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This article discusses the campaign by North Carolina universities and colleges to have a bond measure passed in the November 7, 2000 election. The $3.1 billion bond would pay for repairs and construction of the states public university and college facilities.

For-profit educational institutions are seeking some of the state financial aid funding provided to college students. Some states are adding or expanding aid program for students at for-profit institutions, but officials at traditional colleges and universities complain that this could cut the aid available to their students.

The California State University Board of Trustees has considered a reorganization of the 23-campus system. Supporters of this plan feel it will improve accountability, although many professors suggest its application will take away faculty power over curriculum choices by making student satisfaction and achievement the center of instruction. The 'Cornerstones' plan will be voted on Mar of 1999., System leaders say proposal promotes accountability; professors see an erosion of their role RESHAPING a sprawling state-university system is not a quick and easy task, especially when it's one of [...]

Roderick G.W. Chu decided to change jobs and become chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, which advises the Governor and General Assembly on higher-education policy. Chu was a consultant with Andersen consulting for twenty years and was a trustee of the State University of New York System. The regents who hired him believe his abilities will be beneficial and supported Chu, the first Chinese American to head a statewide college system, in the career move.

Las Vegas, Nevada city leaders want to start an athletics program at the Community College of Southern Nevada. A 24-member committee recommended the college begin a sports program in 1999. Sixty-one percent of students at the college are 25 and older and entertainment is plentiful. College officials and some city leaders don't envision a major athletic department.

Research programs at the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health gained in Congress with the fiscal-1999 budget-setting process. Tight financial restraints, however, threatened to decrease the budget for many educational programs and the American Corps national-service program. Many of the measures Congress will pass by Oct 1 1998 affect higher education.

The University of Wisconsin plans to enrol more minority students without numerical goals. The university had promised to double minority enrollment during the 80s, but it never reached that goal. Officials proposed this 1990's version of affirmative action to prevent lawsuits and political upheaval, which they argue are apparent in other states.

Colleges are increasingly hiring fund raising consultants to advise them on their proposed fund raising campaigns. Some institutions choose to employ consultants because their own fund raising staff lacks experience. Others assert that consultants lend credibility and expertise to the institution's fund raising efforts, especially with potential large donors who view their contributions more as business investments than donations motivated by emotion. Some institutions, such as Lewis and Clark College, reject the use of consultants, however, arguing that they are too expensive, conservative and impersonal.

Purdue University has developed a relatively quick, simple and inexpensive way to fix most of the year 2000 transition problems present in its critical software systems. A Purdue consultant wrote a software program that scans thousands of lines of code for two-digit date fields and automatically converts the fields to four digits using a sliding century that runs from 1923 through 2022. Other universities and businesses are also employing Purdue's solution. Some institutions, however, prefer to replace their problematic software with newly purchased programs and systems that are year 2000-compliant.

The US EEOC issued new non-binding guidelines on pay equity for the coaches of men's and women's college sports teams in Oct 1997. The EEOC stated that the great disparity in pay scale between men's and women's coaches may constitute sexual discrimination, because the vast majority of women coaches coach women's teams. The high salaries paid to men's football and men's basketball coaches largely determine the disparity. The guidelines will probably impact the base salaries of basketball coaches the most, because the men's and women's coaching jobs are too similar to justify the large pay disparity.

Universities and colleges attempting to establish a competitive, high-level athletics program may find that the financial and academic costs outweigh the benefits. Institutions that move up to NCAA Division I classification, the NCAA's top competitive tier, could find themselves subjected to criticism from faculty, students and others, who are often asked to absorb the costs. Making the transition to Division I is expensive and most such athletics programs lose money. Critics worry that increasing athletics funding will divert scarce resources from academic programs or result in higher student fees.

University and college computer network technical support staff experience increased customer demands during the fall semester every year, as more institutions install campus computer networks and growing numbers of students and faculty seek help in connecting to them. The University of Rochester's technical support program, which employs student consultants to help their fellows connect to the network, was swamped with requests during the first two weeks of the 1997 fall semester. A lack of basic computer knowledge among students and faculty contributes significantly to the support problems.

Many universities and colleges have increased their efforts to educate campus computer network users on security issues and the proper use of the system. Some institutions require potential users to pass a test or complete a class before allowing them network access. Others use posters and other public awareness techniques to educate users about practices, such as sharing passwords, that compromise data and network security. Administrators realize that user education alone will not completely safeguard their networks from security problems and improper usage, but they hope it will help reduce unintentional abuses.

The US Dept of Education (DED) is conducting a nationwide probe of the fraudulent disbursement of federal student aid funds to college athletes. The investigation is partially based on information gained from the case of Anthony A. Russell, a former adviser to athletes at the University of Miami, who was convicted of fraud related to the administration of Pell Grants in 1994. DED investigators examined records at Mississippi State University from Aug 12, 1997 through Aug 22, 1997. DED officials, however, have released no additional information on the probe and refuse to say who is being investigated.

US District Judge Patti B. Saris ruled in Aug 1997 that Boston University (BU) violated the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 by adopting more stringent policies on the accommodation of learning disabled students in 1995. Saris condemned BU President Jon Westling's public accusations that often learning disabled students faked their conditions. Neither Westling nor BU ever produced any evidence supporting his contention. Saris' decision will probably deter other institutions from tightening their documentation requirements and accommodation procedures for the learning disabled.

The National Association of College Stores filed a Jul 1997 lawsuit against publishers Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Addision Wesley Longman for dual discounting practices. Their pricing policies give retail booksellers a larger discount on small purchases of scholarly books than college stores that stock them only in large numbers for class use. The association claims that this type of discounting policy harms students and stores by raising textbook prices. Some college stores, which receive the deeper discount for retail scholarly book sales, refused to join the suit.

The revenues of D-Q University, a two-year Native American tribal college near Davis, CA, will probably drop sharply if tribal casinos, which provide over 15% of the college's annual budget, are forced by the state to remove their video slot machines. The machines, illegal under California law, account for 60% of casino profits according to gaming operators. Gov Pete Wilson and tribal representatives are negotiating over the types of gaming that the state will permit on tribal land, but Wilson insists that the slots will not be allowed. Casinos have until the end of Aug 1997 to remove the machines.

The F.W. Olin Foundation announced in Jun 1997 that it will furnish $200 million, which is one of the largest higher education grants ever awarded, to establish the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA. The foundation also announced it would suspend offering grants to private universities and colleges. Babson College, alma mater of the foundation's president Lawrence W. Milas, will receive $15 million for land for the new college. The engineering school will operate independently of Babson, although the two colleges do plan some educational and administrative cooperation.

The article focuses on a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York which found that student who enroll at four-year institutions actually graduate in four years and college graduates are underemployed, working jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree. It presents the views of Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown Center, on the impact of the Great Recession of 2008 on young adults and the focus on higher education.