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Showing posts from April, 2021

Florida Career College to Close

Florida Career College to Close Doug Lederman Fri, 01/26/2024 - 03:00 AM Byline(s) Doug Lederman from Inside Higher Ed https://ift.tt/avZRfLi

Among colleges announcing vaccine requirements, public colleges in Republican states are largely absent

Image:  As the number of colleges requiring COVID vaccines continues to grow, many institutions mandating the immunizations for students fit a certain profile: more often private than public, selective, located in a Democratic-leaning state. There are exceptions, of course. But the pattern is unmistakable. Just 15 of 181 colleges with COVID-19 vaccine requirements included in a list maintained by The Chronicle of Higher Education are located in states that voted for Trump in 2020. Of those 15, just one, Cleveland State University, in Ohio, is a public university. Public and private institutions in the same state are taking different approaches on vaccine requirements. After Duke and Wake Forest Universities, selective private institutions in North Carolina, announced they would require vaccines for all students this fall, the News & Record reported that the University of North Carolina would not. Similarly, Grinnell College , a private liberal arts college in Iowa,

Community college leaders and others react to Biden's $1.8 trillion plan

Image:  President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan is a game-changer for community colleges and minority-serving institutions, campus leaders say. The $1.8 trillion plan, proposed Wednesday , could bring a much-needed windfall to institutions serving students most hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan is a grab bag of opportunities for open-access institutions. It dedicates $109 billion toward two years of free community college and $39 billion for two years of tuition at minority-serving institutions for students with a household income of less than $125,000. It also invests $62 billion for “completion and retention activities at colleges and universities that serve high numbers of low-income students” and allocates $80 billion to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $1,400 per student. Biden has “really gone big -- I mean, for real,” said Walter Kimbrough, president of Dillard University, a historically Black institution in New Orleans. In his 17 years leading the u

Elizabeth City State University faces backlash for housing police on campus

Image:  Students, alumni and affiliates of historically Black colleges and universities are angry about a decision by Elizabeth City State University to house law enforcement officers in residence halls on the North Carolina campus. They feel particularly betrayed because the out-of-town police were brought in to manage the growing crowds of protesters who have been gathering in the city in response to the recent police killing of a Black man -- and are now being housed by a Black college. Critics of the university, an HBCU that is part of the University of North Carolina system, said the decision adds insult to injury. Students who live on campus were told to vacate their dorms just four days ago because of the protests, only to learn afterward that police would occupy the buildings. Elizabeth City State University officials announced the plan Wednesday evening, and the response was swift and unsparing. “Disgusting” and “embarrassing,” said commenters on social media , wh

Report: Administrations could better help graduate student mental health

Image:  The past year has seen an increased focus on mental health and well-being, as students and faculty have undergone immense stress during the pandemic. But although some graduate students have tried to bring attention to it, their mental health has escaped more dedicated focus from administrations. A new report from the Council of Graduate Schools and the Jed Foundation now finds that while graduate students face unique mental health and well-being challenges, they are underrepresented in research and in campus messaging. One recent study suggested that one-third of graduate students report symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or depression. But in a CGS and Jed survey of institutions, only 58 percent said they had a model, framework or plan to promote the mental health and well-being of graduate students. Suzanne Ortega, CEO of CGS, said the fact that graduate students are fewer in number than undergraduates likely plays a role in that. Th

Senior scholars keep pace with younger colleagues in publishing, study says

Image:  A new study of academic productivity says that older professors, sometimes criticized as being academic deadwood, publish as much as their younger colleagues. These senior scholars do tend to publish fewer conference papers than younger colleagues but keep pace with them in terms of published articles, the paper says. Crucially, senior professors publish more chapters and books than their younger counterparts, reflecting the valuable synthesis of knowledge and insight gathered over the course of a career. The study, published in Scientometrics , is available here . “Senior scholars are blamed using anecdotal evidence for some things that are as extreme as reducing national scientific advancement, for instance, simply by failing to produce research at the same levels as their colleagues,” said study co-author Anthony Olejniczak, director of research at Academic Analytics, which tracks research metrics for colleges and universities. “I hope that our study adds somethi

Race and National Identity in Contemporary France

How do you fight racism in a supposedly postracial society? In today's Academic Minute, the University of Central Arkansas's Katelyn Knox examines one instance in Europe. Knox is an associate professor in the department of languages, linguistics, literatures and cultures at Central Arkansas. A transcript of this podcast can be found here . Section:  Academic Minute File:  04-30-21 Central Arkansas - Race and National Identity in Contemporary France.mp3 Event's date:  Thursday, April 29, 2021 - 3:30pm Insider only:  from Inside Higher Ed https://ift.tt/3t6bOm3

