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    States could save money and increase college-graduation rates by providing modest financial incentives for students to choose private colleges over comparable public ones, according to a report released this week. The conclusion, which was quickly disputed by a group representing public colleges, comes at a time when a growing number of states are providing the opposite incentives. This week New York became the first state to offer free tuition at both two- and four-year public colleges for middle-class families. Other states are considering similar moves, prompting widespread concern that enrollments could plunge at some tuition-dependent private colleges that recruit heavily from their states. The report was prepared for the Council of Independent Colleges as part of its efforts to promote the value of the liberal arts and independent colleges. The report was distributed this week to all of the council’s members, to provide talking points when they make the case for financial support from state lawmakers, especially in states where free public-college tuition is on the agenda. It’s hardly surprising that the council, which represents more than 700 nonprofit independent colleges, would promote a report based on the argument that costs per degree are lower and graduation rates higher at private institutions. But the report’s authors, both of whom work at public universities, say it is based on a comprehensive analysis of federal data and state-specific simulations in 24 states. In all but two of those states, the proposed shift would save money, the researchers concluded. The findings were dismissed by Barmak Nassirian, director of federal relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. "I empathize with their plight, and I don’t begrudge them their moment in the sun, if that’s what their report is, but there are lots of problems with it," he said in an interview on Thursday. "They’re trying to make the counterintuitive case that expensive schools are cheaper t
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Cardinal not wanted after his role in handling sex abuse allegations Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York since 2009, will speak at the University of St. Thomas' May commencement ceremony despite student calls for the university to reconsider. Students say they are concerned about Dolan's role in handling sexual abuse allegations when he was archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee in the early 2000s. A petition calling for the private Montrose university to cancel the speech brought more than 100 signaturesin the last several days, and four students Thursday afternoon distributed leaflets from the heart of campus with photos of Dolan's face, media coverage of allegations against him and a link to an online petition. "Send it to everyone you know," said Victoria Villarreal, a senior studying communications, as she passed a flier to a woman. "I did," she responded. University President Robert Ivany said Thursday morning that he does not believe the criticism reflects general opinion on the 3,300-student campus. The university's governing board of directors selected Dolan to speak two years ago in a unanimous decision, he said. The university announced last week that he would speak at commencement. Before assuming his current role in New York, Dolan served as archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009. Under his leadership, abusive priests were paid up to $20,000 for agreeing to be removed from the clergy. "Was it a payoff, was it a settlement, was it an impetus - I wouldn't say that, nor would I say it was a normal practice, but it was done," he said in a 2012 deposition about the payments. The payments, he said, were to help accused priests transition out of their positions and get medical insurance. Ordained as a priest in 1976, Dolan has served in Missouri, Washington, D.C., and Rome. He had a prominent role in President Donald Trump's inauguration, leading the nation in prayer from the Capitol moments before Trump took office. He was appoint
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    For-profit universities in the US have a record of aggressive marketing practices, poor completion rates, and producing graduates with uncertain job prospects and high levels of debt. So why would Purdue University, a state university in Indiana founded in 1869, buy Kaplan University, a for-profit institution with a record of federal investigations and lawsuits from former students? Purdue is eager to offer online education, and acquiring Kaplan was cheaper that building a new system form scratch, Purdue president Mitch Daniels said in a statement. The school doesn’t have to pay anything upfront, and “will enter into a long-term transition and support agreement, with a buy-out option after year six,” according to a FAQ page. For-profit universities in the US have a record of aggressive marketing practices, poor completion rates, and producing graduates with uncertain job prospects and high levels of debt. So why would Purdue University, a state university in Indiana founded in 1869, buy Kaplan University, a for-profit institution with a record of federal investigations and lawsuits from former students? Purdue is eager to offer online education, and acquiring Kaplan was cheaper that building a new system form scratch, Purdue president Mitch Daniels said in a statement. The school doesn’t have to pay anything upfront, and “will enter into a long-term transition and support agreement, with a buy-out option after year six,” according to a FAQ page. Public universities have been forced to become more entrepreneurial as states have dramatically cut funding. It’s no surprise that Daniels, the former Republican governor of Indiana who slashed the state’s higher-ed budget, would be pushing Purdue to find new sources of revenue. Still, it’s an unexpected turn in American higher education, with a market-driven disruptor swallowed by the stodgy old incumbents. But it may be that the for-profit executives just misread the market signals: Students, it seems, didn’t just want convenient education; they also wanted it to be p
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Traverse City — A local education nonprofit has sealed a deal to purchase a northwest Michigan elementary school, but operation-related details are still unclear and officials aren’t publicly discussing options.
