School Notebook

California State University trustees today voted to increase undergraduate student fees by $276 per year as a means of combatting the much-lamented state slashing of public-education funding.

The fee hike will bring in about $110 million in revenue, according to the Office of the Chancellor. Some cash will be set aside in the form of financial aid to offset the increase for the lowest-income students.

A few grafs from the flackage:

"Although the state has not yet adopted next year's budget, the CSU is increasing fees now in order to provide students enrolled for the fall a reasonable amount of time to plan their finances," said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. "Students and their families need to know what the fees will be so that they can appropriately plan for next year's college costs.

"In addition, it is critical for the university to set fees in order to put together student financial aid packages, and to meet federal and state financial aid deadlines."

The CSU Trustees voted 15 to 3 in favor of the fee increase. Trustees John Garamendi, Melinda Guzman, and the student trustee, Jennifer Reimer cast the dissenting votes.

State University Fees for undergraduate, graduate, and teacher credential students increased by 10 percent.

Effective in fall 2008, fees will increase by $276 for undergraduate students, $324 for teacher credential students and $342 for graduate students."

The California Faculty Association immediately released a statement saying the price bump "could not come at a worse time for struggling California families" and asserting that the "most effective form of financial aid for California would be to fully
fund the CSU budget to help reverse the current economic downturn for all
the citizens of the state."

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OMG.

Get this, via the Associated Pressjust a couple hours ago: "Dozens of San Diego State University students were arrested after a sweeping drug investigation found that some fraternity members openly dealt drugs and one even sent a mass text message advertising cocaine, authorities said Tuesday.

"Two kilograms of cocaine were seized, along with 350 Ecstasy pills, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamine, illicit prescription drugs, several guns and at least $60,000 in cash, authorities said."

Wow.

Apparently members of both the Theta Chi and Phi Kappa Psi fraternities were among the 96 total people arrested.

This bust, understandably, has become big news.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

California Community Colleges chancellor Dianne Woodruff and the Governator himself earlier today appeared at a joint press conference to announce that a massive donation has just been made to provide scholarships for community-college students statewide.

The Bernard Osher Foundation has pledged $70 million to the system, the "largest single gift that has ever been given to community colleges in the history of this country," Woodruff said in her remarks.

More of what she said:
"So you can imagine that this gift from Mr. and Mrs. Osher, which will provide $1,000 scholarships for students at all 109 of our community colleges, is going to make an absolutely incredible difference in the lives of our students. These scholarships will send a powerful message of hope to students all over the state that the Oshers and others believe in them and want to help them realize the American dream of getting a college education. And for many of our students I know that these scholarships will make the critical difference between whether or not they will be able to succeed in school and get that college education -- and particularly now, given the state of our economy, these scholarships are more important than ever. This gift is not only going to have a very significant impact on the success of our students but also on our colleges.

"I think it is brilliant how the Osher Foundation has structured this gift. The first $25 million of the gift will immediately fund an endowment which will enable us to begin giving scholarships to students next year in 2009, but the second $25 million of the gift must be matched two to one by the community colleges. And by making the gift in this manner it will provide a very powerful incentive that will help our colleges raise other private funds. You know, I have always dreamed of having an endowment like the Harvards and the Stanfords and now, with Mr. Osher's help, we are on our way to having a $100 million endowment which will provide 5,000 scholarships every year for our students.

"But that's not all. The Osher Foundation is providing an additional $20 million to support scholarships at the University of California and the California State Universities, but these will be restricted to community college transfer students. (Applause) And of course this is so important, because so many of our students do transfer to UC and CSU. In fact, almost two-thirds of all CSU graduates are community college transfers and similarly, almost one-third of all UC graduates are community college transfers. So this gift will continue to help our community college students after they leave us and have transferred to UC and CSU to help them so that they can complete their four-year degree."

The largest public higher-education system in the U.S., the California Community Colleges serve some 2.6 million students at 109 schools.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The education page over at MSNBC.com has this very interesting feature about a fascinating new way that some colleges are trying to attract students: By designing ads aimed specifically at sought-after pupils.

And by "specifically," I mean, like, to the name. Literally.

Among the kids included in the story are 18-year-old Nicole Pollock, of Pennsylvania, whose name, in an ad campaign by Wilkes University, was "plastered ... on billboards, pizza boxes and gas pumps -- and even aired a commercial on MTV -- in hopes of getting her to enroll. As one message put it: "We just hope you're on your way to Wilkes University next year."

