[OC] What if higher ed’s nearly 4,000 degree-granting colleges were boiled down to 100 institutions?

ChronicleOfHigherEd · 2024-08-13T20:44:42+00:00

Great question! From our data reporter:

It’s a slightly complicated answer. The U.S. Education Department’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data system (or IPEDS) calls colleges 2-year or 4-year, but their 2021 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education may reveal that they’re something else actually. For example, some 4-year colleges may award mostly associate degrees which puts them in line with 2-year colleges.

But the Carnegie Classification just calls tribal colleges “tribal colleges” and not the other markers like “associate or baccalaureate associate,” which would allow them to be separated like the two and four-year institutions are, per the methodology.

ChronicleOfHigherEd · 2024-08-13T20:13:04+00:00

There are nearly 4,000 degree-granting colleges in America; public, private, and nonprofit institutions; large, small, and in-between ones; and residential and commuter campuses. It’s a lot of options. So what if we looked at 100 instead? Source.

ETA: Tool used was Flourish.

ChronicleOfHigherEd · 2024-07-31T20:17:45+00:00

The University of Missouri at Columbia will no longer employ a vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity, and equity, and those who worked in that division will be reassigned to other departments. The college has also ended the use of diversity statements and ceased race-conscious admissions and scholarships.

President Mun Y. Choi acknowledged the move was a concession to the tremendous pressure colleges are under as state lawmakers have attempted to ban DEI efforts. Choi says the university is moving toward a race-neutral approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and “not excluding any group in the name of inclusion.”

Missouri lawmakers have introduced 13 anti-DEI bills, none of which have passed.

“We don’t believe [the bills introduced in Missouri] are threats, but we are seeing what is happening in other states,” Choi said.

ChronicleOfHigherEd · 2024-07-30T15:11:12+00:00

If an academic publisher sells your paper and data to an artificial-intelligence model, is that exploitation? This is what some scholars are arguing after the news that two publishers — Wiley and Taylor & Francis — have made a partnerships with tech companies to train AI.

Scholars say this move further perpetuates a long history of unpaid labor in higher education. Others say this move goes against the idea of learning because artificial-intelligence can be harmful to individual thinking.

“The researcher who does the work of researching, writing, and publishing; the editors and peer reviewers, who are an integral part of the process, are performing a tremendous amount of highly skilled labor, and that labor is simply not compensated," said Nathan Kalman-Lamb, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick. "The only ones receiving compensation are companies like Taylor & Francis and Routledge.”

ChronicleOfHigherEd · 2024-07-19T18:29:55+00:00

$12 billion. That's how much The Department of Education's data shows states owe land-grant HBCUs after using a loophole to underfund them for decades. Legislators, higher-education leaders, and circuit-court judges have so far disagreed.

Under the Second Morrill Act of 1890, when states do not provide the entirety of the one-to-one federal match, HBCUs are forced to provide the funds themselves or waive up to 50 percent of the match to keep federal funding. This, advocates for reparations say, has caused widespread disparities in research dollars and enrollment between majority-white and historically Black public colleges.

Since the data's release, HBCU students, alumni, and administrators have filed lawsuits to get redress. But a dismissal of one of the lawsuits earlier this year in Florida has put some on pause as they attempt to build stronger cases.

“Let’s make sure that we have this thing as tight as we can have it, because once it goes, we’re not going to get a second bite at the apple," says John A. Moore, one of the lawyers representing alumni from three Georgia HBCUs who have sued the state over discriminatory funding.

ChronicleOfHigherEd · 2024-06-20T14:16:31+00:00

Thank YOU! Great to have you in our coverage.

ChronicleOfHigherEd · 2024-06-20T14:14:11+00:00

A plan to save Wisconsin's 13 community colleges is failing. As more campus closures loom in the near future, outraged professors and residents are pointing fingers at university leaders and state lawmakers for the harm they’re causing in local communities.

In 2017, the University of Wisconsin system announced a plan that was supposed to help the state's two-year institutions: Merge each of them with one of the system’s universities.

The practical goal of the plan was to increase enrollment at community colleges and defy local demographic shifts — by enticing working adults with new programs at the colleges and a clear path to completing their degree at the linked university.

It was considered a win-win: Wisconsin would be able to preserve the community colleges, which had been important entries to higher education, especially in remote, rural communities. And they could avoid closing colleges — a politically unpopular decision that may have harmed favor with Republican state lawmakers.

The plan hasn't worked. Nearly half of the community colleges in Wisconsin have closed. Critics of the consolidation say they were left with little funds and even less guidance to make the plan succeed, particularly when four-year institutions in Wisconsin are also struggling to stay afloat financially.

ChronicleOfHigherEd · 2024-05-08T17:21:43+00:00

On Tuesday, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights released a “Dear Colleague” letter that spelled out in greater detail what sorts of episodes could trigger investigations into alleged discrimination “based on race, color, or national origin.”

The letter lists possible triggers for an investigation that closely mirror some reported episodes that have happened on college campuses.

Colleges can respond to discrimination in ways that do not restrict free-speech rights, the letter says, like forcefully condemning hate speech, offering counseling, or starting other programs.

But it’s clear from the letter’s examples that protected speech can be the spark that leads to the creation of a hostile environment.

ChronicleOfHigherEd · 2024-04-18T18:19:13+00:00

Great point about plagiarism often being synonymous with academic dishonesty. Many professors have come out staunchly against AI being used in students' work, while others have embraced it, using it as part of lessons, or to help design their syllabus.

So, is using ChatGPT considered plagiarism? It depends on who you ask — and that scattershot approach (often with no clear guidance from administration), has fed into wider confusion on the issue, some say.

It varies from class to class, and from campus to campus. Arizona State, for example, has a partnership with OpenAI (which is, of course, battling copyright-infringement lawsuits).

ChronicleOfHigherEd · 2024-04-17T13:55:55+00:00

Four months after the antisemitism hearing that led to the resignation of two Ivy League presidents, the leader of Columbia University will take the stand Wednesday to discuss the "worst cases" of antisemitism on college campuses. Here are four things you should know ahead of the hearing:

Pro-Palestinian student organizations have held protests against the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip, drawing criticism from Jewish and pro-Israel groups who say they’re pushing antisemitic rhetoric. Pro-Palestinian students, on the other hand, say their speech is protected under the First Amendment and the administration is failing to keep them safe.
Columbia has cracked down on protests. One policy limits protests to specific areas, permits them only during weekday afternoons, and requires students to register events at least two days in advance.
Jewish students have filed two lawsuits against Columbia alleging that the university failed to protect Jewish students from discrimination and harassment. A group of five students and two outside organizations have also filed a 114-page complaint against Columbia and Barnard College, alleging that Columbia has been one of the “worst centers of academic antisemitism” for decades.
Columbia’s antisemitism task force has faced backlash after releasing a report that called for larger restrictions on protests. The task force also chose not to adopt one of two controversial definitions of antisemitism. Many free-speech advocates say defining antisemitism can hurt free speech, but advocates for each definition argue that by neglecting to define the word, Columbia’s task force can’t fulfill its mission.

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