Eyewitness News - Community colleges prepare for upgrades  (October 5, 2011) -

Manchester Community College has big plans for the next decade, to the tune of $125 million. At least according to a draft master plan it's working on. The question of where the money is going to come from keeps coming up, though. Officials said that the truth is, there is no money right now...

Journal Inquirer - $124 million plan for MCC (October 4, 2011) - A new 75,000-square-foot academic building, more performance space, and additional parking at Manchester Community College are some recommendations a planning firm has offered as officials prepare for the next decade...

Manchester Patch - Meet Jackie Bishop, AmeriCorps VISTA Worker (October 3, 2011) - I met Jackie Bishop while on assignment for Manchester Patch at the farmers market on the campus of Manchester Community College where she is one of the market managers. When Jackie told me who she worked for...VISTA - short for Volunteers in Service to America ... I was surprised that the program still existed and I asked Jackie to talk about her work here in Manchester...

New Canaan Patch - Budget Cuts Batter More Than Just Baseball at Connecticut's Largest Community College (October 2, 2011) - When Manchester Community College President Gena Glickman cut the school's baseball program earlier this summer because of budgetary constraints, everyone seemed to notice. But that was just one of many painful cuts the state's largest community college was forced to enact to make up for a budgetary shortfall of about $1.7 million...

Inside Higher Ed - Getting Credit (October 6, 2011) - Rapid growth in the number of students earning credentials at community colleges over the last two decades has outpaced enrollment gains at those institutions, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Association of Community Colleges. Findings include faster gains for minority students, meaning a partial closing of the "achievement gap" in credentials awarded...

New England Journal of Higher Ed - From Kitchen to Classroom: The Serious Study of Food (October 5, 2011) - When Jacques Pépin accepted his honorary doctorate from Boston University this past May, he made note of this truly symbolic moment. While his proposed dissertation focus on food had once been rejected by Columbia University as academically unworthy, a leading university was now granting him a doctorate for his work as a celebrated author, chef and teacher. Much has changed over the past generation in the academic acceptance and even appreciation of the role food plays in our world...

Inside Higher Ed - Feeling the Heat (October 5, 2011) - Running a community college is a higher-profile gig these days. And that newfound attention, both positive and negative, extends to the top rung of decision making at community colleges: trustees...

Community College Times - A culture of assessment promotes student success (October 5, 2011) - Community colleges under pressure to increase completion rates and student outcomes are increasingly relying on assessments to measure their progress and fine-tune their programs to achieve better results. Lake Area Technical Institute (LATI) in South Dakota collected and analyzed data on students, graduates and businesses to make sure its education programs are meeting employers' needs...

Huffington Post - Bringing Career Planning into Liberal Arts Classrooms (October 5, 2011) - Life after college has gotten harder in the recession's wake, and colleges are not doing enough to prepare students for an anxiety-inducing job market. As a result, there is increasing skepticism about the value of college. The debate over higher education, however, is about far more than the return-on-investment for a degree. Indeed, America's future economic competitiveness is at stake...

Inside Higher Ed - A New Brand (October 4, 2011) - As a former marketing officer with high-profile brands such as Microsoft and Quaker Oats who also had a stint as the vice president for marketing and communications at the Seattle Children's Hospital, David R. Perry could probably land a marketing executive job at a Fortune 500 company. But this fall Perry began his new job as chief marketing officer at Bentley University, a private, business-oriented university in Massachusetts with about 5,500 students...

CT Mirror - When green jobs open up, will workforce be there? (October 3, 2011) - Gateway Community College in New Haven had great expectations for the inaugural term of its Center for a Sustainable Future, with 10 continuing education courses from hands-on solar training in a brand-new lab to certification as a sustainable building adviser...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Syracuse's Slide As Chancellor Focuses on the 'Public Good,' Syracuse's Reputation Slides (October 2, 2011) - Nancy Cantor is the chancellor of Syracuse University, but if you didn't know better you might think she was the mayor of this town. Since she took over at the university seven years ago, the institution has spent tens of millions of dollars-and attracted much more-to revitalize this sagging Rust Belt city...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Fingers Crossed, Leaders of Community Colleges Hope for Cash to Fix Facilities (October 2, 2011) - In many ways, Victor Valley College has an exceptionally modern campus. Thirty percent of the California community college's energy comes from a sprawling six-acre field of solar panels... Its science building houses a state-of-the-art planetarium. And most of the institution's grass has been replaced with sustainable, synthetic landscaping to conserve water, a priority at a college located in the Mojave Desert. But when it comes to the basics, much of Victor Valley is falling apart...

