Posts Categorized: Newslink

Trump Signs Order that Some Say Could Chill Speech Critical of Israel

DC Shuttle ... Trump Signs Executive Order on Campus Anti-Semitism. President Donald Trump signed an executive order focused on anti-Semitism on college campuses. The order threatens to cut off federal funds to schools that don't curb discrimination against Jewish individuals. The Anti-Defamation League, a group that fights anti-Semitism, welcomed the executive order citing their reports of an in...

DeVos Wants a New Banker

DC Shuttle ... DeVos Calls for Federal Student Aid Office to Spin Off into a New Agency. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos pitched a proposal for federal student loans to be operated by "a stand-alone government corporation, run by a professional, expert and apolitical board of governors," instead of by the Education Department's Office of Federal Student Aid. At the department's annual conf...

NEBHE Advances Independent College Transfer Guarantee Initiative

The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) received a three-year implementation grant co-funded by the Teagle Foundation and the Davis Educational Foundation to develop systematic transfer pathways between community colleges and four-year independent colleges in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with a focus on the liberal arts. NEBHE is grateful for the continued support of t...

A Season for New Deans and Trustees

Comings and Goings ... Sterling College named Maxine Kelly, formerly finance & human resources director at Vermont Studio Center, to be Sterling's dean of finance & operations. Michelle Elias Bloomer, formerly of the division of professional studies at Bunker Hill Community College, became associate dean for undergraduate programs at Boston College’s Woods College of Advancing ...

Keeping Score

DC Shuttle ... Ed Dept Updates College Scorecard Database to Include Average Debt, Earnings of Specific College Programs. The U.S. Department of Education announced that its database College Scorecard will now let users compare data on the average student loan debt and postgraduate earnings by program of students within institutions. The site's new update reflects the bipartisan push for trans...

Will Foreign Bodies (and Minds) Continue to Buoy Demographically Challenged New England Higher Ed?

International student enrollment grows modestly in Massachusetts, declines across the rest of New England ... The total number of enrolled international students at New England colleges and universities increased by 2.2% at all academic levels in academic year (AY) 2018-19, according to the 2019 Open Doors Report on International Education Exchange. The study, published annually by Institute of...

Could DACA Doubts Reign Supreme?

DC Shuttle ... Supreme Court Hears DACA Case, Reveals Little Hope for Program's Survival. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the oral arguments of a case to evaluate whether the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) decision to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy is lawful. The conservative majority on the bench expressed little to no support of the plaintiff's co...

Harvard B-School Dean Plans to Step Down

Comings and Goings … Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria announced he will step down from the post in June 2020, after more than 30 years at the B-school, including 10 as dean. U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa Scott Brown—who had defeated Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in 2010 to become a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, then lost the seat in 2012 to Elizab...

House May Subpoena Ed Secretary

DC Shuttle ... DeVos Declines to Testify Before House Panel; Subpoena Possible. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos turned down House Education Committee Chair Bobby Scott's (D-VA) request that she testify in front of the committee in regard to the Education Department's role in the erroneous collection of student loans from former Corinthian College students. House Democrats scheduled a heari...

Mary Grant to Leave EMK Institute

Comings and Goings ... The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate announced that Mary K. Grant will step down as its president and CEO and return to higher education. She will be succeeded on an interim basis at the institute by entrepreneur and turnaround specialist Art Buckland. Grant was awarded a 2014 New England Excellence Award while president of Massachusetts Colleg...