UB Buzz

Show Them The Money

It's time again for the annual college rankings. Colleges and universities everywhere do what they can to score a good position on these annual lists, partly for the publicity and prestige, and partly to help attract interested students. So if you want to find out how various schools rank according to academics, politics, quality of life, or party atmosphere, go here. Or to find out where your business school ranks, see this list of the best business programs.
But, if you really want to draw in new students you might want to try to earn a place on the "Top Colleges For Getting Rich" list published by Forbes. According to this list, "Graduates of Dartmouth College finished on top of the list with a median compensation of $134,000, edging out alumni of Priceton University  who finished second with a median comp of $131,000."

ACE Report on Global Partnerships

The American Council on Education is releasing the next paper in its series of reports looking at American higher education from a global perspective. International Partnerships: Guidelines for Colleges and Universities explores the "fundamentals of planning, developing, and implementing international partnerships" and is the fourth edition on the topic. The report will be released on August 15, but is currently available for pre-order. The appendices are available online for free as PDF downloads. 

Parents Confused About Aid

Just how much thought needs to be put into communicating with parents about financial aid options? Probably more than you thought. According to a survey conducted by global strategic branding firm Siegel+Gale, few parents understand the terms necessary to make fully informed financial aid decisions. In fact:
- more than three-quarters of survey respondents did not know the difference between cheaper government subsidized loans and unsubsidized loans, which are more expensive.
- 40 percent of working class families surveyed didn't realize that Pell Grants are not loans, but federal grants, which do not have to be repaid.
- 25 percent of parents do not know that grants in general do not have to be repaid
- Less than half of parents knew that not all student loans require a credit check.
- More than two-thirds of parents were unaware that work-study money is taxable income to the student.

One might think that it was parents of high school age students or younger who were surveyed. Not so. Siegel+Gale surveyed 202 parents of college-age children who have applied for financial aid in the past two years and who have evaluated financial aid award letters from schools. In other words, parents who have already been through the process have serious knowledge gaps in terms of financial aid.

Siegel+Gale simplification expert Irene Etzkorn argues the root of the problem stems from a unique environment in which colleges, the federal government, and state agencies each use their own jargon, acronyms, and definitions. Ultimately this leads to added confusion. Ask yourself this: Can my institution's financial aid award letters and related communications be comprehended easily, or do families need to decode them?

Siegel+Gale's Financial Award Letter Survey findings are based on June 2008 online responses of 202 parents, 40-60 years old.

They're Baaack!

Paranormal State, the A&E Network show chronicling the investigations of the supernatural by the Paranormal Research Society, started a second season Monday night.
PRS is an official Penn State student group which takes a scientific approach to ghost hunting and tries to help people understand the underlying causes of their possible haunting rather than immediately assuming spirits are at work. UB included a news item about them before their first season aired.
Sure, the magic of television probably makes events look more dramatic than they are. But the magic of television is also broadcasting the Penn State name over the airwaves through clothing the students wear, occasional shots of campus, and every time the students tell people where they are from. It is also showing students in action at pursuits other than sports.
In contrast to other ghost hunting shows, the PRS team approaches situations in a level-headed manner and don't tend to scream at their own shadows. Actually, their seriousness might help increase the spooky factor. (Even more spooky is that DH [Darling Husband] and I simultaneously wondered aloud what would happen to the show when founder Ryan Buell eventually graduates.) Oh, come on, it's the summer, what else are you going to watch?

Virtual Tutoring in Alaska

University of Alaska Anchorage administrators have started a new way for college students in the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) to connect with and encourage high school students in rural Alaska -- virtually.

ANSEP's Pre-College Bridging Program, designed to get young students academically ready for university-level coursework, sends staff to more than 50 rural communities to introduce students to the many opportunities that exist in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Bridging program participants must complete online courses in chemistry, physics, and trigonometry as well as build their own computers (which they keep) and learn to use software such as AutoCAD and MS Office.

The virtual tutoring component of the program pairs each high school student with an ANSEP junior or senior. Each pair meets in an online classroom for two hours a week, with live audio and video to help with asking questions and solving problems. Students can use an electronic computer tablet to physically sketch out equations and symbols in real time. The virtual classroom is administered by eLecta Live. For more information on ANSEP, which aims to increase university recruitment and retention by working with students from freshmen year of high school through graduate school (and certainly could be replicated in the continental U.S.), click here.

