Behind the News

An infographic by OnlineColleges.net analyzes today’s students’ study habits, as well as grade inflation, to suggest that college grading may be getting easier. Whatever the case, grading methods have certainly changed over the years.

James Wollack, director of University of Wisconsin-Madison testing and evaluation services and an expert in educational measurement, says grading used to be dominated by test scores: fail a final and you’d flunk the course.

Before the economic downturn, there was a growing interest in higher ed in integrating active adult communities with campus life. Residents would benefit from the amenities provided by a college town, while campus constituents would benefit from the perspective another generation could offer, and possible revenue through rents or membership fees. Interest sagged along with the real estate market—but is starting to tick up again.

With the 2012 election only weeks away, Pres. Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney are furiously campaigning for that segment of undecided voters that could make or break their efforts.

At the top of nearly every list of voter concerns this year, of course, is the economy. And because one of the keys to growing the economy is an educated workforce, voters are anxious to hear where each candidate stands on higher education. For the most part, the discussion centers on two issues—affordability and accountability—and the differences are stark.

Textbooks are a big ticket purchase for college students, but that cost has declined slightly over the past five years. That’s not to say students are buying fewer books—or that textbook prices have gone down—but that they have found ways to bring the cost down, often with the help of campus bookstores.

James Maguire, former associate vice president for Campus Planning and Facilities at Boise State University (Idaho), is now vice chancellor for Administrative Services and chief architect for the University of North Texas System. He began his duties, which include overseeing the system’s design and staff members and collaborating with campus presidents and their senior staff, on July 30. He also previously served as director of Capital Program Implementation for the University of California System and an architect in private practice.

Half of Saint Mary’s College (Ind.) seniors typically decide to live off campus, and officials predicted even fewer numbers would remain on campus this year, due to class size. But thanks in part to a new pet policy, 75 percent of seniors this year will stay in residence halls. “Students were choosing to move off campus because they were allowed to have a pet [there],” says Janielle Tchakerian, assistant vice president for student affairs and director of residence life and community standards. “We looked at how we could accommodate that.”

At the end of July, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee released “For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Ensure Student Success.”

This fall, along with moving its Planning for Higher Education journal from print to completely online, the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) is introducing The Campus-Space MOJO (Multilevel Online Journal Odyssey).

With the presidential election campaign heating up, it’s not just jobs and the economy worth paying attention to. Financial aid administrators from 900 institutions in all 50 states got a glimpse into how their niche would be affected by both presidential candidates when James Kvall, policy director for Obama for America, and Scott Fleming, an education policy advisor for Romney for President, spoke at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) national conference in Chicago in July.

Rollins College (Fla.) recently hired a director of community engagement. While the position is not unusual, the funding for it might be. An alumnus gave a $1 million donation to endow the position. Donations from David Lord and his family helped establish and support the community engagement office through the years, so he knew the next logical step to expand the program was hiring a director, explains Joe Monti, director of foundation relations. This is the second endowed staff position at Rollins, the other being at their Cornell Fine Arts Museum.