Tennessee governor calls for free community college
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam called for the state to use lottery revenues to make two years of community or technical college free for all high school graduates, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported Tuesday.
The proposal, called the Tennessee Promise, would be entirely funded by the state’s lottery system, the Chronicle reported.
Haslam presented the Tennessee Promise as part of his higher education agenda at his State of the State address Monday.
Haslam said, “We are committed to making a clear statement to families that education after high school is a priority in the state of Tennessee,” the Chronicle reported.
Several other states — including Arkansas, Georgia and South Carolina — already use lottery money to offer college scholarships, the Chronicle reported. But high school graduates in these states must meet requirements such as certain grade-point averages to be eligible for them.
U. of Colorado’s philosophy department faces sexism accusations
Following allegations of sexism in its philosophy department, the University of Colorado at Boulder announced Friday that it had fired the department’s chair and suspended its admission of philosophy graduate students, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported Monday. The university will also make philosophy faculty members undergo mandatory training about sexual harassment and bystander intervention.
The move came after a September 2013 report by the American Philosophical Association, which found that the “department maintains an environment with unacceptable sexual harassment, inappropriate sexualized unprofessional behavior and divisive uncivil behavior,” the Chronicle reported.
Fifteen different sexual harassment complaints were filed against the department last fall, according to the report.
The university will likely resume its graduate admissions in the 2015-2016 academic year, Bronson Hilliard, a university spokesman, told the Chronicle.
Dept. of Education aims to reform online information about federal aid
The U.S. Department of Education is reviewing allegations by U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., a member of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform, that several colleges give applicants misleading information about federal financial aid, the New York Times reported Monday.
Though students must fill out just one form — the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — to apply for federal aid, Cummings said many colleges’ websites indicate that an additional form is required, the Times reported.
Cummings cited instances in which the websites of Bucknell University and Hamilton College both instruct federal aid applicants to fill out a second form created by the College Board that carries a $25 completion fee, the Times reported.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Cummings called for colleges to stop “creating improper and unnecessary barriers to the federal assistance that is so critical to enabling students to pursue their academic and professional dreams,” the Times reported.
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