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.
Category Archives: Students
November 1, 2012, 2:56 pm
Obama Is Equally Favored by Young Voters With and Without College, Survey Finds
Young voters who have attended college favor President Obama by the same margin as their peers without experience in college, according to an analysis of poll data released on Thursday by the Tufts University Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
More than half of the 18-to-29-year-old registered and extremely likely voters who were polled said they supported President Obama, compared with about a third who preferred the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. There was little difference in candidate choice between voters who had at least some college experience and those who hadn’t.
However, young voters who had been in college were more likely to be following the election and to have formed opinions on policy issues.
Those voters who had attended college also appeared to be a more sought-after group for the Obama campaign. Such voters were more…
October 22, 2012, 8:43 pm
‘We’ve Never Heard of You, Either’
As hordes of reporters and politicians descended on Lynn University for Monday night’s debate, it seemed likely that at least a few of them quipped about the small private institution’s relative obscurity.
But the university, in Boca Raton, Fla., was ready with a feisty retort: “We’ve never heard of you, either.”
T-shirts quickly became one of the most popular aspects of the debate on the Boca Raton, Fla., campus. (Lynn U. photo by Helena Suba)
That was the message emblazoned on hundreds of official debate T-shirts that the university distributed to students over the past several days.
The idea for the slogan came from the university’s president, Kevin M. Ross.
“A lot of alums say to me that they wish our school were more widely known,” he said. “And I think it’s something that has bothered students…
October 17, 2012, 3:00 pm
Youngest Voters Favor Obama but Are Uneasy With Politics, Poll Finds
On the eve of the next presidential election, young Americans are showing far less enthusiasm for voting—and much greater skepticism about the political process—than they did four years ago, according to a new poll from Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.
Nearly two-thirds of the 18- to 29-year-olds in the poll, released on Wednesday, said they were registered to vote. Fifty-two percent said they thought President Obama would be re-elected, while 15 percent thought he would lose. They overwhelmingly favored the incumbent on such matters as the economy, immigration reform, health-care policy, and foreign policy.
But young voters also indicated a clear uneasiness with the electoral process, and with Congress. Disenchantment was strongest among voters between 18 and 24 years old. Four years ago, 43 percent of voters in that age group said they were politically active; now …
October 17, 2012, 12:50 am
In Debate, Romney Voices Support for Expanding Pell Grant Program
In the second presidential debate, on Tuesday night, the Republican nominee Mitt Romney offered some of his most explicit support yet for the Pell Grant program, while President Obama touted several of his administration’s achievements that affect higher education.
The first question in the town hall-style debate came from 20-year-old Jeremy Epstein, a junior at Adelphi University. Addressing Mr. Romney, Mr. Epstein asked about his job prospects as a college student who will graduate in 2014. Mr. Romney responded by saying he would seek to make college more affordable and ensure that students like Mr. Epstein had jobs when they graduated.
“I want to make sure we keep our Pell Grant program growing,” he said. Mr. Romney also touted a merit scholarship he instituted as governor of Massachusetts; the scholarship waives tuition at the state’s public colleges for students who…
October 4, 2012, 1:20 am
In Debate, Obama and Romney Clash Over Who Would Do More for Education
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and President Obama wave at the start of Wednesday night’s debate at the U. of Denver (Reuters/Rick Wilking/Landov).
In the first presidential debate of this fall’s campaign, which focused on domestic policy, President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, sparred over their tax plans, the federal deficit, Wall Street regulation, and health care.
Throughout the 90-minute debate Wednesday evening at the University of Denver, both candidates mentioned education several times in relation to its role in resolving the nation’s economic problems, and they sometimes traded barbs over whose policies would actually invest in education.
Mr. Obama charged that Mr. Romney’s economic plan would offer tax breaks to the richest Americans. Such a plan, he said, “will no…
September 18, 2012, 1:06 pm
Florida Professor on Leave After Campaigning-for-Obama Controversy
A community-college professor in Florida has taken a leave of absence after she was accused of electioneering on behalf of President Obama in class.
Sharon Sweet, an associate professor of mathematics at Brevard Community College, in Cocoa, Fla., is being investigated for allegedly urging her students to vote for Mr. Obama and distributing printed pro-Obama campaign material to them.
On Thursday, Brevard received a complaint from a parent of a student in one of the five classes Ms. Sweet teaches on the college’s Melbourne campus, said John J. Glisch, its associate vice president for communications. (She teaches an additional class online.) College policy forbids faculty members to engage in political activity during class.
Mr. Glisch added that the college was treating the complaint “very, very seriously” and was conducting “an extremely thorough investigation” that would…
September 5, 2012, 1:02 am
Aid for Students and Veterans Gets a Spotlight at Democrats’ Convention
Charlotte, N.C. — On the first night of their national convention here, several Democrats highlighted the role that federal student aid and veterans’ education benefits had played in their own lives and reminded voters that President Obama would continue to champion those public programs.
Making the case for why her husband deserves a second term, the first lady, Michelle Obama, said the president could relate to the plight of students struggling to afford college. She repeated a story Mr. Obama often tells when he campaigns on college campuses: that the Obamas both struggled with student-loan debt.
“When we were first married, our combined monthly student-loan bills were actually higher than our mortgage,” she said. “We were so young, so in love, and so in debt.”
Mr. Obama has fought to expand student aid, she said, because he knows that, “like so many of you, he…
August 31, 2012, 3:26 pm
Lynn U. Rolls Out Curriculum Devoted to U.S. Presidency and Debates
On October 22, Lynn University will welcome President Obama and the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, to its campus, in Boca Raton, Fla., for their third and final presidential debate. By then, Lynn’s 1,600 students should be well prepared for the rhetorical battle, thanks to 80 classes related to the presidency and political debates that the private, nonprofit university added to its catalog for the fall semester.
Shortly after the college learned last fall that it had won the right to host one of the presidential debates, Gregg C. Cox, vice president for academic affairs, says he “immediately went to the faculty and said, ‘Here’s an opportunity. We’ve got something right here on our campus that will help ignite some excitement in our students.’”
Mr. Cox asked the faculty to examine existing courses and seek to tailor the material in ways that would complement the…
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