Hartford Courant - $11.4 Million Multiuse Trail Plan Gets Warm Reception in Manchester (January 22, 2013) - State Sen. Steve Cassano said he could remember the first time a multiuse trail was proposed for the town..."This has been an unbelieveable asset for all, but especially those persons with disabilities and in chairs," George Ducharme, of Manchester Community College's Institute of Disability and Community Inclusion, said...

Journal Inquirer - Poetry, Music Thursday at MCC on Main (January 16, 2013) - The Mishimaya-gat Spoken Word & Music Series kicks off its 2013 season on Thursday, Jan. 17, from 7-9 p.m., in Manchester Community College's downtown performance space...

Inside Higher Ed - Digital Learning, for the Learners (January 24, 2013) - It was probably inevitable that any group of people who sought, however tentatively, to define "the rights, responsibilities, and possibilities for education in the globally connected world of the present and beyond" would find themselves accused of excluding important parties, of being "top-down," and of hubris...

Inside Higher Ed - College Chiefs Contemplate Completion (January 24, 2013) - College leaders should embrace the goal of getting college degrees into the hands of more Americans, which may require changes in campus culture and more aggressive steps to improve graduation rates, a group of college presidents from across all sectors wrote in an open letter to their peers released Wednesday night...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - State Spending on Higher Education Rebounds in Most States After Years of Decline (January 21, 2013) - After falling nearly 11 percent since the 2008 fiscal year, state appropriations for higher education are on the rise in most states. But the long-term effects of budget cuts stemming from the economic downturn still could take years to erase, according to an annual survey...

Inside Higher Ed - It's the Economy, Stupid (January 21, 2013) - While there's a lot of chatter and pessimism about how the Great Recession changed the nature of states' relationships with their higher education institutions, this year's Grapevine survey of state appropriations hints that the new normal might be more normal than new...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Brown's Proposals Would Bring Big Changes to California 2-Year Colleges (January 21, 2013) - At the same time Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing increased funds for California's vast community-college system, he is seeking controversial changes in how those 112 campuses operate, the Los Angeles Times reports...

Inside Higher Ed - Advanced Placement, Not Credit (January 18, 2013) - Advanced Placement courses might cover college-level content, but Dartmouth College has decided that's not the same as taking a college course. So beginning with the class of 2018, the college will no longer grant credit based on its students' AP test scores in high school...

Inside Higher Ed - Working Without Pay (January 18, 2013) - College food drives are usually organized by student groups aiming to serve needy off-campus populations. The one this week at Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Michigan is different. It's benefiting part-time faculty members who can't make ends meet until their late paychecks arrive at the beginning of next month...

Inside Higher Ed - What Student Aid Research Shows (January 22, 2013) - With the renewal of the Higher Education Act in the offing and the second act of a president who focused heavily on higher education in his first term now under way, the hunt for big or new (or at least helpful) ideas about student aid policy is in full swing -- and the stakes are high...

The Day - Lanzo named VP at Liberty Bank (January 24, 2013) - Joan Lanzo of Niantic, previously a lending officer in the region for Bank of America and Citizens Bank, has been named vice president of small business solutions for Middletown-based Liberty Bank...

Inside Higher Ed - Being Present (January 24, 2013) - One potentially positive result of the current fascination with online education is that universities and colleges may be forced to define and defend quality education...

Inside Higher Ed - But Wait! There's More! (January 23, 2013) - My Dad used to teach courses on advertising, which was how he justified his weird attention to commercials. He used to pick up on odd turns of phrase from locally produced ads...

Inside Higher Ed - Wandering Eyes... (January 22, 2013) - Nate Kreuter's latest is well worth checking out. It's about the fear -- sometimes founded, sometimes not -- that people have when they look for other jobs that their current employer will hold it against them...