CT Mirror - A big investment and a little luck bring a $1.1 billion genetics lab (September 30, 2011) - A leading genetics laboratory based in Maine committed today to establishing a $1.1 billion research institute at the UConn Health Center, a deal that provides an unexpectedly rapid return on Connecticut's new bioscience initiative...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Education Leaders Stress Need to Give Credit for Life Experience (September 28, 2011) - The time has come to make it easier for students to earn credit for practical skills obtained outside the classroom, said education leaders during a conference on Wednesday at the Center for American Progress. "Prior-learning assessment," which recognizes experiential learning, like on-the-job training, military experience, or volunteering, should be taken seriously, the speakers said, especially now when increasing college graduation rates is a priority for lawmakers and educators...

Inside Higher Ed - Republicans Push Pell Changes (September 30, 2011) - House Republicans released a proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year on Thursday that would preserve the maximum Pell Grant at $5,550 but change the program's eligibility criteria, make deep cuts to colleges that serve minorities, and block enforcement of some of the Education Department's controversial program integrity rules. One beneficiary of the proposed legislation: The National Institutes of Health, which would see its budget rise by 3.3 percent...

Yahoo Finance - Things Student Loan Companies Won't Say (September 27, 2011) - Sure, they'll help pay for college. But good luck paying them back...

The Korea Times - First lady 'coaches' chefs on Korean food amid criticism (September 22, 2011) - First lady Kim Yoon-ok stepped up efforts Thursday to promote Korean food in New York, the Mecca for dishes from around the world...American chef Angelo Sosa presented kimchi and a hamburger he gave a Korean flavor to by adding bibimbap. After tasting some dishes there, Kim praised Sosa for making an effort to localize Korean food...

CT Mirror - A 'change agent' seeks consensus on school reform (October 5, 2011) - When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy tabbed Stefan Pryor, a charter school founder, as the state's next education commissioner, the appointment raised eyebrows among some in public education circles. Would Pryor, whose career has been shaped both inside and outside the education arena, be able to win over a public school establishment that viewed some charter advocates with suspicion...

CT Mirror - Union pushes for power to set teacher standards (September 30, 2011) - The state's largest teachers union is urging state legislators to remove the authority to set certification and ethical standards for teachers from the State Department of Education and have an autonomous panel led by educators determine those requirements for themselves...

CT Mirror - ConnCAN names new leader (October 6, 2011) - Patrick Riccards has been tapped to lead ConnCAN, one of the state's top education reform groups. Riccards takes over the reins from Alex Johnston as the state heads into a legislative session in February that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has promised to focus on education...

CT Mirror - Unions chastise Malloy for allowing October longevity pay for managers (September 30, 2011) - Bargaining units representing more than 6,400 unionized state employees chastised Gov. Dannel P. Malloy this afternoon for allowing non-union managers and executives to receive longevity bonuses in October under a new capping system while unionized staff will forfeit some or all of theirs...

Inside Higher Ed - New Higher Education Model (October 6, 2011) - Today, our public colleges and universities are facing some of the toughest challenges they have ever encountered. The choices they make about how they deliver quality education to the millions of students who depend on them will determine whether our country will continue to be a global economic leader, or whether other countries will surpass us in postsecondary achievement...

Inside Higher Ed - Tolerance for Ambiguity (October 5, 2011) - "That's stupid."As a professor, I gritted my teeth every time I heard a student say that. It was an attempt to shut down discussion of something that didn't lend itself to an easy answer. Since then, I've seen it applied to all manner of things, from gadgets that don't behave to other people's motives...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Beyond Super and Ill-Prepared Students, How About Some With Creativity? (October 2, 2011) - We're quickly headed toward a future in which college students will either be super achievers or unprepared for the workplace. At least that's according to dueling op-ed pieces in two of our nation's most influential newspapers on Sunday. On one hand, you have "super people" whose abilities and activities as students are literally off the charts (James Atlas, The New York Times). On the other hand, you have college graduates lacking basic skills because of colleges "coddling" them (Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post)...

What, What? - Wait; did he just say what I think he said? Malloy Administration and the State Employee Health Enhancement Program (September 29, 2011) - It is widely understood that the proposed state employee health care changes was one of the primary reasons that the Malloy/SEBAC agreement failed from passing by a sufficient number the first time around. Initially called the Value-Based Health Plan, the concept was quickly changed to the State Employee Health Enhancement Program...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Think Different? Not in Higher Ed (September 22, 2011) - When Steve Jobs introduced the "Think Different" advertising campaign on his return to the helm of Apple, in 1997, the slogan was not just aimed at consumers. It was also meant to inspire those inside the struggling company to innovate for the future...Many in higher ed believe the analogy with businesses doesn't apply to them. They think they have a corner on the credential business and right now a credential is the ticket to most good jobs...