Colleges across the country are raking in millions by giving credit card companies student names and special access to the student body.
An investigation by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund found that although some of the credit card industry’s practices are being halted by the new Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act), they can still set up “affinity” contracts with schools.
These contracts grant card marketers lists of student names, rights to market at campus events and the right to use the school’s logo, implying the school played some role in negotiating the terms of credit cards companies offer to students. In some cases, schools are paid more if students keep a credit card for at least 90 days, make purchases on the card or carry a balance.
While the Investigative Fund was unable to determine how many of the nation’s colleges and universities have these contracts, at least 800 do, mostly with Bank of America.
Across the country, states continue to cut higher education budgets and schools are predictably responding with tuition and fee hikes.
In California, the California State University trustees are set to propose a 5 to 10 percent increase in fees on the heels of last year’s 32 percent hike. A plan backed by the Governor and Assembly could close enough of the budget gap that CSU would only need the revenue from a 5 percent increase. However, that plan hasn’t passed and trustees are nervous about banking on it. After a different revenue raising plan failed last year, trustees decided to impose a mid-year tuition hike prompting a lawsuit and state-wide protests from students. To stave off a similar situation, some on the board are advocating for the full 10 percent increase.
In Virginia, tuition at Virginia Tech is set to rise 11.1 percent at the same time that 200 faculty and staff positions are cut. Like in California, the Board of Visitors argues the tuition hike is necessary because of another drop to state funding. While the state’s stated policy is to provide 67 percent of the cost of education of each resident, this year the state will only provide 40 percent on average. At schools like Tech, that percentage is even lower—for 2010-2011 state funding will comprise only 28.9 percent of the budget.
Further north in Massachusetts, students at the University of Massachusetts campuses will start feeling last year’s $1,500 fee hike as trustees fail to find another way to fill their budget hole. While tuition will remain flat this year, most students got a $1,100 rebate on tuition last year after federal stimulus funding kicked in. Now, that rebate is unlikely to come.
After state-wide controversy over an undocumented Kennesaw State student paying in-state tuition, the Georgia Board of Regents has agreed to find a way to check the citizenship status of all students.
Existing Georgia law allows undocumented students to attend the state’s colleges and universities but requires they be charged out of state tuition. Until now, schools have taken students word that they are legal residents of the United States.
In the wake of the controversy, the board approved two new measures that will change their procedures for potentially undocumented students. First, university presidents are now expressly barred from granting in-state tuition waivers to undocumented students. Second, universities will now have to review and verify the status of all newly admitted students.
Though some students are likely to be upset with the decision, the Board was likely acting to stave off more attacks on its policies. The Cobb County Sherriff already asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate whether the regents are violating the law by admitting undocumented students at the outset.
Cal State Los Angeles students essentially opened their own library when they found the school’s shut at 8pm because of budget cuts.
In response to the library’s reduction in hours, students found tables, power outlets, a copier and printer and opened their own study area. University officials, after some initial unease, have essentially signed off on the students’ creation by helping them secure electrical hookups.
Though students are glad to have the space to study, no one is pretending the makeshift “People’s Library” is a permanent or sufficient solution. Noting that the makeshift space exists because of the same cuts students protested in mass earlier this year, one of the organizers said students were “studying in resistance.”
While some students can easily study at home, organizers argue that many Cal State students’ family obligations and living situations mean they don’t have another good study location. As Anthony Francoso, one of the organizers, told the LA Times, “a lot of these students have to go home and prepare the family dinner or look after their little brothers and sisters; that’s why the library is so important.”
While the students may be able to temporarily replace the library’s study space, they can’t replace some of the other resources it’s losing. Budget cuts also meant that the library cut subscriptions to 400 journals and 10 databases this year.
Another round of cuts to Louisiana higher education is prompting some in the state to suggest closing up to 8 of the state’s 14 universities.
Over the past year and a half, the state legislature cut spending on higher education by more than $250 million. While those cuts were buffered last year by $290 million in federal stimulus spending, this year the university system will have to absorb the full budget shortfall.
After hearing about the proposed cuts, leaders of the university system presented the legislature with scenarios for how it would reduce spending. One of those scenarios would close eight of the fourteen public universities and displace 50,000 students.
A state auditor has partly resolved years of controversy over what role the student government has in reviewing and allocating student activity fees at UW-Stevens Point. Students and administrators have sparred for years over whether the Student Government Association should have the sole power to review fees or if that power had to be shared with un-elected student organizations.
