Better communication about how educational research can impact public policy may improve educational equity, according to a new paper from Rice University. The paper, which examined the significant disconnect between education researchers and policymakers, appeared in the latest edition of the Russell Sage Foundation’s Journal of the Social Sciences.
New Mexico State University's College of Health and Social Services has launched a study to examine the impact of cancer on Hispanic families and to develop programs targeting Latinas. Researchers in the university's Department of Public Health Sciences said this week they are looking for Hispanic mothers who have been diagnosed with cancer in the past two years as participants for the study.
The University of Idaho College of Engineering begins its annual Women in Engineering Day at 8:45 a.m. Friday, Oct. 28, 2016, in the Horizon/Aurora Rooms of the Idaho Commons Women in Engineering Day is a one-day workshop for high school women in grades 11-12 designed to introduce students to academic and career options in engineering and computer science.
For the third year in a row, the University of Colorado Boulder has been ranked No. 2 in geosciences among the world’s universities, according to U.S. News & World Report, which today released its third annual global standings for 2017. In the global standings, CU Boulder takes the No. 32 position overall, tying with Boston University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, placing it top among all Colorado institutions. The No. 32 ranking is up from No. 48 for 2016 and No. 58 for 2015. Among U.S. public institutions that made it onto the global list, CU Boulder ranks No. 11.
The University of Michigan says its undergraduates include more underrepresented minorities and more students from low-income families. Underrepresented minorities include blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and some other groups and make up 13.8 percent of the freshman class, up from 12.8 percent in fall 2015.
A small two-year college in northwestern North Dakota that offers free tuition to high-school graduates in the area is expanding the program to Montana. Williston State College began the program two years ago to increase the number of professionals such as nurses and accountants in the booming oil patch. This year it was expanded to the North Dakota counties of Burke, Divide, McKenzie and Mountrail. Beginning next fall, the program will also be offered in Montana's Daniels, Richland, Roosevelt, Sheridan, and Valley counties, opening the program to an additional 600 high school seniors, according to John Miller, the college's acting president.
At a time when questions about college affordability are at the center of American policy debates, the number of College Promise programs is expanding dramatically. These programs which ‘promise’ a financial or other type of award to eligible students who attend specified schools and/or reside in particular communities to enter and complete higher education, have nearly tripled in the last year, to 150 in 37 states.
A graduate student at the University of Illinois' Springfield campus has started a food pantry for students. Malayzja Anderson is helping to stock donated, nonperishable food items for the new UIS Cares initiative. She tells The (Springfield) State Journal-Register (http://bit.ly/2eys0ZF ) that student meal plans start to deplete around this time of the semester so students may not eat as much. She says UIS Cares lets them "come in and just grab something to supplement them."
Audrey Altstadt, professor and former chair of the history department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been appointed chair of the Kennan Institute Advisory Council. Her four-year term began Oct. 1. The George F. Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies is the premier American national research institution devoted to the study of the Russian and Eurasian lands that once constituted the USSR. It is one institute within the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where Altstadt was a fellow in 2014-15.
Dr. Cynthia Glass, Henry Ford College (HFC) vice president of Human Resources/special assistant to the President, will be honored as one of the four American Society of Employers (ASE) Michigan Human Resource Executives of the Year on Thursday, Nov. 3, at the Detroit Athletic Club (DAC).
Smoking would be completely banned on Purdue University's main campus in West Lafayette under a proposal from school President Mitch Daniels. Smoking is already prohibited in residence halls and all other campus building, but Purdue designated 21 smoking areas around the campus in 2010.
Parsons School of Design announces the opening of the Parsons Making Center at The New School. The Parsons Making Center is a space where students can explore innovative manufacturing methods, collaborate with their peers across a range of disciplines, and employ state-of-the-art tools to address pressing social needs related to sustainability, human well-being, and reviving urban making. Through their experiences at the Parsons Making Center, students will be prepared to thrive in a rapidly evolving workplace and make meaningful contributions to civic life.
At home, you might swap out a few lightbulbs for energy efficient ones and save a few cents a year on your electric bill. At the University of Kansas that's happening on a much larger scale: Over the past year and a half KU has replaced more than 4,500 lights with LED lamps, leading to an estimated annual savings of $61,720, the Lawrence Journal-World (http://bit.ly/2ec4fI0 ) reports. KU reduced energy use enough over the past year to meet — and exceed — its overall energy consumption goal, according to the university's most recent campus-wide energy report.
Official overall student enrollment at the University of Idaho increased to 11,780 for fall 2016, up 3.6 percent from 11,371 in fall 2015. Enrollment this fall is higher than it was when President Chuck Staben joined UI in 2014. And it is the first overall enrollment increase since 2012. Enrollment is up in several key areas including first-time undergraduate (resident and non-resident) and underrepresented students.
The University of North Dakota will continue to sponsor the 20 sports it currently offers, although the fate of men's golf and baseball remains uncertain, the school's president said. The Grand Forks school announced in April it would no longer offer men's golf and baseball programs due to state budget cuts, then reinstated golf in August after the program secured the necessary $144,400 in funding for the fiscal years 2017 and 2018. But the athletics department ended the fiscal year with a shortfall of about $1.4 million, prompting President Mark Kennedy to ask a committee to examine the school's overall athletics program, including the number of sports and the cost of the programs.
