Proposal would revamp ND support for colleges

The presidents of North Dakota’s two largest universities say they support a new method of parceling out aid to the 11 schools in North Dakota’s university system, one that partly relies on how many class hours their students finish, the Associated Press reports. The formula, drafted by a group of finance officials at four of the colleges, is included in Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s budget recommendations to the Legislature. The governor’s plan includes almost $21 million to implement the formula, and assures schools they wouldn’t lose money by it. It includes data on the number of classes that students finish, the types of courses they take, and the building space on each campus. The numbers are then adjusted to even out differences between large and small schools, and the cost of offering specific courses. Kayla Effertz, a senior policy adviser to Dalrymple, said Thursday the goal was to compare each college’s cost of educating each student, and use that information to determine the right level of state support for each school…

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Teachers wanted to study Gullah culture of GA, SC

Their dinner had just arrived as the two college professors watched their guests, a group of singers from the Georgia coast, unexpectedly turn saying grace into an outburst of song, rhythm and shouted praises that soon had other diners in the restaurant joining in with the impromptu performance, the Associated Press reports.

“Before you know it, they’re out of their chairs and the beat is getting played on a table and you had all the children in the restaurant shouting praises with them,” said Mary Ellen Junda, a music professor at the University of Connecticut.

The dinner at a restaurant in Richmond, Va., last year with the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters of Darien, Ga., turned into another lesson for Junda and fellow music professor Robert Stephens, who have spent years studying the art and traditions of the Gullah, descendants of slaves who live in coastal communities from North Carolina to northern Florida……Read More

Senate GOP fails to bring up immigration bill

Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked Republicans from bringing up an immigration bill offering permanent residence visas for foreigners with advanced degrees that passed the House last week despite the opposition of most Democrats, the Associated Press reports. Senate Republican John Cornyn of Texas sought unanimous consent to consider the bill that provides some 55,000 green cards a year to those with masters and doctorate degrees from U.S. colleges in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“We all know that America’s immigration system is broken, but in particular by driving away highly skilled foreign workers who want to start businesses and create jobs right here in America,” he said…

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More bad news for Ala. tuition plan; parents irate

The board that oversees Alabama’s prepaid college tuition program got more bad news about the plan’s financial outlook Wednesday, and the board’s chairman got an earful of outrage from frustrated parents who can’t plan for their children’s education, the Associated Press reports. Actuary Dan Sherman said the board’s liabilities will exceed its assets by $605 million if it keeps paying full tuition, and it should run out of money in fall 2015. He said if it keeps paying full tuition for more than 10,000 students currently enrolled in college, the board will need to close the program down in about a year if it wants to have enough left to refund the money participants paid to join. The board is paying full tuition while the Alabama Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of a law that would allow it to pay reduced tuition at 2010 levels and remain operating…

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House to vote on increasing advanced-degree visas

A House vote to offer permanent residency to foreign students graduating with advanced degrees in science and math from U.S. colleges and universities is setting the stage for a bigger battle next year on how to redesign the nation’s flawed immigration system, the Associated Press reports. House Republicans, with the help of a minority of Democrats, are expected to prevail Friday in passing the STEM Jobs Act, which would provide up to 55,000 green cards a year to those earning masters and doctoral degrees from U.S. schools in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But the bill is unlikely to go anywhere this year in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the Obama White House has come out against it, saying it “does not support narrowly tailored proposals that do not meet the president’s long-term objectives with respect to comprehensive immigration reform.” The House voted on a similar STEM Act in September, but it fell short under a procedure requiring a two-thirds majority…

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USNH, community colleges focus on tech grads

Working harder to hold onto already interested students is faster and less expensive than recruiting newcomers when it comes to increasing the number of science, technology, engineering and math degrees, a national education expert told New Hampshire education leaders Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. Jay Labov, a senior adviser for the National Research Council, was the keynote speaker at a forum hosted by the University System of New Hampshire and the state’s community college system. Last year, the 11 public institutions that make up both groups set a goal of doubling the number of so-called STEM degrees awarded by 2025, and as UNH President Mark Huddleston said Tuesday, they’re still working to put some “meat on the bones” of that agreement. Rather than focus on recruiting, Labov urged the forum participants to explore how to better retain incoming students who’ve expressed an interest in the four fields…

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Cambridge to study technology’s risk to humans

Could computers become cleverer than humans and take over the world? Or is that just the stuff of science fiction? Philosophers and scientists at Britain’s Cambridge University think the question deserves serious study, the Associated Press reports. A proposed Center for the Study of Existential Risk will bring together experts to consider the ways in which super intelligent technology, including artificial intelligence, could “threaten our own existence,” the institution said Sunday.

“In the case of artificial intelligence, it seems a reasonable prediction that some time in this or the next century intelligence will escape from the constraints of biology,” Cambridge philosophy professor Huw Price said.

When that happens, “we’re no longer the smartest things around,” he said, and will risk being at the mercy of “machines that are not malicious, but machines whose interests don’t include us.”…Read More

Redford creates ecology program with Calif. college

A California college is teaming up with Robert Redford to create a program where students can combine environmental studies with media and liberal arts, the Associated Press reports. The Los Angeles Times reports Tuesday that Pitzer College, one of the seven Claremont Colleges, is creating the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability with a $10 million gift from Nicholas and Susan Pritzker, parents of a Pitzer graduate who support environmental causes…

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Va. higher ed council seeks additional $109M

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia on Monday approved budget recommendations that ask for an additional $109 million, in part to help pay for a 2 percent salary increase for faculty, the Associated Press reports. SCHEV unanimously approved its budget recommendations, which now go to the governor and the General Assembly for consideration. Chairman Gil Bland thanked lawmakers for the $258 million investment in higher education that was approved last year. But he said additional funding was needed to help ease rising tuition costs and to keep Virginia’s schools competitive in drawing both students and staff.

“While the Council acknowledges the Commonwealth’s financial constraints, we believe that additional funding in the second year of the biennium will help mitigate tuition increase, encourage innovation, and improve institutional and student performance,” Bland said in a release…

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Obama campus speech to touch on opposition history

The soldiers began to shoot students at Rangoon University at 6:30 p.m. Hla Shwe watched, cowering in a nearby building, as his friends died. “I heard the shouting,” he recalled. “They shot whoever they saw,” the Associated Press reports. It was July 7, 1962, the day rage at the military’s recent coup boiled over and a date now seared into the memory of Hla Shwe, who is 75 years old.

“I got the idea that if they used the gun against students, why shouldn’t we use guns to fight them?” he said.

When President Barack Obama speaks at Hla Shwe’s alma mater Monday, he will be treading on ground heavy with political and historical significance……Read More

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