Senator Claire McCaskill is set today to release her survey on campus practices related to sexual assault and she gave Bloomberg an early look at some data. The results show that one in five colleges do not provide faculty and staff members with training on how to respond to reports of sexual assault or issues faced by victims. In addition, the survey found that 31 percent of colleges don't train students on how to prevent sexual assaults and how to deal with assaults that do take place.
The U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees the budget for the National Endowment for the Humanities on Tuesday proposed legislation to reduce that agency’s funding by more than 5 percent in the coming fiscal year.
The Republican-led panel released the text of a funding measure, which would cut NEH’s budget by $8 million, ahead of a scheduled subcommittee vote on Wednesday. (A similar cut is proposed for the National Endowment for the Arts.)
The Obama administration had asked Congress to keep the federal humanities agency’s funding at its current $146 million. A budget blueprint released earlier this year by Representative Paul Ryan, the Republican who leads the House Budget Committee, proposed ending all federal funding to the NEH, which many members of his party have long derided as an unnecessary federal expenditure.
The regional accrediting commissions for New England and the Mid-Atlantic states placed several colleges on probation at their most recent meetings.
Burlington College, in Vermont, announced that it had been cited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges' Commission on Institutions of Higher Education for failing to meet the accreditor's standard for financial resources. College officials attributed the problem to debt the private four-year institution accumulated when it purchased property previously owned by a local diocese.
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, meanwhile, placed three institutions on probation late last month: Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, in Pennsylvania; New York's Unification Theological Seminary, and the University of the Potomac, in Washington. Harrisburg was cited for failing to meet the commission's standards on institutional resources and assessment of student learning; the Unification seminary for shortcomings on those two standards as well as others related to "mission and goals" and student admissions and retention; and University of the Potomac for planning and resource allocation, institutional resources), institutional assessment, and assessment of student learning.
One in five women and one in five black Ph.D. recipients in science, technology, engineering or math leave those fields for careers outside STEM, according to a new report from the American Institutes for Research. That's compared to one in six STEM Ph.D.s over all who leave the sciences for other careers. Women of all races are also significantly less likely to report research and development as a primary work activity. Lori Turk-Bicakci, lead author, said such "brain drain" restricts the potential advantages gained from diverse perspectives in STEM. Data was drawn from the National Science Foundation's longitudinal Survey of Doctorate Recipients; most of those surveyed have had their degrees for 10 years or more. The report says that 40 percent of those who leave STEM work in the private, for-profit sector. The report doesn't specify how many Ph.D. recipients working in academe in particular left the STEM fields.
Weeks after its annual gathering, Instructure, which produces Canvas, finds itself without a chief technology officer. Joel Dehlin's resignation came as a surprise to the company, said Devin Knighton, Instructure's director of public relations. The news was first reported by e-Literate. Dehlin joined the company in the summer of 2013. While the company searches for Dehlin's replacement, CTO duties will be handled by Instructure's vice presidents, Knighton said.
Case Western Reserve University has settled a law professor's lawsuit alleging that the institution retaliated against him for reporting alleged sexual harassment by its former law dean, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported. Raymond Ku, a professor and former associate dean at Case Western's law school, had alleged that he lost his administrative post after informing university administrators about incidents he and others witnessed in which then-Dean Lawrence Mitchell caressed a female staff member and made inappropriate sexual comments to others.
Mitchell later resigned, and Case cited inaccuracies in Kuh's lawsuit. But in a joint statement reported by the newspaper and published on the website of Kuh's lawyer, the university and Kuh said they had resolved their differences, and both sides said they believed the other had acted in the best interests of the university and its students.
Terms of the agreement were not revealed, except to note that Ku has been named director of the law school’s newly created Center for Cyberspace Law & Policy.
Faculty members at the Scripps Research Institute, a free-standing research institution in California and Florida, are organizing to oppose a possible merger with the University of Southern California, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The scholars are criticizing both the idea of a merger and what they say was a lack of input in developing the plans, which have not been finalized. Administrators at Scripps did not respond to requests for comment.
Seven public urban universities have been selected to receive $225,000 grants each to support the development and testing of new models for the sector, dealing with issues such as improved student success and cost efficiencies. The institutions are: Florida International University, Fresno State University, Georgia State University, Portland State University, Temple University, University of Akron, and University of Illinois at Chicago. The grants are from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities, in a program supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In today's Academic Minute, Denise Dearing, a professor of biology at the University of Utah, explains her research on pikas -- rabbit-like mammals -- as a way to study the impact of climate change. Learn more about the Academic Minute here.
.
Francisco Cigarroa, chancellor of the University of Texas System, released a statement late Monday outlining why he told Bill Powers, president of the flagship Austin campus, that he must resign promptly or be fired, The Texas Tribune reported. "The relationship between President Bill Powers, the Board of Regents and the Office of the Chancellor has been strained to the point of becoming fractured for several years," Cigarroa said.
More on the UT Situation
With a showdown pending in
Texas later this week, we'll
discuss the Bill Powers situation
on This Week @ Inside Higher
Ed, our weekly audio newscast.
Click here to receive an email reminder about each week's
program, and here to learn
more.
Cigarroa did not attribute the break to any one single issue, but to "a breakdown of communication, collegiality, trust and a willingness to work together for the good of the university." He said "nothing could be further from the truth" than the view of many Powers supporters that the chancellor has acted on the direction of the governor or a few regents close to the governor.
With Powers resisting the demand that he resign soon, offering instead to do so after the next academic year, the issue now goes to the university's Board of Regents, which meets Thursday.
Faculty, alumni and student leaders -- along with many legislators -- have expressed outrage against the move to oust Powers, saying that he has done an excellent job leading the university.
Inside Higher Ed
1015 18th Street NW
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20036
Ph: 1-202-659-9208
Fax: 1-202-659-9381
