John Silber, president of Boston University from 1971 to 1996, died on Thursday morning in his Brookline, Mass., home at the age of 86, The New York Times reported. At Boston University, he survived strikes, lawsuits and several petitions for his removal. Silber was occasionally controversial, known for refusing to negotiate with a professors' union and calling the police to break up student demonstrations against military recruiters. He is also credited with reviving the university, increasing its endowment from $18 million to $422 million, financing $700 million in new construction, raising tuition and tightening admission standards. Silber made more than $800,000 a year, making him the highest paid university president in the country at the time, according to The Times.
University athletic programs have increased the scope and frequency of random drug tests on student athletes, Inside Higher Ed reported. A 2009 NCAA assessment discovered that, in addition to the testing collegiate athletes are subjected to by the NCAA at championship events, 92 to 96 percent of university athletic programs do random drug testing for all sports. Although the NCAA already considers many in-house testing programs stringent and even invasive, universities are increasing the intensity of testing by means of random tests for not only performance-enhancing drugs, but also recreational drugs. These new policies, which the University of Oregon is currently inaugurating following reports of frequent marijuana use on its football team, include substance abuse counseling and escalating penalties as athletes fail repeatedly.
Three for-profit institutions the California-based Healthy Hair Academy, the College of Office Technology in Chicago and Suburban Technical School in Hempstead, N.Y. all failed to meet the Department of Education's 90/10 standard, which stipulates that at least 10 percent of a for-profit college's revenue cannot come from federal student-aid programs, for a second consecutive reporting period, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Two consecutive failures to pass the 90/10 rule result in ineligibility to participate in student aid programs for at least two years. Healthy Hair Academy and Suburban Technical School have already shut down. The number of colleges failing to satisfy the 90/10 rule is steadily rising, reflecting a sluggish economy coupled with increasing numbers of students eligible for federal aid and more available federal aid, The Chronicle reported.
