's reputation will be hurt by the association with Cheney, given his role in promoting the invasion of Iraq and support for interrogation techniques that many view as torture. But in an op-ed in The Casper Star-Tribune, the university's president, Tom Buchanan, defended naming the center for Cheney. "Whether you are Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, Catholic or Protestant, gay or straight, white or black, you are welcome at the University of Wyoming. Should we subject potential donors and the purpose of their gift to public referendum? I think not," Buchanan wrote.
Rutgers Profs Delay Raises to Minimize Cuts
Rutgers University faculty members have voted to agree to delays in salary increases, with the goal of assuring that the university can avoid layoffs and significant cuts that would have been necessary without the savings from not having to add salary funds, The Star-Ledger reported. The faculty union, affiliated with the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, demanded certain concessions in the deal. Among them: No across-the-board increases in teaching loads.
As a Canadian, Hopkins President Can't Oversee Classified Work
Johns Hopkins University has long been an important player in defense research, managing the Applied Physics Laboratory, a major facility that attracts hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the Pentagon. Ronald Daniels, the new president at Hopkins, can't oversee the work there. That's because, as The Baltimore Sun reported, Daniels is a Canadian citizen. As a result, Daniels can't obtain a security clearance that would be needed to oversee the center. Under an arrangement approved by Pentagon, Hopkins has created a special panel of trustees that will directly oversee the lab, without involvement by Daniels. In time, the arrangement may not be necessary, as Daniels is starting the process of becoming a U.S. citizen.
The 2009 Higher Education Price Index: 2.3%
Academe's own version of the inflation rate, the Higher Education Price Index, fell to 2.3 percent in 2009, down sharply from the 5 percent rate in 2008, the Commonfund Institute announced today. The price index is designed to be a more accurate reflection of colleges' and universities' costs than is the broad Consumer Price Index, because it uses products and services that are more typical of what postsecondary institutions purchase in a given year. The Commonfund Institute added two features to the index this year, aligning HEPI with the July to June fiscal year that most colleges use and for the first time providing regional figures, which ranged from 3.4 percent in the New England region to 2.0 percent in the East South Central and South Atlantic regions.
Pearson Formally Kicks Off Test to Challenge TOEFL
Pearson on Tuesday formally unveiled its new test of English skills for those seeking an education in the United States or at colleges elsewhere with instruction in English. The new test has been in the works for some time, with strong support from the Graduate Management Admission Council, which represents M.B.A. programs and has been dissatisfied with the Test of English as Foreign Language, which is run by the Educational Testing Service. Pearson said that hundreds of institutions worldwide are ready or getting ready to accept the new test, called the Pearson Test of English Academic. Sixty-two of the business schools in GMAC so far plan to allow applicants from non-English speaking nations to use the Pearson test. ETS was already facing growing competition from the International English Language Testing System, known by its acronym, IELTS and co-sponsored by the English testing entity of the University of Cambridge, and British and Australian organizations that encourage international education. A statement from ETS Tuesday said: "The addition of a new testing program reflects the growing and robust nature of the global English learning marketplace.... The key to any program's success depends on university acceptance. With 7,000 participating universities and colleges worldwide, TOEFL remains the leading choice of admissions officials due to its exceptional reliability and quality."
Think Tank in Vegas
The Brookings Institution and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas announced Tuesday that they would collaborate to bring a branch of the Washington-based think tank to casino central to study the problems and issues of the West. The joint venture, the Brookings Mountain West Initiative, will be financed by private funds and modeled on the think tank's Metropolitan Policy Program.
