Dive Brief: A bipartisan group of Oregon lawmakers this week proposed a new committee that would examine how the state’s universities respond to allegations of sexual misconduct and racial discrimination on campus. The Senate resolution would create an eight-member committee responsible for holding hearings and investigating how schools handle campus misconduct. It would be able … Read more
When Florida residents who lost their jobs or had their hours reduced due to the pandemic were looking to retrain for new employment last fall, Valencia College sprung into action. The community college, based in Orlando, partnered with a local workforce organization to offer accelerated training in a range of fields at the Orange County … Read more
Dive Brief: The U.S. Department of Education will hold a five-day virtual hearing in June to receive feedback on its approach to Title IX, the federal law governing how colleges must investigate and potentially punish sexual violence on campuses. The agency had already announced it would hold the event, which is scheduled June 7 through … Read more
Gregory Crawford is the president of Miami University, in Ohio. The twin missions of higher education are to prepare students for fruitful lives and careers and to serve the needs of our society. Faced with a climate catastrophe that has already begun and that threatens more damage, colleges and universities must lead the creation of … Read more
Dive Brief: Idaho’s legislature this week cut a total $2.5 million in funding for social justice programming at three of its public universities. Lawmakers kept overall higher education spending flat for the coming fiscal year, at $629.9 million. About $32.8 million of that money came from federal COVID-19 relief. The targeted reduction comes after the … Read more
Dive Brief: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation this week that will allow the state’s community colleges to offer some bachelor’s degrees if they can show a four-year program meets student demand and workforce needs. While all of Arizona’s community colleges can now offer four-year degrees, those in the state’s two most populous counties — Maricopa … Read more
Dive Brief: Federal agencies have extended and clarified flexibilities for international students attending U.S. colleges during the 2021-22 academic year. They also eased some travel restrictions. Higher education experts say the decisions will allow students and schools to plan for the upcoming academic year, but they caution that visa processing backlogs could be a hurdle. … Read more
Dive Brief: A bill reintroduced in Congress last week would hold higher education institutions more accountable for addressing allegations of sexual abuse carried out by employees. Under the Accountability of Leaders in Education to Report Title IX Investigations Act, colleges that receive federal funding would need to certify to the U.S. Department of Education annually … Read more
When Kathryn Bjorling returned from her 18-month mission trip to Peru for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she knew she wanted to top off her associate degree in business with a four-year diploma. But she didn’t want to take out a loan to do so. “All of my friends were going to … Read more
Catalina Cifuentes had worked tirelessly to increase college-going among students in Riverside County, California, which ranked dead last among the major metropolitan areas in degree attainment in 2016. Over the course of six years, Cifuentes, the county’s executive director of college and career readiness, helped grow Riverside’s college enrollment rate by more than seven percentage … Read more