Wow! Imagine driving down the highway and seeing your name on a billboard, begging you to attend some fancy school.

So far it sounds like this new technique is more or less unique to Wilkes University, but it can't be long before other schools follow suit to some degree, right? Let me know if you hear of such a thing happening anywhere around here.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new GI Bill is in the works, updating the old version to continue encouraging homebound service people to pursue education by helping them pay for it.

U.S. Represenative Jane Harman, who hails from our area, today announced her support for the bipartisan legislation that would -- for soldiers returning from Iraq or Afghanistan with at least three years active duty -- provide "benefits to cover the costs of a four-year education up to the level of the most expensive in-state public school, along with a stipend for housing, books and other expenses," according to a press release.

"Education benefits would be available to troops who have served at least 3 months of active duty service since September 11, 2001," it adds, "including members of the National Guard and Reserve."

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our sister paper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram has a story today (which also appears in the Breeze) about students at Cal State Long Beach getting pretty p.o.'d yesterday when an apparently extremely right-leaning religious group came on campus to express their polarizing opinions, which included "large signs warning of God's "anger" and "judgment" for groups like gays and lesbians, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, "unsubmissive wives," adulterers and "people that talk to their pets more than God," Kevin Butler reports.

Oh boy.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The San Francisco Chronicle has the story today, out of its Washington D.C. bureau, about the ongoing "credit crunch" in financial markets is starting to have a trickle-down effect on the student-loan sector.

Zachary Coile reports that several lenders in recent weeks have stopped offering federally guaranteed student loans. Actual students have yet to feel the impact, he adds, quoting some financial aid types at various universities who don't see cause for concern ... but it's something people are keeping a close eye on, regardless.

It's well worth a read if you or your kids are about to be in the market for a student loan.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I bring you this press release from Cal State Long Beach, which details the triumph of a campus math team in a national contest. One of the three-member team, grad student Joshua Lampkins, hails from Gardena and attended El Camino College before transferring to LB.

Here you go, courtesy of the CSULB communications peeps:

"A team of three students from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) turned in the campus' highest-ever finish at the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, the oldest and most prestigious math competition in North America.

Graduate student Joshua Lampkins, senior M. Tip Phaovibul and sophomore Sarav Patel teamed up to finish 42nd out of 516 college and universities in the 2007 Putnam math contest (scores were just recently release from the Dec. 1 competition). Their combined score led to CSULB's highest ranking since resuming the competition in 1999, said mathematics professor and team advisor Kent Merryfield.

In addition, Lampkins scored among the top 200 individuals out of 3,753 participating students. In fact, Lampkins, who earned his B.S. degree in mathematics from CSULB, joined three UC Berkeley students as the only four California competitors ranked in the top 200. He tied among four students for 188th place.

The Putnam competition, which began in 1938, is for undergraduate students from the United States and Canada and is sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. For the contest, campuses field teams of three students, along with alternates if desired, and the six-hour exam is administered on each participating campus under the direction of a faculty advisor. This year, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford and Duke were the top five institutions.

As for CSULB's performance in the Putnam, Patel said, "we may get counted out as a CSU, but we've shown that we can definitely compete with the more prestigious schools this year."

All three students have a clear idea of their future career paths, especially Lampkins and Phaovibul who will be moving on from CSULB after the spring semester.

"I will be entering a Ph.D. program in the fall, possibly UCLA," Lampkins said. "I would like to study number theory and/or combinatorics. The two main career options for Ph.D.s in pure mathematics are teaching and researching, and after I get my degree, I am not sure which one I will pursue."

Phaovibul has received a full doctoral fellowship from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was president of the CSULB Mathematics and Statistics Student Association and is vice president of CSULB's College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Student Council.

"My current goal is to obtain the Ph.D. in mathematics, specializing in analytical number theory," with the aim of becoming a university math professor, he said. "But, during summer, I would like to go to Africa and build houses and schools for the orphans over there."

Patel, CSULB President's Scholar, has a different career path in mind after graduation. "I'm planning on attending medical school after I graduate next year, although I may end up taking a year off to travel or work," he said.

