Posts Categorized: Topic

Insuring Student Safety on Campus and Abroad

College campuses are not immune to mounting safety and security concerns that stem from international and domestic terror threats, active shooter situations and more. Parents of students want to know that their children are safe when they leave home for the first time. The antennas raise even higher for parents when they hear their students plan to spend the next term studying abroad. What some m...

College “Valuations” Redux

The 2018 Guide to New England Colleges & Universities data published by Boston magazine in association with the New England Board of Higher Education provided me the opportunity to examine the schools’ prices, defined as tuition plus fees, as a function of several independent factors including those listed below. (I conducted a similar study last year.) Percentage of freshman applicant...

Systemic Inequity

Everyone knows money is important. For those privileged to have enough of it, money is not an obstacle for living a decent life or for college access. My husband and I frequently say, “Money isn’t everything,” but only the freedom of having money allows us to say such a thing. We didn’t want our own children restricted in their college choices. Of course, we hoped that they would consid...

Shortsighted Tax Policy: Senate and House Tax Reform Bills Would Increase Burdens on Universities and Students

If there is one area of common ground between the Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, it is that the time has finally come for those entities that are not currently paying their fair share of taxes to step forward and be held accountable. Both the Senate and House tax reform bills propose that these entities—which have traditionally been afforded favorable tax ...

Chance of Tweetstorms

In the spring, we ran a piece titled Real Tweets, Fake News … and More from the NEJHE Beat. We noted that every NEJHE item automatically posts to Twitter, but that we also use Twitter to disseminate interesting news or opinion pieces from elsewhere. These are often juxtaposed with something NEBHE has worked on in the past and sometimes presented with an added comment, but not always. Among some ...

Accept Yourself, Reject the Bullying

The childhood bullying that once tormented kids at school is now following them home via social media and the internet. For many people growing up, being teased was almost a rite of passage—something we all experienced at some point in our lives. It never felt good and, in some cases, this teasing turned more serious and became bullying. Fortunately, more and more schools are taking a no-toleran...

Climate Denial and the Limits of Higher Education

Last year, I attended my 50th reunion at Amherst College. One evening at dinner under a tent, a former roommate, “Nick,” dominated the conversation with assertions that claims about human-induced climate change were a hoax and those about global warming a fraud. At first, I thought he was trying to be entertaining—or provocative. After a while, I realized my error. His was no parlor game; n...

Bringing Career Support into the Undergraduate Academic Experience

Kaitlyn Iglesias is entering her senior year at Rutgers University-Newark ready to launch her career. She had internships at Ernst & Young in New York this summer and last. She is finishing up a degree in accounting and management information systems and is a member of Women BUILD (Business Undergraduates in Leadership Development). She’s beginning the semester with an offer from Ernst &...

I Wish My College Knew …

We asked thousands of college students what they wish their college knew. Here’s what they said … Every year, Denver teacher Kyle Schwartz invites her third-graders to share on a Post-It note an answer to the prompt: “I wish my teacher knew …” The responses offer poignant glimpses into their young lives, revealing struggles with poverty, absent parents and social isolation. After Schw...

Race-Baiting on Campus: A College President Speaks Up About Diversity

A college president spoke up to his students and campus community the other day. His concern was a timely topic: race and race relations, bigotry and racial slurs. And who was the president? Well, while we don’t often think of these leaders in this way, the superintendents of our three major military academies are the presidents of their universities. And this superintendent of the Air Force Aca...