Higher education historians often trace the modern growth and democratization of American higher learning to federal student financial aid – providing a system of higher education financing that has opened the doors of college and university campuses to students and families who would otherwise be unable to afford the spiraling costs of college tuition. […]
The ills of society are often magnified in the high-intensity atmosphere of college campuses. Over the last two years, violent events involving police officers and a perceived lack of administrative responsiveness to incidents of on-campus racial bias have led to protests and confrontations. On most campuses, these demonstrations were organized to address issues of diversity, […]
Remember IBM’s Watson, the star of Jeopardy! a few years back? The computer system learns by examining data and earlier results it provided, then formulating even better answers and results for the next problem. Watson is probably the most well-known example of artificial intelligence, which has come out of research labs and onto college and […]
The University of Vermont offers its students allergen-free, gluten-free and kosher food stations—plus cage-free eggs, fair trade coffee and locally sourced organic food (including Vermont maple syrup). Hunger cravings can be satisfied at any of three dining halls and 12 retail locations on campus, yet meal prices haven’t increased at rates higher than the cost […]
Commencement speakers have become another point of financial scrutiny in higher ed, with an annual flurry of students crying foul on both the person selected and fees incurred. Some colleges avoid charges by tapping their own faculty for the task (as University of Chicago has done since 1970). Others pursue prominent speakers willing to donate […]
There were big-picture pieces on race relations, immigration, climate change, incarceration, veterans, gender issues and the proliferation of firearms. And there were hot-button campus issues such as sexual assaults, alcohol, college access, free speech, college cost and debt, emotionally unstable students, and abuses in sports programs. In all, college and university presidents had nearly 600 […]
The setting was big, the company was good and the technology talk was buzzing at this year's UBTech Conference, held June 16 to 18 at The Mirage Las Vegas. And based on the feedback from our 1,273 attendees, the "Technology Changes Everything" tagline will be put into practice as administrators and educators from the more […]
UBTech open keynote speaker Richard Baraniuk, of Rice University, talked to a full house about an initiative to create a library of free, high-quality textbooks for college courses and how that can impact the debt crisis facing students. His organization, OpenStax, has—at a cost of about $1 million each—published a series of free, peer-reviewed open-source […]
In March, Excelsior College launched its new Online Writing Lab or OWL , a comprehensive, media-rich, open-source resource designed for students making the transition to college-level writing. Developed with funding from the Kresge Foundation, this free, publicly available OWL uses extensive multimedia and gaming activities to help reinforce important writing concepts and skills, and provide […]
The September 11, 2001 attacks evoked a new era of national security and anxiety. The country responded with sweeping security measures that have sparked a growing concern over perceived violations of individual civil rights and liberties. This national debate surrounding the tension between national or organizational security and individual privacy can be especially complex when […]
