Tag: Colleges

Education Department Blasts ‘Culture of Censorship’ at Colleges, Sets Up Free-Speech Email Hotline to Report Violations

by  on  in Education News

The Education Department has set up a hotline where students and staff can report concerns about free-speech violations on college campuses, the latest effort by the Trump administration to ensure conservative or otherwise unpopular views are respected at schools they say can hew too liberal.

The Free Speech Hotline was announced Tuesday at an event billed to confront a “culture of censorship” at colleges and featuring Education Department officials, a current undergraduate and former and current professors. They spoke about the perceived dangers of stifling First Amendment rights by staging protests against guest speakers, heckling faculty members or limiting students’

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House committee subpoenas Education Department staff over for-profit colleges

by  on  in Education Foundation

Democrats on the House Education Committee have issued subpoenas for several career staff at the Department of Education as the panel investigates the owner of several for-profit colleges. 

The committee had been investigating department personnel since last year over the department’s handling of Dream Center Education Holdings as it collapsed. Dream Center owns the Art Institutes, Argosy University and South University.  

The committee’s chairman, Rep. Bobby ScottRobert (Bobby) Cortez ScottDemocrats demand answers from Labor Department on CDC recommendations for meatpacking plant Pelosi urges early voting to counter GOP’s high court gambit: ‘There has to be a price to pay’

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Education Department eases colleges’ rules on reporting crimes

by  on  in Education Foundation

An Education Department agency has eased requirements for colleges to report crimes that occur on or near their campuses, ending some Obama-era strictures.

The Office of Postsecondary Education said that a lengthy handbook that guides compliance under the Clery Act overburdened schools with costly paperwork. The office has downsized the 265-page handbook to a 13-page document.

“[The requirements] can be challenging for some institutions of higher education to understand and satisfy,” the office said Friday in a news release.

Agency officials revised the handbook in 2011 and 2016, but the Education Department says the latest revision contains “significant changes” for

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Public colleges hide donors who seek to influence students. Will COVID-19 make it worse?

by  on  in Education News

Long before the coronavirus hit the United States, cash-strapped public higher education systems looked to private donors to offset the steady decline in public funding, sometimes with significant secrecy and strings attached.

Critics fear the economic downturn could give donors more leverage to quietly influence curriculum, hiring and scholarships. Open government laws in many states already allow donors to demand that the public – including students and faculty – be kept in the dark.

The pandemic has presented universities a triple whammy: Reduced tax revenues slashing government support, online-only courses gutting dormitory and cafeteria revenues, and – with more students

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60 Colleges Facing Layoffs Thanks to Coronavirus

by  on  in Education News

Nearly every sector of the American economy has taken a hit due to the coronavirus pandemic, and education is no exception. Many colleges are facing increased financial difficulties as enrollment is declining, campuses are closing and schools are having to issue refunds for certain services like housing, CNBC reported.

As of early July, 224 institutions had instituted layoffs, furloughs or contract nonrenewals resulting from the coronavirus, affecting at least 51,793 faculty, staff and other employees, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Here’s a look at some of the colleges that have had to let employees go amid the pandemic.

Last

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