Manchester Community College - MCC Receives National Recognition for Community Service (July 5, 2011) - Manchester Community College has been honored as a leader among institutions of higher education for its support of volunteering, service learning, and civic engagement. The college has been admitted to the 2010 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for engaging its students, faculty and staff in meaningful service that achieves measurable results in the community...

Inside Higher Ed - Clarification or Power Grab? (September 1, 2011) - At least 9 (some say up to 13) of the 16 trustees of Antioch University Los Angeles have resigned in the last week, accusing the university's central administration and board of undermining their authority...

Inside Higher Ed - U.S. Official No 'Textbook Rebel' (August 31, 2011) - There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that the U.S. Education Department's Hal Plotkin will appear at a protest on textbook prices today dressed in a 10-foot-tall mascot costume as "Textbook Rebel." ...

Wired Science - Gender Gap Vanishes in Female-Empowered Cultures (August 31, 2011) - One of the issues that has prevented the full participation of females in math and the sciences is the persistent belief that males have innate math skills that are superior to those of females. Even as studies show that the math gap disappears in countries with greater gender equality, it seems to persist in higher education, which allows it to be transmitted to new generations...

Inside Higher Ed - Regaining Confidence (August 31, 2011) - In 2006 and 2007, it seemed like every wealthy college and university was announcing a record-breaking fund-raising campaign that would bring its research and education endeavors to new heights. Major research universities talked about bringing in $3 billion or $4 billion, much of it in "mega-gifts."...

Inside Higher Ed - Committing to Complete (August 30, 2011) - If an incoming community college student were asked right off the bat to pledge to complete a degree or credential, in a moment of truth, would that student think of his promise before transferring or dropping out? What if thousands of others signed the same pledge? What if faculty and the president had signed one promising to do all they could to help the student complete...

CT Mirror - Marijuana decriminalized, but pot on campus is still a risk (August 30, 2011) - After the decriminalization of marijuana this summer, students at the state's four-year colleges face more lenient sanctions under the law if caught with a small amount pot, but they can expect unchanging disciplinary standards on campus...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Liberal-Arts Diversity Officers to Hold Forum on Attracting, and Keeping, Minority Faculty (August 30, 2011) - Neil Roberts, a black scholar with an expertise in Africana studies and political theory, spent the early part of his teaching career in large cities. He enjoyed the diversity of the classes he taught as a lecturer while pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and then as a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University...

Inside Higher Ed - Beyond the Standard Essay (August 29, 2011) - Throughout his career as a psychology scholar, Robert Sternberg has critiqued the limitations of standardized testing and looked for ways that colleges might identify valuable qualities that have little chance of showing up in an SAT or ACT score. He has argued that the right kind of essay prompts or project-oriented questions can reveal creativity, commitment to community and other qualities that might well merit admission to college -- even for applicants whose test scores might be a bit lower than those of others...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Flooding and Power Loss Plague Some New England Campuses, in Wake of Storm (August 29, 2011) - Tropical Storm Irene left a long path of toppled trees and flooded roads through the Northeast on Sunday, cutting off some colleges from electrical power and essential roadways...

New England Journal of Higher Ed - Do We Have a Retention Problem ... Or Do We Have a Problem About Retention? (August 29, 2011) - This paper, like many being written these days, deals with the "problem" of student retention in higher education. But unlike most, this paper focuses not on the problem of retention per se but rather on how institutional leaders think about student retention, completion, and success-how the way they frame their concerns about retention can give rise to a different sort of problem. Something we might call the "meta-problem" of student retention...

The Chronicle of Higher Ed - U.S. Promotes Ties Between American Community Colleges and India (August 28, 2011) - Located just outside Washington, Montgomery College is accustomed to summits. When the U.S. Department of State asked the two-year institution to organize a meeting on community colleges in New Delhi, administrators at the Maryland college leapt at the chance...

Inside Higher Ed - Bachelor's for Autistic Students (August 26, 2011) - For some students with autism, the idea of operating in the social environment of a college classroom can be so debilitating as to derail the pursuit of higher education at all. For those who do enroll, their condition can make it difficult to succeed in a traditional classroom setting...

