Etta Pisano '79 was appointed as the next dean of the Medical University of South Carolina on Wednesday, according to a University press release. Pisano will be the University's first female dean when she assumes her role in June 2010, and one of the few female medical school deans in the country, the press release stated. Pisano currently serves as the vice dean for academic affairs of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she has been a professor for over 20 years. Pisano, who has been identified as among the 20 most influential people in radiology, also previously led a study of digital mammography, the press release stated.
Students from low socioeconomic groups who are statistically less likely to attend college receive a greater financial benefit from earning a college degree than students from other socioeconomic groups, according to a study led by Jennie Brand of the University of California at Los Angeles and Yu Xie of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Thursday. In the study, the researchers tracked the salaries of Wisconsin high school graduates until they reached 40 years of age, according to The Chronicle. The study found that men with the lowest likelihood of attending college earned 30 percent more after finishing college than their peers who did not continue their education after high school. The salaries of men with the highest "college-going propensities" were only 10 percent higher than their peers who did not attend college in that age bracket, The Chronicle reported.
President Barack Obama's administration offered strong support to the University of Texas at Austin's use of affirmative action in its admissions decisions in a brief filed Thursday with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Inside Higher Ed. The case was filed in 2008 by two white students who were rejected from the University, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Obama administration brief mentions studies conducted in Texas that found negative effects for all students in institutions lacking a diverse student body, Inside Higher Ed reported, and argued that affirmative action could also benefit white students.
