Only 60 percent of women holding bachelor's degrees from elite institutions such as Harvard University and Princeton University work full time, compared with 68 percent of women who graduated from less selective schools, The Boston Globe reported. Graduates of prestigious institutions often have husbands who also graduated from highly selective schools and thus have the resources to support a single-income family. Adjustments for spousal income still do not account for a 6 percent difference between the number of women with full-time positions who graduated from top institutions and those who attended less selective schools such as the University of New Hampshire. Women graduating from less selective colleges do not have the aid of an elite degree to help them reenter the workforce after taking maternity leave, which may also influence the trend.
Students at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art have moved into the college president's office to protest the institution's decision to charge undergraduate tuition for the first time in 150 years, The New York Times reported Friday. Since May 8, students have occupied the Greenwich Village office, ousting the college's administrators. Although Cooper Union originally tried to force out the protesters by barricading bathrooms and water fountains, officials eventually gave in and allowed them to remain in the building. Since then, the students' movement has grown, expanding to social networks, petitions and a rotating group of students who are in the office at all times. Cooper Union president Jamshed Bharucha visited the protesters in his occupied office and is currently working out of his home and other buildings. Students are debating what further action should be taken, with many calling for Bharucha's resignation, according to The Times.
Stanford University is initiating a program to push humanities graduate students to seek out jobs as high school teachers, Insider Higher Ed reported Friday. The plan, which goes into effect next year, will fund humanities PhDs admitted to the Stanford Teacher Education Program in the Graduate School of Education and includes a new course to introduce students to high school teaching practices. The program hopes to change traditional ideas about PhD career paths, which puts greater emphasis on higher education positions and research. Stanford is also beginning to reevaluate doctoral education across several different disciplines, Inside Higher Ed reported. Departments are expressing the need to cut the time needed to obtain a degree and challenge current occupational expectations for graduate students.
