Grade inflation is more pronounced in private colleges and universities than in public institutions, according to a study conducted by Teachers College Record, The New York Times reported Monday. College GPAs have increased by 0.1 points each decade over the last 50 years, from a national average of 2.52 in the 1950s to 3.11 today. The study, which looked at trends of grades from over 160 American colleges and universities, including Dartmouth, found that GPAs have increased at a faster rate at private institutions. Higher grade inflation may account for why students at private colleges and universities are more likely to be admitted to top medical, law and business schools and Ph.D. programs, according to the study.
Police raided the offices of James Madison University's student newspaper, The Breeze, on Friday, seizing over 900 photos taken at Springfest, an off-campus party that led to 30 arrests and over 40 injuries, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Saturday. The Rockingham County's commonwealth's attorney, who was accompanied by as many as 12 police officers, arrived unannounced at The Breeze's offices with a search warrant and confiscated the unpublished photos taken at the party, The Times-Dispatch reported. The Editor-in-Chief of The Breeze told The Times-Dispatch that the newspaper has agreed to be represented by the Student Press Law Center, which demanded Friday that the photos be returned. The Center's executive director told The Times-Dispatch that he believed the photos were "improperly seized" and that Rockingham authorities had violated the federal Privacy Protection Act.
Violent incidents on college campuses have increased sharply over the last two decades, according to a joint study published this month by the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the study, the number of directed assaults rose from 40 in the 1980s to 79 in the 1990s. From 2000 to 2008, an additional 83 assaults have been reported. The study, which analyzed 272 cases of campus violence from 1909 to 2008, also found that 90 percent of the attacks were committed by males. Current or former students of the affected institutions were responsible for 60 percent of the attacks, according to the report. The 272 incidents of violence resulted in 281 deaths, of which at least 190 were students and 72 were employees.
