Notes in the Margins: Football, binge drinking and the tuition bubble

At Penn State, crisis management meant monitoring social media On Nov. 1, Penn State hosted its second “Social Media Summit” for dozens of employees who oversee university-related Web sites, blogs and social media accounts. It was an event much like those happening at colleges across the country, as schools attempt to control their image and brand online. (The Washington Post)

Who needs analytical skill? Our colleges have football. The massive higher-ed failure exposed by the book Academically Adrift has gotten little notice. There has been almost no follow-up in the U.S. media. We are too busy with schemes to fix the BCS. Football beats complex reasoning, 2,489 to 0. (The Washington Post)

A Radical Solution For America’s Worsening College Tuition Bubble The best thing federal policymakers can do is help colleges hit rock bottom as quickly as possible, before the opportunity for recovery is lost. That will mean creating a new policy structure allowing for new higher education providers—not all of them colleges—to help students learn. (The New Republic)

CDC: Young adults down 9 drinks when they binge  College-age drinkers average nine drinks when they get drunk, government health officials said Tuesday. That surprising statistic is part of a new report highlighting the dangers of binge drinking, which usually means four to five drinks at a time. (Associated Press)

Campus Speech Codes Decline Again The vast majority of the 392 colleges and universities analyzed still maintain policies that seriously infringe upon the free speech rights of students. For the fourth consecutive year, however, this percentage has slowly dropped. Despite these positive trends, FIRE's report identifies troubling new legislative and regulatory threats to free speech on campus. (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education)

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