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    About 2,000 Kentucky students are eligible for debt relief after getting loans to take online classes through the for-profit Corinthian Colleges Inc., Attorney General Andy Beshear announced Thursday. In Kentucky, the company solicited students under the name Everest College and Everest University. Corinthian also marketed its WyoTech career training program throughout the state. Beshear’s office is notifying eligible students by letter of the cancellation of the federal student loans they used to attend Corinthian schools. Students whose federal loans are canceled will not have to make further payments on the loan and any payments made by the student will be refunded. “As attorney general, my mission is to protect Kentucky’s families from consumer fraud, especially the ongoing deception by for-profit colleges like Corinthian,” Beshear said. “We must do everything in our power to ensure eligible Kentucky students get all the debt relief from fraudulent Corinthian loans.” Federal and state investigators examined Corinthian’s job placement rates, alleging that the company falsified those rates between 2010 and 2014. Currently, Corinthian is not allowed to enroll students and is only remaining open to “teach out” current students. Beshear’s letter will go to Kentucky students who fall within the U.S. Department of Education’s findings of fraud concerning Corinthian, and who are eligible for a special “streamlined” process to discharge their federal student loans. Any student, however, who attended Corinthian Colleges or any other school and believes the school lied about job prospects, the transferability of credits or other issues may apply to have his or her federal student loans discharged using the Department of Education’s universal discharge application at https://borrowerdischarge.ed.gov. More information is available at https://studentaid.ed.gov/borrower-defense. Beshear said Kentucky and states across the country are keeping pressure on the federal government to honor their commitment to help student
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Purdue University in Indiana announced plans Thursday to start a new online school by acquiring for-profit Kaplan University, one of the top destinations for military students and veterans. The unlikely relationship between a public land-grant university and a for-profit school stems from “mutual interests and goals” and a shared desire to expand access to education, according to the terms of the agreement between Purdue and Kaplan’s parent company, Graham Holdings. “None of us knows how fast or in what direction online higher education will evolve, but we know its role will grow, and we intend that Purdue be positioned to be a leader as that happens,” Purdue President Mitch Daniels said in a statement. “A careful analysis made it clear that we are very ill-equipped to build the necessary capabilities ourselves, and that the smart course would be to acquire them if we could. We were able to find exactly what we were looking for.” According to information provided by Purdue, the university’s feasibility studies indicated it would take 36 months to create a single degree program and much longer to create an online school of the magnitude it is acquiring with Kaplan. With Kaplan comes 32,000 students, 3,000 employees and 15 campuses and learning centers throughout the Midwest and East Coast that will fall under Purdue when the acquisition becomes official. The process could take several months, according to Kaplan Inc. spokesman Mark Harrad, as the U.S. Department of Education, state agencies and the institutions’ accreditor agencies still need to sign off. A Military Times analysis of fiscal year 2015 federal data show Kaplan Higher Education Corp. was the 11th most popular destination for active-duty service members using tuition assistance benefits and the 18th most popular school for Post-9/11 GI Bill users. That corporation consisted of Kaplan University, which Purdue acquired, as well as several smaller schools that are no longer part of the company and weren't part of the deal. But Kaplan University acc
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Purdue University’s plan to buy for-profit Kaplan University to expand its reach is the latest twist on an old idea: boost enrollment by attracting students online.
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    OSKALOOSA — William Penn University, like many other private colleges in the state, continues to find unique ways to attract Iowa students. They’ve invested in their curriculum, made the programs more flexible with daytime, evening and nontraditional classes and focused on developing the campus culture to be a meaningful, purposeful experience. To celebrate William Penn University’s legacy of educational opportunities, they’re offering a new scholarship to Iowa high school seniors enrolling in traditional coursework at the Oskaloosa campus. If eligible, the student will pay $5,000 or less for tuition for the 2017-18 school year.
