General Assembly members of the Student Assembly elected new Executive Committee members and Assembly committee chairs at the Assembly meeting on Tuesday night. James Lee '13, Elise Smith '13 and Catherine Treyz '13 were elected to the Student Assembly Executive Committee as treasurer, secretary and spokesperson, respectively. Rachel Wang '13, David Becker '13 and Mason Cole '13 were elected as chairs of the Academic Affairs, Diversity and Community Affairs and Student Services Committees, respectively. Previous Assembly spokesperson Will Hix '12 introduced legislation that would restructure the Assembly by creating four new Executive Committee positions and allow for the creation of issue-based committees. The appointments director, one of the proposed new positions on the Executive Committee, would solicit student applicants for Assembly and College committees and oversee the new Appointments Board. New issue-based committees of which there will likely be six or seven would report to the new policy director. The new membership director would focus on preparing new members to participate in the Assembly and the new programs director would work with other campus organizations on programming, services and events. Assembly members will debate the proposed changes next week at the Assembly meeting.
The number of borrowers who default on their federal student loans has been steadily increasing since 2006, Inside Higher Ed reported Tuesday. A report by the U.S. Department of Education on Sunday predicted a further increase in the number of loan defaults in the coming fiscal year. Loan defaults among graduates of private and public colleges and universities have increased at similar rates, although a greater total number of private university graduates have defaulted on their federal loans, according to the report. If the trend continues, the federal government may restrict access to federally subsidized loans and Pell grants for students at an increasing number of colleges and universities in 2014 based on the universities' three-year loan default rates, Inside Higher Ed reported.
Graduate students working as teaching and research assistants at New York University filed a petition requesting a union-representation election with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Monday. Students hope the petition will encourage the Board, which contains new appointees by President Barack Obama, to reverse its 2004 decision to deny student employees the right to collectively bargain. Last week, approximately 1,800 teaching and research assistants demanded that NYU recognize their union, which is affiliated with the United Automobile Workers,
