October 13, 2008

South Dakota Measure Could Limit Student Groups' Activities

The lawyer for South Dakota’s public higher-education system has released a review concluding that a measure on the November ballot could inhibit the activities of student organizations that receive public financing from universities, the Associated Press reported.

Initiative Measure 10, known as the South Dakota Open and Clean Government Act, would prohibit the use of public money or government resources for lobbying, campaigning, or other political purposes. Although the measure does not explicitly mention higher education, opponents say it could be interpreted to cover student organizations and campus employees.

“When you first read this initiative, I don’t think anybody could be against clean and open government,” said Alex Halbach, executive director of the South Dakota Student Federation, an organization of student governments. “But when you read into the text, it’s so much deeper than that and affects so many different areas.”

The measure could serve as a “gag law” against student groups, Mr. Halbach said, noting that student newspapers receiving money from their universities could not endorse local political candidates. David Owen, a spokesman for a group that opposes the measure, said it could be interpreted so that even the state’s Board of Regents could not lobby politicians on issues related to higher education.

Supporters of the initiative called the review by the university lawyer, James Shekleton, “the latest installment of the big-money, big-lie campaign” to block the measure. —Reeves Wiedeman

Princeton Economist Who Is Strong Bush Critic Wins Nobel Prize

Paul Krugman, the Princeton University economist known for his blistering columns in The New York Times about the Bush administration’s policies, has won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced this morning.

The academy’s citation recognized Mr. Krugman for his “analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity,” in his devising of a new theory to answer questions about patterns of free trade.

He will receive the prize, worth about $1.4-million this year, at a ceremony in December. The prize, formally the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is the only Nobel Prize not created by the Swedish industrialist. It was established by the bank in 1968.

In Mr. Krugman’s nine years as a Times columnist, he has ranged far beyond economics in his commentaries on current affairs, making him a comparative rarity as a professor-pundit unafraid to venture well outside his academic discipline. Some of his views on the correct role of the professor as pundit can be gleaned from an article published in The Chronicle in 1994. —Andrew Mytelka

October 10, 2008

Hurricane Ike Caused $710-Million in Damage to University in Texas, Official Says

The University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, has suffered nearly $710-million in damage and other costs related to Hurricane Ike, and its staff should be prepared for “significant” layoffs, a top university official told the Austin American-Statesman this week.

The university system’s interim chancellor, Kenneth I. Shine, said that with the Medical Branch’s hospital and many other buildings out of action, the need to make payroll for the 12,000-member campus work force would quickly put the university in the red.

The hurricane, which struck the Texas coast four weeks ago and inundated parts of the campus in eight feet of water, cost the university $709.7-million in damage to buildings and infrastructure, lost equipment, cleanup, and other areas, according to a university estimate. The greatest expense, the university said, was the interruption in its operations and the consequent loss of revenue — a cost that it put at $276.4-million. Insurance could cover up to $100-million of the costs, the university said, and it is seeking help from federal and state sources as well.

State lawmakers said they would try to come up with a rescue plan to avert the threatened layoffs, according to the Houston Chronicle, which said the university was considering a staff cutback of one-third, or 4,000 employees.

Meanwhile, recovery on the campus continues. Nearly 2,000 students will return to the campus on October 20. Some will be housed at Texas A&M University at Galveston. The A&M program relocated to the College Station campus for the semester. Some Medical Branch researchers are also back at work, and more are to come by November. —Andrew Mytelka

Higher-Education Groups Want to Watch Over IRS's Questionnaire for Colleges

Washington — Two higher-education associations plan to keep close tabs on a questionnaire that the Internal Revenue Service is sending to about 400 four-year colleges across the country.

According to a joint letter dated October 3 from the two groups — the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges — the IRS questionnaire is “ostensibly” an effort to learn more about how colleges and their foundations operate, and whether they are complying with laws covering tax-exempt organizations.