Goodbye Mr. Pausch

Randy Pausch, the computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.) who gained worldwide recognition for his now famous lecture, died of complications from pancreatic cancer Friday, the institution has announced. He was 47.
Pausch gave his "last lecture" - a series at Carnegie Mellon where professors reflect on what matters most - at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007. His talk focused on the lessons he learned along his life journey. A recording of his lecture can be watched here.
A book version of the lecture became a best-seller upon its release this spring. It was co-written by Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a Carnegie Mellon alumnus. University Business published a review of the book in its June issue.
Pausch is survived by his wife, Jai, and their three young children, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe. Donations can be sent to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, CA 90245, or to Carnegie Mellon's Randy Pausch Memorial Fund, which the university will use primarily to support continued work on the Alice project. The project offers innovative ways to teach computer programming.

Snow? In July!?

In the contest to see which campus can have the best amenities, Liberty University (Va.) has said "I see your climbing wall and I raise you one all-weather ski slope."
The slope, anticipated to open in 2009, will be made out of Snowflex, which videos on the school's website explain was invented in Britain and is basically all weather carpet laced with water misters. Skiers and snowboards can do all the tricks they do on snow, without worrying about the cold or waiting for the course to get groomed.
In the press release announcing the installation Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr explained, "There are no beer bashes at Liberty, and no coed dorms, but it doesn't have to be a monastery.  We're breaking the stereotype that Christian education is synonymous with boredom."
Call me old-fashioned, but skiing without snow doesn't seem quite natural.

A Different Look at Work Colleges

Ever rising tuition rates and large college and university endowments have been generating a lot of interest lately, both alone, in combination, and in relation to diversity on campus.
An article in today's New York Times begins with a brief explanation of the tuition-free model of operation used at Berea College (Ky.), a Work College that draws its operating budget from its endowment rather than tuition. After pointing out Berea has no football team or hot tubs, the article veers off into a discussion of higher ed institutions' endowments, why lawmakers might be so eager to get their hands on the funds, and rising tuition costs.
For a more in depth look at how Work Colleges (so called because all students have on campus jobs) developed, operate, and balance students' work and academic commitments check out "A Working Education" in the December 2007 issue of UB. In addition to Berea, our article highlights Warren Wilson College (N.C.) and College of the Ozarks (Mo.) and the ways these institutions provide students practical work experience along with a quality education.

MIT Video Site Showcases Groundbreaking Work

With fuel costs rising and the worldwide desire for alternative energy sources, a team led by MIT students has developed a cost-efficient solar power system that could revolutionize global energy production. The system consists of a 12-foot-wide mirrored dish that concentrates sunlight by a factor of 1,000, creating intense heat that can provide steam for industrial processing, or for heating or cooling buildings, as well as to hook up to steam turbines and generate electricity.
The solar power system was demonstrated in one of the many videos on MIT's new video-sharing site, MIT Tech TV. This "YouTube for the scientifically minded" site makes it easy to find science, engineering, and MIT-related video on the web--minus the videos of singing cats and sports bloopers you'll find elsewhere.

President Passes on Pay Raise

It appears that James Ramsey wanted to be treated the same way his peers were. Ramsey, president of the University of Louisville (Ky.), recently requested that he not receive a pay raise or bonus, citing tough economic times for his institution due to Kentucky's budget cuts. He was eligible to receive a performance bonus for the 2007-08 school year and had met specific goals listed in his contract. Instead, Ramsey will take a lump-sum payment of $700, the same raise UL full-time faculty and staff are expected to receive this fiscal year. His decision to turn down his eligibility for a bonus, expected to be as much as $113,857, earned accolades from UL faculty.The bonus would have been 25 percent of his base salary. In an article in The  Courier-Journal, Ramsey is quoted as saying, "I don't want this to be about what I get paid. I want this to be about the University of Louisville and being what people expect it to be." Ramsey's decision follows news about a pay raise involving University of Kentucky president Lee Todd. Todd accepted a $95,000 bonus recently, but turned down an additional $50,000 more that could have come to him.