Notes in the Margins: For-profit accountability, an ed-job surge and the scourge of laptops
Price Check at Sewanee The University of the South on Wednesday announced that it is cutting total student charges (tuition, fees and room and board) by 10 percent -- one of the more dramatic shifts in tuition policy announced by a competitive private college in recent years. It's seeking to reverse both rising discount rate and increased spending on merit aid. Could other private colleges follow? (Inside Higher Ed) Dan Treadway: Lay Off the Laptop While some may argue that online classes detract from a student's ability to absorb the material, most students that attend large Universities understand that for many students, whether it has an official designation or not, almost every class is an online class. This is because large lecture halls seem better fit for LAN parties than learning experiences based on the number of students who surf the web during class. (The Huffington Post) Higher education job openings surge in 2010 Advertisements for job openings in higher education surged 44.4 percent in 2010 compared to a decline of 27.2 percent in 2009, according to a new report from HigherEdJobs, a source for jobs and career information in academia. Higher education employment grew 3.2 percent during the fourth quarter and was up 3.1 percent for the year, both record highs since at least 2005. (mlive.com) House Budget Amendment Targets Rules Seeking Accountability At For-Profit Colleges A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a budget amendment this week that could make it easier for for-profit colleges to saddle students with debt they cannot repay. The proposed budget amendment -- one of more than 400 introduced this week -- is the latest front of an intense war being fought over the Department of Education's "gainful employment" rules, designed to gauge whether for-profit colleges and some community college programs are setting up students for jobs that will allow them to repay their debts. (The Huffington Post) Film criticizes UC tuition hikes, executive pay "Hanging By A Thread" chronicles a day in the life of a cook on the UC Santa Cruz campus who struggles to make ends meet. The film examines how the UC system has responded to state budget cuts and tells the story "of students being priced out of public education, low wage workers who are teetering on the brink of poverty, and executives' lifestyles (growing) more lavish." (Sacramento Bee)
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