Colleges Withdraw from Rankings

by US News and World Report

Angela Januzzi

June 25, 2007

The US News and World Report’s annual rankings of America’s institutions of higher education, often considered the nation’s preeminent survey of colleges and universities, is losing 80 participants this year. The presidents of several-dozen colleges in the Annapolis Group, an association of liberal arts schools, announced they would not include themselves in US News’ annual rankings, arguing that the survey is detrimental to the educational system: encouraging students to apply to schools while merely increasing rejections, only increasing the selectiveness and elitism of the top participating schools.

Senate Passes Bills for Economic Access to Higher Ed

Angela Januzzi

June 22, 2007

On June 20^th, the Senate Education committee passed a measure geared towards encouraging colleges and universities to work more closely with high-need school districts, in hopes of enabling young teachers financial access towards achieving their teaching degrees. Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, a unanimously approved legislation by the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, will combine the three present grant programs that help states recruit K-12 teachers.

Cuomo Gains Momentum Investigating Student Loan Practices

Patrick Sutton

April 10, 2007

More questionable student loan practices have been brought to light by New York’s attorney general, Andrew Cuomo. In fact, one of the front-page stories of today’s New York Times focuses on the questionable relationships that Student Loan Xpress—the eighth-largest student loan agency—has developed with the financial aid directors of certain colleges and universities.

Corruption, or Reducing Marketing Expenses?