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(01/29/04 4:49am)
With Hispanics graduating from high school in numbers that will keep increasing, the head of a higher education group releasing a new report on the trend says colleges need to step up efforts to accommodate the nation's largest minority.\nThe Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education projects Hispanics will account for 21 percent of the country's public high school graduates in 2008, up from 17 percent in 2002.\nThe commission found nearly five million Hispanics were enrolled in the country's public elementary and high schools in 1993-94. And by the 2007-08 school year, it projects Latino public school enrollment will be about 9 million.\n"In general, colleges are still not prepared," said David Longanecker, executive director of the interstate commission. Its report, "Knocking at the College Door," is released every five years and is used by local school districts, states and higher education to track enrollment trends.\n"We know there is a relationship between race and income and academic preparedness," Longanecker said. "But we don't have the support services in place to enhance the success that we need."\nUsing data compiled from the nation's leading test-makers, the U.S. census and other sources, the WICHE study projects a significant regional shift in the school-age population to the south and west follows general population trends.\nIn 2007-08, Southern states are expected to enroll 16.7 million students in kindergarten through high school. WICHE said enrollment in western schools will be 11.9 million in 2007-08, followed by 10.8 million in the Midwest and 9.3 million in the Northeast.\nBecause of continuing gains in Hispanic enrollment, the report said, white students will represent a minority of graduates from western high schools in 2013-14.\nAlthough Hispanics enroll in college at almost the same rate as non-Latino students, they often bring special circumstances to school, said Richard Fry, a senior research associate with the Pew Hispanic Trust.\nHispanics are less likely to attend college full-time and are more likely to work so they can provide financial support to dependents, Fry said.\n"In order to help these students receive degrees -- particularly bachelor's degrees, but also associate's degrees and vocational credentials -- you have to help them negotiate their work lives, their family lives, as well as their academic lives," Fry said.\nHe said community colleges, in particular, need to improve tutorial services for Hispanic students placed in remedial academic and vocational training programs.\nT. Jaime Chahin, a scholar at the Tomas Rivera Center at Trinity University in San Antonio, said some schools, especially in the Southwest, are making progress integrating Hispanic culture into campus life.\nBut he said schools across the country need to do a better job of recruiting and retaining Latino faculty members who can serve as role models for Hispanic undergraduates.\nThe process of pushing Hispanics toward college degrees needs to begin at the elementary school level, he added.\nHispanics should feel "that college is not a novelty but is something that is expected, even for first-generation students who have never been exposed to these kinds of opportunities," said Chahin, also a professor at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.
(01/27/04 4:57am)
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Eager to ride the high-tech tide, Andrew Zhou double-majored in computer science and finance when he arrived at Rutgers University in 2000.\nAs graduation approaches, Zhou is pinning his hopes on finance and dropping the idea he once had that computer know-how guaranteed him a job.\n"Four years ago, it seemed like an awesome major," Zhou said as he waited to speak with a recruiter for a telecommunications management firm at Rutgers' annual career day.\n"Now, nobody wants to get in because all the jobs are going to India."\nWhile there are hopeful signs outside the technology sector, outsourcing of computer programming and customer service jobs to China, India and other countries with cheaper labor costs have dimmed prospects for seniors like Zhou, said Richard White, director of career services at Rutgers.\nA recent report from Forrester Research projected that as many as 3.3 million American white collar tech jobs will go to overseas workers by 2015.\n"Jobs that used to be available for U.S. citizens are being diverted overseas where the quality is equal or better at a fraction of the cost," White said.\nThe fallout from outsourcing and stagnant U.S. technology market means that seniors at San Jose State University -- in the heart of Silicon Valley -- face yet another "very tight" job market, said career center director Cheryl Allmen-Vinnedge.\n"The entry level positions just aren't out there now," agreed Halbert Wilson.\nA January graduate with a degree in information technology from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Wilson is counting on contacts made during an internship with a pharmaceutical company to help him get a job.\nExperts say the best sectors for seniors to find employment are in finance, health care, advertising and government. And a jump in the number of campus recruiters visiting some campuses is giving students reason for hope.\nAt the University of Mississippi, recruiting coordinator Gina Starnes said career center interview rooms are booked solid by corporate representatives during February.