Patel has been coaching the Mathcounts program at McAuliffe Middle School in Los Alamitos. "I actually participated in Mathcounts while I was in middle school, so it definitely feels good come full circle and work with the kids."

Congrats. I stink at math personally, but I'm glad we have people out there that don't!

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continuing my tangent of alerting you to education-tinged stories in other people's papers, here's something out of today's New York Times.

It relates the tale of a student-cum-con-man, who falsified transcripts, lied on his application and was ultimately rewarded with not only admission to Yale University, but more than 30 G's (that's $30,000-plus, people) in scholarships.

Smarty pants!

Apparently the deception of the devious Mr. Akash Maharaj was discovered by officials last year and he was promptly dismissed from the school ... and this is all coming to light only now thanks to student paper the Yale Daily News, which reported it earlier this week.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Los Angeles Times is reporting today that USC is gradually nixing German as a major course of study there, and will ultimately eliminate the department altogether, though a handful of basic language courses will continue to be offered.

Many professors and students are up in arms, but the school's top dogs say the move makes sense for a small department with a high percentage of anticipated faculty retirements.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaking of the U.S. News & World Report rankings (I had a post yesterday about a possible shift in their methodology for determining said rankings): Loyola Marymount University informed me today that, for the first time, its School of Education landed on the magazine's list of, you guessed it, "Top Schools of Education."

From the press release:
The list ranks more than the 250 top Schools of Education, out of more than 800 schools around the nation. LMU placed 117th on the list. It was the fourth highest ranked Jesuit institution in the country and the 13th top ranked school in California.

“This is the first year our School of Education was eligible for consideration for the U.S. News & World Report rankings,” said Shane P. Martin, dean for the School of Education. “I’m so proud of the work our faculty, staff and students do that made this ranking possible. I know we’ll continue to work hard and move forward in the years to come.”

Graduate programs at 278 schools granting doctoral degrees in education were surveyed in fall 2007 and early 2008. Of those schools, 245 responded; 242 provided the data needed to calculate rankings based on a weighted average of the 10 quality measures. Some of the measures included a quality assessment survey given to deans; average GRE scores and acceptance rates; faculty resources and research activities among faculty.

Top ranked schools included Stanford, UCLA, Vanderbuilt and Columbia. Other Jesuit institutions included Boston College, Fordham University and Marquette University.

Visit the U.S. News website for complete rankings. To learn more about LMU's School of Education, go here.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know those annual rankings of college and universities printed by U.S. News & World Report, generally prestigious but more and more controversial?

Well, it appears the magazine may be on the verge of altering its methodology, and high-school counselors may be thrown into the mix.

At least that's according to the web publication Inside Higher Ed, which is reporting today that U.S. News has sent surveys to about 1,600 high school counseling offices, asking them to evaulate colleges and noting that the results may (i.e., perhaps, but not definitely -- they're taking a wait-and-see approach) be used in next year's rankings.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An academic living locally -- one who, coincidentally, has been quoted here in the Daily Breeze a time or two -- has just been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholar award.

Thanks to the honor, Torrance resident Roger G. Robins, Assistant Professor of History and Political Science at Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, will spend the 2008-2009 school year lecturing in Japan, where he will lead courses in American history and religion at Tokyo University.

Congrats Roger, that rules!

According to flackage sent my way by the school, "the Japan Lectureship is one of the most coveted awards in the Fulbright Scholar Program, which will send approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad this year."

Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright, the program’s purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world.

Award recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It operates in over 150 countries worldwide.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm slow to start today, distracted all morning playing catch up on emails and voicemails and, admittedly, neglecting the blog. But then again, many of you are on spring break this week, so maybe you're avoiding your computer (which is what I do on the rare occasion I take vacation) and haven't noticed. But for those of you who have noticed, my apologies to all!

Here are a couple good stories (penned by other people at other publications) for you to check out:

1. The Los Angeles Times has a story many of you will be interested in: It's about several LAUSD campuses about to be forced to share classroom space with charter schools.

2. From the Grey Lady's Sunday edition, the New York Times' piece about the resurgence of philosophy as a popular major at many universities is pretty interesting as well.

That should get you started until I get in gear and find a few more nuggets for your Monday enjoyment. (Do the words "Monday" and "enjoyment" even belong in the same sentence?)

