Higher Education Quick Takes

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Dartmouth, U. of California Alter Policies on Sex Assaults
Monday, March 10, 2014 - 3:00am

Dartmouth College and the University of California System have announced changes in policies for dealing with sexual assaults.

At Dartmouth, new penalties are being proposed to assure strict punishment. Under rules announced for consideration Saturday, expulsion would be mandatory in cases "involving penetration accomplished by force, threat, or purposeful incapacitation or where an assault involving penetration is motivated by bias," and where a student has previously been found responsible for a sexual assault. In addition, the college said that in "other cases involving penetration, a strong presumption in favor of expulsion."

The University of California on Friday announced new policies for the system on preventing and dealing with sexual assaults, The Los Angeles Times reported. The changes will increase reporting requirements, require new training for many employees and provide victims with more information on the potential punishments of those who have been accused.

 

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Colorado Bars Philosophy Professor From Campus
Monday, March 10, 2014 - 3:00am

The University of Colorado at Boulder has suspended and barred from campus Dan Kaufman, an associate professor of philosophy, without saying publicly why, The Daily Camera reported. Kaufman declined to comment. In January, the university announced plans to reform the philosophy department, which an outside report found to be highly dysfunctional, but there was no indication of whether Friday's news was related to the plans announced in January.

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Instant Feedback on Each Lecture
Monday, March 10, 2014 - 3:00am

Tel Aviv University is introducing a new app that will provide almost immediate feedback for professors on their lectures, Haaretz reported. In the last five minutes of class, students will be questioned via the app on whether the class was interesting that day, how they would evaluate the professor's performance and how they rank the lecturer overall - on a scale of 1 to 100. A pilot of the app is about to start, used only in courses of lecturers who have volunteered for the project.

 

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Felician Sees Enrollment Drops, Cuts 16 Faculty Jobs
Monday, March 10, 2014 - 3:00am

Felician College, in New Jersey, has announced that the college will not renew the contracts of 16 faculty members at the end of the academic year, NorthJersey.com reported. Felician does not have tenure. The cuts are due to falling enrollment. Felician's enrollment is 2,000, down from 2,400 in 2010.

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Ga. Tech Professor Accused of Shaking Down Students
Monday, March 10, 2014 - 3:00am

Georgia Tech is moving to fire Jochen Teizer, an associate professor of construction engineering, over allegations that he forced students to pay him money -- a total of about $20,000 - that was intended for their stipends, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The university has said that it will reimburse the students for the funds paid to Teizer, who could not be reached for comment. WSBTV News reported that the students were graduate students from Asia whom Teizer supervised, and that not all of them were fluent in English.

 

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Missouri Backlash Against Western Governors U.
Monday, March 10, 2014 - 3:00am

Missouri lawmakers have attached to a budget bill a ban on using state student aid at institutions that do not have, for purposes of accreditation, a headquarters in the state. The Columbia Daily Tribune reported that this is an effort to limit the use of state funds at Western Governors University Missouri, an offshoot of the competency-based online university. Governor Jay Nixon is a big proponent of Western Governors, but some legislators say that it will take money that is needed for other institutions in the state.

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Boston U. Women's Basketball Coach Accused of Bullying
Monday, March 10, 2014 - 3:00am

Boston University is investigating allegations that Kelly Greenberg, the women's basketball coach, has engaged in bullying and emotional abuse of players, The Boston Globe reported. The investigation follows the decision of four women to leave the team this year, with all four saying that they had been emotionally abused. One said she was so damaged that she thought about suicide. Similar complaints were filed against Greenberg by her team seven years ago. Greenberg declined to comment.

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73 Arrested at UMass 'Blarney Blowout'
Monday, March 10, 2014 - 3:00am

Authorities arrested 73 people Saturday in "Blarney Blowout" parties at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the Associated Press reported. Four police officers were injured in a day of clashes with students, some of whom threw beer cans, beer bottles and snowballs at the police.

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Academic Minute: Bullying
Monday, March 10, 2014 - 3:00am

In today’s Academic Minute, Chad Jensen, associate professor at Brigham Young University, suggests that the type of teasing a child may experience can have some very specific results. Learn more about the Academic Minute here.

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Yeshiva U., Just Weeks of Cash on Hand, Downgraded
Friday, March 7, 2014 - 3:00am

Yeshiva University’s many financial woes continue, according to yet another recent downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service, which considers Yeshiva's bonds to be junk.

The highly respected Jewish university in Manhattan has only enough cash on hand to cover seven weeks of operations, though it has a $75 million line of credit that can cover an additional 42 days, according to Moody’s. The university also revealed, in this week’s belated release of its audited financial statements for last year, that its operating losses were $173 million from summer 2012 to summer 2013. Moody’s expects a similarly dismal performance this year.

Yeshiva also got a warning from its accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which found insufficient evidence that the university is assessing student learning.

On the upside, the university has a $1.1 billion endowment, relatively stable enrollment and a plan to sell $250 million worth of real estate. Yeshiva is working on a plan to turn things around, but Moody’s analysts worry it will take too long, so the rating agency’s outlook for the university is negative. “Given the severity of deficits and low liquidity, we anticipate it will take several years before management, in conjunction with consultants, can stabilize financial performance,” the analysts wrote.

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