Universities Weblog

That's right. There is now a gay fraternity on the campus of the University of Texas, according to The Dallas Morning News.

According to the paper, Delta Lambda Phi, a nationally recognized gay fraternity, was inducted at UT earlier this year. Evidently a lot of fraternities exclude gays from membership - at least according to Delta Lambda Phi campus president Russell van Kraayenburg.

"Everyone's been so supportive on campus," van Kraayenburg said. "There's not been a single person I've talked to who's been against the idea or even questioned the idea."

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Gregg Mack

In a local election in Grafton County, N.H. the county's long time treasurer (a Republican) has been unseated by a 20-year-old junior who attends Dartmouth (which is located in the county), according to The Boston Globe.

The Dartmouth student, Vanessa Sievers, beat incumbent Carol Elliott by about 600 votes in a 42,000 vote race. That's around 1.5%. Sievers is a native of Montana. Elliott says she won because "brainwashed college kids" from Dartmouth and from nearby Plymouth State University turned out to vote her.

Elliott is unhappy. The Chronicle of Higher Ed calls Elliott's statements "sour grapes" in its blog…

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Denis Jr. Tangney

Having a $37 billion endowment evidently isn't all it's cracked up to be. According to Reuters Harvard President Drew Faust is saying that "the school is looking at ways to cut spending and will review compensation costs, which account for nearly half of the budget."

Why? Recession…

In the words of Reuters, "…the economic slowdown has reached America's richest university."

Harvard is also reconsidering some of its expansion plans. The school is concerned that federal grants may dry up and the falling stock market will shrink its massive endowment.

So far financial aid programs at the school have not been affected.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 6154143

The Kappa Alpha Theta sorority is on probation until May of 2009 after an alleged hazing incident involving 17 members, according to the Stillwater NewsPress.

According to the paper:

The university issued individual sanctions for nine upperclassmen sorority members who were involved in the incident, which occurred on campus during the early morning hours of Oct. 22.

The investigation found there was no malicious intent, and no students suffered physically or mentally during the incident.

Kappa Alpha Theta's chapter at OSU, founded in 1919, has 150 to 200 members. It has no previous allegations of hazing or other misconduct, officials said. Oklahoma State banned one fraternity from the campus for 15 years in 2007 over a hazing incident.

One Greek blog on hazing has a comment that supposedly describes thee incident:

The hazing activity was a little short of being illegal or corrupt. The activity did not include any alcohol, drugs, pot or meth, but was a game of Duck, Duck, Goose, Goose blindfolded, during a party at 12:30 in the morning at a KAO member's off-campus resident. The only thing these ex-members are truly guilty of is stupidity…

Education was not much of an issue this election. At least, it didn't get much attention because the war in Iraq and (more recently) the economy took center stage in this election.

So what will higher education look like under the incoming Obama administration? The President-elect has talked about a number of policy issues surrounding higher education in the last couple of years. He's suggested a program to reform student loans, and to push most loan money into direct aid that doesn't have to be paid back. He's talked about increased funding for community colleges. He's discussed the state of science education in particular and made several proposals on that topic.

Inside Higher Ed has a more detailed look at what President Obama probably means for higher education.

© Center for American Progress Action Fund

The Chronicle of Higher Education said last week that Arizona State University is getting ready to lay off at least 200 non-tenure track faculty members of the next couple of months.

ASU has about a thousand such adjunct faculty. No tenure track faculty members are being laid off. No classes are being cut. And enrollment will not be reduced. So that leave bigger class size as the main option, I guess.

ASU has cut $30 million from its budget and expects to have to cut another $25 million. hard economic times…

© kevindooley

The Associated Press is reporting that a shooting Sunday evening on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas has left two students there dead.

University police Lt. Rhonda Swindle identified the dead as Ryan Henderson, 18, and Chavares Block, 19. Martrevis Norman of Blytheville, Arkansas, was also shot . He was treated at a local hospital and released.

CNN reported today that classes on the campus were cancelled. The University of Central Arkansas has about 12,500 students. The campus has installed a emergency system of text messages and emails in response to the Virginia Tech tragedy and authorities are saying that systems worked well.

Police have two suspects in custody and are still looking for two others.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 37705

It's become a common story: local community college enrollment has reached a new all time high. Where? It really doesn't matter. Many places. Maybe most places. But it this particular case the story I'm looking at is in the Buffalo News…

Enrollment is at record highs in community colleges around Western New York - roughly 40,000 students.

Cost is a major factor. Tuition at four year institutions is on the rise. in many places, community colleges offer an affordable alternative to the first two years of University education. How affordable? In the case of Western New York the community colleges will cost you about cost you just over $6,000 a year, compared to almost $24,000 at a state-run four year institution.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Keith Binns

There's no denying the correlation. People are who poor are also less likely to have a college degree. People who are poor are less likely to have parents who have a college degree. There is a negative correlation between poverty and education.

Without an education it's hard to break out of poverty. Social mobility in our society depends on skills and credentials that are usually obtained through higher education.

So why don't poor people simply go to college and get better jobs so that they can stop being poor?

If you've never lived with, in, near, or around poverty that question sounds incredibly rhetorical. It's not rhetorical. And there are obvious answers - obvious to anyone who's looked poverty in America in the face…

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 5390639

Marty Nemko wrote a piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education that's worth reading as you consider what you want out of college.

The piece is a little depressing, but it contains some sage advice. Point number one: large research universities are not the place to go if you're looking for quality instruction and a strong student support system. The big land grant universities make their money from research and see students as more of a liability than an asset. If you're in the bottom half of your high school class in GPA or in ACT/SAT scores, there's a good changes (better than 50%) that you won't finish on schedule - or at all…

The piece looks in some detail at the problems with higher education. They're problems you can avoid if you know what you're looking for in a school. It also makes some recommendations that could improve the quality of higher education. Sadly, policy makers will probably never implement them.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Tomaz Levstek