But, the two groups say, the effort is more likely to herald “a significant shift in the way colleges and universities are regulated and governed” and is “substantially more than a data-collecting exercise by the government.” The IRS’s goal, the letter says, is nothing less than a bid to “further regulate higher-education institutions,” including new rules, additional audits, and a new schedule for the Form 990, like that requested recently by Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.

Based on those suspicions of what the IRS is up to, the two associations are urging each college that receives a copy of the questionnaire to share its responses, in confidence. The two groups have engaged the accounting firm of Ernst & Young to analyze the responses. Based on that analysis, the groups will decide whether to issue a public summary and report of the aggregated responses.

Senator Grassley said today that if the colleges were sharing their responses with the higher-education groups, he’d like to see copies of the completed questionnaires as well. In a written statement, he said that independent groups, particularly those outside academe, “should have the ability to review the data and make their own conclusions,” and not just accept the findings of a “higher education group-funded study.”

Seven other higher-education organizations have endorsed the effort by Nacubo and the AGB: the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the American Association of Universities, the American Council on Education, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. —Andrew Mytelka

Georgia Proposes Merging Technical Colleges

As the state budget picture worsens, leaders of Georgia’s technical-college system are proposing to merge 14 colleges to save money, according to a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The move would save an estimated $3.5-million just by eliminating the salaries and benefits of seven presidents.

The Technical College System of Georgia has no plans to eliminate programs or actual campuses, but the mention of cuts has already rankled state lawmakers from the districts of colleges that would be merged. Legislators must approve the system’s annual budget.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, a Republican and president of the state Senate, has voiced his support for campus consolidation, the newspaper reported. —Eric Kelderman

October 9, 2008

Students' Punishment Lifted at U. of Texas

Cross-posted from Campaign U.

Following protests and cries of free-speech violations, the University of Texas at Austin lifted a punishment imposed on Wednesday on two students who had refused to remove signs supporting Barack Obama from their dormitory window.

A university disciplinary board had told the students they would not be able to register for classes after violating a university policy banning all signs posted in residence halls.

In a written statement today, William C. Powers Jr., the university’s president, said, “Effective immediately, I am suspending the prohibition on signs in individual students’ residence-hall room windows and any sanctions related to its enforcement.”

Mr. Powers said the university had formed a committee to examine the policy, but that, for now, all signs would be allowed. —Reeves Wiedeman

Political Donations at City College of San Francisco Appear Illegal, Report Says

An internal investigation by the City College of San Francisco has found that a former chancellor steered $35,000 in college funds to campaigns for two state ballot measures, a possible violation of state law, the San Francisco Chroncle reported on Wednesday.

A report of the investigation’s findings says that Philip R. Day Jr., who this year became president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, ordered more than $35,000 to be routed through a nonprofit foundation and donated to two state education initiatives in 2006, according to the newspaper. The transactions appear to violate state laws prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds for political campaigns and concealing the source of political donations, according to the report, which has not been publicly released.

The report is the latest in a series of investigations into the college’s use of funds for political purposes. After a series of articles in the San Francisco Chronicle last year, another internal investigation found that college officials had inappropriately diverted $30,000 in lease payments from the community college to a committee supporting a bond measure to provide funds for campus construction. A grand jury is investigating those donations.

The most recent audit appears to allege more substantial violations of the law than previous findings by the college, and it says the financial transactions had been ordered directly by Mr. Day, who was the college’s chancellor until March. In an interview on Tuesday with the San Francisco Chronicle, Mr. Day said he had not seen the report’s findings, but denied misusing college funds.

“That did not happen,” Mr. Day said, when told about the audit. “That is not true.” —Josh Keller

October 8, 2008

Report Accuses U. of Nebraska Law School of Heavily Favoring Minority Applicants

Four weeks before Nebraskans are to vote on a proposed ban on the use of affirmative-action preferences by public colleges and other state agencies, the Center for Equal Opportunity has issued a report accusing the University of Nebraska’s law school of engaging in racial discrimination by heavily favoring black and Hispanic applicants.