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I spent my Thursday afternoon at El Camino College, first interviewing some students there for a story, then just hunkering down with my laptop to write. Something about the buzz of a campus motivates me and I got things done far more quickly than I ever do at my office.

But I digress.

When I was wandering around deciding where to situate myself, I picked up the current issue of the campus paper, The Union, which, by the way, is written and produced in the most beautiful newsroom I've ever seen, outfitted, as it is, with top-of-the-line, giant, gleaming flat-screen Macs and located in a spacious bottom-floor office of the college's brand-new Humanities building.

Speaking of the Humanities building, which we wrote about when it opened in February (it's the first all-new structure there in about three decades), The Union had a short story reporting that it has already been victimized by vandalism. Apparently a stairwell has already been tagged with graffiti, several brand-new desks have already been scrawled on with markers and a littering problem abounds.

Faculty especially are decrying what they call a lack of respect for the building, and the entire school.

English professor Mimi Ansite told The Union: "...some people don't want to treat the building as a privilege. That's a shame."

Cynthia Silverman, also an English professor, was more direct: "It won't take long for this to look crappy if we don't encourage student responsibility."

I have to say, I'm anti-vandalism overall, for buildings new and old, but this story made me especially sad because the Humanities complex truly is a gorgeous. Here's hoping the offending students tighten it up and keep the facility clean.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rancho Palos Verdes resident and Cal State Long Beach professor Teri Yamada, along with her Cambodia-based colleague Kho Taraith, who she works with on the Nou Hach Literary Project, have been lauded with the Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award.

Yamada supervises -- and Taraith, from Phnom Penh, actually directs -- the project, an international organization that supports Cambodian literature, writers and academics. (Nou Hach was one of Cambodia’s finest early modern writers, an intellectual and a diplomat.) .

“I’m thrilled that we have received this award,” said Yamada, a faculty member of the university's Comparative World Literature and Classics Department. She said she is proud of the project’s reputation as a literary organization that will publish any kind of literary expression within the genres of short fiction and poetry.

“There are other literary organizations in Cambodia directed by the government where participants must belong to a specific political party," Yamada added. "We don’t do that. We are apolitical. Everyone is welcome.”

The project’s cultural efforts include the Nou Hach Literary Journal, the Nou Hach literary competition -- an annual writer’s conference, the writer’s workshops, the classical poetry CD and booklet, the newspaper insert of short fiction and poetry, a literary radio program and a literacy outreach to rural areas.

Yamada's future goals include setting up an Internet café and desktop publishing business to provide an independent source of revenue. She anticipates using the award's accompanying $5,000 grant to fund the
upcoming fifth issue of the Nou Hach Literary Journal as well as a new printer and computer for the Phnom Penh office.

She'll officially receive the award in April at the annual PEN benefit dinner hosted by International PEN, the world’s oldest human rights and international literary organization.

Administered by the Association of American Publishers, the Laber Award is given annually to a book publisher outside the United States who has demonstrated courage and fortitude in the face of political persecution. First bestowed in 2003, it has previously recognized such groups as the independent Iranian publishing community, in care of the Shirin Ebadi Center for Defenders of Human Rights.

The award is named in honor of Jeri Laber, one of the founding members of the International Freedom To Publish Committee, who served as co-founder and director of Helsinki Watch from 1979 to 1995. The IFTPC itself was founded by the Association of American Publishers in 1975. It was one of first groups in the world formed specifically to defend and broaden the freedom of the written word and to protect and promote the rights of book publishers and authors around the world.

For more information about the Nou Hach Literary project and Journal, see www.nouhachjournal.net.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In celebration of Women's History Month, the Torrance-adjacent El Camino College on Thursday hosts a luncheon to honor past recipients of its "Women of Distinction" award.

Guests at the 12:30 to 2 p.m. event, being held in the school's east dining area, will honor South Bay women who have made a difference in their communities and pre-celebrate Cesar Chavez Day.
Featured speaker Ann Lopez, author of "The Farmworker's Journey," will discuss the struggles of women migrant farm workers as well as her personal journey “from Nature Lover to professor.”

The “Women of Distinction" award recognizes outstanding women from the El Camino College area and honors them for their contributions to the community. Honorees are selected based on their contributions in one or more of the following areas: professional accomplishments; leadership and/or mentorship; and social,
educational, or health services.