\nAfter two consecutive years of little or no growth, the National Association of Colleges and Employers is forecasting a 12.7 percent jump in hiring this year.\nNACE spokeswoman Camille Luckenbaugh warned that while 51 percent of the employers surveyed by the group said they would increase recruitment of college graduates this year, another 28 percent indicated they would curtail hiring on campuses.\nA leading Internet source for college students seeking entry-level jobs said listings in the accounting and retail fields have both jumped by over 50 percent compared with last year.\nJob opportunities in the financial, health care and advertising sectors also have increased, said Michelle Forker, vice president of MonsterTRAK, a subsidiary of Monster.com, the online job service.\nAnd the Partnership for Public Service is predicting that the federal government will fill 73,000 jobs in the next six months.\nInternal Revenue Service recruiter Doug Fuller was besieged at the Rutgers' career day.\n"The economy has perhaps changed the mind-set of this generation," he said, "Where they think more about jobs with greater stability than you could encounter in the private sector"
(11/03/03 6:37am)
A new study says the number of foreign students attending U.S. colleges increased by less than 1 percent in 2002-03 -- the lowest growth rate in seven years. It's just the latest piece of evidence that international students are shying away from the United States because of tough immigration rules.\nThe Institute of International Education said tightened visa procedures enacted after the 2001 terrorist attacks, which have delayed the entry of many foreigners into the United States, contributed to the low growth rate.\nThe IIE said in its annual "Open Doors" report, to be released today, that foreign enrollment increased by only 0.6 percent last year. In each of the two previous academic years, foreign enrollment had increased by 6.4 percent.\n"It's not just the policies themselves, but the understanding and perception of the policies that have really affected the numbers," said Peggy Blumenthal, the IIE's vice president of educational services.\n"The word of mouth is out in certain countries about the difficulty getting a visa. And the perception is having as much of an impact as the delays."\nForeign students started experiencing delays entering the country in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Washington in New York, as the federal government responded to calls for tighter domestic security. One of the Sept. 11 hijackers held a student visa.\nU.S. schools want foreign students both for the revenue they bring in -- the IIE said international students spend up to $12 billion annually between tuition and other expenses -- and their contributions to academic research.\nA continuing decline in foreign student enrollment "may damage our ability to attract the best and the brightest," said Alice Gast, vice president of research and associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.\nIn a separate online survey, the IIE said 46 percent of U.S. colleges reported declines in foreign enrollment in the current school year. There were 586,323 international students studying in the United States last year, said the IIE, which promotes closer educational relations between the United States and other nations.\nThe IIE's findings are similar to those that the Association of International Educators, known as NAFSA, expects to reveal when it releases a survey of 2003-04 foreign student attendance later this week, said Victor Johnson, NAFSA's associate executive director.\nNAFSA conducted its report in conjunction with the Association of American Universities and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.\nJohnson said that, unlike previous slowdowns in foreign enrollment, this one was triggered by a change in U.S. policy and not economic declines or political unrest.\nHe predicted that foreign enrollment may decline even more if Congress or the State Department fails to relax visa restrictions on students coming to America. Foreign students will "give up trying and go somewhere else," Johnson said.\nEducators here and abroad say it appears overseas schools are benefiting from the U.S. crackdown.\nFor instance, the number of Chinese students enrolling in British institutions rose by over 36 percent this year, according to the United Kingdom's Universities & Colleges Admissions Service. Enrollment of students from India in British colleges increased by 16 percent.\nAustralia showed similar increases.\nThe International Development Program of Australian Universities and Colleges, that country's leading international education group, said the number of Indian students attending Australian colleges jumped by 31 percent while Chinese enrollment went up by 25 percent.\nStudents from Asia, the Middle East and Africa experienced the greatest delays obtaining U.S. visas last year. Once foreign students have settled in the United States, they are required by new homeland security measures to report changes in address, academic majors and other matters that might impact their visa status.\nFrom his office in Sydney, IDP spokesman Peter Giesinger said it is "pretty reasonable" to draw a connection between Australia's foreign student increases and post-Sept. 11 immigration laws.\nJohnson agreed. "When you erect visa systems that make people think it's too much of a hassle to study here and then they go somewhere else, I think it's legitimate to assume the two have something to do with each other," he said.
