North Carolina legislators passed a bill last month that prevents colleges and universities from requiring students to provide their passwords to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. The law was drafted in response to a student-athlete handbook rule forcing athletes to choose an administrator or coach to monitor their social media accounts throughout the academic year.
Articles: Campus Life
5/24/2013
As other campus departments experience cut or stagnant budgets, campus engagement centers have been an exception. Although they’re generally smaller departments, their budgets have been steadily growing over the past few years. That’s according to a survey of Campus Compact’s member institutions.
4/22/2013
When Boston College leaders sent a letter to a student group in March saying its members could expect disciplinary sanctions if they distributed condoms from dorm rooms on campus, a game of sides followed. Some students, members of the media, and the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union stood by the unofficial student group, Boston College Students for Sexual Health.
3/26/2013
Some of us east-coasters are urban-centric when it comes to identifying with the last American higher learning frontier—rising out of the Rocky Mountains and continental college town divide. Indeed, new interest in eco-tourism, adventure tourism, and extreme sports is creating a different kind of gold rush—expeditions to places of big sky, wild rivers, lakes, and peaks formed by glaciers thousands of years ago.
3/20/2013
Maintaining healthy town/gown relations enhances campus life and generally makes the institutional mission easier to achieve. In recent years, however, community college officials are finding that efforts must go beyond providing cultural venues that locals can access.
3/19/2013
Before entering college, Nicole, a junior at a small liberal arts college in New England, had been getting treatment for anorexia for two years. Finding a college with adequate mental health services was one of her biggest concerns, so she was relieved when the director of counseling services at the college she selected promised her a full treatment, complete with a weekly dietician meeting and regular sessions with a psychiatrist and a therapist.
1/24/2013
After being announced as a host venue for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, my colleagues and I at The University of British Columbia (Canada) began preparations for the thousands of visitors expected to come see the Olympic torch relay and attend events at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
1/17/2013
Will residential liberal arts colleges follow the path of the wristwatch? I sure hope so. With all of the talk about MOOCs, online instruction, and game-based learning models, many of us working at residential liberal arts colleges are uncertain about our future. The reports are scaring us into conversations about fundamentally restructuring—perhaps even abandoning what we do and how we do it.
1/15/2013
Continually provide both hot and cold gluten-free and allergen-free options in dining hall food lines. Allow students to pre-order allergen-free meals. Provide a dedicated space in the main dining hall to store and prepare gluten-free and allergen-free foods and to avoid cross-contamination.
12/12/2012
Could the admission of Grand Canyon University (Ariz.) into the Western Athletic Conference help change the perception of for-profits among the higher education community?
11/19/2012
While social media is a great way to share news with family and friends, students don’t always realize the implications for their ability to secure jobs in the future. Campus administrators have been trying to educate students, especially seniors, about protecting their “personal brand” online for several years. Recently, they’ve been taking steps to protect the campus brand, as reflected in select student posts, as well.
11/11/2012
Campus safety inspections, which determined the type of environmental health and safety training needed for faculty, staff, students, and researchers, took three staffers four days followed by several days of data input. The school automated the process, cutting the number of hours in half and saving more than $49,000 in annual training and $8,000 in staff and travel costs.
10/31/2012
With any campus building, what’s on the inside counts just as much—and probably more—than what’s on the outside. This is especially true with residence halls, which must include a balance of private and shared spaces. “The buildings need to promote interaction among students to encourage peer-to-peer learning in support of the institution’s academic mission,” says Jackson Kane, an associate and housing specialist at Lord, Aeck & Sargent. That’s no small order.
9/26/2012
While the role of international campuses of U.S. institutions of higher education has been much debated in recent years, their primary purpose and capacity for constructive, new developments is often overlooked. With much controversy over motives, money and visions of soft power, the critics rarely look at the realities that brought these overseas ventures to fruition in the first place—or the drive that keeps them operating and expanding.
9/24/2012
In 2008, Sunil Khambaswadkar came on board as the assistant vice chancellor of HR at the Abu Dhabi campus of New York University, which now supports 450 students and is growing strong. “It was a great opportunity for HR and me, personally, to be part of the campus right from the beginning, participating in the planning process, being able to determine what would be required from an HR perspective,” he says.
