Plans for a bake sale on Thursday hosted by the College Republicans at University of California, Berkeley, ignited campus-wide controversy when organizers announced that the event would feature a pay scale determined by the race of the buyer, according to The Daily Californian. Student organizers planned the "Increase Diversity Bakesale" to protest SB 185, a bill that would allow California public universities to consider race and ethnicity, among other non-academic factors, in the admissions process. The bill is currently awaiting the decision of Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif. The bake sale, which students intended to be "satirical," prompted an emergency town hall meeting after the event's Facebook page explained that "White/Caucasian" students would be charged full price, while racial and ethnic minorities as well as women would receive discounts, according to The Daily Californian.
A special committee of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling called on U.S. News and World Report to review its method of ranking colleges and universities, according to a report released by the committee on Sept. 23. Committee members raised concerns with the inclusion of a reputation survey and the emphasis on standardized test scores in the ranking system. Both high school counselors and college admissions officers found that students' standardized test scores were not accurate representations of the students or predictors of their college performance, according to the report. College officials also felt that evaluators at peer institutions whose reviews determine a school's score in the reputation survey are not always able to accurately assess other schools. Officials from U.S. News who were present at the meeting expressed appreciation of the committee's recommendations, but did not share any plans to modify the existing ranking system, Inside Higher Ed reported.
The University of Pennsylvania's "Making History" fundraising campaign met its $3.5 billion goal on Sept. 23, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian. The announcement came from a campus-wide email sent by university President Amy Gutman, 15 months before the planned December 2012 completion. The campaign, which began in October 2007, included 201,420 donors and will benefit multiple sectors of campus, focusing on resources for faculty support, campus construction projects and undergraduate and graduate financial aid. The exact distribution of funds has not yet been released, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian. Of the contributions, 597 exceeded $1 million one of which was a $225 million dollar gift to renovate the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn. Although the university has reached its fundraising goal, the campaign will continue through the planned 2012 end date with hopes of generating greater funding for several campus projects, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported.