January 31, 2008The price of free speech?A student government association cut off a student newspaper's funding because the paper hired a lawyer because the SGA often meets in secret. The SGA has relented. Sort of. Temporarily. Read about it here. December 5, 2007Students rob bank for tuitionStressed before finals? Looking for creative ways to scrape together cash for next semster's tuition? You might want to think twice before following the lead of two Ohio students. Andrew Butler and Christopher Avery are both facing to prison for 20 years after pleading guilty this week to aggravated roberry charges. Butler told a judge in Hamilton County (Ohio) courtrrom that he was "stressed" and needed quick cash to pay for school when he decided to rob a bank in mid July. Butler and Avery are scheduled to be sentenced two days after Christmas. December 12, 2006Conspicuous consumption collegesToday's New York Times has a story about how some colleges actually raise tuition with the hopes it will make them more desirable to applicants. It seems that parents and students don't want to go to schools perceived as "cheap." They'd rather look at universities with big sticker prices that offer financial aid. With the cost of attending college continuing to soar, it might depress some young parents to see that there's a counter-intuitive reason for colleges to raise tuition, in addition to the more traditional reasons they give. Conspicuous consumption collegesToday's New York Times has a story about how some colleges actually raise tuition with the hopes it will make them more desirable to applicants. It seems that parents and students don't want to go to schools perceived as "cheap." They'd rather look at universities with big sticker prices that offer financial aid. With the cost of attending college continuing to soar, it might depress some young parents to see that there's a counter-intuitive reason for colleges to raise tuition, in addition to the more traditional reasons they give. November 29, 2006Financial aid bits and piecesI met today with Barry Simmons, director of scholarhips and financial aid at Virginia Tech. Simmons is also vice president of a new state association to promote access to higher education. The Commonwealth College Access Network was established in July and will soon change its name to the Virginia College Access Network. The group will be holding a conference in the Omni Richmond Hotel Dec. 4-6. It's open to the public and covers topics such as the application process, earning college credit in high school, the admissions process, Latinos in higher education and grant applications. October 26, 2006Caribbean conference on financial aid cancelledIt looks like Virginia Tech financial aid employee Tony Sutphin isn't the only person whose plans to attend a conference in the Caribbean sponsored by private lender EduCap were nixed this week. The student lender, which does business as Loan to Learn, cancelled its all-expenses paid, financial aid conference scheduled for February in the wake of media criticism of the event. In a letter sent to invitees, EduCap Senior Vice President George Pappas blamed the cancellation on "inaccurate reports in the media regarding the financial aid community and the unfortunate perception these reports have created." The conference's location -- at a $655-a-night luxury resort in the West Indies -- along with the growth of the private student loan industry, brought the company and Sutphin under scrutiny because of the obvious conflict-of-interest implications. "I'm sure you will find it noteworthy that more than 80 percent of summit attendees are not members of the financial aid community," Pappas letter says in an attempt to refute the implications. "Furthermore, Loan to Learn reaches nearly all of the students it serves directly, without reliance on referrals or 'preferred lender lists' from colleges and universities. October 25, 2006Cost of college going upInside Higher Ed has a nice breakdown of a report by the College Board Tuesday on the expense of higher education. Four year public colleges increased tuition 6.3 percent on average this year. Compare that to the 8.3 percent hike for in-state students at Virginia Tech and the 12 percent jump at Radford University. But the cost of tuition, fees and room and board at both Radford ($12,050) and Tech ($11,739) is still lower than the national average for four-year publics ($12,796). September 26, 2006Reforms to improve college access to poor picking up steamUVa's move yesterday to end early decision was yet another sign that schools are becoming more conscious about economic diversity - or lack thereof. Known for both its academic rigor and its preppy popped collars, UVa typically finds itself atop lists for public school selectivity and at the bottom in economic diversity. Officials there hope that eliminating the early decision program, which locks in students who apply early regardless of the financial aid package, will lead to more spots opening up for students who can't pay their way and typically need to compare college costs before deciding where to go. While UVa is the first school in the state to go this route, it isn't the only Virginia school where students from low-income families are nearly non existent. Continue reading "Reforms to improve college access to poor picking up steam" » September 20, 2006Kiplinger's ranks affordability of collegesIn case you haven't seen enough rankings, Kiplinger's Personal Finance came out with its annual rankings of the most affordable colleges. As usual, Virginia schools fared well, though not as well as last year. UVa and William and Mary maintained their No. 3 and 4 positions but Virginia Tech dropped from 20th to 22nd. James Madison dropped from 17th to 24th. The biggest (and only) winner of the group was the University of Mary Washington, which climbed from 22nd to 16th. 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 8, 2006Virginia colleges score poor in affordabilityThe National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education released a report Thursday on how Virginia colleges stack up in six categories: preparation, participation, affordability, completion, benefits and learning. The biennial report, which debuted in 2000, assigns letter grades to all 50 states and also compares the higher education system in the U.S. to other nations -- a hot topic for higher education folks and Thomas Friedman readers. Continue reading "Virginia colleges score poor in affordability" » August 17, 2006This textbook brought to you by...