The controversy arose when the elected student government at UWSP decided it should be the body to review the section of student fees that pay for the student union instead of an unelected advisory body that had filled that role since 1989. The former chancellor refused to implement the change saying the student government didn’t have the power to make it. The current chancellor, Mark Nook, also refused to implement the change arguing that students would need to hold a referendum to change which body would review the union’s fees.
An auditor with the Legislative Audit Bureau found that “there are no statues or policies that explicitly require such a process.” Instead the auditor recommended that the school simply make the process clearer for when students decide they want to change the body that represents them.
By statue, students at the University of Wisconsin campuses play the lead role in determining how to spend student activity fees. That same statute makes it clear that “students of each institution or campus shall have the right to organize themselves in a manner they determine and to select their representatives to participate in institutional governance.”
After several years of deep cuts to higher education in Nevada, the board of regents approved eliminating several departments from both UNLV and UN Reno. While legislators cut state appropriations by 6.9 percent this year, the budget was cut by 31 percent over the past three years.
At the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the regents cut marriage and family therapy, informatics, clinical laboratory sciences, sports education leadership and urban horticulture. At the University of Nevada Reno, the regents scrapped animal biotechnology and resource economics, the Center for Nutrition and Metabolism, German studies, interior design and supply chain management.
Members of Congress are starting to question a little known section of bankruptcy law that makes it nearly impossible to get rid of student loan debt when graduates file for bankruptcy.
Though few students know about the law, the combination of a deep recession and ever increasing levels of student debt are making more people take notice. When graduates struggle to find full employment and pay off their loans, they’re often left without options. To discharge student loans in bankruptcy, graduates must meet an almost impossible standard of “undue hardship.”
Now bills in both the Senate and House of Representatives propose to let people filing bankruptcy get out of some student loan debt. Under the proposals, federal loans couldn’t be discharged. Federal loans are both backed by taxpayers and already have more options for forgiveness or slower repayment. Private loans for education, however, would be dischargeable.
Demand for financial aid in Illinois is up so sharply that the state has already had to deny 27,000 students need-based aid grants for the 2010-2011 school-year. The agency that distributes the grants says that number could go as high as 200,000 by the time school starts.
This year, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission plans to award $400 million in grants under the Monetary Award Program or MAP. This year, however, demand is far outpacing supply in the grants after the recession has left more students cash strapped and schools hiked tuition to deal with declines in state appropriations. The MAP grants can provide up to $4,968 per year for students in need.
Weeks after the chancellor of the University of Connecticut left to take over the University of Illinois, the chancellor of the Connecticut State University system is facing tough criticism from the legislature over his performance on the job.
Legislators are concerned that the chancellor, David G. Carter, runs the system in too secretive a manner involving only a handful of other administrators. For example, the chancellor for Southern Connecticut was removed without a board vote and replaced by a former colleague of Carter’s. Now, Connecticut is on the hook for two six figure salaries--one to the new and one to the old chancellor.
Carter’s salary has also increased by nearly fifty percent in recent years.
Last week Laramie County Community College in Wyoming lost its legal battle to keep a report about the mishandling of a student on a school trip from seeing the light of day.
While Judge Peter Arnold had initially issued a restraining order against the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, he lifted the order last week.
The report the college was trying to keep quiet alleges that the school’s president mishandled suicidal behaviors in one of the students on a school trip to Costa Rica. After the student exhibited suicidal behaviors more than once, the school’s president asked another student to look after her rather than notifying a member of the school’s Care Team.
The school had been fighting to keep the report secret citing concerns that releasing it would violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
As steep declines in state revenue force colleges in California to cut back, the California Community Colleges are essentially outsourcing some of their students to for-profit Kaplan University.
Under a memorandum of understanding between Kaplan and the California Community Colleges, some students will be able to take select online courses at a steep discount and have the credits transfer back to their home college.
While students will receive a steep discount off Kaplan’s normal tuition rates, they’ll still pay far more than they would at their community college. A course that would normally cost them $78 will cost $645 through Kaplan. For a student normally enrolled with Kaplan, the same course costs $1,113.
College officials expect few students, mainly those putting the highest premium on completing their degrees in a timely manner; will take advantage of the program.
Faculty members caution that while the students will be guaranteed the credits will count at their community college, the California State University and University of California systems may still not accept them. Each of the three college systems determines which courses will count at their institutions.