The report says the advocacy group’s analysis shows that even those black applicants from out of state are more than 20 times as likely to be admitted to the law school, in Lincoln, as white Nebraska residents are. The odds favoring black applicants to the law school over white applicants with the same academic profiles are 442 to 1, the report says.

A news release issued by the center said it also had examined undergraduate admissions at the university but had not found statistical evidence of discrimination. The group said that it had tried to examine the use of affirmative action by the medical school, too, but that the school had refused to provide the necessary data.

Steven L. Willborn, the law school’s dean, dismissed the report today as “a political statement” and said the law school had not provided the center with the sort of data on individual students that would make such an analysis possible. Roger Clegg, the center’s president, acknowledged not getting such data on individual students from the law school but said the information had been routed to his group by another research organization, which he declined to name.

The release of the Nebraska report comes just one week after the center released a report alleging racial discrimination by the law schools of Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. Critics of affirmative action had tried to put a proposal to limit affirmative action before Arizona’s voters this year but failed to gather enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot. —Peter Schmidt

October 7, 2008

Presidential Candidates Touch on Education and Spending Topics in Debate

In Tuesday night’s town-hall debate at Belmont University, Barack Obama and John McCain spent much of the 90-minute event discussing the nation’s economic turmoil, government reform, and energy, tax, health-care, and foreign policies. But the presidential candidates did touch on spending and policy issues that would affect higher education.

Senator Obama spoke about making college affordability a priority even as he would rein in government spending in other areas. Senator McCain focused on eliminating spending he considers wasteful, including federal earmarks that often benefit college projects, and advocated an across-the-board freeze in federal spending.

When responding to a question by the debate’s moderator, Tom Brokaw, about how he would prioritize the issues of energy, health care, and entitlement reform, Senator Obama said energy would be his top priority, health care would be his second, and education his third. Education, the Democratic nominee said, has to be near the top of the list so the nation can help young people be competitive in the global economy.

In response to a separate question about what sacrifices he would ask the American people to make to help fix the economy and improve the nation, Senator Obama said he would seek incentives to decrease energy consumption and also to encourage volunteerism (including by doubling the ranks of the Peace Corps), something he said he found young people to be especially interested in.

Senator Obama also said that the federal government needed to cut spending, but he singled out efforts to improve college affordability as an area where spending should be increased and not decreased. Citing his own past, and his ability to attend college with the help of scholarships, he said the American dream seemed to be diminishing, in part because young people “who’ve got the grades and the will and the drive to go to college” don’t attend because they don’t have the money.

Senator McCain, meanwhile, focused on reining in government spending by eliminating earmarks — spending that individual lawmakers allocate on a noncompetitive basis to colleges and other entities — and by freezing most federal spending. The areas he singled out as exceptions that might receive more government support were defense and veterans affairs.

“Obviously we’ve got to stop the spending spree that’s going on in Washington,” the Republican candidate said, adding that he wanted to reduce the debt that is being left to young people. —Sara Hebel

'Rethinking Student Aid' Study Group Holds Policy Meeting on Capitol Hill

Washington — When the Rethinking Student Aid study group released its report a couple of weeks ago, it seemed like a great time to draw national attention to the independent group’s proposals to streamline and improve the federal student-aid system. But in the days between the report’s release and the group’s scheduled policy forum today on Capitol Hill, the government has been fixated on the economic downturn and the $700-billion bailout bill.

Even so, the discussion was well attended by higher-education leaders and advocates, as well as a few Congressional and state-government staff members. Those assembled were largely supportive of the group’s efforts, though some questioned its recommendations, particularly the decision to keep a tax credit for higher education despite focusing on the needs of low-income students.

The student-aid system remains an important national issue, said Michael S. McPherson, co-chair of the group and president of the Spencer Foundation, whose mission is to improve educaiton around the world. “We’ve spent a lot of time and a huge amount of energy trying to get this bailout ready.” But, he said, “25 years from now, it matters more we get [the education system] right than that we get the bailout right.”

The group next plans to reach out to state legislatures and college students, said Sandy Baum, its other co-chair. —Beckie Supiano