Those nominated must also live or work in the communities within the college district: El Segundo, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Lawndale, Lennox, Inglewood, Hawthorne and Torrance.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With ever-more fervent interest in green everything -- technology, building et al -- it's only natural that colleges start offering an increasing number of related courses of study.

A school in the Pacific Northwest, the Oregon Institute of Technology, has launched the nation's first four-year undergraduate degree program in renewable-energy systems, which includes classes in photovoltaics, biomass and hydropower, among other things.

The New York Times has a good piece on its website.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, college types, have you heard of this? There's a new-ish website out there (slowly coming up on its first anniversary) targeting the higher-ed crowd with its low-brow content. It's gossip, y'all.

Claiming it aims only to enable "anonymous free speech on college campuses," JuicyCampus.com is basically a clearinghouse of mostly crass comments about university students and professors alike. It's wildly popular, natch, but also becoming controversial. Students at some schools, Malibu's Pepperdine among them, have even implored the site be banned from campus internet servers, so hurtful can the content be.

Apparently you can post anonymously, but are encouraged to name names when you're ranting about that girl in the dorm next door or that prickly professor you're not so fond of.

What do you think? Is it free speech gone too far, or is it just harmless venting?

Read the San Francisco Chronicle's recent piece then check out the site for yourself.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This one will get you thinking:

The Christian Science Monitor covers a study out of Chicago that examined why so few public school students there go on to college, or settle for a lesser education than they report actually wanting.

According to the story, "Eighty-three percent of (Chicago Public School) students aspire to a four-year degree, but about 40 percent of those don't even apply for one, the study found. Among top-achieving students, only 38 percent enrolled in a school that matched their qualifications.'

As the writer further notes, the study may have focused on Chicago students, but it "highlights challenges faced by students everywhere – especially those who are the first in their families to apply to college."

Read the whole thing here.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're in higher education and working on any projects or initiatives to help your peers working in the elementary-school ranks, you may be eligible for the annual grants awarded by the California Postsecondary Education Commission. See the flackage (i.e., the press release) below:

Continue reading "Go For That Grant!" »

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Torrance resident Roger G. Robins, Assistant Professor of History and Political Science at Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, has received a Fulbright Scholar award to lecture in Japan for the 2008-2009 academic year. Robins will be offering graduate and undergraduate courses in American history and religion at Tokyo University.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As the education community at large laments and protests a proposed California budget that would slash funding to schools by a total $5 billion statewide, the California State University system is the latest to get in the mix with an official fight-back campaign. Dubbed "The Alliance for the CSU," it launched yesterday here locally, at CSU Dominguez Hills in Carson.

Read my entire story for details.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Grants of up to $9,700 per year are available for college-bound high school seniors, and workshops are scheduled to help applicants meet the March 2 deadline, the state's Student Aid Commission has announced.

The Cal Grants can be used to help pay for college or career/technical school expenses and do not have to be paid back.

"We want to encourage all eligible students to apply for a Cal Grant by the March 2 deadline, so that cost is no longer a barrier to pursuing a post- secondary education in the state of California," said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.

Last year, about $800 million was made available for more than 299,000 eligible students, according to the commission.

Application workshops will provide help in filling out the required forms. A $1,000 scholarship from the College Access Foundation of California is offered at each workshop as an incentive for students to apply for Cal Grants.

Students must fill out and submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and a Cal Grant GPA Verification form. More information about applications and workshops is available at http://www.calgrants.org or by calling the Student Aid Commission at (888) 224-7268.

Commission telephone lines will be staffed from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. through Friday to help callers complete applications.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As competition to gain entry to the top colleges grows fiercer, students are thinking creatively about how to set themselves apart.

They're increasingly turning to social networking sites -- including two geared to college admissions officers -- so they'll receive that all-important spring prize: the college acceptance letter.

The Ventura County Star talked to students using Zinch and Cappex, where "students can tell colleges more about themselves than a typical application allows, even with essays, interviews and recommendations."

Tell us, students or parents. Do you use these sites? Do you post info on Facebook or MySpace to aid your college application process?

Posted by Paul Clinton at 6:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Using Black History Month as an opportunity to spread their "word," community college leaders have been visiting local megachurches to encourage more African American students to attend college, Melissa Evans reports.

