Universities Weblog

The Charleston Daily Mail in South Carolina is reporting that a Clemson University freshman who died Sunday died of alcohol poisoning.

The body of 18 year old Benjamin Garrison Sprague was found "in the basement of an off-campus fraternity house," according to the Daily Mail. According to the paper, Sprague was already intoxicated when he showed up at a Sigma Nu fraternity party at 7 p.m. Saturday night. "Sprague had a blood-alcohol level of at least .38 when he died - almost five times the legal limit of 0.08," the Daily Mail reported.

The fraternity has been placed on a suspension while both the university and the national Sigma Nu organization investigate.

Sprague was a graduate of Greenville High School, according to the Sanguine et Purpure blog. He was the grandson of South Carolina lawmaker T. Ed Garrison, a Democrat who served in both the state house and senate from 1959-1987.

Sprague was an engineering major. He had an older brother also attending Clemson.

Officials at Northern Illinois University closed the campus yesterday while police investigated washroom graffiti on campus that referred to the Virginia Tech massacre.

The Chicago Tribune reported the incident. According to the report, two different messages were found on campus Saturday. The threats included a racial slur.

One blog source is now reporting that black students on campus "fear for their safety" because of the racial threats.

While the racial threats alone would have probably been sufficient to close the DeKalb County campus, icy weather also contributed to the decision. Final exams will have to be rescheduled because of the cancellation.

It is becoming almost a weekly occurrence. Another top tier private university is increasing the size of its awards to students getting need-based financial aid. And this time it's Harvard…

We reported on Duke's financial aid policy move just yesterday. Duke and Harvard are part of a trend: some of the top ranked private colleges in America are increasing financial aid packages to students who come from low income and modest income families.

In the case of Harvard, "modest" means $180,000 a year. If a student's family makes an annual income of between $120,000 and $180,000, the cost of attending Harvard drops from about $45,000 a year to an annual bill of 10% of the family's income. When family incomes drop under $120,000 the percentage of that income Harvard asks for declines. And if the student comes from a home where the annual income is $60,000 or less, Harvard asks for nothing and the student attends for free.

That means that pretty much anyone can afford to go to Harvard - somethign sure to make their admission process even more competitive…

Duke University has announced plans to expand its financial aid programs for low income and middle income students.

Duke is following a policy trend in financial aid with its actions this week. A number of institutions have increased the grants available to lower income students. The goal at Duke (and other institutions) is to allow students to graduate debt free if their families make under $40,000 a year.

The new policy is driven partly by the demands of recruitment. Duke wants to remove finances as an obstacle in recruiting the nation's best students.

Duke's new policy will give some level of increased financial help to students with family income under $100,000 a year. The contributes a students parents make are reduced or eliminated under the new plan. Loans are replaced with grants that don't have to be paid back. Duke expects the new program to benefit about 2,500 undergraduates on the campus.

Among the other colleges and universities pursuing the new financial aid policy are Amherst College, davidson college, and Princeton University.

You can find details on Duke's new program here.

The new policy goes into effect beginning in the fall 2008 semester.

The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission has settled a lawsuit with a Mormon student over whether or not he can defer the state's Promise Scholarship until after he returns from missionary service.

David Haws sued the state after in July because he was denied the scholarship at West Virginia University. Haws graduated college in 2005 and, at the time, was eligible under the state's Promise Scholarship Program for a full tuition scholarship at WVU. Instead of attending college, Haws spent time working as a missionary - as the Church of jesus christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon church) encourages its members to do.

Because a number of states have programs similar to the West Virginia Promise Scholarship Program, this case could have national impact. The American Civil Liberties Union worked with Haws on the case, according to Financial Aid News.

When Haws tried to enroll at WVU and use his scholarship this fall he was denied the financial aid. In August, the U.S Justice Department filed a brief siding with Haws. That brief offered the opinion that West Virginia would be violating Haws' First Amendment right to freedom of religion if it denied him the scholarship now.

West Virginia has agreed to let haws use the scholarship he cold have had in 2005. The state has also changed its policy and will let students take a leave of absence to participate in "volunteer activities" in the future. And West Virginia will pick up the tab for over $12,000 in legal fees.

Marshall University has a new major this year that it hopes will give students a leg up in the global market place: Japanese.

Plans for a Japanese major have been in the development stages for several years, according to the university. The Huntington, West Virginia university has 22 students enrolled in the new program for its first semester.

Marshall University is the only school in the state to offer students either a major or minor in the Japanese language. The addition of the program was driving partly by increased Japanese economic involvement in the state, including a Toyota plant not far from Huntington.

Naomi rockler-Gladen has an excellent piece online at the moment about picking a college or university that provides a friendly environment for Jewish students.

Some of the tidbits she offers seem profoundly simple. For example, ask if there are other Jewish students. If the percentage of Jewish students on campus is particularly low, there may be a reason. Even if there is no reason for the lower percentage of Jewish students, going to such a school may leave you alone in your faith for several years.

Naomi offers several other simple questions you can ask to help you decide whether a college is "Jewish Friendly." Take a look at her article…

The State is reporting that Bob Jones University is experiencing an outbreak of whooping cough. The school has been forced to cancel most public events and end its fall semester early because of the health issue.

Between 30 and 40 students have been confirmed as whooping cough cases. Another 50 students are under observation with possible symptoms.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly infectious illness caused by a bacteria. Whooping cough is on the rise in the U.S. and often attacks college students who immunity has faded. Children in America are vaccinated against the disease, but that protection eventually wears off.

Illegal immigration has become a big issue in the American Presidential campaign. And the nice people at Scholarships Dot Com have a pretty good analysis of that issue online at the moment.

I don't usually refer to my personal blog here, but I talked about this issue some there recently. In 2005, college finances became a campaign issue for the GOP candidate in the Virginia governor's race. He wanted to argue that undocumented immigrants shouldn't be allowed to pay in-state tuition. It might have been a good point to make if there hadn't have been so many weightier issues to deal with. The candidate, Jerry Kilgore, tried to make it a fiscal issue. But the actual monetary value of the issue was pretty small when compared to other campaign issues (like road construction in the state's DC corridor) and it was seen as more of a red herring than a real issue. Kilgore lost.

You have to be here legally to get the Pell grant. And for most scholarships, you have to fill out the fafsa (the federal document that is used to decided if you're eligible for the Pell grant) and get what you can from state and federal aid before private scholarship awards start to look at helping you out.

Scholarships Dot Com examines one of the points debated by the GOP candidates recently. Most of the undocumented immigrants applying for college didn't actually break US law themselves; their parents did. And often the college applicant was too young at the time to even remember it.

It will be interesting to see how the issue of immigration develops as a Presidential campaign issue and whether the college attendance rates for undocumented immigrants (and the question of how they finance college) becomes an issue.

The Chronicle of Higher Education had an almost humorous story recently about an obstacle in the path of the University of Missouri's search committee as it looks for a new president: football.

Evidently the committee's work was progressing acceptably until the school's football team took over the No. 1 ranking in college football. At that point the search committee was suddenly buried in requests from interested applicants who wanted to be Mizzou's next president. LOL.

The Associated Press says that the search committee decided to take a few weeks off and wait for the dust to settle.

Since the Oklahoma Sooners altered Mizzou's metaphorical anatomy ("ripped them a new one") on national television last night, I guess the search committee can now continue with the process of interviewing serious applicants. After all, Mizzou has been without a president for eight months.

None of the candidates for the job are likely to be involved in the Bowl Championship Series standings; most of them had strokes last night watching both the No.1 and the No. 2 teams go by the wayside.