The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Virginia Polytechnic Institute was not negligent when officials did not notify campus of a shooting on April 16, 2007. Seung-Hui Cho fatally shot two students in a residence hall before killing 31 others, including himself, in an academic building two hours later. The plaintiffs, family members of two of the victims in the second shooting argued that their children could have taken precautions against a shooter if they had been informed. Last year, a civil jury found in favor of the families, but the state appealed and pushed the case to the state Supreme Court. Virginia Supreme Court Justice Cleo Powell ruled that there was no way for Virginia Tech to foresee the second shooting incident.
Colleges across the country have incorporated more creative topics into their application essays, including subjects such as Plato, favorite jokes, and the expression YOLO, to highlight their distinctive qualities while allowing them to discover what is unique about their applicants, The New York Times reported. Andrew Flagel, senior vice president for students and enrollment at Brandeis University, said in an interview that the quirky topics differentiate colleges in an often repetitive process. While many students complain the essays add further stress to the application process, others embrace them as a chance to express their identity to universities.
Higher education advocates are again pressing lawmakers to end automatic budget cuts as legislators resume budget negotiations following the shutdown, Inside Higher Ed reported. Earlier this year, the cuts known as sequestration reduced federal spending on research by more than $1 billion. Research institutions and universities were forced to scale back projects and lay off workers. There is a $91 billion gap between the budgets proposed by the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House-passed Republican budget would cap discretionary spending at $967 billion, $19 billion below the current spending level carried forward into this year. That budget would shift cuts to education and research in order to lessen burdens on defense spending. The Senate proposed removing the cuts for the rest of the current fiscal year and setting a maximum discretionary spending level of $1.058 trillion.
