Nonacademic spending including spending on the costs of financial aid offices and student counseling services is rising more quickly than academic spending at institutes of higher education across the country, The New York Times reported on July 8. The original report calculated spending costs using a variety of factors, including rising admissions costs, the Chronicle of Higher Ed reported. Data gathered from the spending habits of various schools across the nation shows a growing discrepancy in spending on student services between private and public institutions, according to the Chronicle. Community colleges spend an average of $10,000 per student annually, while private research universities typically spend about three and a half times as much, the Chronicle reported.
The 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges listed Dartmouth among colleges and universities with the nation's best environmental studies programs, according to The Daily Green. The website states that Dartmouth has "been leading in environmental studies for years." The report cites the "pioneering scholarship" of Donella Meadows, a Dartmouth environmental studies professor who authored "The Limits of Growth," while also acknowledging Dartmouth as "the Ivy League's most rural school." Dartmouth is absent from The Daily Green's own top-10 rankings, which evaluate institutions based on practical sustainability rather than environmental scholarship. The College of the Atlantic was named the The Daily Green's premier institution for environmental studies.
Results from a 2008 study conducted by the United States Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics show that populations from every ethnic and racial group in America have increased their college attendance rates by double-digit percentages since 1980, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported July 14. Seventy-three percent of recent white high school graduates attended college in 2007 compared to 50 percent in 1980, the study reported. The rates of Hispanic and African-American high school graduates who attend college increased from 50 to 62 percent and from 44 to 56 percent, respectively. Although all groups posted higher rates of attendance in post-secondary schools, racial discrepancies across the public and private divide remain. Among individuals who attend accredited colleges and universities, 81 percent of Hispanics attended public institutions the highest percentage across all racial groups surveyed. Nearly 80 percent of Native Americans, 75 percent of Asians and Pacific Islanders, 73 percent of whites and 68 percent of blacks also attend public institutions, the study said.
