The AFL-CIO, a national organization of labor unions, announced it will create an online college for union members and their families in an effort to help them find jobs and continue their education, The New York Times reported Thursday. The college tentatively called the College for Working Families will first offer classes this fall for $100 to $150 each, The Times reported. The AFL-CIO will partner with the National Labor College and the Princeton Review to create the college, according to The Times. Subjects including criminal justice, education, business and allied health sciences will be taught at the college. The college will focus on student retention and will offer classes to workers whose labor unions are not in the AFL-CIO.
The February 2009 dismissal of 55 professors 20 of whom were tenured at Clark Atlanta University violated the rights of the fired individuals, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Association of University Professors. The university eliminated the jobs with neither faculty consultation nor due process, the report said. The layoffs, which were made without a consideration of tenure, were a response to low enrollment figures, University President Carlton Brown told the AAUP. The report said that according to AAUP guidelines, low enrollment is not a legitimate reason to violate professors' rights, and the decline in enrollment was not as significant as the University claimed. The report suggested that the university manipulated enrollment numbers in order to make the layoffs seem credible.
Application numbers at the University of Chicago jumped by 42 percent this year, The Chicago Tribune reported Thursday. The University received 19,306 applications and plans to accept approximately 3,700 students, consistent with last year's figure, The Tribune reported. The University anticipates a 19 percent admission rate, a decrease from 27 percent last year, according the The Tribune. School officials told The Tribune that President Barack Obama's former position as a faculty member at the University could be a reason for the application increase. Other factors included the University's recent switch to the Common Application and new strategies employed by the admissions office to attract students.