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    While very few people study poetry or classics to get rich, studying the humanities has a big financial payoff at a surprising array of colleges, a new analysis of college grads’ earnings has found. Of course, students who major in engineering, economics, business or computer science at the best schools tend to have the highest financial return on their tuition investments, according to new salary data collected by PayScale.com. But liberal arts and other humanities majors at 16 schools have, on average, earned at least $500,000 more than they paid for school and the typical earnings of someone who did not attend college, PayScale said. Humanities majors at 245 colleges have typically earned at least $200,000 more than they spent on college within 20 years of graduation, PayScale found. Leading the pack: Yale. PayScale estimates that Yalies who receive financial aid pay a total of only about $80,000 for their four-year degrees. And, on average, people whose education stopped at high school earn about $30,000 a year. Yale humanities majors report earning about $80,000 a year, on average. So 20 years out, Yalies have earned a total of about $1.6 million, which puts them a total of $812,000 ahead of high-school grads - even after subtracting the cost of school. Making these numbers even more impressive: they’re only for students who finished their education with a bachelor’s. They don’t count, for example, history majors who went on to earn law degrees or M.B.As. Ivy League colleges, which offer generous aid and thus have low costs for middle class families, tend to have among the highest “return on investment” for humanities and many other majors, PayScale found. But many more accessible colleges also paid off well: Wabash College, a private men’s college in Crawfordsville, Ind. that accepts 61% of applicants, ranked in the top 20 for financial return for a humanities degree. After 20 years, the typical Wabash humanities grad had earned a financial return of about $500,000. San Jose State University, had one
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Americans are often expected to have some level of higher education before they enter the workforce. These political leaders are asking: Shouldn’t government help them along? CHICAGO—A surge of innovation in states and cities is building momentum for what could become a seismic shift in American education. Just as the country came to expect in the decades around World War II that young people would finish at least 12 years of school, more local governments are now working to ensure that students complete at least 14 years. With that change, political leaders in both parties are increasingly acknowledging that if society routinely expects students to obtain at least two years of schooling past high school, government has a responsibility to provide it for them cost-free. That impulse animates the statewide tuition-free community-college program pioneered under Republican Governor Bill Haslam in Tennessee and replicated under Democratic Governor Kate Brown in Oregon; Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Star Scholarship, which funds two years of community college for students who complete high school with a B average; and the legislation Governor Andrew Cuomo recently signed into law providing tuition-free access to two- and four-year public colleges in New York for families earning up to $125,000. The Campaign for Free College Tuition, an organization promoting this movement, expects representatives from up to 18 states to join their conference next month in Denver. Ben Cannon, executive director of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, speaks for many devising these initiatives when he insists: “As a state, we generally acknowledge and understand that a high-school education is not enough, and [tuition-free community college] represents an attempt to extend that [public-education] entitlement to 14 years.”
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Educators have called on the government to pay more attention to research as only 10 Thai universities made it on the Times Higher Education top 300 Asia University Rankings this year, and six out of the universities' rankings slipped from last year.
