Quick Takes
University of Illinois President Quits
B. Joseph White announced Wednesday that he is quitting as president of the University of Illinois System. White has been under fire for months over a scandal in which separate admissions systems were used for the Urbana-Champaign campus for politically connected applicants. While White has tried to distance himself from the scandal, a state panel found that he "failed to exercise appropriate oversight of persons who reported directly to him and who, on a regular basis, engaged in admissions related abuses" and "personally participated in admissions applications in a manner inconsistent with university-sanctioned principles of ethical conduct and fair dealing."
H1N1 Still on the Rise on Campuses
H1N1 and flu-like illnesses are still on the rise on campuses, according to data released Wednesday by the American College Health Association. The association has been using a national sample of colleges to track the spread of H1N1. Ninety-one percent of the 267 colleges and universities reported new cases in the last week, compared to 83 percent the prior week. The nationwide attack rate was 24.7 cases per 10,000 students, 15 percent higher than the prior week’s rate. Details of the weekly report may be found here.
Aid Requests and Grant Recipients Rise With Economic Woes, Survey Shows
A majority of financial aid officers reported increases of 10 percent or more in the numbers of students applying for financial aid and receiving Pell Grants at their institutions, according to a survey released Wednesday by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Numbers were up pretty much across the board in the survey of nearly 500 aid officers: Sixty-one percent said aid applications were up by at least 10 percent over 2008-9, 63 percent said Pell Grant recipients had risen by 10 percent or more, and 65 percent said they had increased the number of students for whom they used "professional judgment" to reassess financial aid packages because of altered financial circumstances. Even so, more than half said they had at least 10 percent more students than they did last year who still had unmet financial need after receiving federal and state college assistance -- and 55 percent said they were awarding more institutional aid to fill the gap.
Flaws Debated in Campus Crime Rankings
Is Emerson College the most crime-ridden college in the United States? The Daily Beast appears to think so, but not everyone agrees. The Daily Beast, Tina Brown's new Web site, ranked all colleges based on per capita crimes in federal reports, as well as other factors, and Emerson led the list. But as The Boston Globe noted, the federal reports are required to include adjacent neighborhoods -- and in Emerson's case, that means most of the crime that earned the college its ranking had nothing to do with Emerson. The college reported 160 incidents of assaults and robberies in its federal report, but only 6 involved its own students. One Boston news blogger characterized the Web site's formula as: "pi (3.14) x n + crime down the road x things colleges can't control = hysteria."
Oral Roberts U. Erases Its Debt
Two years after Oral Roberts University announced that it was $55 million in debt, the institution has announced that it is debt-free, The Tulsa News reported. The debt skyrocketed under the presidency of Richard Roberts, who quit amid accusations (which he denied) that he was misspending university funds. Much of the university's recovery is due to a large gift that came conditional on governance changes, but university officials said that fund raising generally has bounced back.
Chicago State Revises New President's Contract
Chicago State University's board has moved the start date for its new president -- Wayne Watson -- from August 1 (when he actually started) to October 1 so he can collect a pension from his last job, the Chicago Tribune reported. State law bars Watson from collecting his pension from his tenure as chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago if he takes a new higher education job in the state within 60 days of his departure from his last job. Faculty leaders -- many of whom opposed Watson's selection -- say that the board should never have signed a contract in the first place that violated state pension law.
Sacred Heart Goes Test-Optional
Sacred Heart University has become the latest institution to stop requiring the SAT or ACT for admission. A statement from the university said its new policy "gives students the autonomy to decide what information they believe best represents their qualifications for admission to the university. In so doing, it does not discriminate against students from underserved populations who have historically not performed as well on standardized tests despite their outstanding achievements in high school and potential for success in college. As a Catholic university that lives by its mission of deepening human understanding through diversity and celebrating the unique talents of each student, the decision to adopt a test-optional admissions policy is consistent with the philosophy of life and teaching at the university."
Furor Over Comments on Female Students
Terence Kealey, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, is under fire by student groups for his contribution to a collection in The Times Higher on "The Seven Deadly Sins of the Academy." Kealey's contribution was on lust, and he wrote about female students. "Normal girls -- more interested in abs than in labs, more interested in pecs than specs, more interested in triceps than tripos -- will abjure their lecturers for the company of their peers, but nonetheless, most male lecturers know that, most years, there will be a girl in class who flashes her admiration and who asks for advice on her essays. What to do? Enjoy her! She's a perk," Kealey wrote. "She doesn't yet know that you are only Casaubon to her Dorothea, Howard Kirk to her Felicity Phee, and she will flaunt you her curves. Which you should admire daily to spice up your sex, nightly, with the wife.... So, sow your oats while you are young but enjoy the views -- and only the views -- when you are older." The BBC noted the outrage of student leaders but Kealey -- in a new comment in the Times Higher -- suggested that his critics need a sense of humor and perspective. "Because transgressional sex is inappropriate, the piece uses inappropriate and transgressional language to underscore the point -- a conventional literary device," he wrote.