The California Community Colleges decision comes after reports showing high profits at schools like Kaplan, built largely off Pell Grants and federal loans to low income students.
Amid a weak economy and tuition increases across the country, schools in multiple states are experiencing increases in summer session enrollment.
The recession has meant that fewer students can find jobs during the summer and that competition for resume building internships is tough. That means more students are left with time to add a few credits during the summer and an incentive to finish school as quickly and cheaply as possible. At the same time, Pell Grants are now available year-round, providing added incentive to take summer classes.
While summer enrollment is not up across the board, it is up at many campuses. At the University of Texas-Dallas enrollment is up by 5.3 percent and at the University of Missouri-St. Louis enrollment is up by 4.6 percent.
In California students have even more incentive to take as many credits this year as possible. The 32 percent tuition increase that sparked protests around the state doesn’t fully kick in until the fall.
Two seldom discussed pieces of the federal health care reform law are set to go into effect early this summer—promising big changes for many students and recent graduates.
First, starting on September 23rd, graduates will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26. Previously, graduates were cut off from those plans soon after graduation.
For students that don’t have insurance through their parents, the new reforms could also force major changes in insurance offered through their school.
Student plans have long been notorious for offering very limited protection. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that nearly all of the plans have lifetime benefit limits as well as limits on coverage for each condition. Insurers, even in the case of student plans, will have to eliminate lifetime and most annual limits on coverage.
While those reforms are certain, students will have to wait to see how other aspects of student plans will be treated. If student plans are evaluated as individual plans, they’ll have to offer a comprehensive package of “essential health benefits.” If they’re evaluated as large group plans, they won’t have to meet that requirement of the new law.
In a move many see as a slap in the face, the University of Illinois trustees adopted a 9.5 percent tuition increase at the same time as approving a salary for the new president that’s $170,000 higher than his predecessor.
With the tuition hike, students will now pay $10,386 to attend the Urbana-Champaign campus, $9,134 for Chicago and $8,108 for Springfield. Out of state students will now pay $24,528 for tuition alone and international students will pay a surcharge of $2,000 per year.
The new president will now be paid $620,000 per year, nearly 38 percent higher than his predecessor. On top of that, the new president will receive a retention pay bonus of $225,000 if he stays for five years, will receive $45,000 in his first 30 days on the job and will be eligible for a one year paid sabbatical after he leaves the job.
Students at Minnesota State University-Mankato just finished a 97 mile walk to the state capitol aimed at urging lawmakers to adequately fund higher education. After arriving at the state capitol, the students hand delivered invitations to legislators asking them to come to an open forum on funding for higher education in the fall.
The walk was led by the incoming president of Mankato’s Student Association, Tom Williams. Williams stressed that funding for higher education should be a priority to ensure business growth in the state.
Williams told the Savage Pacer that “I firmly believe you won’t have small businesses, you won’t have innovation, you won’t have new technology without higher education. There’s job creation when workers are laid off and they seek out the colleges and universities to be retrained.”
Though often in more financial need, community college students apply for financial aid in substantially lower numbers than their counterparts at four-year institutions.
A report from the College Board’s new Advocacy and Policy Center finds that 76.8 percent of students eligible to receive Pell Grants at four-year public schools complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) while only 57.8 percent of those at community colleges do. Out of all community college students, only 42.5 percent apply for federal financial aid.
This discrepancy could make it difficult for schools to meet their and the Obama administration’s goals for college graduation. Since low income students are often more reluctant to take out loans, many who aren’t aware of financial aid options may simply avoid finishing school. Others may choose to attend school part time or work a substantial number of hours which makes it much more likely they won’t graduate.
The study recommended that schools take a number of steps to improve financial literacy among their students including debt counseling, involving families more and linking application forms to the FAFSA form.
While the situation appears bleak, some colleges have been able to see substantial improvements with reforms. After the Connecticut Community College System streamlined its financial aid process, applications for financial aid jumped by 25 percent.
Following a protest with striking cafeteria workers, Tulane University disciplined three students. The school found the three students guilty of violating the school’s code of conduct.
The students had joined cafeteria workers who were striking over low wages and poor working conditions. Though the school’s code of conduct allows students to protest, it does not allow the protests to disrupt academic life. The school argues it received complaints from students and faculty members who said the protesters were loud enough to disrupt classes and studying.
