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RECENT MEDIA PLACEMENTS INCLUDE:

"Caitlin Robinett, a third year law student at Santa Clara University, spent a few weeks in Haiti this winter working on a research project with a classmate. They've returned this week for spring break with soap and clothing, among other items, requested by the people who hosted them during their visit. ‘Having had so much close contact, we just want to go there and hug our friends,’ she said. ‘We wanted to bring them what we could to help.’"

"A team at Champlain College wants to educate boys about the effects of violence against women. So they are creating a product using two things that appeal to their target audience: soccer and video games."

"iPhone-toting students at Santa Clara University say they're fed up with AT&T's poor reception on the campus, so they organized a day of complaint to lobby the company for better coverage."

"Professor Robert Thacker of St. Lawrence University has studied Canada for three decades. Here this morning he speaks on NPR."

"The lower half of document bearing President Lincoln's signature is held at St. Lawrence University, in Canton, N.Y., while the upper half is at the Illinois State Archives, in Springfield. While the two pieces are still physically states apart, digital images of them have been pasted together to form an entire legal document with a coherent history."

"Prescription medications can have positive effects, but many students report that meds also carry a cost. I would rather see more colleges address the problem by working directly with students to develop self-management and academic strategies. It works beautifully here at Landmark College (Vt.), where students learn to develop strategies to use their strengths and overcome their challenges."

An interview with Fred Exoo, professor of government at St. Lawrence University

A psychology professor discovers children want a lot more than just toys for holidays.

"The college admissions season is in full swing, so I was pleased to hear from Mike Sexton, the Vice President of Enrollment Management at Santa Clara University. When asked what he thinks every college applicant should know, Mike offered these five tips…"

"When Marymount Manhattan College needed to expand, it gained almost 20,000 square feet of space without expanding its footprint an inch."

"Here are the definitive numbers on foreign student enrollment in the United States--and American students studying abroad--that are being released today by the Institute of International Education and supported by the State Department."

"We all know that doing the right thing for our bodies include regular exercise. What we might not realize is that exercise environment really does matter. We get different benefits from exercise depending upon what is happening around us. So, depending on your exercise goals, you might want to be mindful of where and how you exercise and who you exercise with."

"As the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) convenes higher education, business and government leaders in Doha this week, I am struck by the summit’s goal to leverage education to foster mutual respect and understanding among nations."

"Among the alternatives that appear to be growing in popularity this fall: State Department-sponsored Fulbright fellowships to study, conduct research or teach English in 140 countries.

In all, more than 8,500 people submitted applications to the Institute for International Education (IIE) – the group that oversees student Fulbrights – for 2010-11 awards ahead of last week’s deadline, a thousand more than applied a year ago. About 1500 student Fulbrights are awarded each year."

"Should executives go to prison for collecting too many millions from the companies they run?

Angry readers have told me they should. Especially if those companies end up losing money for investors, ripping off customers, or firing a lot of workers, after paying the boss a fortune.

But is that really criminal behavior? Yes, says criminologist David Friedrichs, professor at the University of Scranton and author of a recent paper, ‘Exorbitant CEO compensation: Just reward or grand theft?’ in the academic journal Crime, Law and Social Change."

"Dr. David Friedrichs is a professor and Distinguished University Fellow in the Department of Sociology/Criminal Justice at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. He served for two years as the President of the White Collar Crime Research Consortium, and also served as a member of the Wharton School's Working Groups on Crime as Business. He is the author of two books ("Trusted Criminals: White Collar Crime in Contemporary Society" and "Law in Our Lives: An Introduction") and has written hundreds of articles, papers, and essays on white collar crime and other topics."

"This is a scenario being played out on the campuses of many colleges and universities across the country this fall. Driven by the recession and one of the largest incoming freshman classes in the nation's history, the business major is experiencing a surge in popularity among students. Dozens of business schools, including … Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business (Santa Clara Undergraduate Business Profile), and the University of Scranton's Kania School of Management (Scranton Undergraduate Business Profile) are reporting an uptick in their entering freshman classes, with many boasting record enrollment and interest from high school graduates.

"In a year when high tuition discounting proved tempting for many small colleges, Marymount Manhattan kept rates low -- and increased enrollment substantially."

