The recent job crisis in the United States has put pressure on history PhD programs nation-wide to track graduate students' progress more closely, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Many institutions offering tenure-track degrees do not compile detailed data about their students' studies and subsequent professional work, and the data reported is often misleading, according to The Chronicle. The demand for employment statistics corresponds to an increasing pressure to demonstrate the usefulness of graduate education, The Chronicle reported. The number of PhD graduates greatly outweighs the demand in the job market in this area in the 2009-10 academic year, only 569 jobs were listed through the American History Association compared to 1,009 PhDs awarded, according to The Chronicle.
U.S. President Barack Obama's proposed budget plan for fiscal year 2013 includes a 2.5 percent increase in Education Department spending, Inside Higher Ed reported. Obama intends to dedicate $8 billion over the next three years to job training programs at two-year community colleges. The bill would provide the Education and Labor Departments $1.3 billion per year to expand pre-existing programs, with a focus on those that train students for high-demand fields of employment, according to Inside Higher Ed. The National Institutes of Health and government-funded medical research are also ineligible for this funding, Inside Higher Ed reported. Under this proposed plan, the Education Department budget would reach $69.8 billion, receiving the largest budget increase of any federal department under the plan, according to Inside Higher Ed. Previous attempts by Obama to raise federal spending on education, such as the proposed $5 billion raise in 2011 for two-year colleges, have fallen through, Inside Higher Ed reported.
Oakland University suspended student Joseph Corlett for three terms after he wrote about his attraction toward his English professor in a journal he was required to keep for the class, Insider Higher Ed reported. The professor, Pamela Mitzelfeld, taught Corlett in a class in which students are required to keep a "Writer's Daybook," according to Inside Higher Ed. Corlett's journal entry included descriptions of several female professors that were specific but non-threatening. Mitzelfeld reported the incident, however, and Oakland suspended Corlett for violating the university's harassment policy, Inside Higher Ed reported. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is protesting Corlett's punishment as unjust by arguing that that Mitzelfeld's perception of Corlett as a "creep" is not legal basis for action, according to Inside Higher Ed.
