Tag: college

Ohio Bill Allowing Students to Transfer Credits Unanimously Passes in the State House

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by Todd DeFeo   A bill aimed at allowing students to transfer general education course credits from one public university in Ohio to another could bring with it potentially higher costs for schools, according to a fiscal analysis of the bill. The state House unanimously passed House Bill 9, which lawmakers hope allows more students to graduate in four years and reduces student debt. The bipartisan legislation would require institutions to notify students if they are eligible for an associates’ degree. It would also allow students to pay in advance for required classes, but that are either at capacity or unavailable – allowing the student to take the course at a later date. “HB 9 is going to be a great asset in our continual drive to restore Ohio’s promise as an opportunity state for students and employers alike,” state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Cleveland, said in a statement. “We owe it to Ohio’s future – our students – to keep our promise to make college more affordable so that every student who works hard has the opportunity to get ahead by graduating on time and without a mountain of student debt,” Sweeney added. “HB 9 makes it easier for every…

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Commentary: Once a Proud Tradition, College ‘Common Reading Programs’ Have Been Reduced to Political Fluff for Freshmen

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by Chris West   Many colleges assign “common readings” to incoming students as an intellectual experience outside the classroom to set the bar for the academic rigor that professors expect of students. This tradition is most students’ first taste of the university. This well-meaning tradition, however, has become highly politicized and the quality of reading has significantly decreased over the years. Works like The Iliad and Catcher in the Rye have disappeared, replaced by books written by comedians from The New York Times best seller list. The classics have been traded out for the ephemeral. This change is emblematic of the university. Incoming students are no longer prepared for rigorous, intellectually challenging material. Instead, they read “timely” political books that are only relevant during the current news cycle. North Carolina colleges, public and private, have followed national trends. Eight of the 16 University of North Carolina schools have a common reading program, and seven of the 29 private schools. No North Carolina school, public or private, chose a book published before 2010. Within the UNC system, six of the eight assigned readings have been published since 2012. That recency bias matters because the books are often left-leaning and these programs signal what political ideas campus administrators…

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China Discontinues American and European History AP Tests for Chinese Students Seeking U.S. College Credits

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by Ethan Cai   The Chinese government will completely suspend certain Advanced Placement (AP) history tests by 2020 in an attempt to hide “unfriendly” material. Chinese students seeking college credit for U.S. colleges will no longer be able to take the U.S. history, European history, world history, and human geography AP examinations, reported Reuters. These exams are provided by College Board, an American educational nonprofit that manages the SAT, as well as the AP curriculum. AP courses and exams in the fields of STEM and various other subjects are still permitted. “This is a bit sudden, we don’t know the reason,” SAT Test Web, a Nanjing-based center said on Chinese social media site WeChat. “If you apply for any of these four subjects, it means you need to go to other exams outside the mainland.” A total of five Chinese test centers from the cities of Nanjing, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai confirmed that China’s education ministry mandated that the history tests be ceased by 2020. The suspended history content adds to Beijing’s attempt to censor information that is not approved by the Communist Party in China. Negative viewpoints, for example, regarding the Tiananmen Square incident and the Sino-Japanese War are censored…

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College Majors Americans Regret the Most

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by Dora Mekouar   Two-thirds of Americans have a major regret relating to their college experience, according to a survey of 250,000 Americans who hold at least a bachelor’s degree. The biggest regrets for college graduates are the huge debts they’ve racked up. Student loan debt rose from $600 billion a decade ago to more than $1.4 trillion by the end of 2018. The second most regretted part of the respondents’ college experience is what they majored in. More than one in 10 people say their chosen area of study is their biggest educational regret. The most regretted majors are in the humanities field. More than one in five people with humanities majors — which includes English and history — say they wish they hadn’t chosen that area of study. Other fields that college grads regret choosing include physical and life sciences, social sciences, education, communications, and art. College graduates who focused on technical or high-earnings fields have the fewest regrets, including those who majored in engineering, computer science, and business. Overall, the study finds that older generations, people with higher education levels, and those who majored in fields with higher earning jobs have the fewest regrets about their college experience.…

