Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

New law allows student groups to discriminate, still get funding

Student groups at Virginia colleges can still collect college funding even if they are not all-inclusive, after Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) signed the Student Group Protection Act into law Friday, the Huffington Post reports. Under the new law, Virginia colleges cannot withhold funds from religious or political student groups that don’t accept certain members based on religion, sexual orientation or personal beliefs. For example, a student group could exclude lesbian students by citing religious beliefs or require that all members are of a certain faith, but it would still be eligible for college funding.

“We think that under the bill as it’s crafted, the university would have to fund a white supremacist organization,” Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, told the Commonwealth Times…

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Princeton survey reveals the top concern of college applicants

What weighs most on students and parents choosing among colleges? Is it premier faculty, a prestigious reputation or an engaged and exciting student body? According to respondents in the Princeton Review’s “Hopes and Worries” survey, it’s potential debt load, the Huffington Post reports. Some 39 percent, the plurality, said they were most concerned that their college degree and the associated bills not sink them into hopeless debt. Previously, students were more concerned that they couldn’t pay for their “dream schools.” The data highlights the serious concerns of a generation entering a marketplace that devalues their degrees and could signal a turning point in the higher education marketplace. While the news is unlikely to shake strategic thinking among the country’s top-tier institutions — currently enjoying record selectivity and runaway status in world reputation rankings — it could serve as a huge hint to universities seeking a competitive foothold in the higher education sector, particularly smaller private colleges and middling state public education systems…

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Watch: College women need to lean in

If there are less structural barriers on college campuses, why is there still a gendered leadership deficit? How can we encourage undergrad women to lean in? asks the Huffington Post. Kate C. Farrar, director of campus leadership programs at American Association of University Women; Rachel Simmons, Girls Leadership Institute co-founder; author of “Odd Girl Out” & HuffPost Blogger Yasmine Evans and Stefani Jones, president elect of Duke Student Government join host Alicia Menendez to discuss how…

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Skip college, grab a hammer

Recent arguments in favor of skipping college have focused on billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, who both famously dropped out of their universities to launch successful companies, the Huffington Post reports. But now with student debt growing and a mismatch between unemployed Americans’ skills and the required expertise for available jobs, vocational education could be gaining steam, and high schools are rethinking whether they should usher students toward something other than traditional colleges. Occupations like brickmasonary, construction, pipelaying and plumbing are all projected to be among the 10 fastest-growing occupations over the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — and none of them require a bachelor’s degree…

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New report reveals surprising facts about LGBTQ college athletes

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning (LGBQ) student athletes are two times more likely to experience harassment than their heterosexual teammates, a new report has found, the Huffington Post reports. Campus Pride’s 2012 LGBTQ National College Athlete Report, which was produced in conjunction with the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation, revealed a number of other eyebrow-raising statistics. The poll, which surveyed the experiences of 394 individuals who identified as LGBQ, also found that only 18 percent of LGBQ student athletes competed in a featured collegiate sport (as defined by each campus) compared to 27 percent of heterosexual athletes. One in four LGBQ student athletes said they were pressured to be silent about their sexual identity among teammates, while 21 percent said they were the target of derogatory remarks via email, Facebook, social media and other electronic means — almost double that of their heterosexual counterparts, according to the report…

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Columbia College and Second City to provide comedy degree

While students can earn a Bachelor’s in Puppetry or Turf Grass Management, Columbia College in Chicago has a new degree that will really make people laugh: Comedy Writing and Performance, the Huffington Post reports. On Tuesday, the liberal arts college announced a partnership with the famed Second City comedy club for its new degree program in the Theatre Department that would school future side-splitters in the ways of improv, joke making and more.

“Columbia’s location in Chicago, arguably the most active and influential city in the world of improv and sketch comedy, makes the college uniquely suited to offer a comedy concentration,” Columbia College President Warrick L. Carter said in a statement. Anne Libera, coordinator of the new program, told the Hollywood Reporter the college’s connections to local iconic comedy establishments like Second City and The Onion give the students in the program a huge advantage…

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Lawmakers take steps to protect drone economies and universities involved

The introduction of legislation Wednesday to ban drone use in Kansas has raised concerns over the potential impact of a ban on the state’s economy, a subject that has been debated in several other Plains states also considering such bans, the Huffington Post reports. The Kansas drone ban bill, introduced by Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady (R-Palco), would prohibit law enforcement from using drones in the state without a warrant, which is similar to measures pending in a several other states. The bill’s scope has raised concerns that it could end the drone pilot training program at Kansas State University in Salina as well as other drone training and manufacturing industries in the state. Similar bills pending in North Dakota and Oklahoma — where aerospace industries and aviation education programs have thrived — have incorporated exemptions into the text. Kansas and North Dakota are among the states competing to be one of six federal test centers for drones…

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Best college towns 2013

Turns out, the rankings for best college towns depend on way more than how many bars are featured in each town square and how many half-smoked cigarettes litter the gutters come Monday, the Huffington Post reports. The American Institute of Economic Research pulls data from a host of federal agencies — the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, National Science Foundation and Small Business Administration — to create the “AIER College Destinations Index,” or AIER CDI for short.

“The characteristics that make up a great college destination often make a location ideal for business, retirement and tourism,” said Steven Cunningham, director of research and education for AIER. “A top AIER College Destinations Index ranking should be just as important to the town or city as it is to the schools located there and the families and students attending or considering them…”

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Oberlin cancels classes following latest hate incident

Oberlin College canceled classes Monday to hold a “Day of Solidarity” following a month of hateful vandalism and the latest report of a person spotted on campus wearing a Ku Klux Klan-style outfit, the Huffington Post reports. Throughout February, multiple acts of vandalism on the Ohio campus have targeted the black, Jewish and LGBT communities with hate speech, the Oberlin Review reports…

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