March 18, 2008Core curriculum meetingYou can get a look at -- and make comments on -- the "tentative learning objectives" of RU's developing core curriculum Wednesday, March 19. Faculty, students and staff are invited to the Bonnie auditorium from 11a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. January 30, 2008RU, meet your deanOr, at least, someone who wants to be your dean. This just in -- well, just a few hours ago -- from Radford University: A couple of dean candidates will be on campus meeting students and faculty on Jan. 31. One of them will still be doing that on Feb. 1. The schedule is below. January 21, 2008No illegal immigrants at RUOver the weekend, Radford University issued a release about the university's policy on illegal immigrants. RU says it doesn't admit illegal immigrants and the administration is convinced there aren't any illegal immigrants enrolled at RU. Read the release below. January 10, 2007Tech joins growing list of med schoolsWith predictions of a looming doctor shortage, it appears that Virginia Tech and Carilion Health System have come together to form a medical school in Roanoke just in time. The proposed school is set to open in 2010 and should be producing doctors a few years before the doctor shortage becomes a major problem. November 20, 2006College presidents salaries on the riseThe Chronicle of Higher Education just released a database on salaries of nearly 1,000 college and university presidents. The results show that salaries in excess of half a million dollars are no longer rare. Outgoing University of Richmond President William Cooper leads the way among Virginia privates with a total compensation package of $593,478 a year as of 2004-05. Public universities have different requirements for reporting salaries so the figures are more up to date. University of Virginia President John Casteen had a total compensation package of $677,980 in 2005-06. Continue reading "College presidents salaries on the rise" » November 8, 2006How will the election affect higher education?As the smoke clears from the 2006 election, higher education publications are starting to discuss what the Democratic gains might mean for colleges and universities. Everything from student loans and financial aid to college prep programs for poor and minority students to federal spending on university research could sway with the partisan winds. The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed lay out what they think this all means online today. September 29, 2006Task force on race at Virginia Tech meets with studentsThursday night's meeting between Virginia Tech's newly formed Taskforce on Race and the Institution and students was devoid of the contentiousness of the meeting last spring that led to its creation. Members of the task force posed questions about the racial climate on campus during a two-hour session. Students discussed everything from social isolation to classroom segregation created by some professors to the way they felt when seeing few minorities during campus tours. One criticism of the task force came from Tech student Devin Stone, who asked for transparency from the task force and questioned if its meetings would be open to the public. Wayne Scales, a Tech engineering professor who is chair of the task force said the meetings would not be open to the public, insisting he wasn't trying to hide anything. Continue reading "Task force on race at Virginia Tech meets with students" » September 21, 2006Who's responsible for keeping Virginia Tech green?I heard an interesting presentation from a couple of students at a faculty senate meeting I attended last week. They came to gauge faculty support for a student fee that would help Virginia Tech be more enviornmentally friendly and energy efficient. They sited an impressive list of figures: For an annual cost of $330,000 the university could acheive a return on investment of 28 percent, lowering energy bills and water consumption through things like new light bulbs and more efficient water infrastructure. The students' arguments appear to have been well received by some of their peers. Last spring the Student Government Association and the Graduate Student Assembly passed resolutions of support of a plan that could add $6 a semester for this "green fee." Continue reading "Who's responsible for keeping Virginia Tech green?" » September 19, 2006Princeton joins Harvard in ending early admissionsIt didn't take long for a second Ivy League school to follow Harvard University's lead in eliminating the early admissions option that many in higher education say is skewed in favor of wealthy students. Because most early admissions programs require students to agree to attend a school before they can compare financial aid packages, some see them as unfair to lower income students. Officials also saw the early admissions process as adding adding to the mania surrounding applying to college. Many schools have higher acceptance rates among early applicants, furthering the inequity in the system in favor of savvy students who receive more guidance from their high school officials on ways to get into selective universities. Virginia Tech's director of admissions Norrine Bailey Spencer wasn't surprised to hear that Princeton University joined Harvard in the move to end the process. Continue reading "Princeton joins Harvard in ending early admissions" » September 13, 2006Harvard to end early admissionEarlier this week Harvard University announced plans to end its early admission program starting with the fall 2008 freshman class. The idea behind the move is that early admission gives an advantage to wealthier students who are often more informed about the process and aren't concerned with committing to a prestigious school early because they don't have to compare financial aid packages. While this notion has been discussed for years, Harvard is the first prestigious university to announce an end to the practice. Harvard doesn't require a commitment from students who apply early, so it doesn't sound like this is a big deal in and of itself. But judging by some of the comments in the wake of the announcement, many higher education officials think Harvard could set off a trend of other schools - some which do require a commitment - dropping the option. There's also the matter of the move being a step in the direction of easing some of the application craziness that permeates high schools across the country. Virginia Tech's director of scholarships and financial aid Barry Simmons said Tuesday that he was happy with the move. August 17, 2006Keeping up with the college JonesesCheck out Greg's story on college rankings today. I especially like the sidebar, which breaks down how area schools tout their own performance. August 16, 2006More rankings craziness...How obsessed are some people about the U.S. News and World Report college rankings? According to the very unofficial numbers (backed up by blurry cellphone photos of what appears to be the inside of a U.S. News magazine) Virginia schools didn't gain much ground. In the rankings of national universities, UVa dropped from 23 to 24 and William and Mary held steady at 31. Virginia Tech gained one spot, moving from 78 to 77. Among liberal arts colleges, Washington and Lee dropped three spots, from 14th to 17th, unofficially. Look for my story in tomorrow's Roanoke Times on college rankings and what, if anything, they mean. August 12, 2006No College Student Left Behind Part IIEarlier this week, the U.S. Commission on the Future of Higher Education voted to approve its final report -- a document that calls for a shock to the American college and university system in areas from financial aid policies to standardized testing for more accountability. One member, David Ward of the American Council on Education, of the 19 refused to sign, and several other representatives of colleges and universities said they found the report "chilling," according to the New York Times' account. The president of Hollins University even wrote an op-ed in the pages of the Roanoke Times on Aug. 3 explaining her problems with the commission's work. I blogged about Nancy Oliver Gray's comments, as well as an earlier draft of the commission's report. But what I think is one of the most interesting bits of the commission's final report is one paragraph near the end that discusses international students. August 4, 2006College ranking craziness...
Next year's "Best Colleges" issue is about two weeks away Did you know that this blog was recently named one of the Top-25 college blogs written by more than one but less than four people at newspapers with less than 100,000 circulation in states that end in -ia? Sorry folks, I got a little carried away. It's that time of year again. As students gear up for the beginning of fall semester and high school juniors prepare to take the SAT's, publications across the country are in the process of telling you where you should go to college. Or at least where you should want to go to. U.S. News and World Report comes out with their annual "America's Best Colleges" guide in a couple of weeks. Results go online on Aug. 18 and hit the newstands the following week. The Princeton Review comes out with their own rankings on Aug. 22. While publications such as the Princeton Review, Kiplinger's and Newsweek have done their share of college rankings U.S. News is the grandaddy of them all and foreshadowed the college ranking explosion when it started doing rankings annually in 1987. Now you can find rankings for the most selective schools, best value schools, best research schools and best schools to go to if you're black, Asian, Latino or disabled. Here's a list of rankings sites to get you started. But many people in higher ed circles aren't happy with U.S. News or most of the other rankings. August 3, 2006Hollins president weighs in on federal commissionA few weeks back, I blogged about the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education's draft reports. In this morning's Roanoke Times, the president of Hollins University wrote an op-ed about her thoughts on one particular recommendation -- to create a national student tracking system in order to boost accountability. Nancy Oliver Gray wrote: "... this proposal is a costly and unnecessary increase in bureaucratic red tape that threatens every students' right to privacy and security of personal information." In her commentary, Gray mentioned the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Most education journalists and academics know about this data source, but it can be a great help to parents and students interested in seeing how their colleges (or prospective colleges) compare with other schools. The wonderful thing about this database is that every college -- whether private or public -- has to provide the same information. It also includes information on campus safety, thanks to the requirement of the Jeanne Clery Act of 1990. (Be warned, though: The security data is always at least a year behind. Right now, the most recent year of data is 2004.) July 7, 2006Update on library policyCheck out today's update on Wytheville Community College library's possible change of heart about publishing the names of patrons with overdue books. For background on the policy, see my first blog entry about the issue, where there's a link to the original story by The Roanoke Times' very own Albert Raboteau. July 6, 2006College librarians get tough
Have you returned your library books on time? It all started when Albert was searching the Wytheville Community College Web site. The college had posted in their online newsletter the names of people who owed less than $2, going back to at least 1998. A quick check of the college's Web site this morning reveals that the link to the archived issues of the newsletter is now broken. (Only the current edition and one back edition appear as of this morning, without any trace of the "obligations" section.) The older issues had been up there as late as 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 5. Perhaps the college was swayed by the comments of the president of the American Library Association, who said publishing the names "seems a little extreme to me." What do you think? Should the college have stuck to their method? And, has anyone out there ever been egregiously late in returning an overdue book? Did you only return it when a librarian or collections agent came after you or did realize your error on your own? Come on, fess up. July 3, 2006No College Student Left Behind?Recently, the U.S. secretary of education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education