"With release of Dan Brown's new thriller, ‘The Lost Symbol,’ we asked author Eric Plumer for a religious perspective. Plumer, an associate professor of theology and religious studies at the University of Scranton, a Jesuit institution, is author of ‘The Catholic Church and American Culture: Why the Claims of Dan Brown Strike a Chord,’ which was published by University of Scranton Press in June."

"When the fall semester begins at many colleges and universities, it will be difficult to go through a day on campus without hearing about the need for environmental "sustainability." Those who overuse resources, the young say, are guilty of a form of "intergenerational theft," and this message has captured the hearts and minds of many and inspired them to political action."

"Those promulgating health care reform in the Obama administration and Congress would do well to look back to one of the campaign hot spots – Scranton – for a microcosm of where health care is needed the most among the 47 million uninsured in this nation."

"The venture capitalists and technology executives who move millions of dollars a day throughout the hectic and often incestuous world of Silicon Valley will be the first to admit how powerful a role greed plays in their deal-making. But they're still human after all, and the power brokers volunteering their time toward Santa Clara University's upcoming Global Social Benefit Incubator program deserve a special shout-out."

"Drs. Rabindra and Protima Roy are well-known faculty members at Drury University, a small campus tucked away in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks."

"Students at Santa Clara University who are hard at work building a solar house have issued a David Letterman-style video invitation to California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to pay the house a visit."

"‘Technology, in this sense, is a response to God's command to till and to keep the land (Genesis 2:15) that he has entrusted to humanity,’ Benedict wrote. Kirk Hanson, an ethics professor at Santa Clara University, said this encyclical provides the strongest papal statement on ecological thought."

"Kirk Hanson, a business ethics professor at Santa Clara University, said the encyclical is likely to spark debate over capitalism and social justice.

‘When a group of U.S. Catholic bishops issued a similar statement during the Reagan years, it sparked a nationwide debate about the fairness of our capitalist system,’ said Hanson, who chaired the hearings leading up to the bishops’ statement."

"Kirk Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara (Calif.) University, praised Benedict for including an emphasis on "life ethics" as "essential" to a healthy social and economic order."

"Some experts think the ruling put disparate impact claims on such shaky footing that it could be a nail in the cause of action’s coffin.

‘In this case, [the] majority’s opinion equates race consciousness with racial discrimination,’ said Santa Clara University School of Law professor Bradley W. Joondeph. ‘The idea is that if you are taking an action conscious of its racial implications, that amounts to racial discrimination.’

‘If that is true, then [disparate impact claims] violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution,’ Joondeph charged.

‘And if the Court has a chance to consider such a challenge, it could do away with the cause of action altogether,’ he said."

"American colleges with a presence in India expressed cautious optimism. ‘I think it's an exciting prospect for improving on the way our two countries collaborate,’ says Michelle Miller, associate provost at Champlain College, in Vermont. ‘At the same time, a lot of questions are running through my head.’"

"The University of Scranton plans to begin construction this summer on a 150,000-square-foot science building designed by Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture and Engineering. The building, which is expected to achieve a LEED silver rating, will be connected to an existing 50,000-square-foot structure that will be renovated as part of the $70-million project."

"And what of my ‘friend’ ‘Sue’? Can the support she received from Facebook friends upon learning about the death of her son replicate the support that would come from friends stopping by the house? It’s impossible to replace the warm feelings—or brain-boosting endorphins—that come from human-on-human contact, and you can’t send someone a casserole through Facebook. But grieving online can have powerful and productive benefits. Diana Nash, professor of psychology at Marymount Manhattan College, who has studied how college students use MySpace to deal with grief, notes that, ‘One of the primary desires that we all have is for someone to really listen to us in a deep kind of way. They want to be listened to,’ she says. Her research shows that by sharing their grief on MySpace, her subjects felt more listened to and more visible, and doing so helped them heal."

"The Ron Howard movie Angels and Demons, based on the book by Dan Brown, has drawn Catholic Church supporters and critics out for another science-vs.-religion slugfest in the media."

"Thursday was graduation day for Cathy Watkins. She received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Marymount Manhattan College.

Ms. Watkins did so well in her courses that she was named the class speaker. She set her speech on the lectern and put on her reading glasses. At 41 — a grandmother of three, no less — she was not the standard age for a graduate.

