http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has loosened his opposition to raising tuition rates in the state's public universities, offering a route to relief for a higher education system struggling under severe budget deficits, the Associated Press reports. Crist's plan proposes increases of up to 15 percent a year at all state schools, quite a turnaround from just last year, when Crist vetoed a 5 percent tuition increase for all schools, arguing it put too much financial burden on students and families.
Now, however, "things evolved," Crist said at a press conference, as a worsening state economy has forced the Legislature to dramatically cut funding to higher education. In late 2007, Crist OK'd a 15 percent tuition hike for three schools, then early this year, for two more institutions. This week's proposal would allow all 11 universities to raise tuition.
The costs of going to state schools in the Sunshine State, such as the University of Florida or Florida State University , are some of the nation's lowest, averaging $3,808 a year for full-time, in-state undergraduates. The national average is $6,585.
If all universities impose the full 15 percent, it would generate $72 million a year. Under the plan, 30 percent of those funds would go to financial aid, with the rest being used to recruit and retain faculty.
Tags: Florida | colleges | tuition | Florida State University | University of Florida | Crist, Charlie
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In an effort to cut student enrollment, the University of Georgia will raise the required grade-point average for transfer students with 60 or more credits from 2.5 to 2.8, the Red and Black reports.
According to an admissions official, the university is at an all-time-high enrollment of 34,100, and the change—which would take place in spring 2010—is designed to address the glut of students. The number of transfer students has grown by 31 percent since 2004, an increase of more than 500.
Tags: college admissions | colleges | University of Georgia
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Harvard police cut short a pep rally and Girl Talk concert Thursday after the crowd became unruly, crushing bodies to the front of the stage and eventually throwing glow sticks at event organizers, the Harvard Crimson
reports. At least one person reported hyperventilating in the mob, and several others crawled under the stage to escape harm.
Hundreds of fans braved the sub-freezing weather to attend the pre-Harvard-Yale game event, ultimately dubbed by one student to be the "most unsuccessful successful show ever."
Tags: Harvard University | colleges | students
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In the wake of statewide budget problems, the University of California regents approved an enrollment cut, the Daily Californian reports. The regents voted 8 to 2 Wednesday that without additional state funding, the 191,000-student system would have to reduce its number of students by an unspecified amount. The UC 2009-10 budget calls for an additional $815 million in revenue.
The announcement could be a clarion call to state legislators about the status of higher education in California. "What we have to do as regents is clearly state to the public and the legislature and governor what it takes to run this university at a level that is acceptable," said Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who voted for the motion. UC president Mark Yudof added, "No one wants to curtail the opportunity, but how do we keep absorbing 5,000 more possible students a year when no one is giving us the money to pay for them?"
The UC's announcement came a day after the California State University system—the country largest high education institution—confirmed it would cut enrollment by 10,000 students.
Tags: college admissions | colleges | University of California
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Around 50 nursing students at Howard University picketed Tuesday, protesting the shoddy education they say they've been receiving for years, the Hilltop reports. Their efforts prompted the administration to hold a town hall meeting on Wednesday evening where the students' concerns were discussed but no specific action was undertaken.
Last year, students organized a walk-out of exams, which threatened the school's accreditation. The protesters' list of demands includes improvement in teaching, testing standards, and overall organization of the school's priorities.
Tags: colleges | students | Howard University
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Representatives from around a dozen minority student groups at the University of Michigan met Wednesday night to discuss a response to alleged racial bias at a local nightclub, the Michigan Daily reports.
According to leaders from the Chinese Student Association and the Filipino American Student Organization, nightclub staff allegedly tried to stiff the two groups of their cut of a fundraiser's cover charge, generally treated them poorly, and also spat on one of their members. The club's manager has denied the accusations.
The students have accused the club of undercounting the number of customers the groups brought in, saying staff counted only those they perceived as Asian—and not non-Asian members or friends who also attended as affiliates of the groups. Later, when the students confronted the club's manager and staff, the argument turned ugly.
The students have suggested a boycott, and university officials, student government, and other minority groups have expressed support for whatever action the Chinese and Filipino student organizations plan to take.
Tags: colleges | University of Michigan
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Boston College will no longer offer E-mail accounts to incoming students starting next fall, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. Instead of the traditional account, students will receive E-mail forwarding that will pass messages from a "johndoe@bc.edu" address to personal accounts, such as Google's Gmail or Microsoft's Hotmail.
The school considered pairing up with one of the two E-mail behemoths as other schools have done, but ultimately decided against it—worried that contract talks would be unnecessarily lengthy or that the free services may one day turn for-pay.
Tags: colleges | Boston College
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Around 1,900 students fled a Ball State University dorm—the largest complex on campus—after a basement fire set off alarms at 4 a.m. Wednesday, the Daily News reports. Police do not suspect foul play, but the fire did cause a pipe burst, flooding hallways and classrooms near the fire. The 100 classes that used the building's basement have been relocated.
