Breaking for service
Spring break is a time for community service for a growing number of college students, reports the Indianapolis Star. Even community college students are getting into the act. During a trip last year to Guatemala to build a daycare, Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington students visited families living in one-room shacks with mud floors and no running [...]
College reverses ban on ‘sex’ newspaper
Central New Mexico Community College backed down this week from its decision to suspend the student newspaper for publishing a “sex issue.” The Albuquerque school had suspended publication of the CNM Chronicle and suspended the student staff Tuesday, following the issue’s release. Administrators said the content, which included articles on sex toys, abstinence, and students’ [...]
College OKs ‘empty holster’ protest
Young Americans for Liberty will hold an “empty holster” protest against gun control at Florida’s Santa Fe College, despite opposition by campus police. President Jackson Sasser acknowledged YAL’s free speech rights, after receiving a letter from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). The “First Amendment is of paramount importance to our mission to educate students and [...]
Study: Parent aid lowers college grades
When parents pay their children’s college costs, students earn lower grades but are more likely to graduate, concludes a new study by Laura T. Hamilton, a sociology professor at University of California at Merced. As parental aid increased, students’ GPAs decreased. “Students with parental support are best described as staying out of serious academic trouble, but dialing down [...]
Florida college can’t fill new dorms
Community college students can live in a brand-new residence hall at Edison State College in Ft. Myers, Florida. But the $26.3 million Lighthouse Commons is only two-thirds full, reports the News Press. That means the 405-bed complex will lose money this year. Standard rates are $3,300 per semester, per student for two-bedroom units, or $3,000 for [...]
BACC: Aid helps low-income students graduate
Benefits Access for College Completion (BACC) will help low-income students get child care subsidies, food assistance and other aid in hopes they’ll stay in school, move more quickly to a credential and qualify for jobs that will make them self-supporting. Seven community and technical colleges are participating in the three-year, $4.84 million initiative, which is funded by [...]
Ohio college sued for ban on protest signs
Sinclair Community College in Ohio violated students’ free speech rights by banning anti-abortion signs at a rally, charges the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) in a lawsuit against the Dayton college. On June 8, SCC’s Traditional Values Club (TVC) hosted a “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rally to oppose health-care mandates dealing with abortion [...]
Obama issues ‘Dream’ order
Congress has refused to pass the Dream Act, which would offer a path to citizenship to young illegal immigrants who enroll in college or serve in the military. But today President Obama ordered a halt to deportations for people under 30 who arrived illegally before the age of 16 and lived in the U.S. for five years. [...]
Food banks supply community college students
Food banks are supplying students at community colleges, reports the Boston Globe. Wilfredo Melendez said he had never needed charity before. But last summer, after leaving the Army and enrolling in Bunker Hill Community College, things started to unravel. He couldn’t find a part-time job to make ends meet. He got divorced. His wife moved [...]
Charges dropped in ice-theft case
“Cooler heads have prevailed in a dispute over a cup of ice taken from a New Jersey college cafeteria,” as AP puts it. Disorderly conduct charges have been dropped against Cedric Calero, an 18-year-old freshman at Brookdale Community College, who took a cup of ice without payment. Calero says he didn’t realize he was supposed [...]
