Media Center > Daily Higher Education News Digest

Quote of the day:
In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true.
John Lilly

CPS students score higher on tests (Chicago Sun-Times)
Chicago Public high school students posted some of their strongest gains in a decade on assessment tests last spring, but reading remains a red flag. After years spent harping on the need to improve reading, Mayor Daley said a drop of just under one percentage point in the reading portion of the Prairie State Achievement Exam “concerns me greatly.”

Study: Students take what Google gives (Chicago Sun-Times)
Give college students an assignment, and the first thing many will do is to Google the subject, according to a Northwestern University study that offers this suggestion: Don't stop at the top search result because first isn't necessarily best.

Illinois a finalist for 'Race to the Top' funding (Chicago Tribune)
Illinois advanced as a finalist in the second round of a national contest that could provide nearly $400 million to improve the state's public schools, federal education officials announced today. Illinois will vie against 18 other finalists for a shot at the Race to the Top grants that will provide $3.4 billion in financial incentives to spur districts to change the way they test students, evaluate educators and improve low-performing schools.

As Race to the Top competition intensifies, so do education reforms (Christian Science Monitor)
In announcing the Race to the Top finalists Tuesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the program part of ‘a quiet revolution’ under way in education reform.

Goodbye to Those Overpaid Professors in Their Cushy Jobs (Chronicle of Higher Education)
The notion that college professors lead easy lives isn't quite dead, but it may soon be history.

Career Ed school cuts space, rent rate at suburban building (Crain's Chicago Business)
(Crain’s) — In a sign of just how good it is to be a suburban office tenant these days, a Career Education Corp. school cut its rent by more than 30% at a Hoffman Estates building while slashing its space and extending the lease for two years.

OPINION - The Need for More Sensitivity! (Diverse Issues In Higher Education)
Whenever I talk with college-access and -success professionals who work with students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, I am struck by their overwhelming sensitivity to how great the needs are for their students.

Minority-Serving Schools Gain Victory in Science Consolidation Battle (Diverse Issues In Higher Education)
A U.S. Senate panel has rejected White House plans to consolidate federal science programs for minority-serving colleges and universities, noting that these postsecondary institutions reap significant gains under the existing system.

Pell Shortfall Persists (Inside Higher Ed)
WASHINGTON -- A Senate panel wavered a bit from its House of Representatives counterpart, producing a 2011 funding bill Tuesday that aims to protect Pell Grants from cuts -- but doesn't fully fund the program -- and boosts funding to the National Institutes of Health.

Private Partners (Inside Higher Ed)
SAN FRANCISCO – With resources drying up and debt mounting at many colleges, the idea of letting private developers finance building projects is increasingly seductive. But these arrangements are not without risks, and ratings agencies are watching some of them develop with skepticism, panelists told a group of college business officers here this week.

Illinois chosen as a 'Race to the Top' finalist (Journal Gazette & Times-Courier)
PEORIA — Illinois is among 19 states and the District of Columbia named finalists in the second round of the federal "Race to the Top" school reform grant competition, giving them a chance to win a share of some $3 billion.

Quote of the day:
“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
Marcel Proust

Grad students will be schools' science role models (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Northwestern University graduate students will serve as role models for Chicago-area science students in a program called "Reach for the Stars."

Opinion: A first-rate education for all (Chicago Tribune)
The Obama administration's Race to the Top is an ambitious challenge grant program that will divvy up $4.35 billion among states that lead the way on education reform. The program, which evaluates state efforts under a rigorous point system, produced only two winners in the first round, Delaware and Tennessee.

Webb Calls for Ending Diversity Programs (Diverse Issues In Higher Education)
RICHMOND, Va.— U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., has called for ending government-run diversity programs in a newspaper column, saying they have disadvantaged struggling Whites and hurt the cause of racial harmony.

