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Education Dept. Revokes Recognition of Embattled Accreditor of For-Profit Colleges

[Last updated (9/22/2016, 8:26 p.m.) with additional reaction.]

The U.S. Education Department has decided to revoke the federal recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, the much-maligned accreditor of many for-profit colleges.

Emma Vadehra, chief of staff to the secretary of education, wrote in a letter on Thursday that she agreed with the recommendations of Education Department analysts and the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrit…

September 22, 2016 by Andy Thomason

Governor Can’t Unilaterally Cut Colleges’ Budgets, Kentucky Justices Rule

The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s governor, Matt Bevin, overstepped his legal authority in cutting public colleges’ budgets by 2 percent, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

In March, Governor Bevin, a Republican, ordered that the budgets of the commonwealth’s public colleges be cut by 4.5 percent — a number later revised to 2 percent. That prompted Attorney General Andy Beshear of Kentucky, a Democrat, to sue the governor, saying the order was “unconstitutional and illegal.”…

September 21, 2016 by Andy Thomason

Rutgers Athletic Director Apologizes for Chugging a Beer While Fans Cheered

Pat Hobbs, the athletic director of Rutgers University at New Brunswick, has apologized after a video of him chugging a beer on an outdoor stage surfaced this week, The Star-Ledger reports. In the video, Mr. Hobbs is shown downing the beer, handed to him by a member of the crowd, at a tailgate at last Saturday’s home football game against the University of New Mexico.

Mr. Hobbs said he had appeared on stage to try to calm the crowd. As to whether he succeeded, judge for yourself:

“I regret that…

September 16, 2016 by Andy Thomason

Former U. of Louisville President Will Leave Lucrative Foundation Post

James R. Ramsey, who recently left the presidency of the University of Louisville, has stepped down from his position as head of the university’s foundation, The Courier-Journal reports. Ever since Mr. Ramsey’s departure from the university’s top spot, he had been dogged by questions about that other role, which in 2014 brought him a compensation of $2.8 million in addition to his salary as president.

According to the newspaper, Mr. Ramsey said in a resignation letter that foundation leaders wan…

September 14, 2016 by Andy Thomason

After Closing Campuses, ITT Says It Will Cease Operations Entirely

ITT Educational Services Inc., which last week announced it would close all of its campuses following a new wave of federal scrutiny, will now cease operations. The company said in a federal filing on Wednesday that it would close, effective on Friday.

Last week’s announcement disrupted the education of tens of thousands of ITT students, who can now either transfer to other institutions or apply to have their loan debt discharged by the U.S. Education Department. The company has said it was the …

September 13, 2016 by Andy Thomason

Chapel Hill Student Says University Botched Investigation of Her Rape by a Football Player

[Updated (9/13/2016, 4:30 p.m.) with a statement from the university.]

A female student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says that she was raped by a football player there, and that the institution has failed in its handling of her case, The News and Observer reports.

The student, Delaney Robinson, said in a public statement on Tuesday that she was raped the night of February 14; that the campus police peppered her with insensitive questions; that investigators, while questioni…

September 12, 2016 by Andy Thomason

Sociologist Wants to Dedicate a Monument to the Anonymous Peer Reviewer

Ever feel like your journal submission is a crap shoot? This is the monument for you.

A sociologist in Russia wants to dedicate a large concrete cube at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics to the anonymous peer reviewer. As noted on Igor Chirikov’s Kickstarter page, and in an article by the magazine Nature, the monument would be shaped like a die, with the five visible sides labeled “Accept,” “Minor Changes,” “Major Changes,” “Revise and Resubmit,” and “Reject.”

But that’s not all. With a donati…

September 6, 2016 by Andy Thomason

As For-Profit ITT Announces Closure, Thousands of Students and Employees Face Uncertainty

[Last updated (9/6/2016, 6:54 p.m.) with news of a lawsuit filed by ITT employees, and more context.]

The more than 40,000 students and 8,000 employees of ITT Educational Services Inc. on Tuesday grappled with the fallout of the for-profit’s announcement that it would close in response to heightened scrutiny from the federal government.

“It is with profound regret that we must report that ITT Educational Services Inc. will discontinue academic operations at all of its ITT Technical Institutes pe…

September 3, 2016 by Andy Thomason

Watch This Student Win His Entire Lecture Class a Quiz Grade of 100

An organic-chemistry lecture class at Ohio State University found the hero it needed on Friday, when a student was given the chance to earn himself and his classmates a 100 on their first quiz by making a long-range shot into a trash can. Behold the viral tweet:

S/o to Benny for making this shot and getting the entire lecture an automatic 100 on our first ochem quiz pic.twitter.com/nmYJ34DjdM

— rachel brown ✧･ﾟ: * (@yo_rochelle) September 2, 2016

The tweet, which had been retweeted 58,000 tim…

September 1, 2016 by Andy Thomason

U. of Kentucky Will Uncover Controversial Mural Depicting Slaves

The University of Kentucky will remove a veil from a controversial mural on the campus that depicts black slaves picking crops, the university announced on Thursday. It will surround the painting with “other works of art from a variety of perspectives that provide a larger narrative of our history, our aspirations, our shortcomings, and the progress we still must make,” wrote the institution’s president, Eli Capilouto, in a blog post.

The decision follows student protests demanding that somethi…

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