The Ford Foundation awarded $300,000 to environmental studies professor Michael Dorsey to begin the Climate Justice Research Project, according to a Feb. 20 College press release. The project will study socioeconomic injustices that result from efforts to address climate change. Market-based environmental programs heighten the vulnerability of poor, marginalized communities and communities of color, and do not significantly affect climate change, the press release said. Dorsey and his research team will use comparative data to analyze communities' abilities to respond to climate change policies. The research team will use the grant money to develop analysis tools to implement climate change policy more equitably, according to the press release.
Approximately 130,000 students will benefit from the $200 million for federal work-study programs included in the economic stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed this week, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Although Congress has not yet established the total level of work-study support for the 2009 fiscal year, the program has received about $980 million in recent years. The additional $200 million could raise the total level of support to more than $1 billion, according to The Chronicle. Colleges will receive the money by April 1 based on information they have already submitted to the Education Department. Undergraduate and graduate students will then receive money from their schools during the following academic year. Because colleges match the federal work-study funding on a 25-to-75-percent ratio, they can only receive federal work-study support if they already have sufficient institutional funding to pay for 25 percent of the total, The Chronicle reported.
Eighteen New York University students were suspended after a 40-hour sit-in ended Friday, according to The New York Times. About 70 students barricaded themselves in a dining room in the university's student center and created a web site, takebacknyu.com, calling on administrators to address financial aid and academic issues at the university. The students demanded that NYU donate "all excess supplies and materials" to the University of Gaza, allow a student body representative to attend trustee board meetings and provide a thorough annual report of NYU's operating budget, expenses and endowment, according to the Take Back NYU web site. Despite the suspensions, some students will continue their campaign, according to The Times.
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