Quick hits
- Big settlement for five selective institutions on price-fixing: Brown, Columbia, Duke, Emory, and Yale Universities have agreed to pay a total of $104.5 million to settle a lawsuit that alleges selective institutions illegally colluded to limit financial-aid offers, inflating the costs to students. The institutions didn’t admit wrongdoing. They join the University of Chicago, which agreed to settle the charges for $13.5 million, and Rice University, which set aside $34 million for a settlement, as well as Vanderbilt University, which has said it’s settling without sharing a dollar amount. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they’re seeking higher amounts with each new agreement to pressure nine other institutions that have yet to settle. (The New York Times, The Chronicle)
- ADL presses colleges: The Anti-Defamation League said on Wednesday it had started a campaign called “Not on My Campus,” which the group’s chief executive described as pushing colleges to enforce codes of conduct to protect students against antisemitism as identity-based discrimination. It’s the latest pressure on campuses to respond to high tensions and hateful rhetoric stoked by the war between Israel and Hamas. (ADL, The Chronicle)
- South Dakota State to put dairy farm out to pasture: The public institution plans to close in June a 150-head dairy farm it operates as a student lab and faculty-research site because it lacks funding to improve facilities. Lawmakers approved $7.5 million for a project that could cost $28 million to $50 million, and fund raising couldn’t close the gap. South Dakota State says it will maintain degree programs in dairy production, dairy manufacturing, and food science. (Brookings Register)
- North Dakota leader proposes longer presidential contracts: Chancellor Mark Hagerott of the state’s university system suggested last week that the Board of Education consider three-year deals for college presidents instead of the current annual contracts, to encourage long-term thinking and to “lower their blood pressure.” Presidents now start with three-year terms before transitioning to annual contracts. (North Dakota Monitor)
- No more in-person classes on another Wisconsin campus: The University of Wisconsin at Green Bay’s two-year branch in Marinette plans to suspend in-person instruction for the fall semester and instead to stream courses online after enrollment dwindled to 213, down from 305 in 2018-19. The decision comes a few months after the University of Wisconsin system said it would close one branch campus and end in-person instruction at two others, and as leaders reconsider the viability of its remaining two-year sites. (WLUK, The Chronicle)
Virginia Foxx’s best ideas
Take seriously the College Cost Reduction Act, a new bill championed by Rep. Virginia Foxx, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee and is among higher education’s most vocal critics.
The legislation is unlikely to pass during this year’s fraught election cycle. But several of its provisions are worth thinking about for the future, Phillip Levine, a professor of economics at Wellesley College, argues in The Review.
Doubling Pell Grants: The federal government’s primary form of financial aid for low- and middle-income students maxes out at $7,395 a year today. Foxx’s bill would double the maximum for students who show significant progress toward a degree. At four-year institutions, that means only upperclassmen would be eligible. The goal is laudable, Levine writes, but:
- “Students can’t become grant-receiving juniors and seniors if they can’t afford to pay for their freshman or sophomore years. If we are going to double the Pell Grant, that amount should be available for all financially eligible students.”
Transparent costs: Levine finds plenty to like — and to improve upon — in the bill’s attempts to help students understand what they’ll actually pay for college.
Read his full analysis here.
Comings and goings
- Lawrence L. Rouse, president since 2018 of Pitt Community College, in North Carolina, will retire this summer.
- Michele Burris, interim vice president for student affairs since June 2023 at Fordham University, in New York, has been named to the post permanently.
- Andrew Kane, associate vice president for university services at Princeton University, has been named vice president for finance and operations at Sarah Lawrence College, in New York.
- Zack Moore, vice president for government and community relations at Pennsylvania State University at University Park, will step down in February.
To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com.
Footnote
Since my daughter was born, in November, I’ve been asking readers to share their experiences as working, teaching, and learning parents. Jennifer Thomas, a student set to earn her bachelor’s degree in May from Worcester State University, in Massachusetts, writes:
“In September of 2020, I was to begin classes on Zoom. I am a single mother, and at the time my children were in the fourth and 10th grade. Easy, right? Not so much!
“As I tried to navigate all the new technology for my classes, such as Blackboard and Google Classroom, whom did I turn to? My teenage daughter! We sort of made it through a tutorial session with all of our hair still intact. The rest of it, I would have to figure out. The kids would make fun of me or have their laughter at my expense when I would be in my classes and trying to figure out how to sign in, or when I would have to video-record my speeches and screw up, and do it again.
“On to the next obstacles: Having three people in one home on Zoom classes at the same time during the day, or trying to keep my son off my camera during some of my courses that were late in the day. Headphones became my family’s best friend. My professor would love seeing my son running back and forth behind the camera or stopping to wave ‘Hi’ at the class when he was supposed to be getting ready for bed.
“Now we are at the end of my four years of classes, and my daughter is a freshman in college (not the same one — that would be weirder than it already is). My son is in middle school, and I will be graduating in May with my bachelor’s degree. We still try to figure out the obstacles around me being in school, but we look back at the last few years and laugh at all the things we experienced together. It also gives my daughter another person to get advice from, navigating this new experience in her life … well, the academic stuff. The rest, we agree, she goes to her older cousin for. I can’t be the cool parent for everything, LOL.”
🍼 Parents, please continue sending your stories to dailybriefing@chronicle.com, and we’ll consider them for future Footnotes.