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Pack your bags, Mules. Colby College is promising that, beginning in the fall, every student will be able to study abroad, regardless of income, under a new program made possible by a $25 million gift from a wealthy alumnus. Colby, home to 1,800 students in Waterville, Maine, says it is the first liberal arts college in the country to eliminate the financial barriers to international travel, to ensure that every student gains experience overseas during their undergraduate years. The program, announced Wednesday, will allow students at Colby — whose mascot is the Mule — to travel for work, study-abroad programs, internships, or research. David A. Greene, the private school’s president, said the goal is to make international education accessible to students whose parents may not have connections to internships in foreign corporations or be able to afford an airline ticket and a Eurail pass for a summer of sightseeing in European capitals. The program, which is being funded by Andrew Davis, an investor who graduated from Colby in 1985, will pay for airfare, housing, meals, and stipends to allow students to take unpaid internships, a luxury often available only to higher-income families. “What we’re trying to do is make sure these experiences are universal when students come to Colby, no matter your ability to pay or your own personal network,” Greene said. Currently, 70 percent of Colby students study abroad. Still, the fact that the benefit is being offered to students at an elite New England college like Colby underscores how study-abroad experiences are still out of reach for most college students. Nationally, only 10 percent of American undergraduates, including community college students, study overseas by the time they graduate, according to the Institute of International Education. Mark Farmer, director of higher education and public policy at the Association of International Educators, said it was encouraging to see a private donor at Colby support study-abroad efforts at a time when
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    If you are thinking about attending college and are tempted to take advantage of New York State’s new “free tuition” program, you may want to pay very close attention to the facts. First, students who opt for the state plan will be subject to a number of burdensome restrictions. They will be required to maintain 30 credit hours a year, earn a grade point average sufficient for on-time graduation, and agree to live and work in New York upon graduation for as many as four years. Failure to maintain 30 credits will make the student ineligible for future payments, and failure to reside in the state will convert the grant into a loan (and the terms of such loans have not been determined yet). By Gary A. Olson If you are thinking about attending college and are tempted to take advantage of New York State’s new “free tuition” program, you may want to pay very close attention to the facts. First, students who opt for the state plan will be subject to a number of burdensome restrictions. They will be required to maintain 30 credit hours a year, earn a grade point average sufficient for on-time graduation, and agree to live and work in New York upon graduation for as many as four years. Failure to maintain 30 credits will make the student ineligible for future payments, and failure to reside in the state will convert the grant into a loan (and the terms of such loans have not been determined yet). Advertisement What’s more, the state has made no guarantee that every eligible student will in fact receive this benefit. The state has allocated funding for only about 3 percent of the eligible population of college students. This means that most eligible students will not receive the benefit. And, of course, state college fees and room and board expenses are notoriously expensive and are not covered by the new grant. An old adage sums it up concisely: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Or perhaps I was thinking of another familiar saying, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” In
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Over the years I have seen many retirement plans ruined, simply because substantial amounts of investment dollars, originally allocated for retirement, were used to pay for college education. This selfless act of support can create a long-term problem for the retiree. However, it is not the act of paying for the education that is at issue but rather how and when you choose to pay is what needs to be explored. First, let's take a look at general college costs; according to collegedata.com the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2016–2017 school year was $9,650 for state residents at public colleges, $24,930 for out-of-state residents attending public universities and for those in private colleges the average was a whopping $33,480 a year. Add to that room and board, books and supplies, ancillary living expenses and possible travel costs needed for either the student or family members throughout a school year, and you have a hefty draw down of savings. –– ADVERTISEMENT –– Read: How to get into an Ivy League school — by someone who got into 6 of them For many, that lump sum draw down, each year over four years — potentially four plus years — will create significant, irreplaceable, long-term loss of reserves needed to support your future, ongoing monthly retirement income. To avoid diminishing your retirement savings or general investment accounts, be creative; explore the various options that may be available to pay for college. With that said, here are a few suggestions intended to help support higher education needs and at the same time designed to help keep your retirement savings intact: • Plan to have your child apply for scholarships. Discuss with your child, early on, what is required to be granted a scholarship. Visit with a school counselor to get information on the qualifying rules and learn what types of scholarships and student aid may be available. Remember; it is cheaper to pay for a summer tutor to help your child strengthen a subject they are weak in, than it is to forfeit a
