Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Arizona district cuts school week to save cash

Officials hope to save $500,000 a year by cutting week to four days

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. - One school district decided to shrink the school week from five days to four in an effort to save cash because of the deepening recession and falling enrollment.

The Bisbee Unified School District board voted Thursday to close schools every Friday for the next two school years. District Superintendent Gail Covington had recommended the shortened school week as a way to save $500,000 each year in the small southeastern Arizona town.

School days would be lengthened by an hour to make up the lost instructional time.

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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Geronimo's kin sue Skull and Bones

Relatives of legendary Apache want secret Yale group to turn over remains

HARTFORD, Connecticut - Geronimo's descendants have sued Skull and Bones — the secret society at Yale University linked to presidents and other powerful figures — claiming that its members stole the remains of the legendary Apache leader decades ago and have kept them ever since.

The federal lawsuit filed in Washington on Tuesday — the 100th anniversary of Geronimo's death — also names the university and the federal government.

Geronimo's great-grandson Harlyn Geronimo said his family believes Skull and Bones members took some of the remains in 1918 from a burial plot in Fort Sill, Okla., to keep in its New Haven clubhouse, a crypt. The alleged graverobbing is a longstanding legend that gained some validity in recent years with the discovery of a letter from a club member that described the theft.

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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

More students heading to two-year colleges

The recession is forcing families to choose a cheaper alternative

CONCORD, N.H. - College freshman Elizabeth Hebert's choice of a four-year school suddenly got too expensive. George Haseltine already has a business degree, but he concluded after several layoffs that he needed more training to get work.

So, in the middle of this school year, both landed at New Hampshire Technical Institute, which like other community colleges across the country has suddenly grown a lot more crowded.

The two-year schools are reporting unprecedented enrollment increases this semester, driven by students from traditional colleges seeking more bang for their buck and by laid-off older workers

Read full story MSNBC

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More students heading to two-year colleges

The recession is forcing families to choose a cheaper alternative

CONCORD, N.H. - College freshman Elizabeth Hebert's choice of a four-year school suddenly got too expensive. George Haseltine already has a business degree, but he concluded after several layoffs that he needed more training to get work.

So, in the middle of this school year, both landed at New Hampshire Technical Institute, which like other community colleges across the country has suddenly grown a lot more crowded.

The two-year schools are reporting unprecedented enrollment increases this semester, driven by students from traditional colleges seeking more bang for their buck and by laid-off older workers

Read full story MSNBC

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Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Debate rages over NYC Hebrew charter school

Some ask if public institutions should celebrate one particular culture

NEW YORK - Two years after the debut of a controversial public school focusing on Arabic language and culture, a Hebrew language charter school is opening in New York City, stoking further debate about the purpose of a public school education.

Backers of the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School, slated to open this fall, say it will appeal to diverse ethnic and religious groups and not just Jews. But critics here and elsewhere around the nation question whether public schools should celebrate one particular culture.

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Finding college aid could prove tough test

Recession stokes fears that loans and grants will be scarcer this year

CHICAGO - Finding financial aid for college this year promises to be tougher than any final exam.

The quest for money that begins for students and parents every January has taken on new urgency in 2009 amid fears that loans and grants will be scarcer than in the past due to the recession.

"The financing system for college is in real crisis," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers. "Every one of the participants in the system is experiencing hardship — higher education institutions, states, aid donors and families all are cash-strapped."

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

College endowments wilt with economy

Market meltdown forces schools to impose sharp budget cuts

When the markets were booming, billionaire colleges like Harvard, MIT and Stanford tapped their swelling endowments and launched spending binges on faculty, buildings and scholarships.

Now, they're seeing firsthand the one downside to relying on a huge nest-egg: The market crash has them confronting the sharpest budget cuts in memory.

A new survey released Tuesday reports college endowments fell 3 percent in the fiscal year ending June 30. In a follow-up, a smaller group estimated declines averaging 23 percent in the first five months of fiscal 2009, which began in July.