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Commentary: We Need a Higher Education Reformation

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by Emina Melonic   American higher education, once the envy of the world, is suffering a crisis of confidence and a loss of purpose. “Once upon a time, universities were institutions dedicated to the pursuit of truth and the transmission of the highest values of our civilization,” writes New Criterion editor and publisher Roger Kimball. “Today, most are dedicated to the destruction of those values. It is past time to call them to account.” What would accountability look like? The distinguished British philosopher Roger Scruton, a conservative through and through, recently proposed a radical solution: “get rid of universities altogether.” Have these men taken leave of their senses? Not at all. Both have been keen observers for decades of the slow-motion catastrophe unfolding in academia. It may be we’ve reached a turning point. Behind most of the problems plaguing education is a noxious identity politics. This is particularly true in the humanities because these subjects easily lend themselves to manipulative interpretation and reshaping by those with an ideological agenda. Take a piece of classical literature, such as Homer’s The Iliad, slap a theory on the text, and bingo, you have just rid yourself of the chore of trying to understand this magnificent piece of dramatic poetry…

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Commentary: The Astonishing Mess of Academic Publishing

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by Phillip W. Magness   Scholarly publishing is a world of maddening inefficiencies. It’s also an unavoidable part of scientific discussion, and it remains one of the only features of academic life that offers some semblance of a meritocratic measure of a scholar’s contributions to the field. “Publish or perish,” as the adage goes, and publishing means dealing with publishers. Yet every step of the typical academic publication process is fraught with practices that would quickly drive away the customer base of almost any other industry. For the uninitiated, the step toward publication usually begins by selecting a prospective venue. For scholarly articles, this means one of the thousands of academic journals that curate research on highly specialized subject areas. For books, it usually means a university press or one of the major commercial presses that specializes in scholarly works. Once you select a suitable option and send out your paper (for journals) or proposal (for books) for review by the venue of choice, you then wait. And wait. And wait some more. In fact, waiting is by far the most common feature of publishing, and it can take months or even years to hear back from anyone. There are a…

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How College Students Really Feel About Free Speech on Campus

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by Kaylee Greenlee   A new survey finding that college students generally support free speech also shows what for some is a worrisome divide over what students value more: an “inclusive society” that “welcomes diverse groups” or protecting “the extremes of free speech.” The Knight Foundation’s “Free Expressions of College Campuses” report polled students over the course of three days on their views of protesting, offensive language, and the inclusivity of on-campus climates. One question was whether students agreed with shouting down speakers or trying to prevent them from talking. While the results showed only 6% responded that it is “always acceptable,” 45% of students said it is “sometimes acceptable.” Jonathan Butcher, a senior policy analyst in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation pointed out that, in total, 51% of the college students surveyed say they believe that violating another’s First Amendment protections because they disagree is acceptable to some degree. One area that the Knight Foundation didn’t explore is what actions, if any, students believe should be taken against students who violate someone else’s First Amendment rights. Butcher said he sees a “need for state legislative proposals for public universities to be inclusive of the First…

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Conservatives Tackle ‘Stigmas’ Surrounding Vo-Ed in Ohio

Anthony Gockowski

  Ohio’s Future Foundation, chaired by former Congressman Jim Renacci, hosted a forum last week on the stigmas and misconceptions surrounding vocational education programs. The forum was hosted at Pioneer Career and Technology Center, whose superintendent said that skilled welders who graduate from the school can “easily make six figures just a few years out of high school.” “They’re hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead in just a few years,” said Greg Nickoli, who noted that graduates enter the workforce making $18 to $20 an hour. “One of the big misconceptions is that you’re going to go right in to work and it’s probably going to be a low-paying job. And I can tell you there’s nothing further from the truth,” he continued. “I would venture to say that most college graduates would jump at a chance to make $60,000 a year.” He also stressed that vo-ed graduates aren’t burdened with the debt that comes from a traditional four-year degree. That’s why Renacci and Ohio’s Future Foundation are spreading the word about vocational education opportunities in Ohio. “It’s something we believe needs to be prioritized in our state. We need to make sure that our high schools can continue to…