Much of what she said would sound familiar to anyone who ever sat through a commencement ceremony. ‘One person can make a difference,’ she told her fellow students. ‘Let that difference start with you.’ Afterward, she joined her classmates and visiting relatives for lunch.

And then Ms. Watkins returned to her normal life, locked up behind the walls and concertina wire of the maximum-security state prison for women in this Westchester suburb of New York City."

"Hard-charging White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel paused for a reflective address at his alma mater Friday, describing the humiliation of being demoted by then-President Bill Clinton and the brutal illness he survived as a teenager.

Emanuel told 450 graduates of Sarah Lawrence College that his most important life lessons have come from ‘a lot of pain, some anguish, and some soul-searching.’"

Emanuel told 450 graduates of Sarah Lawrence College that his most important life lessons have come from "a lot of pain, some anguish, and some soul-searching."

"And yet: ‘While needless controversy should be avoided, many important messages are controversial. We should never miss such an opportunity, including the opportunity to show openness to perspectives with which one might not agree.’

— Dan Sullivan , president of St. Lawrence University, Canton, N.Y."

"‘Give your own advice in your own words. We know today is the first day of the rest of our lives.’ Last year, for example, Legally Blondescreenwriter Kirsten Smith told Scripps graduates: ‘Today is the beginning of your Act 2.’ ‘She nailed it.’

– Whitney Eriksen, Class of ’09 Scripps College, Claremont, Calif."

"2009’S High-Profile Speakers – May 22: White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel – Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, N.Y."

An interview with Eric Plumer, professor at the University of Scranton and author of The Catholic Church and American Culture: Why the Claims of Dan Brown Strike a Chord.

"‘Here I am, looking at the year of one of the most significant disease events in human history, and it's a penciled-in number,’ says Charaus, now a professor of history at Santa Clara University. ‘Obviously, it caught everyone by surprise.’"

"‘The time is much more fertile for this kind of activity’, said Kessler, a professor of information security at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt. ‘A lot of people do things they wouldn't do in calmer times. It's like their last act of defiance.’"

"Willard Sterne Randall, professor and distinguished scholar in history, Champlain College."

"Two presidents (Truman and Kennedy) inherited wars; Lincoln triggered one. FDR took up the baton in the worst Depression so far by far. But no president has been handed such a discordant mess as Barack Obama. Two costly, seemingly endless wars. Piracy in the world¹s busiest shipping lanes. Seething conflicts in Africa. Confrontations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, Israel and its neighbors. Russia resurgent, China nervous, Iran and Korea rocket-rattling. Amid global financial lockdown, with America's foreign relations at their all-time worst, Obama tries to conciliate at home and abroad. He coolly urges long unemployment lines to be patient, confident. Don¹t panic. Don¹t recriminate. We can fix things. It will take all of us, together. Still popular after a gloomy first 100 days, Obama might, and will have to, overcome politics-as-usual. He is proving a surprising new maestro, orchestrating all the Wall Street and Washington prima donnas with style and grace. The big question: Will the rest of the opera be as beckoning as the overture? It will take many more days to find that out."

"Jean Harris, a professor of political science at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania, agrees that Michelle Obama has ‘put it all together … she's been very astute … in balancing work and family and community … while making it clear that his agenda is her agenda.’"

"He began hearing from others with similar concerns, and got in touch with officials from Rhodes College, where a group of students was overseeing the mural, which portrays a diverse group of the city’s residents, arguing that they might as well have painted a black child eating a watermelon. That is when he learned from Elizabeth Daggett, the coordinator of the college’s arts outreach program, that Ms. Simmons was a real, longtime Memphian."

"As soon as Liz said, ‘We meant no disrespect to Miss Savannah,’ he stopped cold and said, ‘Who is Miss Savannah?’ recalled Daney D. Kepple, the director of communications for Rhodes."

"Find that first job: Getting a job now is more important than finding the perfect one."

"‘Don't be choosy. Ask yourself, "What kind of skills can I learn in this job that would be transferable elsewhere?"’ says Meir Statman, a finance professor at Santa Clara University. A job might give you experience with public speaking, writing reports or learning to work with those older than you, all skills that will come in handy later, Statman says."

