In this week’s roundup:
In case you’re able to pull your attention away from inauguration coverage, this week we take a look at admissions patterns, sentiments about higher ed’s reactions to the Capitol riot and the College Board’s decision to get rid of SAT subject tests and the essay section.
Tune in next week as we move through this most Mondayest of Januaries.
January 14-20
- The College Board has eliminated all SAT subject tests and the essay section, claiming that “Advanced Placement courses are more suitable measures of a student’s knowledge in specific subject areas these days.”
- President Biden’s plans for coronavirus relief include a $35 billion package for higher ed. Here’s how much public, private nonprofit and for-profit institutions are set to receive.
- Buried in the spending package Congress passed late last month is $1.3B in loan forgiveness for the HBCUs that borrowed money through the federal government's HBCU Capital Financing Program, allowing those institutions to make critical -- and long delayed -- investments in infrastructure, new construction and student recruitment and retention.
- Student affairs professionals are not okay; the demands of pandemic life pull them in all directions in an attempt to keep students happy (or at least, happy enough).
- Some students and alumni are disappointed that their institutions haven’t gone far enough in denouncing alumni who participated in the Capitol riot. At the University of Michigan, faculty and students are calling for a regent to resign for his rhetoric around the 2020 election and Capitol violence.
- Meanwhile, here’s the thought process for how some college presidents arrived at their statements following the violence.
- A bipartisan group of senators asked the Government Accountability Office to examine whether colleges and universities are doing enough to make sure disabled students have the same access to learning as others during the pandemic.
- High school seniors around the U.S. face college application deadlines without standardized test scores, community service records or numerous extracurriculars.
- This unusual admissions season has seen an increase in early-action applications at elite institutions, although the number of CommonApp applications for first generation and low-income students has yet to reach a comparable increase overall.
- Enrollment at community colleges swelled during the last recession. This time? Quite a different picture.
- Finally, the overall number of applicants who identify as male has declined during the pandemic, perpetuating a trend that was happening before COVID hit.
