Today's News

Some student-loan providers have responded to new legislation that greatly increases federal student aid by announcing plans to lay off workers and scale back borrower benefits. The legislation, which President Bush signed into law on Thursday, cuts government subsidies to those lenders.

The University of California at Irvine has received payments for referring continuing-education students to Capella University, an online for-profit institution based in Minneapolis. The Education Department calls the arrangement legal, but some higher-education leaders are troubled by it.

Federal spending for academic research fell in the 2006 fiscal year, after adjusting for inflation, for the first time in nearly 25 years, says a new report from the National Science Foundation. However, total expenditures rose after inflation, driven by a large leap in spending by universities themselves.

The Supreme Court of Virginia announced last week that it would hear appeals in two cases involving Randolph College, including its decision to admit men. The state's governor has approved $1.3-million in state funds to help Virginia Tech cover costs associated with the April 16 shootings on its campus. For details and other news from the states, see State Digest.

Articles

The recommendations of the commission assembled by Margaret Spellings, the education secretary (above), are apparently encouraging colleges to document their performance. She says the discussion spurred by the report is long overdue. "Are we done? Heck no," she says. "We haven't even started."
(Photograph by Dennis Brack, Black Star)

A bill pending in Congress would allow borrowers to get out from under private student loans through bankruptcy.

In Brief

HOW TO AVOID SCANDAL: College leaders met in Washington to talk about improving their conflict-of-interest policies.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Citing his frustration with red tape, the head of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities is quitting.

TOUGH GUY: As a presidential candidate, Rudolph W. Giuliani hasn't talked about colleges. But as a mayor, he played hardball with the City University of New York. The first in a series on candidates' positions on higher education.

GOING ONLINE: The U.S. Education Department will stop routinely mailing out millions of copies of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

AIR OF URGENCY: The federal government should expand research by social scientists on how to help policy makers mitigate climate change, a report says.

'MIRROR IMAGES': A report suggests that, while increasingly popular, alternative certification for schoolteachers may differ little from traditional programs.

6 PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED: The University of California must restore credibility to its president's office and improve governance if it is to preserve excellence in teaching and research, an external audit has found.

IN BRIEF: A roundup of higher-education news from the states.