All three students will be able to graduate on time, despite disciplinary letters.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign increased its sustainability fee from $5 to $14 this year after students voted to increase the fee.
Like many campuses, the University of Illinois created a fee-funded sustainability fund to pay for green projects on campus. This year, the student sustainability committee, which allocates the funds, received far more requests than its budget could fund.
A plan to install a wind turbine on campus is also stalled over funding.
More from the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Despite a freeze on executive compensation, administrator salaries at Rutgers University now cost the school $14 million, an increase from last year.
Though current administrators salaries remain frozen, new administrators came in at higher salaries than their predecessors, contributing to the increase.
Despite cuts totaling more than $173 million, University officials argue they need to maintain high administrative salaries to lure and keep strong staff. Currently, the president of Rutgers has the ninth highest salary among presidents of four-year institutions in the nation.
Months after Southwestern College in California received national criticism for suspending three professors that spoke outside the campuses “free speech patio,” Peralta Community College is considering adopting new restrictions on campus speech.
Though the speech policy is not finalized, the proposal would severely limit the places speakers can speak, would require they reserve space three business days in advance, would ban obscenity, profanity and amplification and would require that all notices on bulletin boards have an English translation. It would also prohibit “disruptive behavior” and “open and persistent defiance of the authority of college employees.”
The college administration argues the policy is necessary because of problems with an anti-abortion group that carries video cameras and post photographs of aborted fetuses.
This week Illinois Governor Quinn vetoed a scholarship reform bill, arguing it doesn’t go far enough to stop lawmakers from rewarding campaign contributors and loyalists.
Illinois has long had a program whereby lawmakers can give out up to two four-year scholarships, or a combination of smaller scholarships that add up to the same amount, to whomever they see fit. Lawmakers often give those scholarships to campaign contributors or children of politically connected constituents.
The bill Quinn vetoed would have banned lawmakers from giving scholarships to someone whose family can be linked to a campaign contribution and would have blocked family members of a scholarship recipient from making contributions to the lawmaker responsible for the scholarship.
Quinn argued that only a complete ban on this type of scholarship would be sufficient to stop corruption. Under the law passed by the Illinois legislature, lawmakers could still give scholarships to children of politically connected parents, including lobbyists, campaign workers and volunteers and other allies.
Students attending Georgia’s three research institutions, the University of Georgia, Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, will pay $1,000 more in tuition next year, a 16.5 percent hike from the 2009-2010 school-year.
Students at two year schools will pay at least $50 more per semester. Students who started the University under the short-lived “Fixed-for-Four” program that guaranteed tuition rates for four-years won’t see the increase unless they take longer than four years to graduate.
The Board of Regents, however, did not increase student fees, a move students at UGA are pleased by. Most students at UGA receive the HOPE scholarship, which covers tuition costs and automatically increases when tuition increases. The scholarship does not pay for fees and is only given to students maintaining a high grade point average.
The tuition increase, however, will only cover about 35 percent of the budget deficit for the University System. The remainder will need to be made up by cuts at the individual colleges and universities.
Amid reports that students are struggling to finish college, new reports reveal that increasing numbers of college students require remedial courses to catch up on skills they failed to learn in high school.
Fully one third of first year students have to take at least one remedial course in subjects including math, reading and English according to a study by the Department of Education. The situation is worse in two year colleges where 42 percent need remedial courses.
For those grappling with tight budgets and high loans, remedial courses can help to break the bank. For example, students requiring a remedial reading course have a 17 percent chance of completing a bachelor’s degree. The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates that remedial courses cost $1.4 billion nationally.
Professors are also seeing the problem. 65 percent of faculty members polled in the ACT National Curriculum Survey said that students were poorly prepared for college coursework.
Others, however, believe we’re simply sending too many students to college. This year set a record for the number of first year college students, some of whom are responding to societal pressure rather than a desire to be in college. Some suggest the solution is alternative job training for jobs that shouldn’t necessarily require a bachelor’s degree.
A bill in Louisiana would remove all state funding from a university if its law clinic sues the state, individuals or makes constitutional claims—effectively forcing most of the clinics to close.
The bill comes after industry groups in the state complained about Tulane Universities environmental law clinic, arguing it was driving business out of the state. Earlier in the year, the law clinic sued the state for poorly enforcing the Clean Air Act.
Industry groups around the country argue that the law clinics discourage business and misuse government funds. Legal experts and educators argue that the clinics provide critical training opportunities for future lawyers and needed representation for low income and community organizations.
