Quick hits.
- Michael Woodley, a British researcher associated with the Free University at Brussels, is one of the academics whose work was cited by the accused Buffalo gunman. Scholars hope that singling out Woodley’s work, which includes claims that IQ has declined in France since immigration from North Africa rose, will force institutions to confront their responsibility for academic rigor and extremist views. (The New York Times)
- U.S. News & World Report told the University of Southern California on Monday that it must send letters certifying its submissions to the U.S. News rankings for the next three years. Investigators found that USC’s Rossier School of Education had misreported data for graduate-school rankings from 2013 to 2021. (Daily Trojan)
- Daniel Silber, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at Piedmont University, in Georgia, resigned to protest proposed budget and staffing cuts. In an email to the campus he explained that he had fought the “draconian measure” and had “no moral choice but to leave the institution.” (Now Habersham)
- The North Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would give the state’s House and Senate, not the governor, the power to fill seats on a community-college governing board. In 2020 we reported how public-college governing boards had been caught in a partisan divide. (The News & Observer, The Chronicle)
- Three members of the now-defunct Pi Alpha Phi fraternity chapter at Michigan State University are facing criminal hazing charges stemming from the death by alcohol poisoning of Phat Nguyen last November. (Lansing State Journal)
A major research university earns the Hispanic-serving designation. It’s complicated.
The U.S. Department of Education has named Arizona State University a Hispanic-serving institution, or HSI, a designation that makes it eligible for competitive federal grants aimed at improving educational outcomes for Hispanic students.
The announcement comes on the heels of Texas A&M University at College Station’s also being named an HSI, in March. The University of Texas at Austin joined the group in 2020. Other big public colleges, including the University of California at Berkeley, are pursuing HSI status.
- How do colleges become HSIs? Colleges must demonstrate need, showing that they spend less per student than their peer institutions do and that they enroll a large share of low-income students. But colleges can ask the department to waive those requirements.
- The kicker: Some higher-ed experts are concerned that the increasing number of well-resourced research universities in the HSI-grant competition could squeeze community colleges, which don’t typically have grant offices, out of the running for federal funding.
- Findings: A growing body of research suggests that the federal HSI program isn’t providing enough money for the increasing number of eligible institutions.
Weekend reads.
Distraction. Click bait. Something in between.
- American cities are unraveling. It’s obvious while riding along with this Denver-area bus driver, who has been spit on, hit with a toolbox, and threatened with a knife, among other things. (The Washington Post)
- HGTV will film six new series for the channel, and five of those programs will focus on renovating older houses. Stay with me here. In 2017 this story explained how the soothing nature of watching people flip homes on HGTV could lead us into bad financial waters. Can anyone read the economic tea leaves on this new programming? (Deadline, Vulture, New York Magazine)
- Related: This list names 15 American cities whose housing markets are overvalued by more than 50 percent, according to a study from Florida Atlantic and Florida International Universities. Is your city on it? (Route Fifty)
- In Sweden it’s normal for children playing at a friend’s house to go home for dinner or stay in their friend’s room while the family eats. Though some families have abandoned the practice, The New York Times reports that for others the custom is very much alive. Here’s why.
- This is the stuff of movies: Read the story of a professional wrestler who was part of the effort to topple Hitler. (Sports Illustrated)
Stat of the day.
537
That’s how many units Morgan State University will lease in the Towson, Md., and Baltimore area for additional student housing, thanks to record enrollment. The Maryland Board of Public Works approved the leases.
Related: Across the country, the University of California at Berkeley faced a similar enrollment surge and subsequent housing crisis. That problem was handled differently. Brush up.
Comings and goings.
- Julia M. Ritter, a professor of dance in the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University at New Brunswick, has been named dean of the Kaufman School of Dance at the University of Southern California.
- Jason Smith, an American Council of Education fellow at the University of California at Santa Cruz and a former chair of the department of public health at California State University-East Bay, has been named dean of the College of Health and Human Development at California State University at Fullerton.
- Eric Fulcomer, president of Rockford University, in Illinois, has been named president of the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
Footnote.
We’re ending the week on a sad note. Arcadia, better known as “Cadie” — a Parson Jack Russell terrier who called St. John’s College, in Maryland, her home — has died, The Baltimore Sun reports.
The dog came to the campus at nine months old, in 2006, when a donor and Board of Visitors and Governors member agreed to give the college $6 million if it kept a dog on campus. For years, Cadie went for walks with students and spent nights with a staff member who lived on campus. The dog even had her own line item in the campus budget for vet visits and other expenses.
If you have furry friends at home, pet them a little extra tonight.