"Iraq, Iran, and Ethiopia have the highest concentration of grant recipients, yet some countries are notable for their absence from the report. There have been no applicants from North Korea, Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education, pointed out. Their absence, he said, is hardly evidence of a rosy prognosis for academic freedom in that repressive communist dictatorship, where endangered scholars are likely to put themselves at even more risk by applying for foreign fellowships than by simply staying put. ‘We’re wrestling with the problem of how to reach out to scholars there,’ Mr. Goodman said."

"Are business schools in part to blame for the most serious economic crisis in decades? Perhaps, but my experience both in business and on campus tells me that such reports paint with overly broad strokes and don't adequately portray what is happening today."

"Laura Weil, director of the Health Advocacy Program at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., said people who don't have a family member or friend to serve as an advocate are increasingly seeking out specially trained professionals."

"Jerry Shapiro, a professor of counseling psychology at California's Santa Clara University, adds that children can see when there is a problem in the home and ‘tend to blame themselves if there is tension.’ Parents need to explain how the crisis will change the child's life – in simple terms – and be aware of how they look to the children. For example, the kids will get upset, Dr. Shapiro says, if mom and dad say the family needs to cut back and then spend money on themselves."

"Some online schools, such as Tiffin University's Ivy Bridge online two-year college, go even further, hiring ‘coaches’ or ‘advisers’ who call or E-mail students regularly to encourage them and resolve complaints. And some schools are trying to ensure quality by limiting online courses to about 20 students each."

"Following up on my interview yesterday with the President of the NCPA, today I have a chat with Dr. Russell T. Wigginton, Vice President of College Relations at Rhodes College in Memphis, and the author of ‘The Strange Career of the Black Athlete: African Americans and Sports.’"

"That pay was not a reasonable use of corporate assets, said David O. Friedrichs, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. It was grand theft."

"The National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I men's basketball tournament resumes today. After the nets have been cut at the end of this year’s Final Four, after CBS plays ‘One Shining Moment’ for the umpteenth time, another batch of freshmen will declare themselves eligible for the National Basketball Association draft after only one year in college."

"Entering a four-year university just got more attainable, thanks to a new approach to online learning at Tiffin University. Administrators and professors at the Ohio-based university are taking the concept of online education to a new level: creating Ivy Bridge College, which offers an associate degree for general studies and guarantee admission to select four-year institutions for successful students."

"Andre L. Delbecq describes the M.B.A. students he teaches as triple-A personalities from Silicon Valley, prone to multitasking and ‘knee jiggling.’ In his seminar, they are required to meditate.

The course, ‘Spirituality and Business Leadership,’ is offered at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business to both M.B.A. students and executives, some of whom travel from around the country to audit it. The seminar focuses on the spiritual lives of business leaders and the impact they have on organizations. It's a subject that not only intrigues the students, but also shapes their perspective on the economic downturn."

"At Champlain College, an education comes in 3-D. No funky glasses required."

"The Vermont college has radically revamped its class structure to better prepare students for life beyond the lecture halls. The collegewide program, ‘Education in 3 Dimensions,’ centers on three main parts: life-skills workshops, an interdisciplinary core curriculum, and professional courses. Required courses make up all three dimensions, which are rigidly sequenced, and end in a capstone project."

"When an armed man walks into a bank branch and demands money from a teller, he's likely to go to jail if he's caught. Criminologist David Friedrichs maintains some bank executives are equally guilty of stealing when they get exorbitant pay packages."

"‘It's a form of robbery,’ says Professor Friedrichs, who teaches criminal law at Scranton University in Pennsylvania. It shouldn't be dismissed as ‘just greedy.’"

"Commentator and Champlain College Professor of History Willard Sterne Randall, author of Thomas Jefferson a Life, notes that the third President was the first to visit Vermont."

"‘The flavonoids in dark chocolate may also improve the health of the endothelium (the lining in arteries and veins)’, says Joe Vinson, professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania."

"WHY LET A ROOFTOP JUST BE A ROOFTOP? Officials at Marymount Manhattan, an independent institution of about 1,700 students with just two buildings on its Upper East Side neighborhood campus, transformed the rooftop of one building into an urban oasis."

"Computer forensics used to be the backwater of information technology, but the Internet and proliferation of cellphones opened new worlds of criminal mischief and bolstered work and study in the field. Here’s what you’ll want to know about what Gary Kessler, who teaches it at Champlain College in Vermont, calls ‘the most fun you can have with your clothes on.’"