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Young Americans Are Still Flocking to College Despite a Ton of Open Jobs

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by Tim Pearce   The rate of high school graduates enrolling in higher education increased from 2017 to 2018 despite record levels of open jobs in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported. Roughly 69 percent of all high school graduates enrolled in some form of higher education by October 2018, according to Labor Department data TheWSJ analyzed. The rate is about a 2-percent increase over 2017 levels. College enrollment has increased steadily over recent decades as the U.S. economy transitions away from blue-collar work toward more technical and knowledge-based industries. College enrollment also picked up when the Great Recession hit in 2007 and the labor market was flooded with college-educated workers. “We did see employers increase requirements for having a college degree when we were in the depths of the recession and there were lots of unemployed college-educated workers,” Northeastern University professor Alicia Modestino told TheWSJ. “Since then, they have decreased those requirements as the labor market has recovered.” Job openings in the U.S. hit a record high of 7.3 million in February. The U.S. labor market has continued to grow for more than 100 straight months and the unemployment rate is holding steady at 3.8 percent, which economists…

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Commentary: Don’t Assume Good Intentions from Campus P.C. Pushers

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by Mark Bauerlein   No matter how much the general public abhors political correctness is higher education, the monitors of the Left continue to find methods of surveillance. Two Villanova professors described the latest development last week in the Wall Street Journal. It’s a revision to the course evaluation form that professors distribute to students at the end of the semester. Typical questions address workload, assignments, classroom management, grading, and the availability of the professor. But we now have an extra query. I’ve heard it floated before, but this is the first concrete implementation of which I am aware. As political scientist Colleen Sheehan and humanities professor James Matthew Wilson describe it: students are now being asked heavily politicized questions such as whether the instructor has demonstrated “cultural awareness” or created an “environment free of bias based on individual differences or social identities. You know what this means. Has the professor implied anything suggesting praise for Western civilization, a biblical conception of marriage and sexuality, American exceptionalism, or economic nationalism? Report him! Did he assign Huckleberry Finn (it has the n-word) or The Scarlet Letter (a woman has a child out of wedlock and is shamed and punished)? Write him…

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Joe Carter Commentary: Make America Smart Again

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by Joe Carter   Over the past week America has been fascinated and appalled by the latest college admissions cheating scandal. Much of the attention has been focused on the bribing of coaches to get kids into school with fake athletic credentials. But the even more absurd part of the scandal is that parents were paying between $15,000 and $75,000 per test to help their children get a better score on the SAT. The parents seem to believe that the SAT was a mere hurdle to be overcome by whatever means necessary. Once the child was admitted to the college, they would be swept along into a life of wealth and prestige. That’s not entirely wrong, of course. As economist Bryan Caplan says, “If you can get your less-than-brilliant, less-than-driven child admitted, he’ll probably get to impersonate a standardly awesome Ivy League graduate for the rest of his life.” It’s true there’s a correlation between scoring well on the SAT and getting into a good college, as well as a correlation between a college degree and social mobility. But the cheating parents seem to think there is a direct line between “score well on the SAT” and “economic security.” The reality is the…

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The Tennessee Star Report: Justin Owen from the Beacon Center Talks About Governor Lee’s Plan to Reform the Tennessee Criminal Justice System

Julie Carr

In a specific discussion on Monday morning’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – host Steve Gill talked in depth with the Beacon Centers CEO, Justin Owen about the Beacon’s support of Bill Lee’s criminal justice reform proposal and the implications of offering non-violent criminals a chance to receive education and enter the workforce instead of returning back through the prison’s revolving doors. The men ended the segment covering the aspect of vocational training reform and it’s implementations effect on Texas. Gill: Justin Owen is the President and CEO of the Beacon Center and here to explain what is the rationale for the support that the Beacon Center is giving to, among other things the college for criminals plan that Governor Bill Lee is putting out. And Justin good to have you with us. Owen: Good to be on Steve, thanks for inviting me on. Gill: A lot of stuff on this issue. The Governor hadn’t put out a lot of details, they’ve not answered questions that we’ve submitted to them about how much it’s going to cost and…