Friday Fragments

Blog:  Confessions of a Community College Dean   I got an email from a reader this week that raised an issue I hadn’t considered.   (A quick word of apology to readers who’ve written in the last week or two and haven’t received responses yet.)   He asked if the prospect of free community college might be temporarily depressing enrollments.  Alternately, if the proposal takes a while, it might temporarily depress enrollments.  The idea is that a student might choose free college next year over paying tuition for college this year.   I very much doubt that it had any effect on enrollments this spring.  The timing doesn’t work; spring registrations mostly happened in November and December.  For a while there, it didn’t seem like a sure thing that we’d even have a peaceful transition of power.  (In a sense, we didn’t.)     For the fall, it’s slightly more plausible.  But my sense is that many community college students and prospective students have developed a pretty heal

To retain BIPOC women faculty, colleges must remove the obstacles they face (opinion)

Category:  Conditionally Accepted They must remove the major roadblocks such academics face, writes Chavella T. Pittman, who provides some key recommendations for doing so. Job Tags:  Academic administration Editorial Tags:  Career Advice Show on Jobs site:  Image Size:  Thumbnail-horizontal Is this diversity newsletter?:  Is this Career Advice newsletter?:  Disable left side advertisement?:  Trending:  Live Updates:  liveupdates0 Most Popular:  5 from Inside Higher Ed https://ift.tt/3e19pEJ

Analysis: Youth Voter Turnout Rose Substantially in 2020

Half of Americans ages 18 to 29 cast a ballot in the 2020 general election, an 11-percentage-point increase from 2016, when 39 percent did, according to a new analysis of youth voter turnout from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. Researchers at the Massachusetts institution found higher youth turnout rates in states with more policies in place that make voting and registration easier, including automatic registration, same-day registration, early voting and no-excuse absentee voting policies. Youth voter turnout was highest (57 percent) in states that mailed ballots to all registered voters and lowest in states with the most restrictive vote-by-mail policies (42 percent). Turnout was lower among 18- to 19-year-olds (46 percent), than among individuals in their 20s, a pattern in line with historical trends. In South Dakota, 32 percent of people under 30 voted, but just 12 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds did. New Jersey

College Health Group Recommends Requiring COVID Vaccines

The American College Health Association is recommending that colleges require vaccination against COVID-19 for all students coming to campuses this fall. "The American College Health Association (ACHA) recognizes that comprehensive COVID-19 vaccination is the most effective way for institutions of higher education (IHEs) to return to a safe, robust on-campus experience for students in fall semester 2021," the association said in a statement . "Therefore, where state law and available resources allow, ACHA recommends COVID-19 vaccination requirements for all on-campus college and university students for fall semester 2021, in accordance with the IHE's normal exemption practices, including exemptions for medical contraindications. This recommendation applies to all students who live on campus and/or participate in on-campus classes, studies, research, or activities." In considering whether to mandate COVID-19 vaccines, which are currently approved through the

Academic Minute: Race and National Identity in France

Today on the Academic Minute : Katelyn Knox, associate professor in the department of languages, linguistics, literatures and cultures at the University of Central Arkansas, explores how to fight racism in a purportedly postracial society. Learn more about the Academic Minute here . Is this diversity newsletter?:  Hide by line?:  Disable left side advertisement?:  Is this Career Advice newsletter?:  Trending:  Live Updates:  liveupdates0 from Inside Higher Ed https://ift.tt/3eJSeqm

More Support for Terminated Linfield Professor

Hundreds of professors from scores of institutions have already signed a petition in support of Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, whom Linfield University fired this week . Pollack-Pelzner, formerly a chaired professor in Shakespeare studies at Linfield, recently went public with allegations of anti-Semitism involving members of the Board of Trustees. Pollack-Pelzner, who is Jewish, said the hostile environment intensified after he, as the sole faculty trustee, pressed board members to do more about report of sexual misconduct in their ranks. Linfield had previously investigated Pollack-Pelzner’s concerns, finding that no university policies were violated. Dissatisfied with how things had progressed internally, Pollack-Pelzner began discussing his experiences on social media and in news articles. After a faculty vote of no confidence in President Miles Davis and David Baca, board chair, and after Linfield cut off university Listservs to eliminate mass faculty communication, the universit

Many colleges have come up short in their responses to violence against Asian Americans (opinion)

“I am pissed,” read many people’s signs at an anti-Asian-hate rally that I attended the week after March 16, when eight people, including six Asian women, were killed in the Atlanta spa shootings. As an American-born Chinese woman who was raised in the liberal, multicultural enclaves of New York City and Los Angeles, I still grew up enduring my fair share of subtle microaggressions and outright racism. But despite this and knowing about the historical racism Asians have faced in the United States, as well about the landmark racetrack in my hometown that was used as a Japanese internment camp during World War II, I have never felt particularly “woke” about Asian Americans as an issue or field of study. I have always thought the racism we have faced as a racial group and as individuals is unjust, but I have never felt deeply wounded by it. Until now. In the days following the shooting, I closely followed the reaction of the news media that surrounds us, of public K-12 education in