Policing Plagiarism Abroad (Inside Higher Ed)
It’s not uncommon for colleges to discontinue academic programs overseas for financial reasons. But Centenary College, in New Jersey, is shutting down an M.B.A. program in Asia to contain a plagiarism epidemic. About 400 students are currently enrolled in the program at locations in Beijing, Shanghai and Taiwan.

Getting to Know the CFO (Inside Higher Ed)
SAN FRANCISCO – The ever-growing population of college chief financial officers is dominated by well-educated, middle-aged white men who clash with deans and never feel they have enough money for their institutions, according to a survey released today by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO).

Calling from Hilltop: Here's Jay (Journal Gazette & Times-Courier)
PEORIA — Jay Leno will christen the Bradley University arena with laughs during the school's homecoming festivities this fall.

Commission to begin study of how to pay for higher education in Illinois (News-Gazette)
CHICAGO – A panel to study higher education finance in Illinois and recommend options for the General Assembly has its first meeting Tuesday. The Higher Education Finance Study Commission is made up of legislators, academic finance experts, and a cross-section of education, business, labor and nonprofit leaders.

OPINION - Their DREAM Can Wait No Longer (The Huffington Post)
Over the past few months, the topic of immigration has continued to fuel debate among legislators, the media, and the American public. With federal immigration reform currently stalled in Congress and controversial state laws like the one passed in Arizona continuing to threaten the livelihood of hardworking immigrant families, our nation faces a difficult crossroads.

U.S. Releases Rules on For-Profit Colleges (The New York Times)
The Obama administration on Thursday released its controversial proposed regulations to end federal student aid to for-profit colleges whose graduates do not earn enough to repay their loans.

SIC alum reaches pinnacle of collegiate competitive speaking (The Southern Illinoisan)
Speechless. That's a rare state for Shawneetown native Angie Dunk, given that she has been involved throughout her college career in the competitive speaking world known as forensics.

Opinion: Remembering a lifetime of great teaching and service (The Southern Illinoisan)
When someone makes an impact on another person's life, the person who was affected never forgets it. Often, though, the person who is making that impression doesn't even know it or does so as a matter of routine and never thinks twice.

Unpaid internships can cost -- or pay off for -- college students (USA TODAY)
Pennsylvania State University sophomore Elysia Mann, 18, is spending her summer in New York City working at two fashion internships — both unpaid.

Civil rights leaders, Sec. Arne Duncan talk education reform (USA TODAY)
Civil rights leaders are criticizing Obama administration education reforms aimed at turning around low performing schools and closing the achievement gap for minority students.

Quote of the day:
"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents that in times of prosperity would have lain dormant."
Horace

Obama Cracks Down on For-Profit Colleges, Links Loans to Income (Bloomberg.com)
The Obama administration released a proposal that would tighten for-profit colleges’ access to federal student aid, threatening growth in the industry that received $26.5 billion in U.S. funds last year.

$250K grant eases NU student's juggling act (Chicago Sun-Times)
As a member of the world's only marching band on ice, Josh Waitzman learned to skate and play the trumpet at the same time. He later added another activity to his juggling act: sneaking a peek at the blond playing first clarinet.

Universities Can Save Millions by Cutting Administrative Waste, Panelists Say (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Universities must attack their growth in administrative spending by undertaking a thorough review of their business operations and convincing campus groups of the necessity of major restructuring, panelists from three prominent universities said at the annual meeting of university business officers on Sunday.

Why Do You Think They're Called For-Profit Colleges? (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Michael Clifford believes that education is the only path to world peace. He never went to college, but sometimes he calls himself "Doctor."

DeVry expands program that fights high school student dropouts (Crain's Chicago Business)
(Crain's) — DeVry Inc. is joining forces with former General Colin Powell to boost high school and college graduation rates in 10 cities across the country.

