College Shorts

Author: Anna Briggs

MONEY RETURNS TO ADMISSIONS DECISIONS

Being able to pay full tuition may benefit college hopefuls in the application process. The combination of shrunken endowments and a generally needier applicant pool is causing colleges around the country to consider financial status when accepting new students.

"There's going to be a cascading of talented lower-income kids down the social hierarchy of American higher education, and some cascading up of affluent kids," said Morton Owen Schapiro, president of Williams College and an economist who studies higher education.

Colleges say that they do not wish to exclude needier candidates, and that by accepting an increased number of students who can pay full tuition they will be able to free up more financial aid money, but some shifting of economic demographics is inevitable.

"I do think the colleges want to give aid where they can," said Diane Geller, a college counselor in private practice in Los Angeles and president of the Independent Educational Consultants Association. "But we all know the economic realities."

- The New York Times

UNIVERSITY TESTS DRUGS ON KLEPTOMANIACS

The University of Minnesota released a study on April 1 that examined the benefits of a drug used to treat alcoholics and drug addicts on patients suffering from kleptomania. The study lasted two years and followed 25 subjects who spent at least one hour a week shoplifting.

The drug, called Naltrexone, is an opiate blocker, so it reduces the sense of pleasure or high experienced by kleptomaniacs when stealing. Naltrexone works to prevent shoplifting by inhibiting the high so that the behavior will not be reinforced, and the patient will no longer feel the strong urge to steal.

Kleptomaniacs often describe feeling shamed for their actions, said Dr. John Grant, the lead investigator of the study, but the high addicts get is too "enticing" and they are unable to stop themselves.

"They try to put it off, they try to delay doing it," he said, "but the craving is too intense and they end up doing it."

Because of similar behavior patterns between kleptomaniacs and other types of addicts, studies in the effectiveness of drug therapy in treatment have been conducted before, but Grant says that this particular study is the first to thoroughly test the benefits of drug treatment for chronic shoplifters.

- Minnesota Daily

HARVARD MAKES SWITCH TO POST CATALOG ON WEB

Harvard University is making a shift to end printing their course catalogs, faculty and student handbooks, and the Q Guide - a yearly compilation of course evaluations - to publish them exclusively online. After this semester, the new online system will go into effect, and will likely bring a new dynamic to course selection.

Students will be able to compare courses by evaluation, new data not given in the Q guide will be available and faculty members will be able to update their course listings more easily.

Ceasing to print hard copies of the catalogs will also save "tens of thousands of dollars," according to The Crimson. The University says that the switch to the online system had been considered for some time, but the recession prompted the change to actually be made as budgets are cut across the board.

- The Chronicle of Higher Education