The Senate Finance Committee approved the nomination of Timothy Geithner '83 as Treasury secretary on Thursday. The full Senate may vote on Geithner's confirmation as early as Monday, according to Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Reuters reported. Five Republican senators on the finance committee, including Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, voted against Geithner's confirmation, citing Geithner's failure to pay more than $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes from 2001 to 2004. Geither explained that his failure to pay the taxes was an "avoidable" but "unintentional" mistake, and he has since paid off the debts with interest.
The number of women on the board of trustees of four-year colleges and universities is growing, Inside Higher Ed reported on Wednesday. Between 1981 and 2007, the percentage of trustee positions held by women increased from 20 percent to 31 percent, and the percentage of female chairs of college boards increased from 10 percent to 18 percent, according to a new national survey of four-year colleges and universities. Women represent about 21 percent of Dartmouth's Board. Bachelor's, master's and doctoral institutions all showed increases in female board representation. The study found similar trends at both private and public institutions, Inside Higher Ed reported. The survey was conducted by researchers at the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute.
College admissions offices are increasingly using online tools to reach out to and conduct research about prospective students, according to new study, "Social Media and College Admissions: The First Longitudinal Study." The study was conducted by Nora Ganim Barnes, a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, and Eric Mattson, the Chief Executive Officer of the research firm Financial Insite Inc. Admissions departments create blogs and online videos to recruit potential students and use search engines and social networks to verify information about students applying for scholarships or competitive programs, researchers said. The study included 536 interviews at four-year institutions in 2007 and 2008. The study found that use of social media increased by 24 percent from 2007 to 2008, and about 90 percent of admissions departments reported that social media tools are "somewhat to very important" to their operations.