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    The University of Costa Rica (UCR) climbed 30 spots in the “QS World University Rankings” for the 2016-2017 period. The QS World University Rankings provides an index of the world’s leading higher education institutions, based on six performance indicators: Academic reputation, Employer reputation, Student-to-faculty ratio, Citations per faculty, International faculty ratio and international student ratio; In this way the ranking evaluates performance in four areas: research, teaching, employability and internationalization, each indicator carries a different weighting when calculating overall scores; in this last edition the ranking was expanded to feature 916 universities (25 more than in the previous year) in 81 countries, following assessment of more than 3,800 institutions. The academic institution was ranked in the previous edition in the range 501-510 and this year it appears in the range 471-480, within the best 500 universities in the world. When it comes to the QS World University Rankings by subject, the University of Costa Rica got its best scoring in Agriculture & Foresty earning a position in the range 201-250. Within the Latin America University Rankings, the UCR holds position 18; in these region the best ranked was the Buenos Aires University (Argentina) which is in position 85 of the global ranking, being the only Latin America University to make the top 100. Brazil’s Sao Paulo University (120), Mexico’s UNAM (128), Chile’s UC (147), Brazil’s Unicamp (191) and the University of Chile (200), are all within the best 200 universities in the world. The top spot was earned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for fifth consecutive year, followed by Stanford University which climbed one place, Harvard University is in the third position while it used to lead the ranking from 2004-2009, the University of Cambridge is holding the fourth place and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) completes the top 5. The University of Oxford, University College London, the Swiss Federal
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Finishing an engineering project does not require knowledge but money. At least that’s the case in a few colleges in the city. Most of the students have been found resorting to buying readymade projects from small firms who are into this business full-time. These firms also help in getting research papers published for students. Some of these firms have even taken the route of e-commerce and have displayed the projects on their website in detail according to the technology it is based on, its price along with pictures, abstracts and research papers. Engineering students are expected to put the concepts that they learn into practice twice in their four-year long course –once in the third year as a mini project for 50 marks and again in their final year for 200 marks. However, majority of the students buy readymade projects which can cost anywhere between Rs 2,500 to Rs 50,000 depending on the technology, components used and complexity of the project. When contacted, JNTU-Hyderabad registrar, Dr N Yadaiah, said, “The university cannot ensure that at each and every affiliated college, students are genuinely doing the projects. The colleges also share this responsibility and should take required measures for it.” Private colleges in cahoots with project vendors While the university says that the onus is on private colleges, unfortunately these colleges are also involved with students in making a mockery of engineering education for earning a quick buck. A senior professor of a well-known engineering college said, “In many private engineering colleges, the teachers and Heads of Department provide business to firms selling engineering projects. They take commission on the cost that the students pay to such firms for buying projects. Not just this, but some college managements too are involved in this business by setting tie-ups with firms selling engineering projects. When the time comes for external evaluation, even invigilators are handled by the college management. It does not usually happen that some student i
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Student debt is a personal challenge for more than 44 million Americans, but a lucrative business opportunity to the firms that manage the more than $1 trillion now outstanding. With a delinquency rate currently exceeding 11 percent, some see student loans as a major risk to the U.S. economy, one rivaling the mortgage loan market that crashed in 2007. There has also been widespread concern about the effects of college debt on the lives of individual students “what authorities describe as systematic mistreatment of borrowers.” Because these loans are guaranteed or are made directly by the federal government, the U.S. Department of Education is responsible for managing this complex system and balancing the competing interests of the various stakeholders. Last week, Education Secretary Elizabeth DeVos took action to reverse the course she inherited from the prior administration. In 2015, President Obama announced his Student Aid Bill of Rights, which aimed both to create a more efficient loan management system and to “reduce student loan defaults and encourage borrower success.” In recognizing the needs of borrowers, it sought to more fairly balance the interests of individual borrowers with those of the federal government and those doing business managing the debt under government contract. Two policy directives from the Obama administration’s Department of Education, which Bloomberg News described as directing the Federal Student Aid office to “do more to help borrowers manage, or even discharge, their debt,” were cancelled. The Obama administration sought to balance the interests of those taking out student loans and the business interests of the private firms contracted to service and collect these debts. Ideally, by taking borrowers’ interests into account, the amount of unpaid debt would be decreased, as would the cost to the federal government, and the harmful effect of predatory practices could be lessened. In her memo to the FSA, Secretary DeVos showed that efficient repayment was the singular goal of her
