Higher Education News

Jackie Jenkins-Scott, president of Wheelock College, is focused on teaching students to be of service to others.

The 23-campus system, which has had numerous retirements, chose several new leaders from within the system. Read about that and other job news.

Eric Banks, former editor in chief of "Bookforum," will lead an NYU-based center that brings together intellectuals for lively symposia.

After 12 coaching jobs in 16 years, Elwyn McRoy takes one last shot. With interactive features on his career and job searches.

A program director tells college health officials how people across a campus have a role in responding to students with a disability on the autism spectrum.

A pediatric endocrinologist told a packed room at the American College Health Association meeting how to best support those students in being "who they are."

An appellate court said the college must hand over only 11 of the 85 confidential interviews that were subpoenaed on behalf of British authorities.

A spiraling athletics scandal has put Robert L. Barchi on the defensive, shaking things up rather than settling them down on the New Jersey campus.

Glimpses of life in academe from around the world.

A gay and lesbian caucus is among groups that oppose naming the center for a church official with "a narrow vision of what a family is."

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education is undergoing tough times, brought about in part by its previous success.

The interim appointment has angered several senior cultural anthropologists, but some colleagues dismiss their complaints.

A complaint filed by the California Federation of Teachers is "without merit," and some of it does not even deserve a reply, says a report from the accreditor.

The downgrade, from Moody's Investors Service, stems from the university's assumption of $500-million in debt.

Today, a group of over 300 business leaders representing 44 states signed a letter calling on President Obama and Congress to invest in early learning programs. These CEOs, chambers of commerce and business roundtables represent large companies like Delta Airlines and PNC Financial Services Group and smaller companies like Scope View Strategic Advantage in Charlotte, NC and C.H. Briggs Company in Reading, PA. Regardless of their location, size or scope of business, all agreed on one thing; investing in early childhood education is the right thing to do for our nation’s children.

“We rarely have the luxury,” their letter says, “of making business investment decisions with as much evidence as we have to support the economic value of investing in early care and education.”

Earlier this year, President Obama put forth a “Preschool for All” proposal in his Fiscal Year 2014 budget, and the Department is currently seeking input from stakeholders on the president’s plan for the federal government to partner with states in making access to high-quality early learning a reality for every four-year-old in America.

The President’s proposal is for a deficit-neutral investment of $75 billion over 10 years to create new partnerships with states to provide high-quality preschool for all 4-year olds. An additional $750 million will provide competitive grants to states to strengthen their early learning systems. Combined, the proposal will raise the quality of all early learning programs and will align current investments, including home visitation, creating a birth to age 5 pipeline of services and support that prepares children for kindergarten and beyond.

This plan is entirely consistent with the business leaders’ declaration that, “Early care and education is not a partisan issue. It is an American competitiveness issue that impacts all of us,” and with their support for the adoption of policies that “give all children the chance to fulfill their potential and create the best workforce and economy in the world.”

Studies prove that children who have rich early learning experiences are better prepared to thrive in school. And because behavioral skills highly valued by employers, such as self-discipline, persistence and cooperation, start in the youngest years and last a lifetime, President Obama and Secretary Duncan agree that quality early childhood programs have a significant and positive impact on the American workforce, customer base, economy and nation we need in a 21st century environment.

For more information and to read the full text of the letter, please visit: www.readynation.org/signatories-business-letter

Cameron French is the Deputy Press Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education

Recently, President Obama delivered the commencement speech for the 2013 graduating class of Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, Georgia.

The President, a longtime supporter of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) chose to deliver this commencement address at Morehouse because of its rich history and legacy of graduating generations of leaders including Maynard Jackson, Julian Bond, Shelton “Spike” Lee, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Institutions like Morehouse, play an important role in producing skilled college graduates and reaching President Obama’s ambitious goal for the United States to lead the world in number of college graduates by 2020.

In his commencement address, President Obama spoke of the values necessary for the graduates of Morehouse to succeed in the 21st century global economy. He discussed individual and collective responsibilities for Morehouse men, who are advocates and holders of the “power of example”. President Obama encouraged the graduates to use their power for “something larger than yourself.”

President Obama stated:

“Whatever success I have achieved, whatever positions of leadership I’ve held, have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs, and have instead been due to that sense of connection and empathy, the special obligation I felt, as a black man like you, to help those who need it most; people who didn’t have the opportunities that I had—because there, but for the grace of God, go I. I might have been in their shoes. I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family. And that motivates me…”

The President used these words and his entire speech to outline the important steps all graduates must make as they enter the workforce and begin their contribution to the larger society. The overarching message was simple and familiar; we are all in this together.

The Morehouse graduate of today is the role model of tomorrow. The President remarked that the graduates before him were part of, “A legacy of leaders—not just in our black community, but in our broader American community.”

The message the President communicated was important for graduates and students around the country to hear. They heard the leader of our country deliver a personal account of how the choices he has made over his lifetime have impacted his ability to succeed. Through the President’s leadership, to make college more affordable and strengthen standards across the educational spectrum, today’s college graduates are able to enter the workplace prepared for a global marketplace and will continue to succeed at changing negative stereotypes and addressing critical global challenges.

Andrew Edghill is a senior at Savannah State University majoring in Political Science. He is currently a summer 2013 Intern with the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans.

People with a high-school degree or less were more likely than those who attended college to say they had learned their workplace skills on the job.

Effective faculty-board communication, the association says in a draft statement, is "a critical component of shared governance."