"Meanwhile, Champlain College took the precaution of closing its Mumbai campus for just one day, on the advice of Indian authorities, said Michelle Miller, associate provost of the institution, in Vermont. Champlain's campus in Mumbai, which it operates with a local partner, enrolls about 70 Indian students in business, hospitality management, and software engineering."

"Champlain College, in Vermont, has operated a campus in Mumbai since 2001. Currently there are about 70 Indian students and 15-20 Indian faculty members there, along with one American student and one American administrator. Michelle Miller, associate provost at Champlain, said that officials from the Vermont campus have been in frequent contact with the Mumbai campus since the violence started and have been assured that ‘everyone there is safe.’ On the advice of the Indian government, Champlain shut the campus while the violence was still going on, but has since reopened it. Champlain¹s campus is about 30 minutes away from the area that saw the worst of the violence."

"With No Space on the Ground, Marymount Manhattan College Went Up"

"Republicans warn that we risk liberal tyranny now that the Democrats have won the presidency and increased their majorities in the House and the Senate. They caution that the Democratic sweep threatens to overwhelm the system of checks and balances that the Founders so wisely designed to thwart oppressive majorities."

"Ghassan Shabaneh, a professor of Middle East and international studies at Marymount Manhattan College, speaks with Martin Savidge about America’s future with Israel and Iran, the prospect of Middle East peace and Obama’s credentials in the Arab world."

"Rhodes College, for instance, in Memphis, provides annual travel grants of up to $5,000, which have led to new courses on Bollywood and on the Holocaust, says Michael Drompp, dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs."

"Critics say the current crisis exposes a flawed system. ‘There is an enormous gap in compensation between a Wall Street executive and a regular American,’ says David Friedrichs, law professor at the University of Scranton. ‘At the higher end, compensation has expanded exponentially with little evidence that it's warranted and sometimes to catastrophic effects like it has currently.’

"Many observers, including most politicians, have blamed the ongoing financial crisis on the ‘free-market greed’ supposedly unleashed by the ‘reckless deregulation’ of the financial system. Such arguments are rhetorically powerful, but they don't stand up to scrutiny."

A team of 15 students from Champlain College in Burlington, Vt., was hired to work on the project with the school’s Emergent Media Center. The students include art and marketing majors as well as programmers and electronic game designers.

Along with faculty supervisors, they recently traveled to Cape Town to better understand what kind of game scenarios might help young people challenge the patterns that lead to abuse. They surveyed and interviewed teens on how they spend free time, what technology they use, and how they view gender and violence.

"Late August can be a trying time for college administrators. It is when US News & World Report, the late-summer elephant on campus, publishes its rankings, and officials at not-so-highly ranked schools have to offer explanations to their constituents. Even if you work at a top-50 college such as mine, folks still want to know why we can't be ranked even higher."

"And at Sarah Lawrence College, all students have access to cooking facilities in common areas of residence halls. ‘In the interests of sustainability, we discourage small individual refrigerators as they are huge energy users,’ says Micheal Rengers, vice president of operations."

"The Huntsville Times reported on Sept. 12 that in response to the looming threat from Hurricane Ike, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley declared a formal state of emergency.

"The governor's declaration activated the state's price-gouging law, which makes ‘unconscionable pricing’ illegal during times of emergency. The Times quoted Riley as saying that he thinks ‘a threat to public health is a strong possibility due to the shortage of fuels.’ Hurricanes don't cause shortages, however. Price controls like the one in effect in Alabama do."

If you want to stay on the tenure track but want a more even distribution of research and teaching, consider a position at a small college, where teaching is considered more heavily in tenure decisions. To conduct research in that environment, you may need to find a niche that accommodates less frequent publications.

Drew Cressman, biology professor at Sarah Lawrence College, studies the role of the protein CIITA in the molecular regulation of the immune system. “There’s a small group of us looking at this particular protein, so the chance of getting scooped is a bit less,” he says. Special avenues of funding may be open to such scientists, such as NSF’s Research in Undergraduate Institutions, for investigators who provide significant research experiences for undergraduates.

"Individual teachers try different strategies too. Darby Dyar, chair of astronomy at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, makes students think critically about science by asking them to find a movie or news story that addresses a science topic such as global warming.

