Without even entering Grand Central Terminal’s soaring main hall on one Thursday evening in July, Nerdeen Kiswani and her pro-Palestinian protest group, Within Our Lifetime, managed to shut it down. All it took was a flier, posted online, calling on her followers to meet by the iconic clock in the …
Read More »How States Are Enticing Employers to Help Their Workers Save for College
As higher education becomes ever more expensive, some states are giving employers incentives to contribute to 529 college savings accounts for their workers. Fifteen percent of employers with 500 or more employees now help workers fund 529 plans, either by letting them deposit their own money through paycheck deductions or …
Read More »Judge Halts Biden Student Debt Plan Right After It Was Allowed to Proceed
A federal judge in Missouri temporarily blocked a Biden administration plan to cancel student debt less than a day after another judge had allowed it to proceed, throwing into uncertainty the fate of a program that could affect more than 27 million borrowers. The decision, which came down late Thursday, …
Read More »Students Paid Thousands for a Caltech Boot Camp. Caltech Didn’t Teach It.
Raymond Sewer said he had good reason to believe that the California Institute of Technology would be deeply involved in the cloud computing “boot camp.” Caltech’s website touted the online program, and the school’s orange logo appeared on the promised certificates of completion. “I was just like, ‘Ah, man, this …
Read More »Brandeis President Steps Down Amid Budget Issues and Protests
Brandeis University said on Wednesday that its president of eight years, Ronald D. Liebowitz, will step down. The announcement by the university’s board of trustees followed a vote of no confidence in Dr. Liebowitz by the faculty, which accused him of “damaging errors in judgment and poor leadership.” In taking …
Read More »The U.S. News College Rankings Are Out. Cue the Rage and Obsession.
After months of tumult on American college campuses, relative stability in one realm returned on Tuesday, when U.S. News & World Report published its oft-disparaged but nevertheless closely watched rankings. Many top schools held the same, or similar, spots they had a year ago. Among national universities, Princeton was ranked …
Read More »Report on Antisemitism at CUNY Calls for Changes Across the System
An independent review ordered by Gov. Kathy Hochul has found that the City University of New York needs to “significantly” overhaul and update its policies in order to handle the levels of antisemitism and discrimination that exist on its campuses. CUNY campuses have been a center of pro-Palestinian activism for …
Read More »Penn Suspends Amy Wax, Law Professor Accused of Making Racist Statements
The University of Pennsylvania is suspending Amy Wax, a tenured law professor accused of making racist, sexist and homophobic remarks, for a year with half pay. It is a significant sanction but one that falls short of the firing that some students wanted. The university issued a “public letter of …
Read More »Back to School and Back to Normal. Or at Least Close Enough. (Published 2022)
This article is part of our Learning special report about how the pandemic has continued to change how we approach education. For the last few years, each “back to school” has been radically different. September 2019 was the last return to school before Covid-19 arrived and sent students home, teachers …
Read More »At the Edge of a Cliff, Some Colleges Are Teaming Up to Survive (Published 2022)
This article is part of our Learning special report about how the pandemic has continued to change how we approach education. Dylan Smith went to high school just two miles from Adrian College but wasn’t interested in applying to the Michigan liberal arts school of just over 1,600 undergraduates. As …
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