News Links | July 14, 2015

SYSTEM NEWS | OPINIONS

New law cutting higher-ed tuition ‘huge deal for students’ Everett Community College student leader Azrael Howell couldn’t believe state lawmakers this year did something they’ve never done before — reduce tuition. ... “This is a huge deal for students,” Lia Andrews, president of the student executive board atEdmonds Community College, wrote in an email. ... Marty Brown, executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, said he kept asking lawmakers to include the system as a matter of fairness. Everett Herald, July 13, 2015 Opinion: Today’s interns are tomorrow’s scientists School’s out, which means a new group of interns is settling into summer research assignments with mentors at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. Last year, about 1,200 students and teachers immersed themselves in laboratory research experiences through programs offered to high school, undergraduate and graduate students, as well hands-on opportunities for post-doctoral fellows and educators. ... Fifteen of them attend Tri-City high schools and 55 of them are from Washington State University Tri-Cities and Columbia Basin College in Pasco. Tri-City Herald, July 12, 2015 CNN Money names Pierce College most successful community college in Washington In a recent article on CNNMoney.com, Pierce College was named the most successful community college in the state, based on the percentage of students who graduated or transferred to a four-year college. The Suburban Times, July 11, 2015 Clark to use grant for financial literacy coach Clark College Foundation received a $30,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington for a full-time financial literacy coach within Clark's Career Services department. The grant provides the money to upgrade an existing literacy coach from part time to full time. The ultimate goal of the grant is to break generational cycles of poverty. The Columbian, July 10, 2015 Tuition reduction a smart investment for students, for Washington Big Bend Community College students and students across the state's public higher education institutions recently received a welcome decrease in tuition from the state Legislature. .. Along with their backpacks and books, students carry the knowledge that higher education is the path to a better future. For 57 percent of Washington college students, that path starts at the doors of a community or technical college. Each year, nearly 400,000 students attend Washington two-year colleges to train for well-paying careers, start work on a four-year degree, or update their skills and knowledge. Last fall, 52 percent of BBCC students were women, 40 percent were students of color, and students' median age was 26 years of age. Columbia Basin Herald, July 9, 2015 Honoring Warren Chan — Icon of an incredible generation A parade of “who’s who,” —  including a governor, mayor, and 19 judges from both Supreme Court to Municipal Court — gathered at South Seattle College to pay their last respects to Judge Warren Chan July 3. Chan died on June 15 at the age of 92. ... Chan and his wife Nobie were instrumental in establishing South Seattle College as the site for the Seattle Chinese Garden, for helping formulate the concept of how the Garden could be a tribute to Seattle’s Pacific Rim location as a gateway to Asia, according to Jim Dawson, former president of the Seattle Chinese Garden Society. Northwest Asian Weekly, July 9, 2015 Guiding success | BC’s Occupational and Life Skills program sets stage for spin-offs More than 150 family members, friends and advisors filled the Carlson Theater last month to watch 13 jovial students give their senior presentations. The group, a smattering of students from around Puget Sound, had traveled long and hard to make it to this point. They were graduating from the Occupational and Life Skills (OLS) program at Bellevue College, an educational enterprise that teaches students with mild disabilities the qualities that make them successful in college and afterwards. Bellevue Reporter, July 9, 2015

TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION

Web platform seeks to give students an alternative to the ‘wall of text’ It’s difficult to keep students engaged — and awake — when assigning them readings from long and often dull textbooks. Two researchers wanted to change that. Their creation is zyBooks, a web-based platform that mixes learning activities such as question sets and animations with some written content, largely as a replacement for text. The idea is that professors can use zyBooks instead of traditional textbooks in order to help students engage with the material and perform better. The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 14, 2015 A career's worth of change William (Brit) Kirwan has been a top university administrator over nearly three decades of vast change in higher education. ... Before leaving office, Kirwan sat down with Inside Higher Ed, discussing his tenure and some of the issues facing higher education nationally and in Maryland. Inside Higher Ed, July 14, 2015 Honor society leader steps down The executive director and CEO of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society announced Monday that he had retired from the community college honor group as of June 30. Rod Risley, who led the organization for 30 years, stepped aside from his post in April for a paid leave of absence while the honor society's Board of Directors investigated allegations of sexual harassment, intimidation, inappropriate touching and unprofessional behavior made by two students. The investigation was apparently never completed. Inside Higher Ed, July 14, 2015 S&P: Negative outlooks outnumber positive ones Standard & Poor's Rating Services released its annual reports on median ratios for public and nonprofit private institutions this week. Inside Higher Ed, July 14, 2015 Beyond the transcript Most people in higher education agree that the old-school college transcript fails to adequately capture what students learn and do during their time in college. Student affairs administrators and college registrars often see the transcript’s shortcomings in their jobs. So the two national associations that represent those groups today announced a project to develop models for a more comprehensive student record. Inside Higher Ed, July 13, 2015 Video: ‘Time for a major redo of our entire student-loan system’ Rohit Chopra recently stepped down as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's student-loan ombudsman for a new job at the Center for American Progress. Mr. Chopra, who was the federal bureau's first student-loan watchdog, visited The Chronicle to share his thoughts on what he sees as a “broken” system and the pressures facing for-profit colleges. The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 13, 2015 New criticism of 'Science' on gender and career advice Last month, the journal Science received heavy criticism over an advice piece widely called sexist for encouraging a female scientist not to take seriously an adviser's pattern of looking at her chest, not her face, when they talked. The journal ended up pulling the column. Now Science is being criticized for running another piece that some find sexist. This piece is mostly about getting noticed to advance one's career, and the importance of hard work. Inside Higher Ed, July 13, 2015 Report: Campus crime drops 25 percent since 2001 On-campus crime has fallen by 25 percent over the last decade, from more than 40,000 reported incidents in 2001 to fewer than 30,000 incidents in 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Education's annual report of crime statistics. Inside Higher Ed, July 10, 2015 Lumina-funded 'credential registry' The Lumina Foundation is funding a $2.25 million project to create a credential registry, which will help users compare the quality and value of credentials, including college degrees and industry certifications. Inside Higher Ed, July 10, 2015 New model of ‘smart campus’? Carnegie Mellon to embed sensors across landscape Imagine a world where you’re driving to campus, and before you get there, your car tells you to park in one lot because it already knows another is full. That could soon be the reality at Carnegie Mellon University, where researchers have teamed up with Google to place wireless sensors around the campus to connect everyday items with the web. The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 10, 2015 Moody's considers change in rating methodology Moody's is considering changing the formula it uses to rate the financial health of more than 500 colleges and universities. Inside Higher Ed, July 10, 2015 Backlash against new math, reading tests ripples across state High-school juniors in Seattle were the ones who made headlines this spring for protesting the state’s new math and reading exams, but preliminary state figures show the revolt was deeper and more widespread than just one school district. The Seattle Times, July 9, 2015

POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL

Education Department updates cash monitoring list The total number of colleges that U.S. Department of Education regulators are more closely monitoring because of concerns about their ability to handle federal funds ticked downward slightly last month, recently released data show. Inside Higher Ed, July 14, 2015 Tuition cuts may trigger refunds for investors in Washington’s GET A state committee that oversees Washington’s prepaid college tuition plan is considering refunding some, or even all, of the money parents and relatives poured into the plan in recent years. The Seattle Times, July 13, 2015 Casting a wider net When President Obama rolled out his free community college proposal earlier this year, the leaders of some historically black colleges weren’t happy about it. The administration’s ambitious plan to send new federal money to states that eliminate tuition and fees for most community colleges students didn't include anything specifically for historically black colleges and universities. Advocates for those institutions said at the time that they should have been included in the administration’s push for expanding college access since their institutions enroll significant numbers of low-income students. Some also saw free community college as a potential competitive threat, steering students away from their institutions in some cases. Inside Higher Ed, July 13, 2015 Feds halt collections on Corinthian students in default The U.S. Department of Education will halt collections on student loans for roughly 40,000 former Corinthian students who are in default, Reuters reported. Inside Higher Ed, July 13, 2015 Video: Legislature’s work & where WA goes now Now that the state legislature has gone home, we look at the final budget compromise with Democratic political and public affairs consultant Sandeep Kaushik and Paul Guppy of the Washington Policy Center. Crosscut, July 12, 2015 House passes bill that would add $8.75 billion to NIH budget The U.S. House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation on Friday that would increase the National Institutes of Health’s budget by $8.75 billion over the next five years,The New York Times and The Washington Post reported on Friday. The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 11, 2015 Washington state Legislature adjourns after long, simmering session After the longest single-year legislative session in Washington history, the state House and Senate adjourned Friday following passage of the final parts of the state’s first transportation package in a decade. The Olympian, July 10, 2015 Our Voice: Tuition cuts welcome, but future commitment needed Since 2008, when the economy and the state budget went south, the Legislature raided higher education to fund other state programs. This forced the state’s universities and colleges to make up the difference with tuition increases, which have climbed steadily over the last several years. ... We could be better, but at least the Legislature finally made the wise decision to provide more funding for our state’s colleges and universities. It is a rare move and should be applauded. But cutting college tuition this biennium should be a start to a downward trend — not just a blip on the chart. Tri-City Herald, July 10, 2015 White House balks at Senate's education spending bill The Obama administration has expressed a slew of concerns about the Senate's version of the 2016 spending bill for the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor, including that it would redirect funds away from the Pell Grant program and block enforcement of the administration's gainful employment rules. Inside Higher Ed, July 10, 2015 Senate passes class size initiative delay The Legislature on Thursday approved the final component of a $38.2 billion state operating budget signed by Gov. Jay Inslee last week as the Senate passed a measure delaying full implementation of an expensive class-size initiative. The News Tribune, July 9, 2015 Washington lawmakers announce deal to suspend biology exam, class size measure Washington Senate Republicans have agreed to suspend a biology exam requirement that’s keeping nearly 2,000 high school students from graduating. In return, Senate Democrats will vote to suspend a voter-approved class size measure. That bipartisan deal announced Wednesday should pave the way for lawmakers to adjourn their third special session by the end of the week. KUOW, July 8, 2015