In the past year, public colleges and universities across the country have been shrinking degree programs and terminating personnel--including tenured professors--in an effort to cope with budget cuts in higher education. The situation is not confined to a handful of mismanaged public institutions, as in the past. It is a national phenomenon and…

The author reports on a Supreme Court case that is echoing across the University of Texas at Austin, and for some students, it is personal. Not long after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Abigail Fisher's case against the University of Texas at Austin, a lighthearted joke made the rounds at the Warfield Center for African and African-American…

When President Obama gave his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame last month, he lightened the mood with a joke about honorary degrees. "So far I'm only one for two as president," Mr. Obama said. "Father Hesburgh is 150 for 150." He was referring to the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, former Notre Dame president, who just turned 92.…

The recession has turned Americans into numbers addicts. Seemingly endless supplies of statistics--stock prices, retail sales, and the gross domestic product--offer various views about the health of the nation's economy. Higher education has its own economic indicators. Among the most important is "yield," the percentage of admitted students who…

In today's tough economy, students and parents alike are looking for ways to save on college tuition. With sticker prices well into the tens of thousands per year at any private liberal-arts institution, the prospect of shaving a year off the typical four-year journey is an added attraction at a number of colleges, like Franklin & Marshall,…

Indignant at being referred to as junior colleges, many community colleges are creating enterprises that strive to match those of four-year colleges. Several community colleges have added not only competitive sports but also an extensive range of student clubs and activities primarily designed for traditional-age students. Large, often elaborate…

A controversial theory much in the news lately claims that affirmative action is often unfair to the very students it is intended to help. Called the "mismatch" theory, it suggests that underrepresented minority students are more likely to leave science, math, and engineering when, because of affirmative action, they attend colleges for which they…

The $787-billion economic-stimulus legislation that President Obama signed into law this week contains large sums of money for students and researchers. But the final version of the plan excludes billions of dollars that Congress had considered giving to various higher-education programs. The author's assessment is that the law, as enacted, will…

Few documents in higher education have enjoyed the influence or longevity of the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the 1960 law that transformed the state's public colleges and served as a blueprint for public systems across the country. Even today, almost 50 years after it was written, the master plan retains a mythic status in…

This year was bleak for state higher-education budgets. But college leaders are even more worried about what comes next. The billions of dollars in federal stimulus aid to plug shortfalls in state education budgets have helped limit the damage this year, but the money hasn't prevented all of the cuts to college budgets. Most states are spending…

When the new GI Bill was signed into law last summer, advocates said its education benefits would significantly expand veterans' higher-education options. Beneficiaries would receive substantially more money than they did under older programs, enough to pay for the most expensive public institution in their state instead of only covering…

Northwest Missouri State University nearly became the first public university to deliver all of its textbooks electronically. Last year the institution's president, Dean L. Hubbard, bought a Kindle, Amazon's e-book reading device, and liked it so much that he wanted to give every incoming student one. The university already runs an unusual…

President Obama's 2010 budget proposals include exciting news for those concerned with increasing educational opportunities. The urgency of the economic crisis and the clear commitment of the administration and Congress to make college more affordable provide the perfect opportunity for those in higher education to update their approach to…

The use of race-sensitive criteria in admissions continues to be controversial, and critics have leveled three basic charges against it. For one, opponents say the practice constitutes reverse discrimination, lowering the chance of admission for better-qualified white students. They also contend that it creates a mismatch between the skills of…

President Obama announced a plan to spend an unprecedented $12-billion over 10 years to improve programs, courses, and facilities at community colleges. The money, the president said, will position two-year institutions to produce five million more graduates over the next decade and to play a leading role in rebuilding the economy. But after the…