College Shorts

Author: Jaime Fuller

FINANCIAL CRISIS FORCES STATES, FAMILIES TO CUT

State universities across the country are expecting record-breaking application numbers this spring due to the precarious financial situation facing many families. However, the high number of qualified applicants makes admissions decisions much harder.

SUNY New Paltz, which had an unprecedented 24 percent of accepted students enrolling, must now send out 1,000 fewer acceptance letters this year.

As students flock to the SUNY system because of its affordability, the state has had to make economic concessions of its own, cutting $210 million from its $1.4 billion annual state appropriation for four-year schools.

"That's the conundrum," said Megan Galbraith, a spokeswoman for SUNY, the largest public university system under a single governing board in the United States. "There's increased demand for what SUNY has to offer in this economy. But with this budget, there will be challenges meeting that demand."

- The New York Times

STUDENTS EXPECT 'A' DESPITE MINIMAL EFFORT

A recent study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence shows that students feel entitled for higher grades simply for attending class and doing the required reading.

Forty percent of the 800 students surveyed felt they deserved a B for completing a course's required reading, and a third thought they should get a B for showing up to class. The study was conducted by University of California-Irvine professor Ellen Greenberger, who used confidential self-report questionnaires to examine the attitudes of two groups of students at a southern California university.

Greenberg though that this mindset of entitlement may be exacerbated by Web sites where students rate professors on their grading styles.

"I never look at these sites," she said in an e-mail. "But I'm well aware that many students shop for easy courses or professors who give mainly As, etc., or drop courses midstream that they are not doing well in. It follows that grades will 'go higher' and that some students will be chagrined when their expectations for a good grade for modest effort aren't met."

- The Daily Texan

COLLEGE NEWS TRAVELS TO WEB AT SLOWER PACE

As the nation's biggest newspapers are reassessing the role of print media in today's Internet-reliant culture, college newspapers around the country are debating their format as well.

Some colleges are using their need to cut print production in a positive way by expanding content online and embracing blogs, podcasts and videos as a new way to get the news out on campus. Stephen Dockery, editor of The Daily Orange at Syracuse University, said that their editing board's decision to have four print editions and one online-only paper per week has turned out to be a productive change.

"It's turned out to be a great thing," Dockery said. "It's giving people experience in new media."

"The high percentage of students who still read their campus daily in print, though, speaks to why cuts at college newspapers have come more slowly than at their professional counterparts," said Chrissy Beck, advertising director of The Duke Chronicle.

- The Duke Chronicle