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THEC REPORT: Tennessee Students Unprepared for College

Chris Butler
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A new report from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) presented to the Legislature earlier this week has the education community scrambling to explain how, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending over the past eight years, Tennessee schools are not adequately preparing college-bound students for college work. New state data reveals about half of Tennessee students enrolled in higher education during the 2016-2017 school year needed remedial classes in math or reading, or both, during their fist year of college. According to the THEC report, 46 percent of Tennessee high school graduates enrolled in state colleges or community colleges needed math remediation; 30 percent of enrollees needed reading remediation during their first year of college. Students must take remedial classes if they score 18 (out of a top score of 36) or below on an ACT subtest in math or reading. The disturbing data revealing the lack of readiness by college-bound students does not include Tennessee high school students that did not seek to pursue higher education opportunities. The percentages of those students who would need remedial work in math and reading after completing K-12 but did not enroll in Tennessee colleges and universities would almost certainly…

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10 States Now Offer Dreamers Financial Aid for College

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The state of New Jersey has awarded $1.63 million in financial aid for higher education to more than 500 undocumented students, new government data showed Wednesday. New Jersey’s Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA) reported that 513 students received the aid to cover university and college expenses starting with the 2018 fall semester. “This financial assistance offers these New Jersey students a life-changing opportunity,” David J. Socolow, HESAA’s executive director, said in a statement. “The successes of these first 513 students, who are now attending county colleges, state colleges and universities, and independent institutions around the state, will have a positive impact on countless additional lives.” To be eligible for the financial assistance, students must have attended a New Jersey high school for at least three years and graduated from one, or received the equivalent of a high school diploma in the state. They must also file an affidavit stating that they have filed or will file an application to legalize their immigration status. Male applicants are also required to register for selective service. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed the controversial measure into law last May, making New Jersey the 10th state to provide state aid to undocumented college…

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North Carolina’s ‘Legislative Commission of the Fair Treatment of Student-Athletes’ Set to Review Athletic Program Practices

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by Shannon Watkins   Many colleges are setting up their student-athletes for failure. Whether one looks to the long-term neurological health risks that young athletes are subject to, or the myriad cases of academic dishonesty within athletics departments, it appears that the personal and academic well-being of student-athletes is often compromised for the sake of “the game.” Fortunately, the North Carolina legislature is taking a close look at how to improve colleges’ treatment of student-athletes. Over the summer, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill that established a Legislative Commission on the Fair Treatment of Student-Athletes. The commission is chaired by lieutenant governor Dan Forest and will have six meetings before it recommends legislation. Two meetings have already been held. During the first meeting on October 3, the commission discussed how athletes’ medical needs are—or aren’t—covered after a sports-related injury. The commission’s second meeting on November 8 dealt with whether academics and athletics are compatible—a highly contested issue of late, especially after the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s infamous athletics-academic scandal that became a six-year saga. For its part, the Martin Center has had several long-standing recommendations for college athletics reform that could strengthen the commission’s recommendations. Stop Issuing Academic Waivers First, the Martin…

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Commentary: The Fight Being Waged on the Academic Battlefield

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By Garland Tucker   The violent events in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 have fueled a deep-seated leftist desire to re-write American history. Demands to topple statues, remove portraits, rename buildings, and repudiate founders—all in an effort to cleanse any objectionable reality from our history—have reached a fever pitch. The parallel to George Orwell’s 1984 is unmistakable. Orwell wrote: “Who controls the past controls the future, and who controls the present controls the past.” College campuses, including Yale, Brown, Harvard, Williams, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke, etc., have become battlefields. Consider recent events at my college alma mater, Washington & Lee University. Founded in 1749, W&L has a history that is longer than most American colleges and as rich as any. Established as Augusta Academy on what was then the western frontier of colonial America, the school was elevated from obscurity in 1796 by a gift from General George Washington. The name was promptly changed to Washington College and it survived as a provincial, liberal arts college until the outbreak of the Civil War. With the war-torn devastation of the Shenandoah Valley, Washington College was threatened with imminent extinction in 1865. Shortly after Appomattox, in an inspired…