Students were moved to a nearby arena and were allowed back into their rooms at 8 a.m. For their troubles, they were offered free food, hot cocoa, and a free pass to coast in their classes the next day because the poor things "lost a lot of sleep in addition to the trauma they experienced," a university memo noted.
Tags: colleges | Ball State University
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Santa Barbara County authorities say that one of the three wildfires that eventually destroyed about 1,000 homes was started by a bonfire set by several college students, the Associated Press reports. The sheriff would not identify the students or the school they attended, but he did say that an anonymous tipster told the police that 10 students had gathered for the bonfire a week ago near an abandoned home in Montecito and thought they had extinguished the blaze at 5 a.m. on Thursday. The embers, however, eventually morphed by Thursday night into the giant blaze that has already cost California $305 million on emergency firefighting.
Authorities say they don't believe there was "malicious intent" but are still deciding whether to file criminal charges against the students, ages between 18 and 22.
Tags: California | colleges | students | wildfires
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A UCLA committee composed of students and school officials will meet to discuss budget-tightening tactics that could significantly affect admissions for some, especially transfer students, the Daily Bruin reports. Because the university estimates it is overenrolled by 1,475 students based on its budget, the group will debate admitting fewer students, both freshmen and transfers, to save cash in a severely deteriorating financial situation.
One way the university could reduce enrollment would be to accept transfers only from community colleges, as opposed to four-year colleges. Critics contend a change like that would likely disproportionately affect low-income and minority students, who are well represented in the transfer ranks. Transfer students as a whole make up 40 percent of UCLA's graduating class.
The committee also will discuss boosting enrollment of out-of-state and international students, who pay higher tuition and would give the school more cash in hand.
The committee will submit its final suggestions to the chancellor in December.
Tags: California | colleges | UCLA
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The Penn State admissions office has offered admission to 40 percent more students than it had by this time last year. About 5,600 applicants to the school's various campuses have gotten acceptance letters.
Officials say that they do not plan to admit significantly more students in the end but that accepting students earlier in the year was just a nice thing to do. "We had been hearing from high school counselors and some students and families that the time from application to [Penn State's] decision was longer than expected," the executive director of admissions said. "We felt that getting earlier decisions out would help reduce some of that anxiety that goes with hearing from the university you're interested in."
Tags: colleges | Penn State University
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More than half the grades given to Brown students last year were A's, the university reports. The 1.1 percentage-point increase over the previous year puts the figure at 50.6 percent, which is about 15.8 percentage points higher than in the 1994-1995 school year, writes the Brown Daily Herald.
While grades are up across all disciplines, students in the humanities, social sciences, and life sciences receive the highest proportion of top grades, while 47.1 percent of grades given to students in the physical sciences were A's.
Cynics say grade inflation explains the increase, while the system's defenders point to better high school prep and higher admissions standards. "I think people should not rule out the possibility that students are just doing better," said one faculty member. "We don't have to always look for nefarious or bad reasons."
Tags: colleges | Brown University
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Penn State police suspect arson triggered a dorm sprinkler system that transformed the hallways of Mifflin Hall into what one resident said " looked like the Titanic," with sprinkler water "rushing out of the elevators" late Sunday night, the Daily Collegian reports. The small fire filled the halls with smoke and forced students to evacuate just before midnight. At least 13 rooms in the dorm suffered minor to moderate water damage. The university has not announced whether it will reimburse students for damaged belongings, but it did courteously wash and dry wet clothes for free. And Penn State offered free board games and pizza for displaced students.
Police are still searching for the person who they believe set items on a second-floor bulletin board on fire.
Tags: colleges | students | Penn State University
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The University of Michigan's capital campaign has raised $3.1 billion over the course of eight years, the most raised by a public university ever (besting UCLA's 10-year effort that ended in 2006 and earned $3.06 billion), the Michigan Daily reports.
The campaign officially ends Dec. 31, 2008, but the current amount already far exceeds the university's 2004 goal of $2.5 million, thanks to large donations from Stephen M. Ross ($112.5 million for his name on the business school) and Alfred Taubman ($78.6 million), as well as smaller amounts from 364,000 donors.
Although Michigan has raised the most for a public university, a small handful of elite private colleges are also in the midst of capital campaigns with goals that exceed $3.1 billion: Stanford has a five-year $4.3 billion campaign, while Yale is in year two of a five-year $3.5 billion initiative.
Tags: Michigan | colleges | Yale University | University of Michigan | Stanford University | fundraising
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The University of Wisconsin is now dealing with its own gastrointestinal illness outbreak, with 60 students in one large dorm confirmed sick and at least 70 more suspected ill in two Greek organizations, the Delta Gamma sorority and the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. By the end of last week, the incidents of sickness had already begun subsiding, and dorms and off-campus housing had undergone several rounds of cleaning and sanitation, the Badger Herald reports.
Health officials suspect the norovirus is the cause of the outbreak, but they have not yet officially confirmed its source.
Tags: colleges | students | University of Wisconsin
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