Students can benefit when teachers step outside their comfort zones, says Christopher De Pree, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Agnes Scott College. When he found out students in his seminar on "life in the universe" had never heard of Ray Bradbury’s short-story collection The Martian Chronicles, he assigned it even though he wasn’t sure he was ready to teach it.

‘Be willing to give up some of that control and authority for a common space where everyone can contribute, and students feel much more comfortable,’ he says."

"Since Ms. Palin joined the ticket, polls have surged toward the Republicans, in some cases putting the McCain-Palin ticket ahead of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his vice-presidential nominee, Joe Biden, for the first time.

Nonetheless, ‘it's completely premature,’ to believe the Republicans have the Democrats on the ropes, argued Leonard Champney, a political scientist at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

‘We are almost two months from the election, and that's an eternity in politics.’"

Over the next decade, the number of students studying abroad is predicted to grow from 2.7 million to perhaps 10 million. This change will be driven by the world's thirst for highly educated workers and by a severe shortage of higher-education capacity in developing countries.

There is a lot of competition for students interested in studying abroad. China, Japan and South Korea have announced plans to dramatically increase international enrollment. Australian universities, which have enjoyed rapid increases in overseas students over the past decade, still want more. Britain and Canada are easing restrictions on foreign students who wish to stay in the host country after graduation; they realize that bright people in a global knowledge-economy are not only highly valued, but also highly mobile.

Let's not forget the Middle East. While most universities are opening their doors wider for international students, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Saudi Arabia are building universities or partnering with existing ones from America, Singapore and Europe - and they will also welcome students from abroad. The numbers are small now, but the plans are ambitious for creating new hubs for international education in the region.

The U.S. is likely to remain the leading destination for students, partly because the 4,000 accredited colleges and universities there host more than double the number of students hosted by any other nation. But with its market share declining, it is stepping up recruitment efforts and resolving its visa logjams. The next U.S. president should work with America's higher education sector to ensure that the United States remains competitive in this race for global talent.

Allan E. Goodman, New York
President and chief executive, Institute of International Education

"‘I think it is too early for euphoria or elation,’ says Waqas Khwaja, a Pakistani lawyer and English professor at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta. ‘As I see it, all that has happened is that the deck has been cleared for some really long-term, hard work to be done. But is … anyone willing to take on that responsibility? That is a dicey question. I don't think the current leadership is quite up to it.’ He describes that leadership as ‘thoroughly contaminated.’"

"‘We're pretty sure that China can take more, but exactly how many and in what fields and what would it take to double or quadruple the numbers, that's something we as an industry will have to explore,’ said Allan Goodman, president and CEO of IIE, a nonprofit that promotes educational exchange and administers the Fulbright program."

"St. Lawrence University is one of 450 colleges and universities in the U.S. to sign a petition promising to go carbon neutral. Host Bruce Gellerman turns to Louise Gava, the sustainability coordinator, or campus "eco lady," for a course in sustainability 101, and a little help with the back-to-school shopping list."

"To help ease the financial burden for the families of its enrolled students, Rhodes College in Memphis has responded with a variety of approaches including the Rhodes Student Associates Program (RSAP), an innovative program that offers students the chance to work in jobs that reinforce their classroom learning and earn up to $4,500 a year."

"The federal minimum wage will rise to $6.55 an hour on Thursday, the second of three annual 70-cent increases passed by Congress last May. With housing markets collapsing, financial markets in disarray and the economy at a standstill, what may have been a reasonable plan a year ago seems ill-timed today."

"Berea College, founded 150 years ago to educate freed slaves and ‘poor white mountaineers,’ accepts only applicants from low-income families, and it charges no tuition."

"During the summer months, many colleges and universities reach out to middle and high school students who may be arriving late onto the path toward college. KPCC's Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has this story about one Southland private college that's pushing motivated high school girls beyond their expectations."

"Study-abroad trips [are] on the rise to places such as Argentina [and] China, where U.S. currency is stronger...‘There seems to be a steady shift toward locations that are both less expensive and more advantageous to careers,’ said Peggy Blumenthal, chief operating officer for the Institute of International Education."

