Archive for the ‘Minorities’ category

Gay Students Seek Sanctuary Free of Discrimination

March 8th, 2011

Students viagrain the University of Rhode Island’s GLBT community are fed up with what they describe as their marginalization. They are seeking, among other resources, respectable headquarters, where they can invite professors, hold events, and develop a sense of belonging on the campus. A weeklong protest this past fall shed light on the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students, and attracted attention on campuses across the country.

Numerous gay suicides in the fall, including that of a student at Rutgers University, raised awareness of bullying, as have other incidents of bias: a gay-pride flag shredded last year at Elmhurst College, in Illinois, and one burned at Albion College, in Michigan.

Concerns about safety and comfort, recently reflected in the first national survey of the GLBT campus population, are leading more administrators to consider how their students feel and what kinds of programs and services may help.

A tragedy on an otherwise supportive campus can also alter perceptions of its climate. Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers, jumped to his death in October after his roommate used an Internet chat program to broadcast live video of Mr. Clementi and a male companion, investigators say.

“How students feel regardless of resources is the really important thing,” says Thomas E. Wesley, a master’s candidate in student-affairs administration at Michigan State University who works with the LGBT Resource Center there.

At Rhode Island, the GLBT Center is moving forward with a total budget of $181,000 this year (compared with $276,000 for the university’s multicultural center) and next month it will hold a symposium, a weeklong series of speakers and other events. The student-led Gay-Straight Alliance is helping organize Marriage Equality Week in the state and planning to cosponsor a campus show with the Asian Student Association.

Your thoughts?

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Posted in Higher Education, Minorities, Student Life

White House Eases Restrictions on Education Exchange Programs in Cuba

January 18th, 2011

On Friday, President Obama lifted restrictions imposed by the Bush administration that elmininated the ability of many American schools and colleges to run exchange programs in Cuba.

Reverting to a similar system that was in place during the Clinton administration would see the following changes:

Colleges wanting to institute a credit programs in Cuba will have to follow a set of established guidelines, but will not need a special license from the U.S. Treasury Department to do so.

Colleges will be able to involve adjunct faculty members in their programs. Something they have been prohibited to do.

American colleges with programs in Cuba will again be able to enroll students from other colleges in those programs. This is crucial since many colleges will still not likely set up programs in Cuba, but if they have students who want to study there, they will now be allowed to.

Institutions wanting to set up non-credit programs will be able to do so.

President Obama does not need Congressional approval to change the rules. Many Democratic leaders in Congress have pushed for loosening of limits on ties to Cuba and rallied on the side of educators. Republicans, however, have generally argued that these programs can’t be justified as long as they bring any economic benefits to Cuba.

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Posted in Admissions, Higher Education, Humanities, Minorities

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Top 5 Countries With the Most Students Studying in the United States

November 15th, 2010

Country                    2009-10                     1-year change

1. China                     127,628                      +29.9%

2. India                     104,897                      +1.6%

3. South Korea         72,153                      -3.9%

4. Canada                    29,145                     -5.2%

5. Taiwan                     26,685                     -4.9%

Source: Institute of International Education

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Posted in Higher Education, Minorities, Student Life

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Affirmative Action Hot Topic in Brazil

August 2nd, 2010
Ordem & Progresso

Affirmative Action In Brazil Hot New Topic

In 2002 Rio de Janeiro became the first Brazilian state to adopt quotas for Afro-Brazilian students in institutions of higher education. The last country in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery, Black activists hoped that the country was finally coming to terms with its bitter legacy. However,  just eight years later, affirmative-action policies—which have since been adopted by scores of other Brazilian universities on behalf of the country’s most disadvantaged groups—could be ruled unconstitutional by the country’s Federal Supreme Court.

The government’s census statistics show that 49.7 percent of Brazilians consider themselves white. Of the rest, 6.9 percent say they are black; 42.6 percent say they are pardo, a Portuguese term for people of mixed African and European descent; and 0.8 percent are categorized as “other,” which includes those who claim indigenous or Asian descent.

The numbers show that the scales are anything but equal. Only 2 to 3 percent of students at public universities are black, and a minority are of mixed race, according to Ms. Slhessarenko and the Rev. David Santos, a Roman Catholic friar and executive director of Educafro, a nonprofit that helps prepare minorities for university entrance exams.