Illinois prepaid college tuition program loses big on ShoreBank investment (Crain's Chicago Business)
The state's prepaid college tuition program is caught in the downward spiral of ShoreBank. The Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which manages $1 billion invested for the college educations of Illinois students, has written off all but $2 million of a $12.7-million investment it made in ShoreBank two years ago, just before the South Side community lender hit the skids.

University of Illinois budget in the black (Daily Herald)
The University of Illinois is still waiting for $279 million in unpaid state appropriations, but its budget is in the black. Vice President Walter Knorr told the trustees that oversee the university's three campuses that the school is $16 million under budget.

Hampshire ready to host ECC's new public safety training center (Daily Herald)
Pingree Grove has pulled itself out of consideration to be the future home of Elgin Community College's new regional public safety training center, while neighboring Hampshire wants in.

SIU board approves projects (Edwardsville Intelligencer)
The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees approved two major projects on the SIUE campus, totaling about $17.1 million, at the board‘s regular meeting conducted recently.

Closer Look at 'Gainful Employment' (Inside Higher Ed)
WASHINGTON -- Today’s issue of the Federal Register includes the U.S. Department of Education’s notice of proposed rule making on "gainful employment," explaining the rationale and anticipated effects that the regulations will have on all of higher education but, in particular, on the swelling for-profit sector.

Student Aid Remains a State Priority (Inside Higher Ed)
Even as the economy began to collapse in 2008, most states found a way to protect from cuts the grant aid they give state residents to attend college, a new study finds. The annual survey, by the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs (or NASSGAP), reveals that in the 2008-9 fiscal year, state spending on need-based and non-need-based grant aid for undergraduates rose by 5.6 percent over 2007-8.

For-profit colleges may be a bust for taxpayers (Los Angeles Times)
WASHINGTON — For-profit colleges are booming as the unemployed turn to education, but some members of Congress and Obama administration officials say they are growing at the expense of taxpayers and that students are often exploited.

What can you learn at a for-profit school? Just about anything (The Hechinger Report)
What can a student learn at a for-profit school? The growing sector offers everything from diplomas in massage therapy to MBAs – on campuses and online – along with certificates in areas such as “addiction counseling” and “diversity studies.” Online, students can even earn a J.D. from Kaplan’s Concord Law School or a doctoral degree in Business Intelligence, Public Safety Leadership, Emergency Management or Epidemiology from Capella University.

For-profit colleges make big news (The Hechinger Report)
In the past decade, for-profit colleges have risen from relative obscurity to front-page news.

How will the new rules affect community colleges? (The Hechinger Report)
Already hit by rising enrollments and funding cuts, community colleges will face even more demand as high-cost for-profits lose students due to new Education Department loan rules. Proposed rules linking loan eligibility to default rates and debt ratios will affect only eight percent of for-profit students in five percent of programs, Education Secretary Arne Duncan predicts.

Putting the brakes on the growing for-profit school industry? (The Hechinger Report)
It’s easy to understand the appeal of for-profit colleges, especially with the push to get more Americans to earn degrees.

Administrative Glut (The New York Times)
WILLIAMS is the second-oldest college in Massachusetts. Its bucolic campus hosts about 2,000 undergraduates, attracted by its small size, traditional liberal arts curriculum and generous faculty-to-student ratio of 1 to 7.

The Latino Lag (The New York Times)
THE odyssey of Hilda Segovia offers a vivid illustration of why Hispanic students are often less prepared to weather the adventure of college and more vulnerable to giving up once they begin.

Ahead of the curve (The Southern Illinoisan)
CARBONDALE - The American Disability Act celebrates its 20th birthday today but Southern Illinois University Carbondale's accessibility came far earlier.

SIU zoology grad student captures national award (The Southern Illinoisan)
CARBONDALE - A zoology student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale has won a national award for assisting fisheries development. Bonnie Mulligan won the John E. Skinner Memorial Award from American Fisheries Society

OPINION - In Defense of For-Profit Colleges (The Wall Street Journal)
A diverse group of critics has recently been sounding alarms about for-profit colleges. The naysayers assert that for-profits have low graduation rates, poor career placement, excessive profit margins, and high default rates on loans. Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) and financier Steven Eisman have even compared the growth of for-profits to the subprime mortgage bubble.

