Schools' increased use of software to collect middle and high school students' academic and personal information has prompted a debate over how student data should be gathered and who should be allowed to see it, The New York Times reported on Saturday. Of the nine states that signed up last February to work with InBloom, a nonprofit that collects student information from multiple databases and stores it in the cloud, only Colorado, New York and Illinois are continuing after outcry from parents and privacy advocates.
The government shutdown has begun to affect students and professors at higher education institutions across the United States as access to government data and agencies has been temporarily interrupted, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on Friday. Students have been unable to complete research because they can no longer access governmental websites, including those of the Agriculture Department and Library of Congress, turning instead to more traditional forms of research, such as print sources and microfilm. Professors said the shutdown has forced them to rely more heavily on secondary, non-government sources and to use less recent data in their lectures and readings. The shutdown's impact shows that Congress members do not understand how much the federal government affects higher education and non-governmental employees, University of Utah geography professor Kathleen Nicoll said.
Amid criticism of the National Collegiate Athletic Association college athletics regulation and management, the Division I faculty athletics representatives board, which represents faculty watchdogs of athletic departments, announced a proposal for how the NCAA should be restructured, Inside Higher Ed reported on Friday. Its plan would create a separate division for the "Football Bowl Series" schools, which comprises the 10 most athletically powerful conferences. The plan would give upper-level athletic administrators more input in NCAA decision-making and make NCAA governance more streamlined by consolidating committees. The proposal will be discussed at the NCAA's annual convention in January and could be put into action as soon as August 2014.
