Inside Higher Ed - Warnings of Unintended Consequences (January 25, 2012) - In his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, President Obama delivered a brief message to colleges and universities: they are "on notice," and risk losing some federal money if net tuition prices continue to increase...

Inside Higher Ed - On Notice (January 25, 2012) - President Obama put higher education squarely in his rhetorical sights during the State of the Union address Tuesday night, calling for plans to reduce the interest rate on student loans, extend popular tax credits and shore up support for community colleges' job training programs...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Despite Budget Problems, States Continue Working on College Readiness (January 25, 2012) - Even with the continued tightening of state funds for elementary and secondary education, states are working to adopt new standards that would better prepare their students for college, says a report from the Center on Education Policy...

Inside Higher Ed - Alumni Adrift (January 25, 2012) - Researchers created quite a stir last year - to say the least - with the release of Academically Adrift, the book about a longitudinal study that found many students don't learn much in college, particularly in the way of skills like critical thinking and analytic reasoning. The culprit, the authors argue, is a lack of academic rigor in most classes that required little reading, writing and studying...

Inside Higher Ed - Race Matters (January 25, 2012) - The Department of Education has acknowledged using flawed data in a study on the impact of race on student loan repayment rates, having omitted black students from its calculation. The analysis was conducted during the debate over gainful employment regulations, in response to complaints that the rules would hurt colleges that enroll relatively high percentages of minority students...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - 'Adrift' in Adulthood: Students Who Struggled in College Find Life Harsher After Graduation (January 25, 2012) - College graduates who showed paltry gains in critical thinking and little academic engagement while in college have a harder time than their more accomplished peers as they start their careers...

Inside Higher Ed - A Controversial Credential (January 24, 2012) - Student affairs professionals are lining up on either side of a divisive issue: whether those in their profession need to be credentialed...

Inside Higher Ed - Know Your Professor (January 24, 2012) - Until now, college students mostly have relied on word of mouth, professors' reputations, previous student evaluations and the often rude and anonymous comments (complete with a "hotness" ranking) on RateMyProfessors.com before choosing a professor for a particular class...

CT Mirror - UConn expected to expand who's required to report child sex abuse (January 23, 2012) - The after-effects of the 2011 Penn State child abuse scandal continue here, with both the University of Connecticut and state legislators examining possible policy changes regarding who must report such incidents...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - States Push Even Further to Cut Spending on Colleges (January 22, 2012) -For nearly four years, governors and state legislators have focused on little else in higher education but cutting budgets to deal with historic gaps in revenue. Now, with higher-education support at a 25-year low, lawmakers are considering some policy changes that have been off-limits in the past, such as consolidating campuses and eliminating governing boards...

New England Journal of Higher Ed - Native Tribal Scholars: Building an Academic Community (January 23, 2012) - When I first started as interim director of the Institute for New England Native American Studies (INENAS) based at the University of Massachusetts Boston, I was given three studies that broadly identified specific needs and disparities of Native people in the region...

CT Mirror - Connecticut's colleges curtail their lobbying of Washington (January 20, 2012) - With federal money drying up, Connecticut's colleges are rethinking the value of a Washington lobbyist. The Connecticut State University system hired the Washington lobbying firm McAllister & Quinn, paying it more than $100,000 last year to seek federal funding for a robotics project at Central Connecticut State University. The university also wanted the firm to secure millions of federal dollars for transportation projects at the system's four schools...

Community College Times - In Illinois, the focus is now on finishing (January 20, 2012) - Illinois' lieutentant governor, fresh off a tour of all 48 community colleges in the state, is calling on education leaders and lawmakers to adopt her proposed reforms-from closer ties with K-12, to public funding based on student success-in order to increase the number of state residents with postsecondary credentials...

CT Board of Regents - Board Recommends Dr. Robert A. Kennedy For Permanent Appointment (January 19, 2012) - The Board of Regents for Higher Education (BOR) today recommended Dr. Robert A. Kennedy to Governor Dannel P. Malloy for the position of BOR President. Kennedy has served as the board's Interim President since September and was president of the University of Maine at Orono immediately prior to his time in Connecticut...

CASE - Using New Media Tools to Promote Faculty Research (January 18, 2012) - Most media professionals are now familiar with some online tools-if they don't at least read blogs or participate in social networks, then they have had articles or press releases published on their institution's website. But how can new media like blogs and content-sharing sites help advancement folks with an issue as old as parchment and quill pens: getting a general audience excited about academic research...

Inside Higher Ed - State Support Slumps Again (January 23, 2012) - The news will come as no surprise to the public college administrators and faculty members who've seen their budgets slashed over the past year. But an annual study of state spending on higher education finds that state appropriations for colleges and students sunk by 7.6 percent in 2011-12, the largest such decline in at least a half century...

Journal Inquirer - MCC women roll past Bristol (January 24, 2012) - The versatility of Elise Chase helped the Manchester Community College women's basketball team win a game Tuesday night...

Reminder News - Local painter shares her "One Fine Day" on Gold Pages cover (January 20, 2012) - When South Windsor artist Nancy J. McIntire set up her canvas and oil paints... McIntire went back to school to study visual arts at Manchester Community College when she was in her mid-30s, to "do what I always wanted to do," she said. McIntire now considers herself lucky to be able to pursue her passion. "If I'm not painting, I'm preparing a canvas or out looking at art," she said...

CT Mirror - Coming soon: teacher report cards based on student performance (January 25, 2012) - Years of disagreement have stalled efforts to grade teachers and dismiss those who are ineffective. That all changed Wednesday when a group of educators -- including teachers' unions, superintendent and school board groups -- agreed on how to properly evaluate teachers so those who are struggling are identified and put on a path to improve or be dismissed...

CT Mirror - State budget plunges into the red with promised savings in question (January 25, 2012) - Despite repeated assurances from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy that savings from union concessions and other cost-cutting measures would be achieved, nonpartisan legislative analysts reported a nearly $145 million state budget deficit Wednesday evening...

CT Mirror - Malloy unveils plan to reverse two decades of damage to employees' pension fund (January 23, 2011) - Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled plans Monday to reverse nearly two decades of budget gimmicks that leave the state facing huge payments over the next two decades to sustain Connecticut's grossly underfunded state employee pension fund...

Inside Higher Ed - On Notice? (January 25, 2012) - President Obama has put higher education "on notice" that if we keep raising tuition, we'll get our public funding cut. To which I say, huh?...

Inside Higher Ed - Thoughts on Workforce Development ( January 25, 2012) - What does workforce development look like? The question is becoming more important as the term is gaining political steam. Politicians like to offer workforce development as an answer to the recession. The idea is that if the folks without jobs had the skills to get the jobs that are going unfilled, then everybody would win. Which is true, as far as it goes...

Inside Higher Ed - Redoing Pell (January 24, 2012) - Despite its many accomplishments since its enactment in 1972, the Pell Grant program has strayed in key ways from the initial conception of the Senator for whom it is now named. Instead of disadvantaged students and their families knowing years in advance of their eligibility for aid, the process of applying for and receiving a Pell Grant...

Inside Higher Ed - Rejection (January 23, 2012) - This piece in the Chronicle occasioned quite a few comments, and for good reason. Non-superstar academics under the age of about 60 typically have plenty of good (and bad) rejection stories. This post is an attempt to look at rejection from the other side...

Inside Higher Ed - "Middle Skills" (January 23, 2012) - If you know what "middle skills" are, you're nearly as nerdy as I am. They're the hot new thing in discussions of both economic development and community colleges...