In this week's roundup:
use of the Common App is on the rise, the Pell Grant could see an increase, and the student affairs profession faces a retention issue.
March 24-30
- The Biden administration is seeking to increase the Pell Grant maximum to over $8,000. The proposal is expected to face pushback from Republicans concerned with federal spending.
- According to a new Gallup survey, 28% of women working in higher education say that their gender limits their advancement in terms of promotions and pay. In particular, Hispanic and Asian women were reportedly most likely to be overlooked for career advancement.
- Employees working in student affairs are leaving their positions for other pursuits, according to a new NASPA report. Eighty-eight percent of student affairs employees cited a lack of competitive salary and work environment concerns as the reason for leaving.
- Charlie Leone, executive director of public safety at Temple University, will be stepping down after 40 years. Leone’s resignation comes after concerns about gun violence on Temple’s campus and the surrounding area.
- The Common Application reports a 21.3% increase in volume from the 2019-20 school year to the 2021-22 school year. The increase in minority and first-generation applicants continued from the Common App’s December report.
- The University of Richmond has removed the names from six of its buildings that were named after individuals who supported slavery and racial segregation. The removal comes after an uproar that began in 2020 following the racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd.
- Two community colleges in Ohio and Virginia received bomb threats forcing evacuations and campus closures. One of the community colleges, Northern Virginia Community College, is the institution where First Lady Jill Biden teaches. It is not clear if this was a motive.
- Public colleges in Louisiana will no longer ask students to take remedial classes in English and mathematics. The recent state regent board policy change aims to increase retention and graduation rates by having students take for-credit classes with more academic support instead.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology has reinstated its SAT and ACT requirements for admissions. MIT had suspended this requirement at the beginning of the pandemic but cited their own research on predicting student success as the rationale for the return.
- Skills-trade programs are seeing an increase while community college enrollment remains far lower. A study from Georgetown University found that more people without a bachelor's degree are out-earning those with 4-year degrees.
