News Links | February 24, 2015

SYSTEM NEWS | OPINIONS

Peninsula College professors chosen for innovation awards Peninsula College journalism professor Rich Riski and multimedia professor Marina Shipova have been selected as 2015 recipients of John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards. The international League for Innovation in the Community College presents the awards annually for outstanding contributions and leadership by community college faculty and staff. Peninsula Daily News, Feb. 23, 2015 Photo gallery: Sounds of science An Engineering Day for Kids was held Saturday in the HUB at Yakima Valley Community College in Yakima. The free event was put on by Yakima Valley Community College Engineering Department in partnership with the Yakima branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Yakima Herald, Feb. 23, 2015 CPTC: The next course The kitchen is Ricci Angel’s therapy. The constant noise, the hurried pace and the rush of people soothes the former infantry soldier, who served two tours in the Middle East. While certain sounds can still cause Angel to duck, he’s come a long way in feeling comfortable in his surroundings as a Culinary Arts student at Clover Park Technical College. The Suburban Times, Feb. 23, 2015 Middle school students rise to math challenge About 50 teams of middle school students competed Feb. 7 in the third annual Southwest Washington Math Challenge at Chief Umtuch Middle School. Fifth- through eighth-grade teams competed by grade level to solve word problems and complex equations. Clark College instructors created the problems for the competition, and instructors and students from Clark also helped score the event. The Columbian, Feb. 21, 2015 Bellevue College to partner with WSU or develop hybrid degree programs on its own Bellevue College will not serve as a satellite campus for Washington State University, according to the college's board of trustees. Working groups for each of the universities had only met once before Wednesday's meeting, but talks will continue every other week until they decide if a partnership is mutually beneficial, according to board chairman Steve Miller. Bellevue Reporter, Feb. 19, 2015

TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION

Survey: STEM education lacking in Washington state Only 45 percent of Washington state residents say K-12 public schools are doing a good job educating students in science, technology, engineering and math. According to a new poll commissioned by Washington STEM, a nonprofit, 94 percent of respondents view STEM education as critical for preparing Washington state's students for success. Poll respondents strongly supported giving more K-12 teachers training and a computer science curriculum (91 percent), expanding the number of K-12 public schools in Washington that offer computer science classes (90 percent), and increasing the capacity of Washington state colleges and universities to graduate more Washington students with computer science degrees (85 percent). Puget Sound Business Journal, Feb. 20, 2015 Concealed handguns mainly miss the mark as an answer to campus rape The idea that allowing concealed handguns on campuses would protect female students has gained currency as a result of heightened attention to campus sexual assault. As The New York Times reported on Thursday, lawmakers in 10 states, so far, are hoping that concern about sexual assault at colleges will help them win passage of measures allowing concealed weapons on campuses. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 20, 2015 Mega-gifts on the rise at colleges, study says Huge gifts to universities continued to grow for the second year in a row in 2014, with 43 donations of more than $50-million, according to an annual study. Those megagifts from individuals, foundations, and corporations reached their highest level in the 16 years that Marts & Lundy, a philanthropy consultant, has tracked large donations to higher education. The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Feb. 19, 2015 Opinion: We can’t judge community colleges’ success by the numbers The great virtue of our open-door admissions policy is that it gives any student a seat in the classroom, including the students who won’t earn a degree. Because of what kind of college we are, many of our dropouts can also indicate our institutional success. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 18, 2015

POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL

Higher ed is getting a smaller slice of the budget pie. Why? The Washington Legislature gives higher education a smaller slice of the budget pie than it did 34 years ago. Here's where the money is going instead. The Seattle Times, Feb. 24, 2015 U.S. proposes rules for higher ed innovation program The U.S. Education Department is today proposing rules for carrying out the First in the World Program, the Obama administration's effort to stimulate innovation in higher education. The notice, published in Monday's Federal Register, lays out the priorities the department will use in awarding the program's grants in 2016. Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 23, 2015 House panel passes proposal to eliminate graduation exams The House Education Committee has approved a proposal to eliminate the need to pass statewide tests to earn a high school diploma. House Bill 1785 now moves on to the full House for consideration. The proposal would keep the high school tests in place, but passing those tests would not be a graduation requirement. Instead, students who fail to pass a high school exams in eleventh grade would be required to take another class in the subject area during their last year of high school. KING 5, Feb. 20, 2015 Is a college tuition freeze likely in Washington? Washington lawmakers are talking about freezing college tuition for two more years. And one bill would even roll back tuition for in-state undergraduates by thousands of dollars. One thing is clear: A tuition increase “is the third rail of higher education politics in this state — no one dares touch that one right now,” said Western Washington University President Bruce Shepard during a meeting this month with The Seattle Times editorial board. During the recession, tuition rates skyrocketed at public colleges and universities in Washington and around the country as state lawmakers slashed funding and college administrators turned to students to make up the difference. Voters were not happy with the increases. The Seattle Times, Feb. 20, 2015 Upping the ante on free Senator Bernie Sanders is calling for a massive boost in federal higher education spending that would cut college tuition at public colleges and universities in half. ... Sanders's plan calls for the federal government to give $18 billion a year in dollar-for-dollar matching grants to states, which he says would allow them to slash public college tuition by 55 percent. He said this would apply to students at all public universities and colleges, effectively offering two free years to everyone, not just those at community colleges, like President Obama's plan. Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 20, 2015