The company, Minnesota-based Freeload Press, says it is responding to the soaring cost of college textbooks. According to Freeload's homepage, students spend an average of $900 per year on textbooks. (The Government Accountability Office released a report in 2005 that said textbook prices nearly tripled from December 1986 to December 2004.) Freeload's mission, therefore, is to "liberate the textbook." Beyond advertising, Freeload is cutting down on costs because the books it offers actually come to students in the form of a downloadable PDF version of the text. Students need only fill out a short survey before downloading and saving the book to their hard drives. Some of the advertisers include FedEx Kinko's, Culver's and Total Recall Learning. The Freeload Web site even gives users a preview of what the ads will look like in the texts. So far, it appears the company is mostly offering business-oriented texts. It will be interesting to see if other authors sign on to this method of distributing their books. What do you all think about ads in college textbooks -- genius idea or just another ploy by the marketing wizards? August 2, 2006Chat with Del. Dave NutterDel. Dave Nutter came by The Roanoke Times New River bureau today to answer questions from reporters here. Of course, we told him that everything he said was on the record and he was a good sport about it, giving what sounded like pretty honest answers for a politician during an hour and a half discussion. We talked with Nutter about everything from the overdevelopment of 114 to plans for an intermodal port in Elliston and a slew of higher education issues facing Virginia. Here are a few snippets. July 6, 2006New grants for college availableNew federal grants of $750 to $4,000 are available for qualified students eligible for Pell Grants, Gov. Timothy Kaine announced yesterday. The two grants, Academic Competitiveness grants and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) grants, are designed to encourage students to take more challenging high school courses and to major in disciplines such as science, math, technology, engineering and certain foreign languages. Students who want to find out if they are qualified to receive the grants can call 1-800-4FEDAID or go online. Upward Bound faces another threatI recently wrote a story about Upward Bound, a federal program that has worked with low-income and potential first-generation college students while they're in high school to help them get into college. Funding for the program, which has an annual budget of $311 million, has been threatened recently. President Bush's budget has called for its elimination two years in a row. Last year it was saved by Congress and it looks to have enough support again this year to survive. But the Council for Opportunity in Education announced another threat to the program Wednesday. July 3, 2006Student loan changes - what they meanWe recently published a story on the changes to student loan rates that went into effect July 1. Now that it's too late for students to consolidate their loans and save, the task of measuring the impact on students has already begun. The Campaign for America's Future has come out with a state-by-state breakdown of what the increase in student loan rates - from 5.3 percent to 7.14 percent on old loans and to 6.8 percent on new loans - will mean in real dollars. Their answer, for the average Virginia college student, is $2,290. June 5, 2006July 1 deadline looms as student loans set to skyrocketThe St. Petersburg Times had a story last week on student loan rates going way up. Parents and students paying attention to the debate in Congress over this decision have had awhile to consolidate their loans and potentially save thousands. I've blogged about this topic before on multiple occassions and wrote a story in February about Virginia Tech students looking for ways to afford college. Those who haven't paid attention still have until July 1 to save money by consolidating. May 9, 2006New database explores cost of college athleticsAnyone curious as to exactly how much big-time programs spend on sports and how much they make off of their athletes can now find out on a new database compiled by the Indianapolis Star. Calling itself "the most detailed, publicly-available database of college athletic department financial information ever assembled" it breaks down several financial measurements of 164 public colleges that participate in Division I athletics, including Virginia Tech. That's a response rate of 76 percent. According to the Virginia Tech breakdown, the university spent over $14 million on its football program during the 2004-05 school year. But football still netted about $11.3 million for the school. Continue reading "New database explores cost of college athletics" » April 12, 2006Board discusses student fees based on majorAt its retreat last month the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors discussed ways to close the funding gap in higher education without raising tuition across the board. They discussed aggressively pursuing earmarked federal funds as well as private research and development money. Another, more specific idea, was also discussed. Certain majors are more costly for the university to fund. Provost Mark McNamee said the university has looked into the possibility of targeting engineering majors to pay additional fees that would be used to improve the quality of curriculum in the engineering college. Continue reading "Board discusses student fees based on major" » March 17, 2006Update on minority scholarshipsEarlier this week I blogged about how minority scholarships throughout the country were opening up to white students. I referenced a recent story in the New York Times. In my blog, I said local universities hadn't announced any changes in scholarships, which they hadn't. Initially, Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said he didn't know if the changes mentioned in the article had happened at Tech, but he would check on it. When I caught up with him today, he said that actually those changes happened a few years ago. |
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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