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"Some college administrators seem so distracted with fund raising, academic infighting, and community initiatives that they set up their emergency communications departments very poorly. Training is poor to nonexistent, secretaries are pressed into service with tremendous responsibilities for running 'notification systems' 24/7 and on weekends because no one else knows how to do it and the administration won’t pay for additional staff. Procedures are seat-of-the-pants and dependent on HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion), except when something like Virginia Tech happens and there is some sort of scramble to do something different." --Donna
Most Colleges Avoid Risk Management, Report Says
Jill Biden Shines a Global Spotlight on American Community Colleges
Speaking at a Unesco conference in Paris, the vice president’s wife stressed the importance of two-year institutions to the nation’s educational goals.
Connecticut Public Colleges Lose 200 Professors to Early Retirement
Administrators are scrambling to plug holes in their course schedules for fall, with most expecting to do so by hiring more adjuncts or increasing class sizes.
U. of Georgia Paid 2 Fraternities $2.4-Million to Relocate, Contracts Show
The two were among five with houses on property where the university plans to build new academic facilities.
New Allegations in Admissions Controversy at U. of Illinois Suggest Ex-Provost Played a Role
Linda P.B. Katehi, the incoming chancellor of the University of California at Davis, has insisted she knew nothing of the admission of politically connected applicants at Illinois.
Sonoma State U. Foundation May Lose $350,000 on Loan to Former Board Member
The foundation will be forced to issue fewer scholarships in the 2010-11 academic year because of a diminished endowment, a university official said.
College Suspends Student for Working in Gay Pornography | 58
President Obama's Visit to Notre Dame Carries Barely a Hint of Controversy That Preceded It | 58
Drug Sting Nabs 21 Students at U. of Illinois | 57
Faculty Members and Union Protest Staff Layoffs at Temple U. as 'Cruel' | 57
North Dakota Board's Vote Puts 'Fighting Sioux' Mascot on Thinner Ice | 57
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August 13, 2007
The Next Big Scandal? Study-Abroad Offices' Cozy Deals With Vendors
As undergraduates seek new ways to set themselves apart, and colleges look for ways to make themselves appealing to outward-looking applicants, study-abroad programs have grown fast. In the 10 years ending in 2004, the number of American students headed abroad for study grew from just over 76,000 to nearly 206,000, according to figures compiled by the Institute of International Education. That trend has turned into big business.
And according to a front-page article in today’s New York Times, that big business has brought with it some of the same money-making practices by colleges, cozy relationships with outside vendors, and other suspect behavior that in the last six months has drawn widespread criticism to colleges’ student-aid offices.
The Times article says companies that run study-abroad programs often provide a range of benefits to the campus officials who decide which programs will win recognition (meaning foreign-earned credits will be honored) and therefore which ones students will be steered toward. The benefits include free foreign travel, free organizational services, marketing stipends, and even bonuses for signing students up, or what some would call kickbacks. Practices like those have landed a lot of student-aid officers in big trouble this year.
Those deals, which seem to favor certain companies over others, increase the cost of study abroad, making it more difficult for colleges to justify the arrangements as their efforts to act in the best interest of students — an excuse often invoked, without notable success, by the student-aid officers.
As in the case of student aid, the study-abroad business is complicated and difficult to navigate by students and parents on their own. Most rely on the good faith of campus officials to plan a study-abroad opportunity from which the student, not the college, will profit. Students would find themselves in situations less prone to abuse if they made their own study-abroad arrangements directly with foreign universities. But to judge from an example in the Times article, few have the time or expertise for that. —Andrew Mytelka
Posted on Monday August 13, 2007 | Permalink |
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