(07/21/03 1:32am)
EDGEWATER, N.J. -- Jessica Keyes' classroom is an office in a condo directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Her lectern is a Hewlett-Packard laptop. Her students receive their lectures via the Internet, and -- increasingly -- are adult professionals.\n"There are people out there who work 80 to 100 hours a week, but they still want a degree," said Keyes, who teaches computer and management courses for the University of Phoenix.\nEducators say it is those students -- adults taking advantage of Internet technology to wedge undergraduate or graduate degree programs into their lives -- who are driving the growing popularity of distance learning.\nA study released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education found students enrolled in nearly 2.9 million college-level distance education courses in 2000-01, more than double the enrollment of 1997-98. While distance learning can mean taking courses through audio or video feeds, schools that offer such courses are most likely to use the Internet, the study found.\n"When it started, it was basically computer-type people. Now it's everybody," said Sally Stroup, assistant secretary for postsecondary education at the Education Department.\nSigns that distance education is gaining acceptance in higher education are everywhere, said John Flores, the president of the 4,000-member United States Distance Learning Association.\nFor instance, the national and regional accreditation agencies that certify academic quality now recognize many independent distance programs, as well as those attached to established colleges and universities, he said.\nJohn Bailey, who supervised the Education Department report, said he anticipated the boom. \n"We always believed that as the Internet became a bigger part of how people live, work and play it would naturally lead them to look for educational opportunities online," he said.\nAssisted by an aggressive marketing campaign, the University of Phoenix has used the technology to turn itself into the country's largest private university. Currently, 72,200 of the school's 163,300 students are enrolled online, while the remainder attend classes at learning centers located around the country.\nWhile Phoenix attracts older, nontraditional students, distance learning also is becoming part of traditional colleges.\nIn 1995, fewer than 50 Virginia Tech students registered for online classes at the Blacksburg, Va., school. In 2001-02, over 10,000 Virginia Tech students -- many of them full time and living on campus -- chose to take classes over the computer, said Sherri Turner, the school's manager for instructional program development.\nAs with adult learners, the distance education option provides "so-called traditional students" with a more flexibility in scheduling courses, said Jacqueline King, the director of the center for policy analysis for the American Council on Education.\nThe upsurge in distance learning has also come with growing pains.\nIn the rush to incorporate online learning into curriculums, educators say, some established schools underestimated the cost and problems implementing the technology.\n"It's similar to the experience with e-commerce," King said. "It's still shaking out."\nJohn Bear, a former FBI agent, said the sale of bogus college degrees poses one of the biggest threats to online learning's credibility.\n"The Internet, of course, is the dream of all diploma mills come true," Bear said. "It's a way to have a major presence, to be totally anonymous and to collect money in ways that people don't even know where it's going."\nBut the emergence of online programs at 90 percent of public colleges, universities and technical training schools and 40 percent of all private institutions has helped remove much of the stigma from distance learning.\n"One thing that everybody worries about when you start these online courses is that people are going to look at your degree and say, 'You bought that, didn't you?'" said Arline Lisinski, a Northern California court worker who graduated with honors last week from the University of Phoenix with a bachelor's degree in the science of management.\nLisinski, in her mid-40s, said the program challenged her both intellectually and academically. "You don't sit back and twiddle your thumbs, that's for sure," she said.
(05/09/03 5:21am)
Academics, cost, lifestyle. And this spring, as parents and high school seniors have considered which college to choose, another factor has been gaining more attention -- crime on campus.\n"We certainly feel morally responsible, when we advise students, to point out that safety is part of the picture, just as much as finding a curriculum that's good for you and an ambiance that suits you," Connecticut education consultant Marcia Rubinstien said.\nThese days, when Rubinstien counsels high school students and their parents, she guides them to Web sites that provide links to campus crime statistics -- though some in academia warn the numbers might not be complete.\n"This is a much more important issue than it was 20 years ago and, in terms of Sept. 11, even two years ago," said Tom Nelson, the editor and publisher of the California-based Campus Safety Journal.\nBefore his daughter left for college, Mark Sklarow cautioned her about the risks to women on campuses and advised her to cover the top of beverage cups while attending parties -- a step to discourage tampering with a date rape drug.\nSklarow, the executive director of the Independent Educational Consultants Association, said over the past few years he has heard of more and more parents taking similar precautions.\nDuring her daughter's college search last year, Lisa Treister of Miami consulted the campus crime data posted on the Web site operated by Security On Campus -- a nonprofit advocacy group started by the family of Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University student raped and murdered in her dormitory room in 1986.\n"It wasn't the make or break decision, but we did check it and I thought it was a pretty interesting Web site," Treister said. "People are looking at it, and people are definitely concerned about it."\nTriester's daughter, Emily, settled on Boston University, an urban campus where tight security allayed her family's worries.