released a preliminary report of its findings. The commission, formed in September 2005, was "charged with developing a comprehensive national strategy for postsecondary education that will meet the needs of America's diverse population and also address the economic and workforce needs of the country's future," according to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Education. Some in higher education worry that this commission will come out with a final report that would call for a No Child Left Behind-type law for higher education -- including the standardized testing that many educators are uneasy about. But many issues the panel has highlighted are cause for some alarm about how prepared students are for college and what they in turn learn at the undergraduate level. The draft report released in June spells out four specific areas of concern in higher education: access, affordability, quality and innovation and accountability. Some of the more intriguing findings:
What do you all think of these stats? I'm particularly interested to see whether educators -- teachers in K-12 or professors in higher ed -- would share their experiences on the preparedness issues. June 30, 2006So long, Larry He resigned from the top post at the Stanford of the East (see my bio for my declared bias) in February. His five years of leadership at the institution have been controversial, to say the least. He clashed with celebrity faculty like Cornel West, who later left for Princeton, as did K. Anthony Appiah, another well-known black studies scholar. Summers made national headlines when he was quoted as saying that inherent gender differences may be one explanation for the dearth of women in math and science. And he generally wrangled with the greater faculty, who were used to having more say in the direction of the university. But many undergraduates say his departure is a great loss to current and future students. They seemed to think the place needs to be reformed and redirected in just some of the ways that Summers did. So, what about powerful but controversial university presidents? What can they do to repair their missteps -- with faculty, students or whomever they might offend? What do you all think of the president of your university? How hard is it to make change in the academy? May 19, 2006Governor Kaine discusses research rankings of Virginia universitiesI had the chance to speak with Gov. Tim Kaine before he addressed graduating Virginia Tech students at commencement last Friday. I asked him what he thought about the latest National Science Foundation rankings that came out last month. For the third year in a row, no Virginia universities were among the top-50 universities in the nation in research spending. "That's a very troubling thing," he said. "In the critical area of NSF rankings we haven't stacked up well...One of the things about the budget there isn't a dispute about whether this (increased funding for university research) should be done." Kaine categorized Virginia as being at "the end of the beginning" when it came to funding for university research and was optimistic about future funding because it was a bipartisan cause. Continue reading "Governor Kaine discusses research rankings of Virginia universities" » May 12, 2006Chat with College Board President Gaston CapertonI had the opportunity to pose a few questions to Gaston Caperton, former governor of West Virginia and president of the College Board, the national association that is best known for administering the SAT's and advanced placement programs. Caperton, a native of West Virginia and UNC-Chapel Hill alum, was in Blacksburg to give the keynote address at Virginia Tech's graduate commencement today. His father graduated from Tech in 1927. Here's a sample of some of his comments on: - Reports that this year's SAT, with its new writing section, caused students to score lower on the traditional math and verbal sessions due to burn out: "We haven't got all the data...the scores go up and down from year to year...We don't see any unusual situation except for one: that is students are not taking the SAT's as many times as they usually do." He explained that scores were down about five to eight points across the board and students usually do better on the test the more times they take it. Continue reading "Chat with College Board President Gaston Caperton" » April 28, 2006Minority faculty at Virginia TechIn my last blog I mentioned how the same statistics can mean completely different things to different people, using the "3 percent is not enough" chant by protesters at Tech last week as an example. I was able to track down some figures in that blog showing that, while Tech's student body was certainly not diverse by any measure, it wasn't the worst in the state. Now, thanks to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, I have numbers on faculty demographics at Tech and other four-year publics in Virginia. April 11, 2006Bits and pieces from Tech Board of Visitors RetreatWhile I was busy writing about pressing news items when Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors met a couple of weeks ago, there were several other issues discussed at the board's weekend retreat that bear watching. The board talked about possible demographic changes on campus. Their six-year plan to SCHEV includes bringing in another 1,000 graduate students. This isn't surprising given the importance of graduate students for enhancing research standing as the clock on President Charles Steger's Top-30 research goal continues to count down. Continue reading "Bits and pieces from Tech Board of Visitors Retreat" » |
About this blog
Rhode Island native and Virginia Tech reporter Greg Esposito posts on everyday college life, trends and issues affecting the 35,000-plus students in the New River Valley and beyond.
Tim Thornton, who is old enough to have children attending college, is still taking classes and is still fascinated by colleges, the students who populate them and the bureaucrats who operate them. His reporting beat is Radford University.
West Virginia native Anna Mallory blogs on student life topics at Virginia Tech, Radford University, New River Valley Community College -- and beyond.
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