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Commentary: The Fruits of College Indoctrination

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by Walter E. Williams   Much of today’s incivility and contempt for personal liberty has its roots on college campuses, and most of the uncivil and contemptuous are people with college backgrounds. Let’s look at a few highly publicized recent examples of incivility and attacks on free speech. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his wife, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, were accosted and harassed by a deranged left-wing mob as they were leaving a dinner at Georgetown University. McConnell was harassed by protesters at Reagan National Airport, as well as at several venues in Kentucky. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his wife were harassed at a Washington, D.C., restaurant. Afterward, a group called Smash Racism DC wrote: “No—you can’t eat in peace—your politics are an attack on all of us. You’re sick votes are a death wish. Your votes are hate crimes.” Other members of Congress—such as Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., and Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky.—have been physically attacked or harassed by leftists. Most recent is the case of Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson. A leftist group showed up at his house at night, damaging his front door and chanting, “Tucker Carlson, we…

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Higher Education and the Threat of Fascism

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by George Leef   In a recent essay published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley is haunted by a spectre—the spectre of American universities aiding the rise of fascism. (The essay, “Fascism and the University” is subscriber-only content, unfortunately.) He says that “patterns have emerged that suggest the resurgence of fascist politics globally” and lists the United States as among the countries where he sees that occurring. Moreover, he argues that our higher education system could become complicit in the advance of fascism. What does Stanley mean by “fascism?” He defines it as “any ultranationalism—ethnic, religious, or cultural—in which the nation is represented by an authoritarian leader who claims to speak for the people.” He fears fascist politics pave the way for nationalists to achieve power and regards them as dangerous even if they don’t lead to an explicitly fascist state. Focusing on higher education, Stanley says that it has “historically been a bulwark against authoritarianism” but worries that “this time” (meaning the U.S. under Trump), it will instead be “its pawn.” That sounds like a troubling prospect. Ultranationalist fascism creates an overpowering, omnipotent state that serves the interests of a few at the expense of the rest of…

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A New Campus Invention for Policing Speech

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by Dan E. Way   Colleges are using a new tool with the frightening potential to shut down open dialogue. They go by the benign-sounding name of “bias response teams.”  Bias response teams monitor what students and faculty say. They encourage students to report, often anonymously, comments or behavior that make them feel uncomfortable or threatened, even if the speech or conduct is constitutionally protected. Those who are reported can face referral to student conduct administrators or law enforcement, but records on whether or how often punitive action is meted out are elusive. Indeed, colleges are reluctant to share much of the data collected by them. Campuses have created bias response teams as early as the 1980s, according to an article in the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice authored in part by UNC-Charlotte professor Ryan Miller. Arizona State University was among the pioneers, said Adam Steinbaugh, director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s (FIRE) Individual Rights Defense Program. By 1996, Ohio State University and others increasingly got on board. And their expansion has been a national issue. Bias response teams operate on at least 231 college campuses in 43 states and the District of Columbia, and the number is growing.…

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Ohio State’s Meyer Put on Leave, Inquiry Opened

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Urban Meyer

Urban Meyer’s job appears to be in jeopardy. Ohio State placed Meyer, one of the most successful coaches in college football history, on paid administrative leave Wednesday while it investigates claims that his wife knew about allegations of domestic violence against an assistant coach years before the staff member was fired last week. Courtney Smith, the ex-wife of fired Buckeyes assistant Zach Smith, gave an interview to Stadium and provided text messages to former ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy between her and Shelley Meyer in 2015 about Zach Smith’s behavior. Courtney Smith also provided threatening texts she said came from her ex-husband, and text messages between her and other wives of Buckeyes assistant coaches, discussing Zach Smith. “Shelley said she was going to have to tell Urban,” Courtney Smith told Stadium. “I said: ‘That’s fine, you should tell Urban.’” Zach Smith, who has never been convicted of any crimes, was fired last week after an Ohio court granted a domestic violence protective order to Courtney Smith. A message left by the AP for Zach Smith’s attorney, Brad Koffel, requesting comment was not immediately returned. Ohio State Title IX Meyer is heading into his seventh season at Ohio State, where he is…

