Behind the News

Leaders at Arizona higher ed institutions have been maintaining proactive responses to concerns about whether their policies may change as a result of SB 1070, a new law that makes it a crime to be in Arizona without legal immigration status.

Reconciliation Act to Provide Better Funding

The federal student loan program is going through some big changes, namely that it will create direct lending from the federal government to students, eliminating the current bank-based system of lending. The changes are expected to save $61 billion over the next 10 years by ending subsidies to banks. The provisions were detailed in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 passed into law on March 21.

Since the January 12 earthquake that decimated Haiti, U.S. colleges and universities have continued to carry out aid initiatives to support relief efforts. As would be expected, some of those efforts are more traditional (think fundraisers and collection drives), while others involve technology (including social media, websites, and wikis). Other institutions have taken more creative measures.

A staggering 95 percent of sexual assault cases on college campuses go unreported, according to findings of a nine-month investigation by The Center for Public Integrity. Confidential mediation, which is the usual course of action taken by university officials in lieu of judicial action, often leaves victims feeling further victimized as it results in a lack of accountability and punishment for offenders, notes report author Kristin Lombardi.

Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.) opened a satellite clinic for students who may have influenza.

Colleges and universities turn to food delivery, quarantine to serve ill students

Education the main weapon against swine flu

Heath center staff at the University of Georgia have heard from hundreds of students with flulike symptoms.

WITH THE POST-9/11 GI BILL TAKING effect in August, colleges and universities are preparing for an anticipated influx of veterans by creating special services to help with their transition.