"Aziz Abu Sarah and Lily Yaffe were recognized with the 2008 Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in [the] Middle East from the Institute of International Education for their work as facilitators of The Parents Circle Family Forum. The fourth annual award, whose recipients share a $10,000 prize, recognizes their success in promoting reconciliation as an alternative to hatred and revenge."

"President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of International Education Allan Goodman, who led a delegation of US educational managers to Hanoi, said they were proud to be a bridge linking US school managers with the Vietnamese Government and school managers in Vietnam."

"An important hurdle to taking advantage of discoveries in the field of genetic medicine has been surmounted with the recent passage of the Federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which cleared Congress by a combined 509-to-1 vote, and was subsequently signed into law by President Bush. But don't let the appearance of an easy birth fool you - this was a long, arduous gestational process."

"At St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., where the class of 2008 plans to leave a bicycle garage as its legacy, ‘Any gift is a good start,’ Vice President Michael Archibald says. ‘If we can instill in them the habit of giving now, even for a (specific) project," he says, "their larger, unrestricted gifts will follow down the road.’"

"What might a Black kid from the Bronx have in common with a White kid from Appalachia and a Latino kid from Los Angeles?"

"There is no shortage of associate degree programs online, but private four-year colleges don’t tend to run them. This fall, Tiffin University is trying a new model for an online two-year degree program. The institution, which was founded in 1888, is launching an associate of arts degree in general studies as part of what it calls Ivy Bridge College, an online-only program that targets traditional-aged students who intend to transfer into four-year institutions once they’re done. The program is unusual for being developed at a four-year private college, and also because of who it intends to enroll, and what kind of degree the students will be earning."

"Caroline Lieber, Director of Joan H. Marks Graduate Program in Human Genetics at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, said that while the Human Genome Project was completed and told researchers where the genes are, research is continuing to determine how specific genes interact with each other. The genetics program at Sarah Lawrence College is the oldest and largest of its kind."

"Gayle Greene, a professor of literature and women's studies at Scripps College, Claremont, is the author of ‘Insomniac,’ a first-person account of living with insomnia and an investigation of what is known about the disorder."

"When his family landed in Vermont three years ago, Rwandan refugee Jean-Luc Dushime didn't speak English. Now, he's in college – on a full scholarship – and has his sights set on graduate school.

‘Champlain College was the only school that gave me a full scholarship and was the only school interested to know me as a person,’ the 27-year-old sophomore said."

"About five years ago at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., chaplain Kathleen Buckley helped organize an eight-week course in which students would be encouraged, in a secular classroom setting, to think about their own theology. Modeled after a curriculum of the Unitarian Universalist Church, the class, ‘Build Your Own Beliefs,’ is consistently popular."

"When Champlain College president David Finney saw a documentary about the challenges that refugees face in the United States, he thought of the displaced people who had landed in his own community. With Burlington, Vermont designated as a refugee resettlement city, ‘it was a short leap to think "We can really make a difference,"’ he says."

"While the 15th Amendment ensured black men the right to vote in 1870, women of all colors had to wait 50 more years. The suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and freedom fighter Frederick Douglass toiled together to help end slavery, but bitterly disagreed on the question of voting rights.

‘The two movements over the decades have been in harmony more than in tension. But these issues are complex and can come down to very hard, stark choices,’ said Charles McKinney Jr., history professor at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.

‘A public (and media) that too often divides "minority causes" and "women’s issues" into separate categories can aggravate the discourse over basic human rights,’ he said."

"Other colleges place a very high value on community service and are specifically looking for compassionate individuals. They even offer service scholarships. David Wottle, dean of admissions and financial aid at Rhodes College in Memphis," says the school looks for applicants who are strongly committed to volunteerism; its Bonner Scholarship rewards such students.

‘We’re after the students who have gone beyond (what is required) and have incorporated community service into their personality,’ Wottle says. ‘We can also see this in their essays or letters of recommendation from teachers or counselors.’"

"A company called 23 and Me will introduce a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service for Europeans. It’s already available here in the United States. Send them $999 and a swab of saliva, six weeks later you get some pretty detailed analysis of your DNA. But might that be the very definition of too much information? The majority of people don't have any real background in genetics and how to even interpret that information according to Caroline Lieber, Director of the Human Genetics Program at Sarah Lawrence College. She says the problem with direct-to-consumer genetics tests is that the results may confuse."

