In this week’s roundup:
The Common App removed the question about disciplinary history, the CDC released new guidance on testing for colleges and universities and students face extra hurdles as they prepare to vote in the presidential election.
Stay tuned for our weekly roundup on what trends we're seeing across institutions, how individual colleges and universities are responding to them and what national policy changes are affecting higher ed.
Week of September 30 - October 7
- Colleges and universities have been able to keep positive COVID-19 case numbers low for a variety of reasons; the biggest one, however, is extensive testing.
- The CDC released updated guidance regarding COVID-19 testing on campus, saying that more testing could help to curb the spread of the virus. Many schools, however, are only testing symptomatic individualis, which could lead to undiscovered outbreak sources.
- Following the first student death at Appalachian State University, faculty members provided advice on how to handle communications about a death on campus resulting from COVID-19.
- The Common App announced its decision to remove a question regarding high school discipline, citing evidence that students of color are disproportionately disciplined in school.
- College students this election year face extra hurdles to voting, like deciding which address to use.
- More professors see online learning as an effective option for teaching after the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the transition to online for everyone.
- Stanford significantly increased the diversity of this year's MBA class, crediting “years of work,” through programs such as Diversity in Leadership and Building Opportunities doe Leadership Diversity.
- University of New Hampshire placed an assistant professor on leave after he was found posing as a female immigrant scientist of color on Twitter.
- Despite the extra challenges that the pandemic has presented for incoming first-year students to make friends in the traditional ways, social media has been a haven for students to safely meet one another.
- Taking a more radical stance than merely being “test optional,” a growing number of institutions are experimenting with going “test-free,” dropping SAT and ACT scores from admissions decisions in the wake of the pandemic.
- Here’s a look at what the bill might be for a $200,000 family paying for a child to go to a $300,000 college or university
