College Shorts

Author: Virginia Harper



UCLA Faculty Protest U.S. Education Bill



A new education bill, which passed through the House of Representatives on Oct. 21, has professors at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) worried. The International Studies in Higher Education Act proposes the creation of a committee to monitor and oversee the curriculums and faculty in international studies departments of American colleges and universities and advise Congress on matters of federal funding for these programs.

Proposed by Republican Pete Hoekstra from Michigan, the International Studies Act has received support from Republicans and Democrats alike who point to its strong support of international and language studies in the American university system. Its intention, according to the subcommittee on Select Education, is to make the academic departments accountable for the material that is taught and to guarantee that the material meets the needs of national security.

Opponents of the bill and faculty members of UCLA see it as pressuring the departments to teach courses from a pro-American point of view and specifically targeting professors of Middle Eastern studies. "We will be subject to review from a committee of nonacademics - They will be judging curriculum on the basis of political expediency," said Michael Cooperson, an associate professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures at UCLA. "The students will suffer from it," Cooperson said.

While the committee will refrain from forming a mandatory set of curriculums for universities, it will monitor individual departments at every college. According to the language of the bill, it will oversee "the degree to which activities of centers, programs and fellowships at institutes of higher education advance national interests - and foster debate on American foreign policy from diverse perspectives."



Source: U-Wire





Change of Rules Shifts Early Admissions



Substantial shifts in the early admissions applicant numbers at Harvard, Yale and Stanford are suggesting that high school seniors are submitting applications based on a strategy rather than pinpointing a school that fits them best. Both Yale's and Stanford's numbers of applications were up substantially, while Harvard's dropped by half.

A change in early admission policy is blamed for the skewed numbers. The three schools still require that early-admission applicants apply to one school only, but beginning this year, they are allowing early-admitted students to turn down acceptance.

The shifts show the schools leaning towards a medium between a non-binding early action and early decision. While Harvard's admissions office had previously worked under the early action system, it is now moving towards a stricter policy so that early applicants can only apply to Harvard. Stanford and Yale, both early decision schools, are giving students broader options by allowing them to decline the offer of early admission.

Admissions offices and college counselors have yet to determine the cause for such great differences between this year's numbers and last year's. However, most officers and counselors see progress and a move beyond the great hysteria that infects seniors each fall, arising from an urgent need to apply to an early admissions program to ensure a spot in the class without being sure of any right school.

Janet Lavin Rapelye, dean of admissions at Princeton, said, "I would welcome [students being more thoughtful] over what I see as happening in the field, which is students using an early action program for a strategy."



Source: CNN.com