"‘Allowing freshman students – who in most cases have never lived away from home – to study abroad comes with risks," college officials say. ‘;There’s the issue of maturity and having the coping skills and the resources,’ says Valerie Eastman, director of off-campus study at Scripps College, a private liberal-arts school for women in Claremont, California, that doesn’t offer the program for freshmn."

"By contrast, Kerry Odell, a Scripps College economist from Upland, California, doesn’t belong to a faith community or believe in God, though she says she is open to the prospect. She has been on a search for meaning since she turned 40 nine years ago and began asking deeper questions. She makes it a point to reflect and feel grateful when she walks with her dog, Finn, but she also makes sure to stay close with a community of friends."

"A study by St. Lawrence University Associate Professor of Psychology Pamela Thacher, showing that pulling all-nighters does not help students achieve higher grades, was featured in a national Associated Press story on December 14, which resulted in 248 news Web sites from around the world carrying the story. Among them: CBS News Radio, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS News, CNN/Time, USA Today, New York Times.com, NPR, The Weekend Today Show, Inside Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, The Hartford Courant and regional TV and radio newscasts across the nation. The story was among the 10 most-e-mailed stories from the Yahoo! News Web site on Friday, December 14. It has also been cited and appeared on hundreds of blogs."

"Camera-phone images frequently help win convictions in sexual-assault cases. ‘Once a defense attorney sees them, the no longer quibble about the charges,’ says Gary Kessler, who teaches digital forensics at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, and consults for state police."

The Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2007

"The rebounding of international student enrollments this past year on US campuses, and the continued increase in US students abroad, resulted in wide coverage in the US and international press, as the findings of the Open Doors Report and the Fall 2007 enrollment survey were released around the world on November 12 by the Institute of International Education.

Some of the top stories included articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, US News & World Report and on AP and AFP wire services, as well as a three-page spread in the Chronicle of Higher Education. There are also ongoing stories appearing in regional press, as well as campus publications starting to use Open Doors to showcase their internationalization."

"‘What they tend to do – and it starts early – is they micro manage their children . . doing all of these things early on. That’s now carrying over into college,’ said Diana Nash, a counselor at Marymount Manhattan College in New York."

"‘The class, "The Neanderthals: Fact, Fiction and Fantasy,’ explores the popular misconceptions about these pre-humans that have been perpetuated through literature, movies and now television,’ according to Professor John Barthleme, St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y."

"On a recent afternoon, Katie Powers, 21, swam in the still water of Lake Massawepie, though the lake’s temperature was somewhere in the 50s. Then she threw on several layers of clothing, and walked a path blanketed with pine needles until she reached a group of her peers sitting in the sun. Few sounds were heard beyond the soft strum of a guitar, the melody punctuated by laughter. Appearances aside, this was no vacation; Ms. Powers, a junior at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., is one of 12 students living in the wilderness here as part of a university program,’ Adirondack Semester.’"

"Internet strategy management expert Elaine J. Young, associate professor and director of the marketing program and the e-business management degree at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, spoke about social media and the presidency on POTUS 8 – XM Satellite Radio. Her observations about presidential candidates use of social media, the Internet and web presence was also featured in Campaigns and Elections magazine."

"David Romano, assistant professor of international studies at Rhodes College, was interviewed on the growth of the Islamic movement in the Kurdish region of Iraq; Voice of America radio broadcast, October 26, 2007 and on WCCO radio (CBS affiliate in Minneapolis), October 17 on Turkey’s Parliamentary vote in favor of their cross-border offensive against the Kurdish rebels."

"For centuries, sages have alluded to a richness in life’s later years that is lost on the young. But only in the last decade have researchers begun to measure happiness across the life span, and in doing so, try to understand why older people tend to be so content … ‘When you have a disaster at 10 in the morning, you can deal with it better when you’re older,’ says Stacey Wood, a neuropsychologist and associate professor at Scripps College in Claremont. &lsquoWith people in their 20s, it throws them off. They experience more emotion, and it throws them off.’"

"As we just saw, a young woman chose to know the future of her health by genetic testing. This option is becoming more and more common, but there is very little information available to the public about genetic testing. Here to talk about the consequences, good and bad, of genetic testing is Caroline Lieber, director of the Joan H. Marks Graduate Program in Human Genetics at Sarah Lawrence College in New York."

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