In this week's roundup, an initiative is launched to make college costs and financial aid information more transparent, faculty show solidarity with academic workers on strike and DACA recipients receive support from college presidents.
November 24-30
- Despite numerous law schools pulling out of U.S. News rankings, some are sticking with them, including Cornell Law School and the University of Chicago. Jens David Ohlin, dean of Cornell Law, said that schools rejecting the rankings “will not have the desired impact that many assume that it will have.”
- The president of Ohio State University, Kristina M. Johnson, will step down at the end of the academic year. Details are still vague, but the decision was made at the request of the institution’s board of trustees.
- Hundreds of faculty members from the University of California system have stopped teaching in solidarity with teaching assistants and graduate student researchers on strike. Since the strike began, faculty have had to cancel classes and some are considering canceling final exams.
- A new initiative aims to improve transparency regarding college costs and financial aid. Higher education associations are forming a task force that aims to enhance the “clarity, accuracy, and consistency” of financial aid offers.
- Experts are predicting more “tuition resets” as some institutions lower the cost of tuition significantly. As a recent example, Colby-Sawyer College reduced tuition by 62%.
- A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that the completion rate for undergraduates who started in 2016 had only increased by 0.1% from the previous cohort. The report outlines concerning trends in completion rates for Black and Latinx students.
- College presidents from more than 500 institutions are standing up for DACA recipients. In a letter to Congress, the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration urged leaders for protections for Dreamers.
- Whittier College has cut their football, men’s lacrosse and men’s and women’s golf programs in an effort to save money. Their board acknowledged that it was a difficult decision to make with over 100 student-athletes affected.
- Protests against COVID lockdown policies in China have made their way to the U.S. Chinese students in America organized protests in solidarity with those abroad.
- A new report shows that increased federal funding to tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) can have a great impact in Native communities. TCUs train students in a variety of careers and play a major role in the communities.
