Brown University will investigate a protest that led to the cancellation of an event with New York City police commissioner Raymond Kelly to decide whether students involved should be disciplined, The New York Times reported. In a letter to campus, Brown president Christina Paxson said the protest violated the student code of conduct because it obstructed “the basic exchange of ideas,” and Paxson created a committee to evaluate the incident. Protesters, including Brown students and local residents, interrupted the speech to protest the New York City police department’s stop-and-frisk practice. Last week, a federal appeals court overruled a federal judge’s earlier decision mandating a change in this policy.
President Barack Obama’s proposal to create a federal university ranking system may have negative effects on disadvantaged minority and low-income students, Inside Higher Ed reported. The Education Department organized a day-long event at California State University to solicit feedback about the ranking system. One concern is that a rating system will have a negative impact on students at colleges designed to serve disadvantaged populations, such as community colleges. These schools may perform poorly in the rating system and be granted less federal aid, which would decrease the ability of low-income students to attend college. Other comments addressed the idea of college affordability and the notion that a rating system would diminish the value of a college education.
A preliminary report shows that college endowments saw higher investment returns in the 2013 fiscal year relative to 2012, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The average return in 2013 was 11.7 percent, compared with minus 0.3 percent in 2012. The survey, completed by the Commonfund Institute and the National Association of College and University Business Officers, will be released in January with data from 800 institutions in North America. Commonfund Institute managing director William Jarvis said the increase is due to the Federal Reserve’s and European Central Bank’s support for the equity market.