For-Profit Schools Rise On Relief Over Oversight Plan (The Wall Street Journal)
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of for-profit education companies surged Friday as investors expressed relief over a long-awaited U.S. Department of Education regulatory proposal that was less harsh than feared.

U.S. to Scrutinize For-Profit Career Colleges (The Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. Department of Education on Friday will propose a measure to penalize for-profit career colleges for graduating students with high debt-to-income ratios.

Civil rights groups skewer Obama education policy (The Washington Post)
It is most politely written, but a 17-page framework for education reform being released Monday by a coalition of civil rights groups amounts to a thrashing of President Obama’s education policies and it offers a prescription for how to set things right.

Plan would crack down on for-profit college industry (USA TODAY)
The Education Department, concerned that some students are graduating from short-term training programs with excessive debt and worthless degrees, is cracking down on the for-profit college industry.

Quote of the day:
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
Sidney J. Harris

Editorial: If teachers freeze pay, reverse some layoffs (Chicago Sun-Times)
It turns out Chicago wasn't bluffing about teacher layoffs. About 400 Chicago Public Schools teachers were let go this week. And by early August, an additional 1,000 teachers will be cut, CPS tells us.

Editorial: $100,000 teachers? (Chicago Tribune)
Let's get one thing straight, right from the start: We love $100,000 teachers. We wish Illinois had more of them. You wouldn't know it to listen to Ken Swanson, president of the Illinois Education Association, who didn't like Tribune reporter Diane Rado's story about the concentration of teachers earning $100,000 a year in some suburban school districts.

Editorials: Public vs. private pay (Chicago Tribune)
In the recession's unhappy aftermath, teaching jobs look better than ever: The days of lousy pay and good benefits have given way to good pay and great benefits, at least compared with a beaten-down private-sector work force.

Education Department Takes Aim at For-Profits With Student-Debt Rule (Chronicle of Higher Education)
After a five-week delay, the Education Department will release a rule Friday that would penalize for-profit colleges that saddle students with unmanageable amounts of debt.

College's N. Chicago facility to fill need for pharmacists (Daily Herald)
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science began work Thursday to help fill a nationwide shortage of pharmacists as it broke ground on a facility that will house its new college of pharmacy.

College Board Releases ‘Scorecard’ Report on U.S. Degree Completion Progress (Diverse Issues In Higher Education)
WASHINGTON – Building on the movement to boost college completion rates in the United States, the College Board on Thursday released a new report meant to be the first “scorecard” in a series of assessments on how well the nation is doing at getting more of its citizens to earn college degrees.

Texas: Lawmaker wants you to get bachelor’s quicker (Houston Chronicle)
The head of the Senate Higher Education Committee is urging university leaders to try harder to get students through college in four years, a standard that has slipped as students increasingly take six years or longer to earn a bachelor's degree.

Buying Local, Online (Inside Higher Ed)
That online education knows no geographical limitations is considered one of the platform’s more disruptive qualities. To entrepreneurs, it means that for-profit educational companies, such as the University of Phoenix or Kaplan University, can grow very large and make a lot of money, very quickly.

Completion State by State (Inside Higher Ed)
College completion has quickly become a national problem and a federal priority. But the solutions and answers are likely to lie largely with the states, and two new reports lay out the scope of the challenge in individual states and offer guidance for state leaders on how best to bolster postsecondary attainment.

Splitting the Difference on Gainful Employment (Inside Higher Ed)
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Education today released its long-awaited proposed regulations to define “gainful employment,” the mechanism that makes non-liberal arts offerings at for-profit colleges eligible for federal financial aid.

