The College Board's "Task Force on Admissions in the 21st Century" released a new report on Wednesday that addresses the challenges that admissions professionals will face in the coming years, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported Thursday. In response to anticipated problems, the Task Force proposed a list of 10 principles and goals for admissions professionals to uphold, including making the financial aid application process more straightforward. The report encouraged admissions professionals to make higher education available for all students and emphasized the need for professional development within the college admissions field. The report included a letter from Task Force chair Jerry Lucido and a comprehensive data review on the nation's "educational health," according to the College Board web site. The report was compiled by leaders in "admissions, financial aid, enrollment management and school counseling communities" over a nearly three-year period, according to the College Board.
A new compilation of studies shows that paying adjunct professors at community colleges relatively low salaries and offering them little job security results in students that are less likely to graduate or transfer to four-year institutions, Inside Higher Ed reported Thursday. The studies analyze the current models for using adjunct faculty members and were presented at this week's annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, according to Inside Higher Ed. Audrey Jaeger and Paul Umbach of North Carolina State University and Kevin Eagan of the University of California, Los Angeles conducted the studies based on transcripts of students attending California community colleges. "For every 10 percent increase in students' exposure to part-time faculty instruction, students tended to become almost two percent less likely to transfer," one of the studies said. The authors of the studies stress that this correlation should not be blamed on the adjuncts' performance, but rather on the poor conditions of their part-time employment, according to Inside Higher Ed.
The ballots of 50 students from Grinnell College that had been challenged by leaders of the Poweshiek County Republican Party in Iowa will be counted, the Associated Press reported Thursday. A special precinct board decided that, though the students reported their addresses incorrectly when registering to vote -- writing the main campus mailing address and a post office box rather than the addresses of their residence halls -- the ballots should not be discarded. The ballots were inconsequential to all race results, and Republican leaders said they were only trying to make sure that everyone abided by the law, the Associated Press reported. Poweshiek County Auditor Diana Dawley says state elections officials have reported that the policy regarding the use of campus addresses will likely change, according to the Associated Press.
