287. Summer College News

Here are some links to today's stories
about college access and success.
by
Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. College budget cutbacks go outside the box, by Oliver St. John - http://usat.ly/mSPGrt via @USATODAY - "It may be hard to swallow, but budget-cutting is the new normal at the nation's 6,700-plus post-secondary schools. Creative cuts don't save much money, but they symbolize deep overall cuts. With funding down and enrollment up, state support per student hit a 25-year low last year, says Paul Lingenfelter, president of State Higher Education Executive Officers. "The current year will be lower yet."

2. A Numbers Game? by Kevin Kiley - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/q7uFc8 - "And that is what some people worry has been happening at Edison State College, in Florida, where an internal investigation found that about 75 percent of students in three particular programs were allowed to substitute elective credits for required courses -- with many of the substitutions approved in the week before graduation -- so that students could graduate on time and enroll in baccalaureate degree programs. Awarding degrees to students who don’t meet the set requirements would violate state law and accrediting standards, as well as raise questions about the value and integrity of the degrees."

3. Stepping Out, by Doug Lederman - Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/pM6ij3 - "But all of a sudden, groups of career colleges are rushing to team up to align themselves as accountable, transparent and all the other things that consumer advocates and critical policy makers have been accusing the worst of them of not being. The latest to emerge is a collection of 20 regionally accredited for-profit institutions that have adopted a "pledge of public accountability," under which they will publish information about themselves (prices, curriculums, and faculty qualifications) and their students (debt levels, loan repayment, and employment outcomes), with the goal of making the institutions "more transparent to students before they enroll."

4. Save Pell Day (July 25) website: http://www.savepell.org/ - "Stand up for students. Take action on July 25."

5. When Student-Loan Payments Are Due: A Borrower Shares His Experience, by Beckie Supiano - http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/when-student-loan-payments-are-due-a-borrower-shares-his-experience/28473 - "The borrower, Terron Austin, graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2008 with a degree in journalism. Mr. Austin lived at home during much of his college career to cut down his costs, and he had a job lined up at graduation. So, when his grace period ended six months after college, and his first bill was due, Mr. Austin was able to manage the payments.But then, Mr. Austin was laid off."

6. 'Report card' finds most students weak in geography, by Douglas Stanglin - http://usat.ly/nAPjuA via @USATODAY - "Less than one-third of the nation's students achieved at or above the proficient level in geography, according to the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the s0-called Nation's Report Card. Although fourth-graders made gains in achievement since 2001, The Nation's Report Card: Geography 2010 shows that performance by eighth-graders remained flat, and achievement by 12th-graders declined from 1994."

7. The Fiske Guide's Most Interesting Colleges - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/19/the-fiske-guides-most-int_n_902401.html#s311311&title=Cooper_Union_New - "The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2012 made a special effort to include a good selection of four types of institutions that seem to be enjoying special popularity at present: engineering and technical schools, those with a religious emphasis, those with an environmental focus, and those located along the Sunbelt."

8. 10 CHEAPEST Public Colleges For Out-Of-State Students - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/24/10-cheapest-public-colleg_n_883762.html#s297444&title=New_Mexico_Highlands - "US News and World Report rated the cheapest public colleges for out-of-state students on Tuesday and apparently, the more snow there is, the cheaper the school. 8 out of the 10 schools in the list were located in North Dakota, South Dakota or Minnesota."