Languages Plus (Inside Higher Ed)
Timothy A. Bennett strives toward a new vision for the foreign language department. “You can think of a university as a little continent full of different kingdoms,” said Bennett, chair of the foreign languages and literatures department at Wittenberg University, a Lutheran liberal arts college in Ohio. “I’d prefer that language departments suffused the curriculum rather than just be another kingdom among many kingdoms.”

Opinion: COLUMN: Four things about President Fite that won’t be forgotten (Journal Gazette & Times-Courier)
I remember Gilbert Fite's time as president of Eastern Illinois University for four things. It's probably unfair to condense a president's term of office to so few points but it's what I recall most. Fite, who served as president of EIU from 1971 to 1976, died this month in Florida.

Though state still owes $279 million, UI is under budget (News-Gazette)
CHICAGO – Still owed $279 million by the state, the University of Illinois is faring well on a couple of fronts, including tuition, its hospital and energy costs. At a Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, Vice President Walter Knorr said that between careful pricing strategies and conservation, the university was $16 million under budget.

Once a Leader, U.S. Lags in College Degrees (The New York Times)
Adding to a drumbeat of concern about the nation’s dismal college-completion rates, the College Board warned Thursday that the growing gap between the United States and other countries threatens to undermine American economic competitiveness.

Administration proposal aims to tighten oversight of for-profit colleges (The Washington Post)
Education Secretary Arne Duncan proposed Thursday that for-profit colleges be required to show through certain new measures that their graduates are not saddled with too much debt, an initiative he said was meant to protect students from "a few bad actors" in the industry.

Plan would crack down on for-profit college industry (USA TODAY)
The Education Department, concerned that some students are graduating from short-term training programs with excessive debt and worthless degrees, is cracking down on the for-profit college industry.

Quote of the day:
"The virtue of all achievement is victory over oneself. Those who know this victory can never know defeat."
A.J. Cronin

ISU leaders to unveil sneak peek of long-term plan (Bloomington Pantagraph)
NORMAL — Illinois State University leaders on Friday will unveil a sneak-peek version of the latest 20-year campus master plan. The presentation is part of the ISU board’s quarterly meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. in the Old Main Room of Bone Student Center. The final proposal should go before the board in February.

400 CPS teachers to get the ax this week (Chicago Sun-Times)
It has begun. The first round of the long-anticipated, school-based layoffs by Chicago Public Schools to deal with a record $370 million budget deficit will claim 600 staffers by week's end.

National learning standards make the grade (CNN.com)
Washington (CNN) -- Setting national standards for U.S. students has been tried in the past without success -- but a new state-led effort is gaining momentum, according to an official of an educational think tank that compiled a nationwide study comparing standards.

Retooling the GI Bill (Inside Higher Ed)
WASHINGTON – Gathered at a hearing here Wednesday, U.S. senators grappled with legislation that would attempt to simplify the often dizzying formula for calculating veterans benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. But proposed legislation to streamline the process could wind up reducing benefits for some of those attending private colleges, higher education leaders argue.

Key Title IX Ruling (Inside Higher Ed)
A federal judge determined Wednesday that competitive cheerleading, at least the brand offered at a small Connecticut institution this past season, is not a varsity sport that can be counted for the purposes of meeting gender equity requirements.

A few good sponsors wanted for this fall’s UIS homecoming (Springfield State Journal-Register)
Want your company’s name on the official University of Illinois Springfield 2010 Homecoming T-shirt? It’s there for $500. For just $100, your name can be on one of the banners that stick to the side of cars carrying VIPs in the homecoming parade.

Scholarships up in air (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
With just over a month before the start of the fall semester, college students and their parents have yet to learn the full impact of last month's slashing of two key Missouri scholarship programs.

Students disclose illegal status as part of push for immigration law reform (The Washington Post)
On a patch of asphalt outside the White House this week, Renata Teodoro, Maricela Aguilar and scores of other students are risking deportation simply by sharing their full names and immigration status with anyone who asks.

