Manchester Patch - MCC Baseball Team a Victim of Its Own Success? (September 23, 2011) - A year after finishing third at the NJCAA Division III World Series, the Manchester Community College baseball team appears to be a victim of the college's increasingly tightening budget. Barring some late inning heroics, Manchester Community College will not field a baseball team this season...

Hartford Courant - Most Tolland High Grads Chose 4-Year Colleges (September 21, 2011) - A new report on the Tolland High Class of 2011 shows that...19 percent were headed to two-year colleges or vocational programs...The report says that "many qualified students are choosing to attend community college." "From community college, they can transfer," the report says, "or in the case of the Connecticut system, use the guaranteed admissions programs that are in place between the community colleges and UConn and the Connecticut state university system. More and more this option is best meeting the financial situations of families...

Inside Higher Ed - Dump the Slump (September 29, 2011) -The president of Duke University's sophomore class doesn't totally buy into the idea of the "sophomore slump" - the second-year experience of aimlessness or isolation that seems to deflate the ambitions of many college students...

CT Mirror - UConn decides against second tuition hike (September 28, 2011) - When officials at the University of Connecticut decided earlier this year to approve the smallest tuition increase in a decade and instead cut their budget by almost $30 million, they did so with a big caveat: They might be forced to come back after the start of the school year and increase tuition...

Inside Higher Ed - Another Change to 'Gainful Employment' Regs (September 28, 2011) - The Education Department announced Tuesday that it intends to make the approval process easier for new programs that fall under the department's controversial and oft-debated "gainful employment" regulation...

Inside Higher Ed - A More Complete Completion Picture (September 27, 2011) - By now the chorus of complaint is well-rehearsed: Institutions that enroll significant numbers of part-time and adult students blast the federal graduation rate for failing to capture the educational outcomes for what, in some cases, can represent a majority of their student bodies. Though often unstated, the underlying suggestion is that a more complete picture would also present a more positive one...

New York Times - College Graduation Rates Are Stagnant Even as Enrollment Rises, a Study Finds (September 27, 2011) A report to be released on Tuesday by a group seeking to raise college graduation rates shows that despite decades of steadily climbing enrollment rates, the percentage of students making it to the finish line is barely budging...

Community College Times - Infusing new ideas into the classroom (September 27, 2011) - Teachers are unquestionably the frontline in the education process. However, given budget constraints and other issues facing colleges, ensuring that instructors have the right tools to improve the learning process sometimes falls off the radar...

Inside Higher Ed - Winners and Losers (September 27, 2011) - Community colleges are finally getting more than praise from the Obama Administration, with the announcement Monday of $500 million for job training grants from the Department of Labor. The grants, which range from $24 million to $2.5 million, will go to 49 community colleges, some of which are sharing the money for projects across consortiums...

CT Mirror - In-state tuition law has a big impact for a small number (September 27, 2011) - Lucas Codognolla's story is the classic immigrant saga: He's working two jobs to put himself through the University of Connecticut's Stamford branch, where he's determined to be the first in his family to earn a bachelor's degree. But there's a twist: He's one of a handful of students taking advantage of a new law granting in-state tuition to undocumented residents...

CT Mirror - After years of growth, enrollment drops at community colleges (September 23, 2011) - Enrollment is down this fall at the state's community colleges following 13 years of steady growth, and school officials say a lack of money to provide all the course offerings students want and need is likely contributing to the decline...

Inside Higher Ed - Questioning Assumptions (September 26, 2011) - When big thinkers get together to talk about community colleges, they typically focus on external forces buffeting the sector, like budget cuts, swelling enrollments and political pressure caused by the "college completion" agenda. What community colleges actually do can get lost in the shuffle...

Inside Higher Ed - Thanks, but No Thanks (September 26, 2011) - U.S. News & World Report is not going to change the way it composes its annual rankings of colleges and universities in a significant way anytime soon, regardless of how admissions counselors and higher education admissions officers feel about them...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - The Graying Presidency (September 25, 2011) - A Social Security check could accompany the generous compensation package of a number of college presidents these days. The average age of a college leader is 60, so it's no surprise that a wave of retirements in higher education's top jobs is imminent...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Faster Internet Service Fuels Growth at West Virginia Community Colleges (September 25, 2011) - Community colleges in West Virginia are gearing up for a major upgrade in their statewide broadband network-a move that will provide new opportunities in distance education to institutions in a mountainous state that has long been unable to provide decent Internet access. Some colleges are already reaping the benefits, seeing enrollment increases in online courses...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - All Together: the Role of Latino Families in Higher Education (September 25, 2011) - I am a college graduate because of my family. Growing up as military brats, my siblings and I knew our parents expected us to go to college. While they themselves had not gone, they made their expectations clear and set standards high. But they didn't know how to navigate the higher-education system. It was my job to figure out how to actually get to college...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Which Core Matters More? (September 25, 2011) - Potential students hoping to gauge the quality of courses at Portland State University might be forgiven for feeling a bit confused. On the one hand, the University Studies program, which uses interdisciplinary seminars during the first two years to develop students' core skills, has been widely praised and emulated...

Inside Higher Ed - Integrated Solutions (September 23, 2011) - In a speech to his campus last week, Southwestern University President Jake Schrum outlined a plan to restructure the university's administration to improve the delivery of services to students and faculty and save money in the long run. Among the options he proposed was a change to the information technology office and the library. Under the new plan, the departments would be combined into one administrative unit...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - More Diversity on Campus Leads to Less Diversity Among Friends, Study Finds (September 22, 2011) - Students on large campuses are more likely to have friends who share their attitudes and beliefs, according to a study which found that the larger the enrollment, the more opportunity people have to choose friends much like themselves...

