The New York Police Department has recently received criticism for monitoring websites associated with Muslim student organizations at 16 universities in the Northeast, including several in New York and at Ivy League colleges, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. An officer from the Cyber Intelligence Unit allegedly monitored websites, blogs and forums of Muslim student groups on a daily basis, according to an internal Police Department report from Nov. 22, 2006. Reports were compiled from information available via "open sources" online, NYPD's chief spokesman said in an interview with The Times. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said previous police investigations had revealed that several convicted terrorists were members of Muslim student associations at universities, rendering the monitoring necessary, according to The Times.
During a three-day bus tour that will span five states, Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden and a community college professor, will work with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to promote collaboration between community colleges and businesses, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The effort is an extension of President Barack Obama's 2010 White House Summit on Community Colleges. Biden and Solis, high-profile members of the Obama administration, plan to visit colleges and employers working together to prepare students to enter the work force, The Chronicle reported. The tour will begin at the Columbus State Community College Center for Workforce Development in Ohio, according to The Chronicle.
India sends more students to American universities than any other nation in the world besides China, but American universities still hope to attract more Indian undergraduates, according to a survey of college officials, Inside Higher Education reported on Wednesday. However, many Indian students are dissuaded from attending American schools due to high undergraduate education costs and insufficient financial aid packages, according to Inside Higher Ed. As many as 90 percent of Indian students at some American universities are graduate students, illustrating the notion that India is a "graduate-oriented market," Inside Higher Ed reported. Of the officials surveyed, 86 percent said they hoped to increase their institutions' presence in India and recruit more Indian students, while only several said they have or would like to have physical branches in the country, according to Inside Higher Ed.