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Gov. Andrew Cuomo just took the first step in creating accessible college education statewide. On April 12, Cuomo signed legislation that will enact the first-in-the-nation Excelsior Scholarship program that will provide tuition-free college for both SUNY and CUNY institutions to middle-class families and those who might not have been able to afford it beforehand. Under this plan, families making under $125,000 yearly will qualify for tuition-free college, meaning that nearly 80 percent, or more than 940,000 families with college-aged children will be eligible. The plan, proposed by Cuomo back in January, has caught the attention and approval of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Sanders commended Cuomo for his efforts toward creating easily accessible higher education. “Every American, regardless of income, must have the right to a higher education,” Sanders said. “I congratulate Gov. Cuomo and New York State for helping to lead the nation in that direction.” A driving force behind the plan lies in the estimation of 3.5 million jobs in New York State requiring an associate’s degree or higher by the year 2024. The Excelsior Scholarship program will be implemented in phases over the next three years. Beginning in the fall of 2017, families making under $100,000 will be given the opportunity to apply to the program. Within the next year, the cap will be raised to $110,000 and to $125,000 in subsequent years. Despite its seemingly beneficial attributes, the governor’s plan has been met with skepticism. While the plan claims that 940,000 families would be eligible, the amount of families who would receive the benefits would be significantly less. According to The New York Times, the plan will not cover as many families as the governor hopes it will. By the time the plan is fully enacted in 2019, director of State Operations Jim Malatras believes it will only cover 200,000 families rather than the approximate million that had been originally estimated
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    Financial aid crucial to admitting low-income students Standing at the center of Union College’s campus last week, senior Andrew Guyatte recalled the moment he was accepted. It wasn’t a sure thing for Guyatte, and a lot rode on how much financial support the college would offer. “I wanted somewhere that was affordable to go; that was the main goal,” said Guyatte, who is part of the college’s Academic Opportunity Program, AOP, which targets financially-needy students who likely would not make it to Union without extra financial and academic support. “I knew I had the extracurriculars and grades to get in, but the money part was concerning ... If I didn’t get financial aid I wouldn’t be able to attend,” he said. When Guyatte, a Capital Region native, received his Union acceptance letter four years ago, it came with one condition and one big promise: Join the AOP program, commit to a five-week summer program before school starts and Union will cover tuition, room and board and books. Few of Guyatte’s classmates, especially outside of the roughly 120 AOP students across all years, come from families eligible for Pell grants – federal aid that goes to students like Guyatte from families that earn less than $50,000 a year – or even close. The median family income of a Union College student is $152,600, and two-thirds of students come from families in the top 20 percent of the income scale, according to a New York Times analysis of a study by The Equality of Opportunity Project, a collaboration of Stanford and Harvard researchers, released earlier this year. Just under 15 percent of Union students this year receive Pell grants, a widely-used proxy for socioeconomic status. The numbers are even starker at Skidmore: 13 percent of its student body this year received Pell grants. The college’s median family income topped $208,000 and 72 percent of the students come from families in the top 20 percent of income, according to the Times analysis. And Skidmore is the 38th of 38 colleges in the nation with more students fro
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe
     
     
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    A private Catholic university in Kansas is planning to offer a support group for its LGBTQ students, using a model implemented at Notre Dame. WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Newman University, a private Catholic school in Wichita, plans to offer a group next year to support its LGBTQ students while continuing to emphasize Catholic teaching that condones sex only in marriage between a man and a woman. In response to growing interest among students to recognize the school's diversity, the university formed a committee to plan the LGBTQ group. The committee met over the summer and fall of 2016 and used a model used at Notre Dame, The Wichita Eagle reported (http://bit.ly/2oR44Ux ). The group's formation was spurred in part by a speech by Ruben Lerma at a public forum, where he discussed being gay on the Newman campus. He said he attended Newman because it offered him a full scholarship, even though he was concerned about being "that gay student." Lerma recounted overhearing Newman students saying gay people should go to hell and legalizing gay marriage would make gays want to marry animals. "I'm not the only gay person here, I'm not going to be the only gay person here, there will be more," Lerma remembers saying. "If for their sake, if not mine, you should make it more amiable, make the environment better." Lerma's speech came as interest in recognizing diversity was growing. The university has restarted the Black Student Union, added a club to support Asian students and hired a diversity coordinator last year. Newman's mission has always included concern for the dignity of all students, said spokesman Clark Shafer, but the events in 2016 raised awareness of the need to make LGBTQ students feel more welcome. Before making the "Pastoral Plan" public, Newman contacted important alumnus and donor, who approved how the group upheld the school's Catholic values, Shafer said. "The University exhorts all to hear and live the Church's teaching that 'the deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of mar
    vor 6 Jahren von @prophe