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REPORT: Trump Administration Will End Obama Era Race-Based University Admission Practices

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The Trump administration is preparing to abolish policies that direct colleges and universities to increase diversity by considering race in college admissions, according to U.S. officials. Media reports say Trump administration officials intend to argue against guidelines issued by president Barack Obama’s administration that offered legal recommendations for schools seeking to consider race as an admissions factor. The development was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Trump administration officials plan to argue that the guidelines exceed Supreme Court precedent and mislead schools that legal types of affirmative action are easier to attain than the law allows. Anurima Bargava, who led civil rights enforcement in schools during the Obama administration, disagreed with the reported arguments, saying only guidelines were offered to schools that were exploring the continued use of affirmative action legally. “This is a purely political attack that benefits nobody,” she told the Journal. The Trump administration did not immediately respond to the Journal’s request for comment. The Trump administration move comes as the Justice Department investigates whether Harvard University unlawfully discriminates against Asian-American students by holding them to higher admissions standards. The investigation was revived last year after Obama civil rights officials dismissed a similar complaint. In a…

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Pro-Trump Professor Sues New Mexico State University For Wrongful Termination

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by Rob Shimshock   A pro-Trump professor sued New Mexico State University Friday after the school fired him when he refused to return to work after the school rescinded his leave of absence. Former NMSU business law professor Gavin Clarkson sued the school for wrongful termination, defamation, denial of due process, breach of contract, production of a hostile work environment and discrimination because of his conservative politics, according to a press release obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Without the basic due process rights that are the cornerstone of western civilization, it’s really just a kangaroo court,” Clarkson said. “While litigation should never be the first option, it’s the only way forward at this point to make sure justice is done in this situation, which is a transparent political hit job.” NMSU granted the former professor a leave of absence in June 2017 when Clarkson told NMSU he had accepted an appointment as deputy assistant secretary for policy and economic affairs at the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. In its letter granting the leave, NMSU does not explicitly state that the leave hinged upon the professor’s employment at the Department of the Interior. Clarkson stepped down from his deputy…

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Arizona Passes Law to Protect Free Speech on Campus

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by Jonathan Butcher   For the second time in three years, Arizona lawmakers have strengthened laws protecting free speech on public college campuses. In 2016, state lawmakers banned so-called “free speech zones” on public university campuses, and on Wednesday, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation that protects individuals’ rights to demonstrate on campus. It also prohibits a school from forcing faculty and students to take specific positions on controversial subjects. Colleges will also have less authority to restrict speech on campus. The law recognizes that administrators can regulate speech on the public parts of campus, but it limits that authority. While the First Amendment has long limited regulations to the “time, place, and manner” of speech in public forums, now schools can only exercise that authority to restrict speech if it is “necessary to achieve a compelling governmental interest” and is “the least restrictive means” for doing so. The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more >> These provisions make it more difficult for colleges to censor free expression on the quad and other public spaces on campus. The law allows for the “spontaneous distribution of literature,” and says any person…

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How Colleges Are Ripping Off a Generation of Ill-Prepared Students

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Siena College

by Walter E. Williams   Earlier this month, the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka the nation’s “report card,” was released. It’s not a pretty story. Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math. The atrocious National Assessment of Educational Progress performance is only a fraction of the bad news. Nationally, our high school graduation rate is over 80 percent. That means high school diplomas, which attest that these students can read and compute at a 12th-grade level, are conferred when 63 percent are not proficient in reading and 75 percent are not proficient in math. For blacks, the news is worse. Roughly 75 percent of black students received high school diplomas attesting that they could read and compute at the 12th-grade level. However, 83 percent could not read at that level, and 93 percent could not do math at that level. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out…

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State Senator Todd Gardenhire Lashes Out at Fellow Republicans As His Bill to Expand In-State Tuition Benefits Dies in Committee