Attendance at CSU colleges among blacks in the fall of 2007 was boosted 6.5 percent.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Family and friends of Greg Smith will gather Saturday (Feb. 23) at California State University, Dominguez Hills to dedicate a garden to the late faculty member.

Smith was an avid environmentalist and one of the original professors when CSUDH opened in Carson in 1968.

He specialized in social geography, a field that explores how people are shaped by their physical surroundings.

Smith died suddenly in 1997, five years after he retired from teaching, while hiking near South Lake Tahoe.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Garamendi and other education leaders will discuss the steep budget cuts from Sacramento at a policy forum on Monday at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

The Governor’s most recent budget proposal calls for $4.8 billion in cuts from K–12 and $500 million for higher education for the 2008-09 year.

Speakers include CSUDH President Mildred Garcia, CA Teachers Assn. Board Member Mary Rose Ortega, CA Faculty Assn. Chapter President David Bradfield and U.C. Student Regent D'Artagnan Scorza.

The panel is at 10:15 a.m. at Welch Hall, but is not open to the public.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

California State University Dominguez Hills police have a student in custody who was reported to be carrying a rifle through the Carson campus, officials said this morning.

The suspect is apparently an ROTC student who was carrying a simulated weapon, according to news reports.

A notice posted on the university's Web site this morning asked that students, faculty and staff stay home. That notice has been updated to say the campus has reopened.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow!

This is great news for working-class families with Stanford-caliber kids: The esteemed school is announcing today that it will stop charging tuition to students whose families earn less than $100,000 annually. Further, it will also waive room and board fees for those whose family income is less than $60,000 per year.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: "The university is making the change in the wake of published reports last month that its endowment had grown almost 22 percent last year, to $17.1 billion. That sum had begun to attract attention from lawmakers who want wealthy institutions to do more to reduce tuition costs."

The plan begins with the 2008-2009 academic year, when the university intends to up its annual endowment payment to 5.5 percent to fund the tuition assistance, Steve Rubenstein's story says.

Click here to read the entire article.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Loyola Marymount University was named one of the five safest colleges in the U.S. by Reader’s Digest on Wednesday.

In the spring, LMU was one of the first colleges to begin using an emergency communication system to notify its students of a security threat. LMU was one of 40 schools to receive an “A” grade for readiness. The article will be printed in the March issue of Reader’s Digest.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LMU undergraduates -- including a cluster of political science majors -- will leave the rarefied air of academia for a real-world lesson in politics and the election process today. More than 200 students will collect, distribute and input the Leavy Center's 2008 Exit Poll Survey today.

The students will speak to 1,700 voters leaving polling locations in the City of Los Angeles (at 50 precincts) to determine how they cast their ballots. Voters from various ethnic backgrounds will be included using the center's "racially stratified homogeneous precint sampling method" (mouthful of jargon, anyone?).

In the Daily Breeze coverage area, students will speak to voters at the California Army National Guard center in San Pedro.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 6:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

High school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District can look forward to more college-level courses, alternative programs and assessment tests under a new collaboration to link them to community colleges.

In a rare joint meeting last week, the boards of Los Angeles Unified and the Los Angeles Community College District agreed to develop the plan and work out the details by July.

The partnership is expected to bring more vocational training for high school students and produce graduates better prepared for college course work.

Read Paul's story for more.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

State Sen. Edward Vincent (D-Inglewood) will host a workshop to help students learn about and apply for financial aid using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and Cal Grant form. The workshop is set for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 2) at the Hawthorne Memorial center, 3901 W. El Segundo Blvd., Hawthorne.

Vincent will award one student a $1,000 scholarship.

Students must apply for a Cal Grant, a state monies given to students to help pay for college expenses, by March 2.

For more information, contact the district office of Vincent, who represents Gardena, Hawthorne and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Call 310-412-0393.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this editorial, the Daily News claims the "imperfect ballot measure" is "the only way to create a better world for the state's often overlooked community college system."

Posted by Paul Clinton at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Students applying to California Community Colleges online are submitting electroniclly in record numbers, the colleges reported today.

For the first time ever, in 2007, more than 1 million students used a Web-based admissions portal (known as CCCApply) to submit applications.

"This represents a significant milestone for this very successful system technology initiative," said Chancellor Diane Woodruff.

The colleges developed the portal in 2001, when 7,000 students used it. It's in place at Los Angeles Harbor College in Wilmington and El Camino College in Torrance.

