Alex FriedrichHere’s the final draft used by President Eric Kaler in yesterday’s State of the University address. Good afternoon. To start with the obvious, we are in the midst of the perfect storm for higher education. Like all land-grant, top-tier public research universities, at the University of Minnesota, the economic crisis fueled severe budget cuts and Read more →
MPR News Intelligence on higher education
Archives for February 2013
Farm Boom Sows Jobs Bounty As the agribusiness industry grows, companies like Cargill, Deere and Monsanto are stepping up hiring, which in turn is stoking demand for agriculture degrees. (The Wall Street Journal) Do colleges care about your GPA? Admissions officers at the nation’s top schools say they barely look at an applicant’s GPA. (USA Today) U.S. Read more →
While I was off yesterday, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system decided to appoint a couple of presidents: Kent Hanson to Anoka-Ramsey Community College and Anoka Technical College; and Connie Gores to Southwest Minnesota State University. The Albert Lea Tribune says Hanson will succeed president Terry Leas, who took a job in Washington Read more →
The radio story I did yesterday for MPR — “Bill would ease college financial challenges for students illegally in Minnesota” — had to leave a few things out, so I thought I’d update you today. (The people in the first two photos of this post are the ones in the piece, by the way.) As Read more →
College Board to make changes to SAT The SAT, the most widely used college entrance exam for generations of students, is getting a makeover. David Coleman, president of the College Board, says it will redesign the test to more sharply focus on the “core set of knowledge and skills” that high school graduates need to Read more →
‘Un-Fair’ Campaign Defended By University Of Wisconsin-Superior Conservative blogs have been criticizingwhat they call “racially charged”advertisements that show Caucasian people with statements like “is white skin really a fair skin?” written on their faces. (The Huffington Post) What Colleges Spend, and What They Charge For poor students, basically, the less selective the college, the more they pay, and the less Read more →
The Trouble With Online College Student attrition rates — around 90 percent for some huge online courses — appear to be a problem even in small-scale online courses when compared with traditional face-to-face classes. And courses delivered solely online may be fine for highly skilled, highly motivated people, but they are inappropriate for struggling students who Read more →
A Degree Drawn in Red Ink Most people assume a degree in the arts is no guarantee of riches. Now there is evidence that such graduates also rack up the most student-loan debt. (The Wall Street Journal) UC Irvine professor stops teaching online course in dispute A UC Irvine professor has stopped teaching midway through a massive Read more →
College Health Plans Respond as Transgender Students Gain Visibility Over the last decade, as activists started pushing colleges to accommodate transgender students, they first raised only basic issues, like recognizing a name change or deciding who could use which bathrooms. But the front lines have shifted fast, particularly at the nation’s elite colleges, and a growing Read more →
The Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal reports that the University of St. Thomas might name its first female leader: If approved by St. Thomas’ Board of Trustees this week, Julie Sullivan would be the St. Paul-based school’s first female and first lay person to serve as president. She is currently the chief academic and Read more →