Following a retreat for Division I college presidents, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has proposed a slew of reforms that seek to improve the state of college athletics, Inside Higher Ed reported. Chief among the changes is an attempt to improve the academic performance of athletes. Under the plans, freshman and transfer athletes would face tougher academic standards, while the Academic Progress Rate which teams must reach to stay in good standing within the NCAA would be raised, Inside Higher Ed reported. Athletic conferences would also be given permission to award multiyear athletic scholarships and to grant athletically related financial aid up to the cost of attendance. The proposed changes will likely face opposition, with coaches unlikely to favor tougher academic standards, according to Inside Higher Ed.
The Thomas M. Cooley Law School and New York Law School currently face separate lawsuits alleging that they inflated postgraduate employment numbers, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The plaintiffs, former students of the schools, contend that the schools publicized misleading statistics, which suggested a large number of graduates were fully employed nine months after graduation, even though the statistics included temporary and part-time jobs and jobs not in the legal profession. Furthermore, the plaintiffs say that the mean salaries the schools published were incorrect, relying upon a small and self-reporting group of graduates. Both institutions argue that the claims that graduates or prospective students have been legally harmed are baseless, The Chronicle reported.
Low-income students, despite improvements, are lagging behind their wealthier counterparts when it comes to getting into selective colleges, according to a study to be published next month in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Inside Higher Ed reported. The study suggested that low-income students know how to prepare for college and that they are improving their academic credentials, though not as fast as those from wealthier families. The report recommends a number of changes to improve the situation, including that colleges make the SATs optional and that SAT scores be evaluated in the context within which the scores were achieved because low-income students' performance on the SATs is not an accurate predictor of their performance in their first year in college, Inside Higher Ed reported.