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State Rep Todd Gardenhire

For the fourth year in a row, Chattanooga-area State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), a Republican, has tried and failed to pass a bill that would grant in-state tuition discounts to illegal alien students in Tennessee. Calling his defeat a “victim of election-year politics,” he told the Times Free Press, “It’s my understanding that the House leadership doesn’t want to schedule it for a vote in the House Education Committee,” adding that the Senate leadership wanted to wait until the bill passed in the House before taking it up. Gardenhire spoke bitterly of his fellow Republican lawmakers, telling the Times, “The House for a third year in a row has killed it under the leadership of Beth Harwell.” Turning his ire to the gubernatorial candidates who publicly opposed his proposal, the said this year’s failure was “very disappointing when you’ve got all four [Republican] gubernatorial candidates against it and one of them in particular, Diane Black, being personal about it.” Upon hearing the news of the bill’s demise for this year’s legislative session, Black tweeted: Good to see conservatives stand up and say “no.” Read my statement from a few weeks ago on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants: https://t.co/6BpDJKW7Fk https://t.co/SSAdekVmAl — Diane Black (@DianeBlackTN) March 28, 2018 The Times…

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Illegal Immigrants in Tennessee Can Already Get Cheaper College Tuition Than What is Proposed in Gardenhire/White Bill

Chris Alto
Graduation

State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) have failed three times to pass a bill that would award the in-state tuition benefit to illegal aliens but they are trying again this legislative session using the same argument about financial accessibility of in-state v. out-of-state tuition. A less expensive college tuition, however, is already available to illegal aliens and, it doesn’t require passing the Gardenhire/White bill. University of the People (UoPeople) offers completely free “quality, online, degree-granting educational programs to any qualified student” including refugees, asylum seekers and illegal aliens: Founded in 2009, University of the People is the first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited American online university. To date, the university has enrolled nearly 10,000 students from more than 200 countries and territories around the world – almost half of whom reside in the US. Recently, the university has seen a significant spike in enrollment from immigrants in the US, among those, refugees, DACA and undocumented students. According to a recent student survey, 69% of US-residing students reported being immigrants, of whom, approximately 30% are DACA or undocumented. ‘It is our duty to support anyone who wants to improve their lives through education,’ says [UoPeople founder] Reshef. ‘We…

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College Student Back in Class After Being Kicked Out for Defending Two Genders

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Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s president on Monday allowed a student who had been kicked out of a religious studies class for claiming there are only two genders to return to the course, intervening before the Academic Integrity Board could rule on a dispute.In an email to the campus, IUP President Michael Driscoll said he decided to “indefinitely pause” the proceedings — while reserving the right to restart the process.

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Diane Black Details Plans to Expand Higher Education Alternatives with Career and Technical College Programs

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Diane Black released her comprehensive plan to build on Tennessee’s success and make the state’s education system the best in the country, noting that, “Every Tennessean deserves the right to live their version of the American Dream.” The gubernatorial front-runner said in a statement, “That starts with a good education. But not every student’s dream means a 4-year degree. We need to rethink our education system. A top down approach to education doesn’t work. We need to take a bottom up approach that addresses the individual needs of every Tennessee student.” The Black campaign released an outline of the plan centered around supporting students who want to pursue interests in fields of study not offered by a traditional four-year college program, reprinted here in full: Prepare Students for Good Jobs: Schools should prepare children to follow their dreams.  We want our young people to go to college.  But what about students who want to start a career when they graduate from high school? Students who graduate from Career and Technical Education programs earn more at the outset of their careers and have little or no debt compared to students graduating from four-year universities. We should incorporate aptitude testing in the middle school years…

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Speech First: New Legal Group Will Sue Universities That Don’t Uphold the First Amendment

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Colleges and universities that violate the First Amendment rights of their students may soon find themselves in court. Speech First launched on Wednesday with a mission to support the free-speech rights of students “on campus, in the courts, and in the media.” Nicole Neily, president of Speech First, said the legal group will level the playing field between college students and the powerful institutions they attend.