Report aims to boost number of U.S. college grads (USA TODAY)
Education leaders and federal and state policymakers will gather today in Washington to discuss how the USA can reclaim its position as a world leader in educational attainment — a goal President Obama also set shortly after his inauguration.

Quote of the day:
Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.
Solon

ISU provost's husband steps down as school's president (Bloomington Pantagraph)
NORMAL -- The husband of Illinois State University Provost Sheri Noren Everts has stepped down as president of Wayne State University in Detroit, and will be a visiting professor at ISU starting this fall.

CPS maintains diversity after admission changes (Chicago Sun-Times)
With race tossed as an admissions factor -- replaced by socioeconomic status -- Chicago Public Schools was able generally to maintain the same level of racial diversity in its most elite public schools, new data shows.

Editorial: Bold approach needed on diversity in schools (Chicago Sun-Times)
Chicago last fall created a convoluted system for picking students for its most sought-after schools -- all in a bid to protect the few islands of racial diversity that flourish in an otherwise highly segregated school system.

Some schools lose diversity under new admissions policy (Chicago Tribune)
An overhaul in the admissions process for Chicago's selective public schools had little impact on overall diversity, but individual buildings show much more variance — in some cases growing more segregated for the 2010-11 school year, CPS officials said Tuesday.

Advocates Urge Quick Action on Rules Governing For-profits (Diverse Issues In Higher Education)
WASHINGTON – For-profit, postsecondary institutions face intense scrutiny as the U.S. Department of Education examines responses to proposed regulations designed to ensure students receive valuable educational experiences that will enable them to enter and compete in the nation’s work force.

Vying for Limited Slots (Inside Higher Ed)
Community colleges pride themselves on open admissions policies. But an increasing number are moving to competitive admissions in nursing programs. Officials at Southern State Community College, in Ohio, recently announced that the college would abandon the first-come-first-served approach of its associate degree nursing program next spring and adopt competitive admissions standards.

Gilbert Fite, former EIU president, dies (Journal Gazette & Times-Courier)
CHARLESTON - Former Eastern Illinois University President Gilbert Fite has died in Florida. The EIU Alumni Association sent a message Tuesday that Fite had died. A South Dakota government website announced Tuesday that Fite, who served as EIU's fourth president from 1971 to 1976, died July 13 in Florida, where he was living in retirement at Fort Myers.

Despite letter from UI, religion instructor doesn't expect to teach this fall (News-Gazette)
URBANA – A letter from the University of Illinois says controversial Professor Kenneth Howell could be back in the classroom this fall, pending a review by a faculty senate committee. But Howell said that's not what he's been told.

New UI president's executive assistant will earn $195,000 (News-Gazette)
CHICAGO – President Michael Hogan's new executive assistant will earn $195,000. A former assistant provost, she could also serve as a sociology professor here. Lisa Troyer of the University of Connecticut will start July 26, though she has been serving on an interim basis since July 2.

Hannibal-LaGrange College prepares to become 'University of Hannibal' by end of year (Quincy Herald-Whig)
HANNIBAL, Mo. -- Mark Twain's boyhood hometown may be the site of a university by the end of this calendar year.

Why should child's education depend on bounce of the ball? (Southtown Star)
Commentary: The lottery balls bounced inside a clear bowl as the number holders anxiously watched. I was among them, in a middle-school commons. Our number was 10. But would it be our lucky number tonight?

Many States Adopt National Standards for Their Schools (The New York Times)
Less than two months after the nation’s governors and state school chiefs released their final recommendations for national education standards, 27 states have adopted them and about a dozen more are expected to do so in the next two weeks.

Booze for some, not for others? (The Southern Illinoisan)
.CARBONDALE - Concerns of "elitism" led members of the Carbondale City Council to table a proposal to grant a liquor license for the sale of alcohol in certain parts of SIU Arena and Saluki Stadium.

