Diversity in Rhodes Scholarship Recipients
Diversity is the name of the game in higher ed, and this year’s recipient list of Rhodes Scholarships shows that. Twenty-one of the 32 winners are women, the highest number ever. One recipient is also in the DACA program, and half of these recipients are immigrants or first-generation Americans. The recipients hail from a variety of colleges, which is also different. Chapman University had its first winner ever, and University of Kentucky, Boise State University and University of Colorado at Boulder had winners for the first time in over 50, 30 and 20 years.
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Title IX Changes in the Works
In 2017, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos revoked the Title IX guidance put forth by President Obama and Friday the new guidance was released. While not yet law, there are some things to know. The proposed changes include narrowing the definition of sexual harassment colleges are required to act on and giving colleges more leeway to use informal resolution procedures. Opponents argue that this guidance will result in more “grey space” and less consistency.
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
Virginia Colleges Embrace Amazon Announcement
As soon as Amazon revealed half of their second headquarters will be in Northern Virginia, Virginia Tech revealed they will build a graduate tech campus which, when completed, will host 750 masters students and several hundred doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. Not to be left out, George Mason University announced they will be pouring money and effort into expanding their Arlington campus, to include a School of Computing. Virginia is supporting these expansions financially, and local community colleges also expect to be involved in the training of Amazon employees and helping to support their hiring needs.
Source: Education Dive
College Admissions Myths Busted
The annual “state of admissions” published last week revealed a few not-so-secret things about college admissions, like that it’s not that hard to get into college but more specifically that colleges are paying more attention to first-generation status than to ethnicity. First-generation status had the highest percentage of “considerable influence” while state/country of residence, ability to pay and alumni ties had the least. Overall grades rank at the top of factors in admissions, up to 80% this year from 50% in 2007.
Source: Inside Higher Ed