\nPat Bosco, the dean of student life at Kansas State University, said safety also has become a consumer question for rural schools, like his in Manhattan, Kansas.\n"We're seeing the perception of crime everywhere," Bosco said.\nBy law, colleges and universities must address safety concerns by prominently displaying information about campus security measures on their own Web sites.\nBut with the issue gaining attention, the various means used to measure security -- especially the provisions enacted under the so-called "Clery Act" -- are coming under more scrutiny.\nShepherded through Congress by Security on Campus, the law requires schools receiving federal subsidies to report crime data each year to the U.S. Department of Education.\nWhile acknowledging the law's benefits, many officials nonetheless worry that the system punishes schools that file accurate statistics to the database.\n"There's almost an incentive not to report," Sklarow said.\nOne problem, Nelson said, is that schools tend to independently decide what constitutes on- and off-campus crime. Some schools report incidents within one block of a campus while others record crimes that occur as far as three blocks away, he pointed out.\nHoward Clery III said Security on Campus is studying ways to make colleges more accountable.\n"They're interpreting the law in different ways, so we're looking to tighten that up," said Clery, brother of the slain Lehigh student.\nAlthough overall national statistics on college crime have not been tabulated, Gerald Williamson, the vice principal of student services at East Central University, a 4,300-student state school in Ada, Okla., says that acts of campus violence need to be placed in perspective.\n"If you have any population contained within 10 acres, where you have 5,000 people a day passing through, there will be things that occur," Williamson said. "But probably the safest place you can be nationwide is on a college campus."\nSklarow, with the Virginia-based consultants association, said he believes awareness and prevention are as important as consulting crime statistics.\nIn addition to the warning about date rape, Sklarow asked his daughter to call someone with her cell phone during solitary nighttime walks through campus.\nThere have been times when Sklarow has been the recipient of that call in the wee hours. He says he doesn't mind a bit.
(12/10/02 5:10am)
Sociology professor Gary Stokley recalls when meeting the parents of his students at Louisiana Tech University was limited to a few handshakes at graduation.\nNow, to the dismay of Stokley and other academics, angry parents are introducing themselves much sooner to professors and departments heads as they complain about their children's grades.\nFaculty members also say moms and dads sometimes pressure officials to register students in mandatory courses that are filled to capacity and question the intent of classroom assignments.\n"They don't realize that sometimes they just have to let little Johnny stumble and make his own mistakes and learn from them," said Teresa Sherwood, assistant chair of the mathematics department at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash.\n"They just have a hard time letting go."\nCase in point: A parent last month asked a Western Washington instructor if her son could reschedule an exam because it conflicted with a planned family vacation, Sherwood said. The request was denied.\nStokley wants parents to feel comfortable contacting him, but said he drew the line recently when a mother wanted to tape record a discussion about her son.\nFormer high school science teacher Luann Wright said she wouldn't think of complaining to officials at the University of California at San Diego about her son's grades.\nBut when his writing course placed what she believed was undue emphasis on racial issues, Wright created a Web site that invites parents and students to report instances of political bias in the classroom.\n"I don't have a problem with controversial topics and I'm not coming at this from a religious or political viewpoint," she said. "I'm just saying if you're going to do this, do it from a balanced view."\nThe existence of the Web site, though, illustrates the expanding role of parents in higher education.\nFive years ago, parents rarely contacted Stokley. Today, he said, he hears from an average of four or five parents every term.\nAcademics have several theories on what's caused the spike in complaints.\nStokley calls it the logical progression for parents accustomed to directing their children's lives. Parents' attitude is "I've been involved with my kid in high school and I want to be involved with my kid in college," Stokley said.\nSusan Magun-Jackson, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Memphis, said that, from a clinical standpoint, the intervention is about control.\n"If, for example, they are authoritarian parents, they rule the roost and they want things to be the way they want them to be," she said. "So they bypass their kids."\nAli Zohoori said there's a link to rising college costs -- especially at private schools like Bradley University, where he serves as chair of the communications department.\nParents that pay Bradley nearly $22,000 per year in tuition, room, board and other fees, feel increasingly "entitled to be involved in the academic affairs of their children," Zohoori said.\nWright agreed. \n"I think parents are spending $30,000 or $40,000 a year and wondering if they're getting their money's worth," she said.\nWhat parents are not entitled to, they soon learn, is disclosure of a child's grade from a professor. Throughout higher education, privacy rules prohibit the faculty from discussing a specific grade with anyone but a student, even if that means withholding information from the people footing the bill.\n"I basically tell them I am not at liberty to discuss it with them," Magun-Jackson said. "It makes them angry and they hang up on me. But there is not a whole lot else I can do about it."\nStokley noted that privacy codes do not prevent professors from outlining what led to a sub-par grade. Parents tend to back down once they hear of laggard attendance and low test scores, he said.