US News - Which High School Students Are Most Likely to Graduate From College? (September 9, 2009) - Parents: Stop fretting so much about which high school your youngsters attend or how they score on the SATs. If you want your student to make it to a bachelor's degree, it's far more important for him or her to earn at least B's in high school and reach for the best possible college. Oh, and saving a few thousand bucks by sending your kid to a community college could turn out to be an expensive mistake...

The Daily Free Press - Lower GPA for financial aid assuages students, aligns standards (September 27, 2011) - Boston University students struggling to make grades high enough to maintain their financial aid will have to worry a little less this year thanks to a change in policy announced earlier this month. In a letter sent to students on Sept. 9, the Office of Financial Assistance announced that the minimum grade-point average for students renewing financial aid requests changed from 2.3 to 2.0 starting with renewals for the 2011-12 academic year...

Fox Business - Families Wise Up About Paying for College (September 26, 2011) - Despite the worst economic slowdown since the Great Depression, the collapse of housing prices, sharp declines in the financial markets and an unemployment rate stubbornly stuck above 9%, there is one thing that keeps going up: the cost of a college education. According to the College Board, during the 2010-2011 school year, tuition jumped nearly 8% at public institutions and 4.5% at private schools...

Hartford Courant - Team Offers Talented Athletes A Second Chance (September 25, 2011) - When the Friday night lights go out on a high school player's football career, some find themselves in a place where the starry-eyed dreams of youth meet the dead stare of reality...He started attending Manchester Community College and had played a year of semi-pro football when his high school coach told him about the Grizzlies...

AvonPatch - The Artwork of Jordan Deschene at the Farmington Valley Arts (September 24, 2011) - Jordan Deschene cites Dr. Seuss and the surrealist school of painters as primary influences in his fantasy artwork, which is on display at the Farmington Valley Arts Center...he enrolled at Manchester Community College and from there proceeded to the University of Hartford. Deschene graduated with a degree in illustration in 2008...

CT Mirror - With half of schools failing NCLB, Malloy to seek a waiver (September 23, 2011) - With almost half the schools in Connecticut failing to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was quick to say the state would be seeking a waiver from the federal law's requirements under a process announced today by President Obama...

Journal Inquirer - New principal named for Great Path Academy in Manchester (September 11, 2011) - Leslie Torres Rodriguez, who was most recenty a Grade 9 principal at Manchester High School, has been named the principal of Great Path Academy. "Dr. Torres-Rodriguez is a gifted educator who is well respected by the school community," said Denise Gallucci, deputy executive director of the Capitol Region Education Council or CREC. "Her talents, commitment, and belief in students will take Great Path Academy to new heights." The school, which is located on the grounds of Manchester Community College, is managed by CREC and allows students to enroll in up to eight credits per semester in college classes...

The Chronicle of Higher Ed - Community Colleges Receive $500-Million for Job-Training Programs (September 26, 2011) - Community colleges across the country will receive about $500-million in federal grants beginning on Monday, the first of four payments in a $2-billion plan announced last year that is intended to improve career-development programs and train an ailing work force...

Inside Higher Ed - The Case of the Missing Applicants (September 28, 2011) - I'll preface by saying that I work on the academic side of the college, as opposed to admissions. So there's a fundamental ignorance underlying this. I hope that commenters who know this stuff better than I do will be kind...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - If Engineers Were to Rethink Higher Ed's Future (September 27, 2011) - Walk into a college president's office these days, and you'll probably find a degree hanging on the wall from one of three academic disciplines: education, social sciences, or the humanities and fine arts. Some 70 percent of college leaders completed their studies in one of those fields, according to the American Council on Education...

Collegewebeditor.com - Extreme makeover for your online course catalog: How to turn THE catalog into an influential publication (September 27, 2011) - Yesterday I got a peek at what Colleen Jones, author of "Clout: the Art and Science of Influential Web Content," will talk about in her master class next week...on Influential Web Content Strategy for Higher Ed and this got me thinking about ways to make the dreaded online course catalog more influential and engaging...

CT Mirror - College admissions directors paying more attention to money (September 26, 2011) - Prospective students' ability to pay tuition and fees is becoming an increasingly-important factor in college admissions decisions, according to a survey of top admissions officials by Inside Higher Education...

Inside Higher Ed - The Myth of College as a Fairy Tale (September 23, 2011) - I was in college and graduate school for nearly ten years, and in that time I must've had 1,000 different people tell me, "Wait until you graduate and go out in the real world," or "Graduating next year, huh? You'll finally be in the real world." And every time I heard such stupidity I wanted to slam a pie in the speaker's face. Even toward the end of my Ph.D. program, when I was working 70 hours a week and earning $20,000 a year, an occasional nitwit would say something like, "Well the party's almost over; time for the real world...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - How to Boost Spending on Community Colleges (September 21, 2011) - President Obama has put community colleges at the center of the effort to raise U.S. student attainment rates, yet a new report from the Delta Cost Project suggests financial support for the two-year sector is in decline. The gross mismatch between the grand expectations for community colleges and the declining resources calls for creative thinking about how to boost funding for-and results from-two-year institutions...