Most major law schools have at least one legal clinic allowing students working with faculty members to take on cases dealing with problems low income residents face, challenging free speech issues, environmental and public health problems and other issues.
Though the bill is targeted at Tulane University, it would impact other law schools in the state.
After a state auditor was critical of the way North Dakota State University officials handled a series of building projects, several lawmakers want to take oversight of building projects away from the North Dakota Board of Higher Education.
The state auditor’s report showed that officials split up spending projects to avoid going to the Board for approval and used funds earmarked for asbestos to remodel the President’s office space. During the course of the audit, three officials at the University resigned.
In response, lawmakers are concerned that the Board struggles to say no to private organizations and fails to control spending of its staff. They’re now proposing moving the authority to oversee building projects to a different state agency or using the Bank of North Dakota to finance building projects.
In what University officials argue could be the first of many such cancellations, two Mexican universities ended their exchange programs with the University of Arizona because of the states’ controversial new immigration law.
The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí canceled exchange programs with the University of Arizona because they were worried their students would be harassed while studying in Arizona.
So far, no other programs have been terminated as a result of the new law which makes it a state crime to be in Arizona illegally and requires police to verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect is illegally in the country.
However, officials at the other two state universities, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, are worried their programs may be next. The University of Arizona also received letters from several families saying they would now be sending their children to schools in other states as a result of the law.
Students at several campuses are stepping up campaigns aimed at changing Israel’s behavior toward Palestinians. Borrowing the tactics of boycott and divestment from the student-led anti-apartheid campaigns, students at UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and the University of New Mexico are working to get their campuses to divest from companies making a profit in Israel.
While none of the campaigns has led to divestment yet, student organizers at UNM say raising awareness and creating dialogue is just as important. Nada Noor, coordinator of the Coalition for Peace and Justice in the Middle East at UNM, told the Daily Lobo that “it sheds light on the direct relationship we have with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and the effects their conditions (have) on ours.”
Other students, however, think their campaign is at best more harmful to Palestinians than helpful and at worst racist. Several members of the Israel Alliance noted that because the Palestinian economy is dependent on the Israeli economy, the boycott and divestment campaign could hurt Palestinians. Meanwhile, the president of the Alliance argued that the campaign was racist because it was attacking Israel when other countries had even worse human rights violations and are not targeted by the campaign.
More from the Daily Lobo at the University of New Mexico
Kean University may soon eliminate all but one academic department, replacing them with academic colleges. While faculty members argue the proposal is an attempt to consolidate power, administrators argue is necessary to trim costs.
The plan, which could be put in place this summer, would replace academic departments headed by faculty chosen chairs with a smaller number of schools headed by presidentially appointed executive directors.
While the administration argues the plan is necessary to fill a budget hole that could be as high as $17.7 million, faculty members argue the plan could wind up costing the University money. Thus far, the plan does not include budget figures.
The faculty members contend that administrators are pushing the plan in order to reduce faculty power on campus.
They further argue that the plan will create logistical and accreditation problems. Under the plan, composition would be in a different school than the English department that created it and the Bachelor of Science programs in some disciplines would be in separate schools from the Bachelor of Arts programs, despite being taught by the same faculty members.
After a number of high profile scandals involving for-profit colleges, the Obama administration is considering regulations that could cut their revenue by up to a third. The regulations under consideration would disqualify a school from receiving federal aid if its graduates are unable to pay back loans and would restrict their ability to hike tuition.
For-profit institutions like the University of Phoenix are receiving an increasing share of federal aid. Since 2000, the schools have gone from receiving 4.6 billion to $26.5 billion in 2009. At the same time, many are questioning their business practices.
In 2009, the Government Accountability Office found that students at for-profit institutions are more likely to leave college and more likely to default on their loans than peers at other colleges. The schools have also been consistently hiking tuition by four to six percent per year with one school increasing it by $11,700 last year. Bloomberg also recently found that a number of the colleges are targeting homeless shelters to find new recruits—saddling applicants with loans that they cannot afford.
While the colleges are now claiming they will stop targeting homeless applicants, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools already opened an investigation into the practices at Drake College of Business.
Though the Obama Administration has not released the rules under consideration, the for-profit education industry is already working to stop them. The Career College Association retained the powerful lobbying firm the Podesta Group and is working to get the Congressional Black Caucus to speak on their behalf.
