Student Body President Max Yoeli '12 and acting Student Body Vice President Rohail Premjee '14 released a report to the Alumni Council Student Affairs Committee on Thursday that outlines funding initiatives that Student Assembly conducted in the past and measures it plans to implement throughout the following year, Premjee said in an interview with The Dartmouth. The Committee comprised of Alumni Council members, Assembly representatives and a College administration representative will hold its spring meeting on Friday at which members will discuss the report. "The main purpose is to keep the Alumni Council informed as to what we do and to add more transparency to the process," Premjee said. The Assembly hopes to use the report to further strengthen student-alumni connections and gather useful feedback, he said. This year's report is the first to outline future potential initiatives rather than only outline previous programming, Premjee said.
Employment rates and starting salaries for recent college graduates have fallen sharply over the past several years, according to a study released on Wednesday by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. Approximately 22.4 percent of 2009 graduates are currently unemployed and 22 percent are working at a job that does not require a college degree, according to the study titled "Unfulfilled Expectations: Recent College Graduates Struggle in a Troubled Economy." The median starting salary for 2009 and 2010 graduates was $27,000, a 10 percent decrease from the starting salaries of students who graduated between 2006 and 2008. The average college graduate also finishes school with $20,000 in student loans, The New York Times reported. Students who majored in education and teaching or engineering were most likely to secure a job that requires a college degree, The Times reported.
The University of Florida plans to implement a new calendar option in which certain students will only be allowed to enroll in courses during the spring and summer semesters, The Chronicles of Higher Education reported. University officials believe that the new schedule, which will begin in January 2013, will allow the school to increase the number of students it is able to accommodate without straining campus resources during the fall semester. Students will be able to take online courses and remain involved in campus activities during the Fall and Winter, although they will not be permitted to live on campus. The new plan follows several years of budget cuts and reductions in the acceptance rate at the university, The Chronicle reported.
