Higher Education Quick Takes

Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general, was easily re-elected Tuesday. Conway, a Democrat who is leading a 22-state joint investigation of for-profit colleges, has become a pariah to some Kentucky for-profits, whose administrators had donated to the campaign of his challenger, Todd P'Pool. Conway received a late endorsement from Howard Dean, and withstood Sarah Palin's recent backing of his opponent. The former Senate candidate has pledged to continue his pursuit of bad actors among for-profits, which includes two active lawsuits, five open investigations and the multi-state group of attorneys general.

The board of Pennsylvania State University, struggling to respond to a growing sex-abuse scandal, vowed in a statement issued late Tuesday to take "swift, decisive action." The statement also said that trustees are "outraged by the horrifying details" emerging. "We hear those of you who feel betrayed," said the statement, which announced that the board on Friday will appoint a new committee "to determine what failures occurred, who is responsible and what measures are necessary to insure that this never happens at our University again and that those responsible are held fully accountable."

Many are calling for the ouster of everyone -- including the legendary football coach, Joe Paterno -- who knew of possible sex abuse against children and didn't do everything possible to stop it. But on Tuesday, hundreds of students -- with the crowd getting as large as 1,500 -- rallied for Paterno. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the students marched to Paterno's home, shouting "We are Penn State!" and "Hell no Joe won't go."

The Daily Collegian, the student newspaper at Penn State, published video of Paterno from Tuesday night telling the students how proud he is of them, and vowing that "we're always going to be Penn State." (UPDATE: On Wednesday, Paterno announced plans to retire at the end of the current football season.)

With voters in an anti-tax move, many higher education leaders didn't see 2011 as an ideal time for bond referenda, but a few went forward -- with mixed results:

• Texas voters approved a measure that will authorize the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to issue bonds to create a long-term funding source for a student loan program, Bloomberg reported. Educators said that the authorization was key to meet rising demand for student loans.
• Voters in the San Mateo Community College District failed to give the necessary super-majority to authorize $564 million in bonds for facilities improvements and technology at the California system's three colleges, Peninsula Press reported. The measure received support from 52.8 percent of voters, not the required 55 percent.
• In North Carolina, voters narrowly approved a quarter-cent sales tax increase that will finance construction and renovation at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, The Asheville Citizen-Times reported.

The people in charge of Football Bowl Subdivision teams, institutions and conferences are “overwhelmingly” white and male, but at 19, the number of minority head coaches reached a record high in the 2011 season, according to a new study from the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. “Even though there was progress toward diversity, we can hardly say we are close to looking like America when it comes to who is leading college sport,” said Richard Lapchick, the institute’s director and principal author of the report. Of the college presidents at the 120 institutions, 90.8 percent are white and 81.7 percent are male. Among athletics directors,  88.3 percent are white and 95.8 percent are male. Commissioners of the institutions' conferences are all white and male. In total, 91.2 percent of the 365 campus leadership positions accounted for in the report are filled by white people. Seventy-five percent and 84.2 percent of the college presidents and athletic directors, respectively, are white men (only three presidents are minority women). In contrast, black students make up the majority -- 52.1 percent -- of the athletes playing football for the colleges.