Post-Secondary News Digest for February 1, 2010
Canada
Profs: social networking sites source of bad grammar ☺:
(CTV) University professors are blaming social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for the degradation of writing skills among students. Emoticons, abbreviations, and blatant spelling and punctuation errors are some of the most commonly seen mistakes. Almost a third of those students at the University of Waterloo are failing a minimum grammar test and teachers worry students are no longer being taught the proper grammar necessary for post-secondary education.
Former U of T student runs for mayor:
(The Varsity) Former University of Toronto student council president Rocco Achampong is running for mayor of Toronto. The 31-year-old Ghana-born lawyer was president of the Black Students Association at U of T before being elected to council in 2002. His current campaign calls for a freeze on rising transit fares, expansion of the city’s subway system and better start-up conditions for entrepreneurs. Achampong’s name joins 22 others on the roster of mayoral candidates.
Pro-life club at McGill won’t back down:
(McGill Daily) Choose Life, a student club at McGill University, defied its suspension status today with members staffing a table on campus to protest abortion in Canada. The university’s student society suspended the group in November for allegedly harassing students. Another student group, Conservative McGill, aided the group by booking a table on its behalf. The move did not technically violate any policies but may affect the club’s standing at the next committee meeting.
N.B. students cooking at Olympics:
(Daily Gleaner) Culinary arts students from the New Brunswick Community College in St. Andrews, N.B., will be heading to the Winter Olympics this month to prepare food for an international audience. The chefs-in-training will be demonstrating their skills at the Atlantic Canada House, a site dedicated to showcasing culture from eastern Canada. They will be joining other students from across the East Coast.
U.S.
U.S. student debt reduction plan will cost $2B:
(The State News) U.S. President Barack Obama’s state of the union address last Wednesday outlined a new plan to cut student loans. The current repayment plan of student loans is 15 per cent of the borrower’s income, with the debt forgiven after 25 years. Obama plans to cut the repayment to 10 per cent, and cancel debt after 20 years. This will cost the federal government between US$1 billion and US$2 billion over the next five years.
Colorado university looks to hire diversity VP:
(Colorado AN) Colorado State University’s president, Tony Frank, is hoping to hire a part-time, interim vice-president for diversity. The position was recommended because of changing demographics in the state and concerns that not enough minority students are enrolling at the university. The position will be funded by cuts in other administrative areas. The creation of an office that promotes equal opportunity in hiring was also recommended.
‘Weak’ university programs get axe in Iowa:
(The Chronicle of Higher Education) A task force at the University of Iowa is responsible for deciding if the university’s 100 or so graduate programs are all worth keeping. In order to cut costs, the university is cutting “low-calibre” programs dropped. Faculty members say most low-ranked programs are in the humanities, including PhD’s in film studies and comparative literature, and graduate programs in American history, Japanese and Chinese.
100-year-old teacher gets degree on deathbed:
(San Francisco Chronicle) Just three weeks after her 100th birthday, Harriet Richardson Ames received her bachelor’s degree in education at her bedside. The next day, the retired schoolteacher died. She had taken classes at two universities and a college, but had left school when her eyesight started to fail. New Hampshire’s Keene State found out about her wish and awarded her the degree after researching her eligibility.
World
Cuts will deprive thousands of university places: U.K. academics:
(The Guardian) The Higher Education Funding Council for England will announce cuts of nearly $537 million to higher education today. Universities warn this will mean thousands of would-be students won’t be able to get into university. The council will slash university budgets by roughly $230 million over the upcoming academic year, with estimated cuts of $1,619 million over the next three years. These will be the first cuts to teaching budgets since the Labour party came to power.
Jordan urged to stop stripping citizenship rights:
(Reuters) Human Rights Watch pushed Jordan today to stop arbitrarily withdrawing nationality from Jordanians of Palestinian authority. In denying them citizenship, Palestinian-born Jordanians are stripped of their entitlement to basic rights such as access to post-secondary education and health care. Jordan stripped more than 2,700 citizens of their nationality between 2004 and 2008.
Three universities launch Indonesian-Russian dictionary:
(Antara News) The University of Indonesia’s European Studies Centre launched a Bahasa Indonesia–Russian dictionary today, in cooperation with Moscow State University and St. Petersburg University in Russia. The project is aimed at helping Indonesians read and communicate in Russian. The dictionary is intended to help bridge gaps between the two countries, and to enhance trade relations. Today is the 60th anniversary of Indonesia-Russia diplomatic relations.
Seven U.S. and European profs win Israel’s Wolf Prize:
(San Francisco Chronicle) The Wolf Foundation, chaired by Israel’s education minister, awarded prizes in medicine, agriculture research, physics and mathematics to seven American and European scientists. It awarded US$100,000 in each prize category, which gets divided among the recipients who share the category. The Wolf Foundation says 38 past winners have gone on to receive Nobel prizes.