Universities Weblog

More and more, the answer to that question is "yes!" University Business pointed out an article this week by the Associated Press on how many universities have started enforcing their codes of conduct off campus.

According to the AP article, "A growing number of universities are starting to take a more proactive approach to monitoring off-campus behavior and neighbors say the efforts are working."

Specifically mentioned in the article are efforts by the University of Washington, Washington State University, Seattle University, the University of Minnesota, Ohio State, the University of Colorado-Boulder, Duke, Rutgers and Penn State.

Read about those efforts here.

© phoosh

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that texas a&M University now has a larger student body than ever before in the school's history – with 47,925 students.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas A&M's freshman class totals 8,127; that's an increase of almost 1,400 over last year. It is the largest freshman class in the school's history and one of the largest in the nation.

Today was the first day of class at A&M and school officials are stressing that the numbers are preliminary and could change by a few. With an enrollment of almost 48,000 A&M looks set to at least stay the 6th largest university in the US and possible move up a spot to 5th.

© StuSeeger

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst is trying to shake its reputation as a party school, according to the Boston Globe.

According to the Globe, U Mass has "an aggressive campaign that is winning national attention" on the issue of alcohol abuse on campus. Two years ago U Mass started a "social norms" program on campus.

Two years after launching the so-called social norms campaign, health officials say they are seeing striking results, with recent student surveys indicating a sharp decline in binge drinking. The university has coupled the marketing with tighter regulations and enforcement, as well as expanded prevention services.

U Mass is "chipping away" at its own stereotype of the "zoo school."

You can read the whole Globe piece here.

The blogosphere and wire services are covered up with different reports on the three presidential debates coming up in September and October – all to be held on university campuses.

The debate schedule is as follows:

• At the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi on September 26- a debate with domestic policy focus.
• At Belmont University in Nashville, TN on October 7, 2008 – a town hall style debate.
• At Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY on October 15, 2008 – a debate on foreign policy.

There will also be a debate by the candidates for vice president on October 2, 2008- at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

You heard right. CNN is among a variety of sources reporting on the story:

College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.

Of course, MADD is ticked. They say lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes.

The argument in favor of lowering the drink age is fairly simple. College aged kids are going to drink anyway. Many of them seem to think that since drinking is illegal for them, then when they do it they're already breaking the law – so why not do even stupider stuff? Making drinking legal for 18-year-olds could bring their behavior into more controlled environments where peer pressure and adult supervision could lead to better drinking behavior.

College presidents also point out that being in a car wreck isn't the only way to die from drinking.

One argument that doesn't work (as far as I'm concerned) is the "rights' argument. i listened to someone on a news show yesterday say that at 18 you can vote, you can die for your country, and you can do (or be asked to do) almost everything else an adult can do. Why not drink? If this were about rights that might be a good argument. But it's not about rights. It's abut public health…

chrisandkim00

College Admissions Counseling has an astute review of the new Forbes ranking of America's Best Colleges 2008 and, quite frankly, you'd expect better from a company like Forbes…

The writer at College Admissions Counseling complains justifiably that half of the Forbes rankings are based on measures that are "absurd" (their word, not mine). A quarter of the score is based on the anonymous feedback at RankMyProfessor where anyone can enter anything; another 25% is based on alumni rankings in Who's Who (a somewhat subjective measure, unless your primary goal after graduation is just to make it into Who's Who…).

The other half of the ranking criteria isn't much better, but I'll let you read about it at College Admissions Counseling.

Princeton University ranks number one in the Forbes ranking.

"We're redefining geography and space," according to author John Zogby. And part of that trend includes a widening acceptance of online education.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported recently on Zogby's new book, The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream.

Zogby is a well known pollster and he says that while the majority of Americans think online universities offer a lower quality of education than do traditional institutions, it won't be long before American society develops an attachment to distance education. Zogby predicts that the factor that will close that "enthusiasm gap" is the growing use of distance education by well-respected universities.

© jimmyroq

The Gainesville Sun published a story last week on how the University of Florida is rewriting its student code of conduct in the wake of being named the nation's best party school for 2009 by the Princeton Review.

If implemented, the proposed changes to the student code of conduct would prohibit drinking games and kegs in campus facilities – including fraternity and sorority houses.

The University of Florida ranks 58th on the recently released Academic Ranking of World Universities published each year by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

© boltron-

It wasn't that long ago that we reported on how Tsinghua led the world in sending its undergraduates on to obtain American doctorate degrees. Now The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting on a Chinese measure of Academic success that puts American school at the top of the heap.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities, published annually by China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ranks the top 500 universities in the world based on SJTU's unique set of criteria.

Number one? Harvard.

In fact, four of the top five school are American Universities: Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkley Cambridge (in the UK), and MIT. Oxford (UK) is number 10 and Tokyo University is number 19; but 17 of the top 20 schools listed are US Universities. In fact, 36 of the top 50 schools are American.

No Chinese University makes the top 100 in the Shanghai list…

© dsearls

National Public Radio aired in interesting story last month on the gap year – the idea of taking a year off between high school and college to see the world (or something like that).

More kids are taking gap years. Why? There are a number of reasons. Expanding your skills is high on the list. Just taking some time off to enjoy life ranks pretty far up on the list of reasons, too.

© _Gene_