News Links | September 24, 2015

SYSTEM NEWS | OPINIONS

CBC and Heritage University partnership continues Classes began on Monday at Columbia Basin College but they held, on Wednesday, a first annual open house barbeque to help bring more awareness of their partnership with Heritage University. KVEW TV, Sept. 23, 2015 Bates Technical College kicks off 75th anniversary On Tuesday, Sept. 22, Bates Technical College kicked off a year-long celebration of the college’s 75th anniversary during employee Opening Day. Beginning with a proclamation from Governor Jay Inslee designating the day Bates Technical College 75th Anniversary Day, employees watched short videos, heard department updates, and finished the morning with birthday cupcakes. The Suburban Times, Sept. 22, 2015 Everett University Center construction underway A couple hundred people attended the groundbreaking for the Everett University Center at Tower and Broadway in north Everett this afternoon. ... The current WSU plan is a two plus two concept where students begin their first two years at Everett Community College, Edmonds Community College and Skagit Valley College and then finish the second two-years of their degree at the WSU managed facility. My Everett News, Sept. 22, 2015 Patti Payne's Cool People: International chocolatier to join forces with Seattle chef Lisa Dupar Northwest Chocolate Week starts Sept. 25 and one of the world’s most celebrated chocolatiers is moving in. Pastry and confectionary chef Ewald Notter — I dub him the Chihuly of chocolate — is conducting demonstrations through South Seattle College in how to create a chocolate masterpiece. Puget Sound Business Journal, Sept. 22, 2015 A career in manufacturing With Skagit County’s manufacturing industry showing continued growth, WorkSource Skagit is hosting an 11-week training session for displaced workers looking for entry-level manufacturing jobs. ... The program has been taught at other locations in the state, but this is the first time it’s been offered in Skagit County. It is a collaboration between the Northwest Workforce Council, the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee, and Skagit Valley College. Skagit Valley Herald, Sept. 22, 2015 New Schermer Building up and running The new Schermer Building is up and running on the Grays Harbor College campus and welcomed students on Monday. The building contains new technology and more space for students and faculty while also touting environmentally friendly features. The Daily World, Sept. 22, 2015 Most county high school grads must take remedial classes in college Six of every 10 graduates in Snohomish County go to college, most of them to two-year community or technical colleges, based on annual state data from 2005 to 2013. The majority get a wake-up call on campus. They aren't ready. ... At local community colleges, the focus is shifting from upping enrollment numbers to upping completion numbers for degree and certificate programs. That means finding students' strengths early on, said Dusty Brannan, an instructor at Edmonds Community College and head of the high school completion department. ... At Everett Community College, the busiest pre-college courses are algebra and writing. More than 1,600 new students took remedial courses there in 2014-15, half of them 18 to 20 years old. Everett Herald, Sept. 13, 2015

TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION

Survey: Tablet ownership up, but laptops remain no. 1 The laptop continues to be the go-to device for students, whether for educational or personal use, according to a new survey conducted by Harris Poll and sponsored by Pearson. Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 24, 2015 Video: Talking about talent: Jamie Merisotis on the role of higher education Jamie P. Merisotis, president and chief executive of the Lumina Foundation and a longtime advocate of helping low-income and first-generation students into higher education, says it’s time to take a broader view of what he sees as the nation’s “talent” deficit. In his new book, America Needs Talent: Attracting, Educating, and Deploying the 21st-Century Workforce (Rosetta Books), Mr. Merisotis argues that the United States must not only modernize higher education but also open up more paths for immigration. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 24, 2015 Gaps in success for Pell Grant students The University of Alabama and Michigan State University look pretty similar on paper. Both are selective public research universities. Students enter with similar standardized test scores. And the proportions of low-income and underrepresented minority students on each campus are roughly the same. Yet students who receive a Pell Grant to attend Michigan State are far more likely — by 20 percentage points — to graduate within six years compared to their counterparts at the University of Alabama flagship campus at Tuscaloosa, according to a report published Thursday by the Education Trust, an advocacy group for low-income students. Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 24, 2015 Guidance on competency-based education The U.S. Department Education said Tuesday it is poised to release an extensive reference guide for institutions that are participating in an experiment on competency-based education. Since that project was begun last year, the department said it became clear that more guidance was needed — for both colleges and accrediting agencies. Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 23, 2015 Get your Ph.D. without the hassle, thanks to Stephen Colbert Haven’t you always wanted a Ph.D. from Princeton — er, Prancetown University? Thanks to a project by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, you can now earn the precious credential through “Stephen Colbert’s Totally Legitimate Online PhD Program.”Read the instructions below to see how streamlined online education has become! Complete Stephen’s online PhD program by proving you can click on the word Print. Congratulations, Doctor. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 22, 2015

POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL

Grounded by FAA rules Two years ago the Community College of Beaver County had a waiting list for its air traffic control program. Now the Pennsylvania college has slots open. A similar story has taken place in Colorado at Aims Community College. Where a thriving air traffic control program regularly saw about 20 students a semester, it is now hanging on by a thread to stay open. Both programs have seen high success rates for their graduates in the Federal Aviation Administration Academy, a formal training program for new air traffic control hires. And the drops aren't because the air traffic control field doesn't have jobs. Rather they are due to controversial changes in the federal hiring process that eliminated — some say incorrectly — the need for new hires to have the kind of training provided by Beaver County and Aims, and other colleges. Both colleges [and Green River College in Washington] are part of the FAA's Air Traffic Control (ATC) Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) program. Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 23, 2015 A tougher test for colleges For decades, the federal government’s main yardstick for judging how colleges perform with federal aid dollars has been the default rate on student loans. Each year the U.S. Department of Education tallies up how many borrowers from a given college fell so far behind on their federal loan payments that they defaulted within several years of starting to repay. But for every borrower who defaults on a student loan, there are many more who are unable to make progress in repaying their loans and are watching their balances grow, years after attending college, according to data released this month by the Obama administration. Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 23, 2015 Consistent research regulations could ease the burden on scientists, panel says Federal regulation "steals from the nation’s investment in research and has become self-defeating," a National Academies panel told Congress on Tuesday. But the burden could be eased through more-uniform federal rules and the creation of a new independent oversight board, the panel said. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 22, 2015