Proponents of racial quotas, like Brother Santos, say they are necessary because Afro-Brazilians lag behind in almost every health, social, and education indicator. Getting them into universities, he argues, is the quickest way to begin addressing those distortions and to try and provide some indemnity for 388 years of slavery.

Opponents, meanwhile, argue that quotas constitute a form of reverse racism, and that they fuel racial tensions where none existed before.

Read the entire story here

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Posted in Admissions, Higher Education, Minorities

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President of Kaplan College Campus Is Fired Over ‘English Only’ Declaration

June 1st, 2010

Kaplan College

Dennis Manzo, the president of Kaplan College’s campus in Chula Vista, Calif., was fired this month over his handling of an incident in which students were told they would face academic sanctions if they spoke Spanish in class. Manzo had been president since the campus, located just seven miles from the Mexican border, opened in December.

Jonathan Cedeño, the student whose complaint triggered the investigation that led to the president’s dismissal, had complained that an Anglo woman in his medical-assistant course had been complaining that he and his friends, who started the class after she did, weren’t keeping up.

He said Patricia Dussett, program director for allied health, came in to two of his classes the following day and told students that campus policy forbade the use of any language other than English in class, even in side conversations.

Dussett was gone for a few days after her May 3 statements. Officials would not confirm or deny any disciplinary action, saying it was a personnel matter.

Mr. Cedeño e-mailed his aunt, Leticia Maldonado, a college-programs coordinator at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Maldonado threatened to contact the news media and parents of Chula Vista students, and to seek legal advice if the matter was not resolved.

Within the week, Ms. Maldonado said, administrators and college lawyers had apologized to students and the president had been dismissed.

Read more about it here.

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Posted in Community College, Minorities, Student Life

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Is ‘One Florida’ A Bust? Mixed Results for Minorities at Florida’s Universities

April 12th, 2010

Florida's "One Florida" Policy A Bust?

The Orlando Sentinel reports that ten years after Florida eliminated affirmative action in admissions for its university system, the gaps continue to grown between both the black and Latino share of high school graduates and enrolled university students.

Under the ‘One Florida’ plan — championed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush — universities do not consider race and ethnicity in admissions, but instead offer spots to those at the top of their high school classes, regardless of test scores. Bush said that the plan offered a legal way to promote diversity — at a time when some doubted (incorrectly, in turns out) that courts would continue to allow affirmative action in admissions.

Patricia Marin, a higher-education-diversity researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said the numbers show that One Florida has done little to improve access for minorities.

“Latinos are still underrepresented. And blacks as well,” Marin said.

Proponents argue that the weakening economy, beginning in 2008; rising tuition; and limited growth in the university system have hampered efforts to attract more blacks and Hispanics, many of whom come from low-income families.

Frank Brogan, who was Bush’s lieutenant governor in 2000 and later president of Florida Atlantic University before becoming chancellor of the State University System last summer, said One Florida has abolished “quotas” and “set-asides” and found race-neutral ways to open doors to more black and Hispanic students. Need-based scholarships help, Brogan said, but there are not enough of them.

Your thoughts?

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Posted in Minorities

New For-Profit School for African-Americans

April 2nd, 2010

A new for-profit education company that will serve specifically African-American students has entered the scene, according to a report by Inside Higher Ed.

The venture, Latimer Education, will work with private, historically black colleges to offer online and on-campus programs to African-American students — who  already account for a large segment of the for-profit student body.

Of course, for-profit schools are already a niche in education, appealing to many  nontraditional students and garnering criticism from traditional providers. Critics of the Latimer program idea have already cautioned that because it is  for-profit, the new program may have a detrimental effect on the non-profit colleges and end up hurting the very audience it’s intended to serve.

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Posted in For-Profit Education, Minorities

Vanderbilt and Fisk Universities Team Up to Bridge Minority Gap in Science

March 26th, 2010

Fisk / Vanderbilt University Program

In 2008, American universities awarded Ph.D.s in physics to just 12 black U.S. citizens, out of 905 awarded to U.S. citizens of any race that year. As many experts worry about the lack of diversity in the science pipeline, two universities have teamed up to do something about it according to a recent article.

The Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program, pioneered by Vanderbilt professor Keivan Stassun, began in the fall of 2004 with five students and has since then seen another 30 students enroll. The program seeks to boost doctorate degrees from groups that are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

The breakthrough program is getting the attention of congress — and was discussed at a Congressional hearing this month — as an example of how minority-serving institutions and top research universities can work together.

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Posted in Higher Education, Minorities

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