Quote of the day:
"To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have."
G.W. Lyon

New Earmark Limits Make Universities Desired Partners, but Some Just Say No (Chronicle of Higher Education)
It's not as if the University of Kentucky couldn't use more money. The public flagship, like many in the country, has had to absorb a series of budget cuts from its cash-strapped state.

Underrepresented Minorities Hit Hard by California Graduate Study Fees (Diverse Issues In Higher Education)
Dental student Hector Godoy easily relates to his patients at a University of California, Los Angeles clinic. Like many of them, Godoy never went to a dentist as a child. His exposure to medical professionals was limited to community clinics when home remedies failed. “There weren’t opportunities for check-ups or preventive medicine,” he says.

Conference: Access Programs Will Increasingly Help Students Consider College (Diverse Issues In Higher Education)
WASHINGTON – As the Obama administration continues its push to make America’s work force the most college-educated in the world, college access programs such as GEAR UP will play an increasingly crucial role in getting students to view themselves as college material.

Call for Better Sustainability Assessment (Inside Higher Ed)
An open letter circulating among university sustainability officers has stirred debate about which of the many assessments of institutional sustainability is most useful and accurate. Though the number of assessments of university sustainability has ballooned in recent years, the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s College Sustainability Report Card still typically attracts the most attention and is one of the most comprehensive.

Avoiding the Presidency? (Inside Higher Ed)
Chief academic officers from many postsecondary institutions express little interest in becoming college or university presidents, but provosts at liberal arts colleges are even less likely to make the big move.

California: Looking Locally for Financial Support (Inside Higher Ed)
Last month, amid unprecedented state budget cuts for public higher education, the San Mateo County Community College District became the first community college in California in decades to win the authority to levy a local property tax specifically to help fund its overcrowded institutions.

New Rules Proposed for U.S. Aid to Students at Foreign Institutions (Inside Higher Ed)
The U.S. Department of Education is today proposing new, stricter rules on eligibility of students to receive federal financial aid to attend colleges and universities outside the United States. Some of the rules increase financial reporting requirements for the institutions seeking to have their students be eligible for the aid. Some rules are specific to foreign medical schools.

Opinion: Accreditation’s Accidental Transformation (Inside Higher Ed)
An accrediting organization, in the past year, grants accreditation to a university despite concerns regarding the institution’s assignment of credit hours for certain courses. What happens next? The U.S. Department of Education’s inspector general recommends a review that could lead to suspension or termination of the accreditor’s recognition and the U.S. House of Representatives holds a hearing on how accrediting organizations review institutions’ credit hour policies.

Fewer Americans Believe College Is a Good Investment (PR Newswire)
BLOOMINGTON, Ill., July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Rising tuition and an uncertain economy could be casting doubts over the value of investing in a college education, according to a COUNTRY® Financial survey. The number of Americans who think college is a good financial investment plunged to 64 percent, down 16 points from last year and 17 points from 2008.

Textbook law aimed at helping lower cost of higher education (Reading Eagle)
Students must be told of ways that they can save money buying, selling textbooks

Checking up on TEC (The Southern Illinoisan)
Gov. Pat Quinn was briefed Monday on the progress of Transportation Education Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, calling it an investment in Southern Illinois' future.

Duncan declares an "absolutely historic'' moment in Minnesota; SHEEO and CCSSO together at last (Twin Cities Daily Planet)
U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, addressing a hotel banquet room in Minneapolis packed with the nation's top state education officials, said July 16 that college leaders and K-12 leaders "have frequently acted as if they occupy different universes.''

Officials come together to align K-12 standards, higher ed (USA TODAY)
MINNEAPOLIS — For years, educators and policymakers have been talking about the need to better align K-12 and higher education so that students coming out of high school have the skills and knowledge they need to do college-level work, as well as reduce the need for remediation once students are in college.

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