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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Future of abstinence-only funding is in limbo

Critics want to end program they consider ineffective, sometimes harmful

NEW YORK - With the exit of the Bush administration, critics of abstinence-only sex education will be making an aggressive push to cut off federal funding for what they consider an ineffective, sometimes harmful program.

How quickly and completely they reach their goal is uncertain, however, as conservative supporters of abstinence education lobby Congress and President-elect Barack Obama to preserve at least some of the funding, which now totals $176 million a year.

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Friday, January 16, 2009

$100 million climate, energy center at Stanford

130 faculty members from 21 departments will come together

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Stanford University announced Monday it has raised $100 million to create a new research center focused on combating global warming and developing cleaner sources of energy.

The new Precourt Institute for Energy will focus on research related to improving energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, studying national energy policy and developing renewable power sources such as wind, solar and biomass.

The $100 million in new funding will bolster the $30 million the university already spends annually on energy research.

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Families await sharp increases in college tuition

Students can expect to pay more amid slumping economy and state cuts

Most high school seniors and their families have not made final college plans for next fall. But they know this: It's probably going to cost more than they had planned.

Even in good economic times, states and colleges have largely failed to hold tuition increases in line with inflation. Now as the slumping economy forces states to slash spending, students can expect the sharpest increases in years.

Families are calling on colleges to absorb as much of the burden as possible instead of passing the extra costs on to students.

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Friday, January 9, 2009

On a tight budget? Try applying to Harvard

‘Best Value Colleges’ report shows that top schools aren’t just for the rich

Those fancy-pants Ivy League colleges have gotten to be so expensive that only the wealthiest families can possibly afford them, especially during bleak economic times like these. Right?

Not necessarily.

A new report called “Best Value Colleges for 2009,” issued Thursday by The Princeton Review and USA TODAY, spotlights 50 public and 50 private colleges and universities that do an exceptional job of helping qualifying students to pay for their higher education.

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Monday, January 5, 2009

12 students charged in Utah State teen's death

Fraternity and sorority implicated in freshman pledge's alcohol poisoning

LOGAN, Utah - A fraternity and sorority at Utah State University were charged with felony hazing after an 18-year-old freshman pledge died of alcohol poisoning.

The school's chapters of the Sigma Nu fraternity and Chi Omega sorority were each charged Friday with one count of third-degree felony hazing for their involvement with the death of Michael Starks. Prosecutors also filed misdemeanor hazing charges against 12 students, including the chapter president of Sigma Nu.

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Friday, January 2, 2009

Movie revives black college's debate team

Students inspired by 'Great Debaters'; $1 million from actor also helps

MARSHALL, Texas - The movie "The Great Debaters" made millions aware of the decades-old accomplishments of the debate team at a small historically black college tucked deep in the piney woods of East Texas — and gave that history new life at the school itself.

Before work began on the film, the Wiley College team that broke racial barriers with several impressive victories in the 1930s was a faded memory. When the school received e-mails from debaters all over the country after the movie was released a year ago, there was no team for them to join.

That has changed, thanks to donations including $1 million from the movie's star and director, Denzel Washington. An 11-member team started debating this fall, and its ranks are expected to eventually grow to about 30.

Read full story MSNBC

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No shoes? No problem for this college interview

Wake Forest uses webcams for 'face-to-face' with prospective students

RALEIGH, N.C. - For her college interview, Avery Cullinan put on her best outfit but didn't bother with shoes. She sat in her living room, smiled into her computer's webcam and told an admissions officer more than 800 miles away that Wake Forest University was right for her.

"It's hard to part with money for a half-hour interview," said Cullinan, who avoided a costly trip from her home in Newburyport, Mass., thanks to the pilot program at Wake Forest. She was later accepted to the Winston-Salem, N.C., school.

The online interview was part of a push that started in May at the university. Admissions director Martha Allman said she eventually wants to give each applicant — more than 9,000 of them each year — a more individualized review before inviting them to Winston-Salem as part of the school's 1,200-student freshmen class.

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