The 2012 Election:
What Academe Needs to Know
There's more at stake than which candidates win federal and state offices. Explore our election guide to find out what's at stake for student aid, for-profit colleges, research, and more.
Author Archives: Alina Mogilyanskaya
November 1, 2012, 1:05 pm
Louisiana Ballot Measure Could Mean More Guns on Campuses, Professor Says
A proposed constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot in Louisiana on November 6 may make it even tougher to regulate guns in a state with some of the least restrictive gun-control laws in the country. Now Dayne Sherman, an assistant professor of library sciences at Southeastern Louisiana University, suggests in an op-ed piece in the Hammond, La., Daily Star that the amendment, if approved, could pave the way for courts to strike down laws restricting concealed weapons on college campuses, school grounds, and other public sites.
The amendment would remove language from the Louisiana Constitution that gives the state’s Legislature the explicit authority to pass laws restricting the right to carry a concealed weapon (though the removal would not take away the Legislature’s right to pass such laws). It would also add language that calls the right to keep and bear arms a…
October 26, 2012, 3:10 pm
Negative Campaign Ads Can Work for Candidates When Used Judiciously, Study Finds
People in this presidential election’s battleground states are being inundated by millions of dollars’ worth of negative political advertising from both the Obama and Romney campaigns.
A researcher at a university in one of those states, Florida, has conducted a study with potential implications for that controversial element of campaign strategy. The study, by Juliana B. Fernandes, an assistant professor of strategic communication at the University of Miami, looked into the question of how to measure the difference between just enough negative advertising and too much.
Her research has concluded that negative ads are an effective tool for campaigns, if used strategically and in moderation. Using university students as subjects, the study evaluated how variables such as repetition and timing affect the way negative political ads are perceived by viewers. An article resulting from…
October 17, 2012, 3:33 pm
Tracing the Evolution of Romney’s Position on Pell Grants
In the second presidential debate, on Tuesday at Hofstra University, in New York, the Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s statements in favor of increasing Pell Grants surprised some reporters. The New York Times’s Richard Pérez-Peña called Mr. Romney’s assertion that he wanted “to make sure we keep our Pell Grant program growing” a “new position for him.”
Mr. Romney’s previous remarks indicate that he has been moving gradually toward that position over the course of the campaign.
- During the Republican primaries, Mr. Romney was all but mute on higher-education issues. While his opponents made mention of higher education during the debates, Mr. Romney did not. His campaign Web site at the time did not mention Pell Grants.
- In the months that led up to his nomination, Mr. Romney commended Rep. Paul Ryan’s controversial budget plan, which Democrats have criticized…
October 2, 2012, 12:30 pm
Romney Says He Would Not Deport Illegal Students Who Hold Special Permits
Ahead of Wednesday’s first presidential debate, Mitt Romney has said that he would not repeal President Obama’s new policy granting a two-year hold on deportation for many young illegal immigrants, The Denver Post reports. After months of refusing to answer the question of how he would deal with the estimated 1.7 million young people who qualify for the Obama administration’s policy, Mr. Romney has now said that he would honor the special work permits until he could enact permanent reform.
“The people who have received the special visa that the president has put in place, which is a two-year visa, should expect that the visa would continue to be valid. I’m not going to take something that they’ve purchased,” Mr. Romney told the Post. “Before those visas have expired we will have the full immigration-reform plan that I’ve proposed.”
In June, President Obama’s decision to
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