Posts Tagged: New England Council (NEC)

Supremes Uphold Affirmative Action

DC Shuttle ... Supreme Court Rules to Uphold Affirmative Action. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the race-conscious admissions policy at the University of Texas at Austin is constitutional. The court ruled 4-to-3 in the case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. The New York Times reported that the ruling says that admissions may continue to consider race as one factor among many in ensurin...

Accreditor of For-Profits Grilled

DC Shuttle ... Accreditor Under Fire. The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS), the accreditor for many for-profit institutions, was in front of the U.S. Department of Education last week for review and approval. The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), which advises the Education Department, is reviewing the performance of ACICS...

Senate Would Restore Year-Round Pell Grants

DC Shuttle ... Appropriations Bill Funds Ed Dept, Increases Pell Grants and Medical Research Funding. The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced the FY 2017 Labor-HHS-Education funding bill (S. 3040) through subcommittee and out of the full committee by a vote of 29 to 1. The measure would provide $161.9 billion in discretionary spending, which is $270 million less than the current enacted leve...

There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch … or Free Bathroom?

DC Shuttle ... Updates to 2010 Child Nutrition Act Introduced. U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) introduced H.R. 5003, the Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016. The bill is a reauthorization of the 2010 child nutrition law. The bill makes many changes to the 2010 law, most notably in the requirements to qualify for free meals for students. Under the current law, if more than 40% of the ...

Researchers Unclog Flake’s Waste Disposal

DC Shuttle ... Scrutinized Researchers Defend Their Work. Researchers from across the country converged on the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. The researchers all had one thing in common: Their research had been included in Sen. Jeff Flake's (R-AZ) "wastebook." The wastebook outlines 100 projects receiving federal funding that Flake says are frivolous and wasteful. The researche...

Feds to Step Up Reviews of Higher Ed Accreditors

DC Shuttle ... Education Under Secretary Announces Changes. The U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary Ted Mitchell posted two important blog posts on the department's website. One of the posts announced a new student loan servicing and repayment system that would streamline the loan process and allow borrowers to access all the necessary information via a single web portal while enhancing ...

Rebranding STEM for Millennials

What if schools in the U.S. treated their innovation and emerging technologies with as much glamour as they give to athletics? At the New England Board of Higher Education’s recent Advanced Manufacturing Problem Based Learning (AM PBL) Showcase, industry representatives addressed this question and discussed ways to improve the branding and appeal for STEM (science, technology, engineering and ma...