Inside Higher Ed - The Secondary Cost of Digital (August 26, 2011) - The idea that higher education is creeping toward an all-digital future has turned textbook season into a spectator sport. Will this be the year e-textbooks make their move? In recent years, the focus on digital has been eclipsed by a surge in print textbook rentals...

New England Journal of Higher Ed - Helicopters, Lawn Mowers or Down-to-Earth Parents? What Works Best for Higher Education (August 25, 2011) - Many faculty and staff working in higher education lament the increasing-some would say unending-involvement of the parents of our college-aged students. We denigrate such individuals as "helicopter" parents, and when the contact occurs in person as opposed to through the phone or email, we call them "lawn mower" parents...

Mashable - How Students Use Technology (August 10, 2011) - It's clear that today's students rely heavily on electronic devices even when they're not incorporated in the classroom. In one survey of college students, 38% said they couldn't even go 10 minutes without switching on some sort of electronic device...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Financial-Literacy Training Can Pay Off for Students Over Time (August 30, 2011) - As the cost of college continues to climb and more students borrow more money to pay their way, financial-literacy training has emerged as one low-cost way colleges can help their students make good choices. But does it work...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Education Department Chases 'Pell Runners' Who Threaten Aid Program (August 28, 2011) - When a prospective student called her office 15 times in one day to ask when his federal aid would be disbursed, Laurie A. Wolf, executive dean of student services at Des Moines Area Community College, became suspicious...

Journal Inquirer - East Hartford filmmaker a finalist at Calif. festival (August 30, 2011) - East Hartford filmmaker a finalist at Calif, festival By Ryan Morgan For the Journal Inquirer With only a small budget and some personal equipment, an East Hartford filmmaker created an action movie now competing for top awards at a California film festival. "I'm just happy we were nominated," said Keith Rocheleau, who wrote, directed, and edited "Kings & Nines." "They are showing over 600 films this year at the festival, so just being nominated is so cool...

CT Mirror - State tells 11 towns they must increase education spending (August 31, 2011) - Officials at the State Department of Education are notifying officials in 11 cities and towns that they are in violation of state law setting minimum spending requirements for education and that they must increase their school appropriations for the current fiscal year...

CT Mirror - New 'cyberbullying' law poses challenges as school year starts (August 30, 2011) - As students head back to school after summer vacation, educators, free-speech advocates and anti-bullying activists are gearing up for implementation of the state's new "cyberbullying" law that will make on-line statements subject to academic disciplinary proceedings...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Education Department Backs Away From Fix to Help Disabled Student Borrowers (August 29, 2011) - After suffering from panic attacks and episodes of psychosis, Donita McDonald was diagnosed with a severe mental illness in 2009. She was unable to work or attend school, and the Social Security Administration declared the 21-year-old disabled. After the ruling, her family turned to the Department of Education, appealing to have her thousands of dollars in student loans forgiven. The department is supposed to forgive the loans of former students who, like Ms. McDonald, develop severe and lasting disabilities...

Inside Higher Ed - 7 Gifts of Working with Virtual Academic Colleagues (August 31, 2011) - Do you work with someone who works remotely? Do you have someone on your team who telecommutes full-time, or a significant part of each month? Are you working at a distance? I bet that if you work outside of a nonprofit higher education institution that your answer is much more likely to be "yes" then people within traditional academia...

Inside Higher Ed - The Broccoli of Higher Ed (August 30, 2011) - We hear these days of the "crisis of the humanities." The number of majors, jobs, and student interest in these subjects is dropping. The Boston Globe offered one report on the worries of the humanities in an article last year about the new Mandell Center at Brandeis University. The Globe asserted, "At college campuses around the world, the humanities are hurting. Students are flocking to majors more closely linked to their career ambitions. Grant money and philanthropy are flowing to the sciences. And university presidents are worried about the future of subjects once at the heart of a liberal arts education....

Inside Higher Ed - Online as Last Resort (August 31, 2011) - Okay, it's late August, your college has a policy that nothing outside of a few specialized classes (clinicals, studios, labs, and developmental, mostly) runs with fewer than fifteen students. You have an outlying section with seven students. Will it run? The bane of administration is having to predict the future like that over and over again...