The California Community College system is the largest higher educational system in the nation comprised of 72 districts and 109 colleges with more than 2.6 million students per year.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 4:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

California State University, Dominguez Hills, has been selected by the federal government to house one of eight new OSHA training institutes nationwide.

A university official said Tuesday that annual enrollment in the university's college's occupational safety classes - now 200 to 300 - should climb to more than 1,200 within five years.

Under the program, curriculum at the OSHA Training Institute Education Center will be certified by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.

The campus also is the only OSHA-certified learning center in Los Angeles County and one of three in Southern California. There are only 30 such centers nationwide, not including the eight new sites selected by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Read Muhammed El-Hasan's report for more.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

University of California campuses at Los Angeles (UCLA), Irvine (UCI) and Riverside (UCR) made the annual Kiplinger's Personal Finance rankings of the top 100 colleges that give you the most bang for your buck. The schools "exemplify excellent academics while keeping their in-state and out-of-state costs to a minimum," according to the publication.

The publication, which announced a list Monday that will be published in the February issue, gave the top spot to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The school has claimed the top position for seven years running. Here's an exerpt from the release:

Although prices for public schools remain relatively modest compared with private institutions, annual increases continue to outstrip inflation. In 2007–08, the average total cost for in-state students ran $13,589, a 5.9% increase over the previous academic year, according to the College Board. For out-of-state students, total charges topped $24,000, up 5.4% over the previous year.

UCLA made the top 10 (at No. 10), with its $20,969 in-state annual cost, $40,037 out-of-state cost and $15,996 in average debt following graduation. UCI came in at No. 21. UCR was No. 99. The entire list is available on the Kiplinger Web site.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 6:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Daily Breeze editorial today puts the paper squarely in the "no on Proposition 92" camp, a growing chorus of educators and health organizations who say passage of a measure that brings more resources and clout to community colleges would be a mistake.

Read the editorial.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've been getting flooded with e-mail releases over the past few weeks about Proposition 92, a statewide initiative set for a Feb. 5 vote. While its fate won't be decided for more than another month, the community-college initiative has been embroiled in controversy.

Here's a link to a Sacramento Bee article explaining what the measure would do.

The latest group to come out against it: Planned Parenthood. That's an odd group to oppose a measure that would reduce community college fees, require more disclosure of admistrators' compensation packages and give community college officials greater representation on a state education panel.

As with most issues, all you have to do is follow the dollar. Here's an exerpt from the Planned Parenthood release:

“To pay for the costs of Prop. 92 the Legislature will have to look to cuts in other programs, including health care and human services,” said Kathy Kneer, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California (PPAC), the public policy arm of the organization. “We strongly support students and the community college system but with the current state deficit we are already bracing for cuts to health and social services provided to some of the neediest individuals. Prop 92 would make this situation worse, not better.”

Posted by Paul Clinton at 6:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the third year running, the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) at California State University, Dominguez Hills held a "Holiday Wish Drive" for Masada Homes, collecting and donating myriad gifts for the children and teens served by the nearby nonprofit foster placement and adoption agency located in Carson.

In late November, the campus community was provided with a list of specific wishes for 38 children and teens, ranging in age from two months to 17-years-old. Donations of toys and electronics were delivered to the CHHS offices, along with gift cards and monetary donations.

Additionally, Toby Bushee, catering and event manager, Campus Dining, gave away $1 coupons to the campus’ Club 1910 restaurant for every dollar deposited in the donation box at the restaurant.

The university’s relationship with the agency began when Claudia Peyton, acting associate CHHS dean and director of the occupational therapy program, became a foster mother through the Masada agency. Marilyn Noriega, Masada’s program manager, also teaches in the CSUDH occupational therapy master’s program.

Students from the campus’ occupational therapy program also work at Masada as interns with early intervention for at-risk youth in group homes.

For more information about Masada, visit their Web site.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 4:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Carlos Huerta's roommate and schoolmate described the 21-year-old junior who threatened to go on a shooting rampage as a misguided prankster rather than a danger to the Westchester college.

"I guarantee it was a joke. One-hundred percent a joke," said LMU junior Adolfo Espino, who attended engineering classes with Carlos Huerta. "He was different."

Posted by Paul Clinton at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)