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San Diego College Teaches How to Boot Trump from Office

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San Diego State University is offering a one-credit course to college-goers on how they might boot President Donald Trump from office. And with that, the demise of America’s once-great places of higher learning, once-unrivaled training grounds for critical thinking, is nearly complete. The class, noted by Campus Reform, is called “Trump: Impeachment, Removal, or Conviction?”

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Phillip Fulmer Reveals More Details About Top Assistant’s Sudden Departure

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Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer confirmed that the football program’s decision to part ways with former running backs coach Robert Gillespie wasn’t mutual, but both sides handled it professionally. Fulmer, who was speaking at the Big Orange TipOff Club in Knoxville via GoVols247 on Wednesday, revealed that Gillespie “didn’t like” being dismissed from the Vols’ coaching staff, but understood that it was a matter of “big boy business.”

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State Representative John DeBerry Introduces Bill to Ban Fraternities, Sororities from Tennessee State Schools

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State Representative John DeBerry (D-Memphis) filed a bill Tuesday that would outlaw fraternities and sororities on Tennessee’s state schools of higher education. The bill, HB2042 appears in the Tennessee Legislature’s database as simply filed, with no sponsor yet. It’s description reads: Fraternities and Sororities – As introduced, prohibits fraternities and sororities, other than professional fraternities and honor societies, from being recognized by, associated with, or operating on the campus of, any state institution of higher education. – Amends TCA Title 49. The bill targets Greek organizations that are social in nature and explicitly excludes professional organizations. The proposal comes as Greek life groups across the country have been suspended or placed on probation for instances of excessive drinking and hazing. CBS News Channel 5 notes that in 2016, there were four fraternity hazing deaths across the country that garnered attention. The men were pledging their fraternities at Pennsylvania State University, Louisiana State University, Florida State University, and Texas State University.  

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Lt. Governor Randy McNally Blasts Testing Firm ACT, Calls on Comptroller to Investigate

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Lt. Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) went public on Monday with a letter he sent to Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson on December 7, calling on him to open an investigation in college aptitude testing firm ACT, Inc. “Last week, I sent a letter to Tennessee Comptroller Justin P Wilson requesting an investigation of ACT Student,” McNally wrote on Facebook Monday morning, adding: An organization that is willing to sacrifice young people’s future over a bureaucratic error is not an organization Tennessee can trust. It is important that Tennessee parents and students have as much information as possible on the operations of ACT, Inc. At issue is the ongoing debacle surrounding a batch of test scores due to hundreds of students who are relying on the firm’s results to complete their college entry requirements. As The Tennessee Star reported last month, Bearden High School administered the test Oct. 17 with test booklets it received intended for Oct. 3. ACT has not responded to questions about how the incorrect materials were sent to the school, but says it can’t validate the scores because of the “mis-administration” and the theoretical possibility that students could have received test answers from others. Students have been directed to retake the test Dec. 9. “It’s…

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Number 24 Tennessee Holds Off Lipscomb, 81-71

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Sophomore forward Grant Williams had 19 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots to help No. 24 Tennessee post an 81-71 victory over Lipscomb on Saturday in a nonconference contest at Knoxville, Tenn. Junior forward Admiral Schofield scored 13 points as the Volunteers (7-1) continued their strong start. Senior guard James Daniel III tallied 12 points on four 3-pointers and junior guard Chris Darrington added 11 points.

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Middle Tennessee holds off Mississippi

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Middle Tennessee earned its fifth consecutive win against a Southeastern Conference team with a 77-58 victory over Mississippi on Saturday night at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The Blue Raiders’ 8-0 run to start the second half took away the Rebels’ last lead, then the hosts owned the final four minutes after Mississippi chopped a double-digit…

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Tennessee Reportedly Set to Hire Alabama Defensive Coordinator Jeremy Pruitt as Vols’ New Head Coach

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Tennessee is expected to hire Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt as its new head coach, multiple outlets reported on Thursday. Pruitt, 43, has been the defensive coordinator with the Crimson Tide for the past two seasons. Alabama is ranked first nationally in scoring defense this season and second in total defense. ESPN reported that Pruitt intends…

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