My first job out of prison was as a warehouse laborer earning minimum wage. The job was mind numbing and backbreaking, and didn't offer benefits. Then, I received a call from the local university for a clerical position; it was the opportunity I desperately needed, and it changed the trajectory of my life.
When the Koch network recently announced a new coalition focused on providing work opportunities for the formerly incarcerated, one employment sector was conspicuously absent: higher education. It's disheartening. My first job out of prison was as a warehouse laborer earning minimum wage. The job was mind numbing and backbreaking, and did not offer benefits. While I was […]
The number of higher ed institutions rethinking how they screen and accept new students continues to grow. In recent months, Stanford, Princeton and Brown universities announced that they would make SAT and ACT scores optional in the admissions process. Since 2005, more than 1,000 accredited colleges and universities have made the scores optional—or have ignored […]
There are times when we could all use a fresh start. Scott Cowen was given that opportunity in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as the then-president of Tulane University in New Orleans. The tragedy led to an institutional soul-searching that would result in a "rebirth" of the university with a new focus on […]
The growth of a 194-acre tropical rainforest sometimes forces the 48-member University of Hawai'i at MÄnoa's grounds crew to cut down branches and vines overrunning the institution's Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, just 5 miles away. "Everything grows faster here and does so 365 days a year," says Roxanne Adams, the university's director of buildings and […]
Some higher ed administrators may be surprised to learn that women hold two-thirds of the nation’s $1.3 trillion in student debt. By the end of 2016, this percentage equaled $833 billion, according to a new report by the American Association of University Women, a grassroots organization focused on promoting gender equity in education. Heavier student […]
The cost of college, a daunting concern for many American families, is now the central storyline of a Hollywood movie. In a short-lived summer movie release called The House, Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler, a middle-class couple, open an illegal casino to cope with their personal gamble: how to pay for their daughter's college tuition. […]
Like many other institutions, Cornell University participates in an interlibrary loan system for faculty, staff and students. Borrow Direct (borrowdirect.org) went live in 1999 after founding institutions Columbia, Penn and Yale partnered with the Research Libraries Group to develop the program for “Ivy Plus” institutions. Besides the three initial universities and Cornell, participants are Brown, […]
