Black students at Georgetown University are protesting the campus humor magazine's attempt to satirize a controversy over race related to the April Fool's edition of The Georgetown Hoya, the main student newspaper, the Associated Press reported. The Hoya's joke issue featured an article -- denounced as offensive by many students -- calling for more sex between black and white students on campus. Editors of The Georgetown Heckler, the humor magazine, say they were trying to poke fun at that controversy with an article that described Hoya staffers celebrating the holiday season with a "cross lighting." The article is illustrated with a photograph of hooded Ku Klux Klan members lighting a cross, with the caption "Jubilant Hoya staffers taking part in the annual tradition."
Higher Education Quick Takes
Quick Takes
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has selected 19 colleges and universities for its controversial probe of whether colleges are favoring male applicants in admissions decisions, and whether any such preference is appropriate. The commission, seeking to minimize costs, selected colleges close to Washington, but included a range of four-year institutions, including public and private, historically black and predominantly white, religious and secular, and institutions of varying degrees of admissions competitiveness. While commission members say that they are just investigating a relevant issue, some advocates for female athletes view the effort as a way to raise questions about Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The colleges and the characteristics cited by the commission in selecting them are as follows:
- Historically black colleges: Howard University, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Virginia Union University.
- Religious colleges: Catholic University of America, Loyola College in Maryland and Messiah College.
- Highly selective private institutions: Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University and Gettysburg College.
- Very selective private institution: University of Richmond.
- Moderately selective private institutions: Goucher College, Goldey-Beacom College, Washington College and York College of Pennsylvania.
- Moderately selective public institutions: Shepherd University, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, University of Delaware and University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
A new report, "Taking Stock: Higher Education and Latinos," summarizes research about the progress of Latino students in higher education and the views of political leaders and students themselves on that progress -- and areas where not enough progress has been made. The report urges a renewed national focus on increasing educational attainment by Latinos. Such a focus might include a media campaign, goals for enrollments and graduation rates, and increased support (along with accountability measures) for institutions that educate large numbers of Latino students. The report was prepared by Excelencia in Education.
As negotiations and lobbying continue, Pittsburgh's City Council is slated to vote today on a plan to impose a 1 percent tax on tuition, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, and the outcome is unclear. Earlier articles suggested that the necessary five votes were there for passage, but the newspaper quoted one of the council members who had been expected to vote Yes as saying she was undecided, and others may want to delay a vote. Higher education leaders and students have been strongly opposing the idea, and a court fight is likely to follow any vote to impose the tax.
An organization that seeks tougher enforcement of immigration laws is suing Texas over a state law that gives in-state tuition rates to some students who lack the documentation to show that they have the legal right to live in the United States, The Houston Chronicle reported. The suit charges that the law violates federal statutes, but defenders argue that there is no such federal ban. The suit says that at least 8,000 students currently benefit from the law.
The barrage of dueling entreaties and warnings about the future of the federal student loans continued Tuesday, as four leading Congressional Republicans told college presidents in a letter that "the elimination of the [Federal Family Education Loan Program] is not imminent" because "there remains widespread, bipartisan support in Congress" to continue it. Many Republicans oppose the Obama administration's plan to end the lender-based guaranteed loan program and shift all federal lending to the competing Direct Loan Program, for which Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Democratic leaders, in multiple letters, have encouraged college leaders to prepare. Tuesday's letter from Sens. Michael B. Enzi and Lamar Alexander and Reps. John Kline and Brett Guthrie accused Democrats of "prematurely pressur[ing] schools" to switch programs.
Eastfield College is being sued for allegedly violating the religious freedom of students in a ceramics class by barring them from making crosses in the class, WFAA News reported. The Texas community college says that the class bans many relatively common objects students might create -- including Christmas items, dog bowls, and mugs with names of states or football teams -- not to limit religious expression, but to encourage student creativity.
The acting inspector general of the U.S. Education Department said in a letter Monday that her office would investigate Republican charges that senior department officials inappropriately encouraged college officials to support the proposed elimination of the Federal Family Education Loan Program. In asking the inspector general last month to conduct the review, Rep. John Kline, the senior Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, expressed concerns that department officials may have exhorted community college and other leaders to lobby for the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which would shift all federal lending to the government's Direct Loan Program. A spokeswoman for Rep. George Miller of California, who heads the education committee, said in a news release late Monday that "[w]e believe the Department is acting in the best interests of students and families, especially as lenders continue to withdraw from the federal student lending business, and welcome the upcoming investigation."
Stanford University has decided not to try to sell about $5 billion in endowment assets in an auction, determining that these assets are starting to show gains in value, The Wall Street Journal reported. The planned sale was seen as a sign of how challenging wealthy universities were finding the market at a time that they hold many illiquid assets. Bids on the planned sale were in the range of 80 to 85 cents on the appraised value, the Journal said.
The Big Ten Conference will today announce that it is considering adding a 12th member, the Chicago Tribune reported. (The conference, its name notwithstanding, already has 11 members.) In recent years, conference officials have dismissed the idea of adding a member, but the Tribune reported that attitudes have changed as some members have watched other conferences earn extra money and attention by having a football playoff game, something the conference could do with an additional member. Among those that might get asked to join: Rutgers and Syracuse Universities and the Universities of Cincinnati, Louisville, Missouri and Pittsburgh.
