GradHacker

With Republicans in the majority in the House of Representatives and oversight looming, the U.S. Education Department is planning to stay busy with another round of negotiated rule making. The docket for this year includes amending regulations on accreditation, state authorization, the definition of distance education, cash management and third-party servicers. The regulatory agenda for 2023, rel…

Alan Dettlaff/Twitter The University of Houston suddenly removed its dean of social work last month. The university has said it did so to better align the Graduate College of Social Work with broader institutional priorities. The former dean, Alan Dettlaff—who is returning to the social work faculty, for now—says his views on racial justice got him fired. “I’ve said many times, one of the things …

Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images Tabitha Edson always knew she wanted to work in health sciences. She earned a nursing assistant certification in high school but decided not to pursue the field at Westminster College, a small private institution in Salt Lake City; she worried that it would limit her job opportunities when she graduated. Instead, she found herself drawn to public…

Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times Two years ago today, a group of insurrectionists, whipped into a frenzy by former President Trump’s false rhetoric about a stolen election, waged an attack on the U.S. Capitol, seeking to subvert American democracy. During the course of that tumultuous day, Trump made several calls to legal counsel—including to Mark Martin, a former North Carolina Supreme Court ju…

Purdue University Northwest/YouTube It took less than 15 seconds for Purdue University Northwest chancellor Thomas L. Keon to undermine a résumé forged over decades in academe. An off-the-cuff joke at commencement that mocked Asian languages now has the chancellor facing faculty demands that he resign. The incident happened in December after a commencement speaker, a local graduate, talked about …

When the president of the Kyiv School of Economics began to post photos of his daily life to social media in November, it was a gut reaction. A day earlier, Russian air strikes had hit Ukraine’s power grid, plunging the capital city into darkness. “I didn’t have a plan. I realized we had no heating and no water for a while, and somehow I felt it would be interesting for the world to know how peop…

Courtesy of American University Kyiv At the start of 2022, leaders and faculty attached to a brand-new American university in Ukraine were bullish about the future. American University Kyiv, the result of a partnership with Arizona State University and Cintana Education—a private corporation and ASU partner that helps manage international campuses—would be the first institution in Ukraine develop…

fotografixx/Getty Images Students who enroll in William Altman’s psychology classes at the State University of New York’s Broome Community College sometimes find themselves hooked up to an electroencephalograph—a device that measures electrical activity of the brain—while driving simulated cars either with or without texting. Others in the class participate by monitoring the device’s output or th…

Jay Barrett Ithaca College in New York has long been considered a safe and welcoming place for LGBTQ+ students, and its residence halls are no exception. For years, the institution has offered gender-neutral housing, allowing students to live with roommates of any gender; transgender students are invited to contact Residential Life if they need help meeting any additional needs. For a while, that…

Gwengoat/iStock/Getty Images Plus Community colleges across the country are struggling to recruit and hire new people after losing faculty and staff members in droves during the pandemic. The institutions lost 13 percent of their employees nationally from January 2020 to April 2022, according to an estimate from EAB, a higher education consulting firm. A recent data analysis from EAB shows that f…

- Franklin University is starting an M.S. in professional sales leadership. - Manhattan College is introducing a B.A. in criminology major. - Muhlenberg College has launched a graduate certificate in diversity, equity and inclusion. - Paul Smith’s College is starting a certificate program in clean energy. - Rider University has started a bachelor of arts in social media strategies. - University o…

YouTube/North Idaho College December was a whirlwind month for members of the North Idaho College Board of Trustees. They held four meetings, admitted three violations of open meetings laws, faced two lawsuits and named a new interim president after abruptly placing President Nick Swayne on administrative leave. The board’s rapid-fire actions did not go unnoticed by North Idaho’s accreditor. NIC …

Wikimedia Commons This fall, an instructor at Hamline University, in Minnesota, was teaching global art history. For one class, the instructor (who has not been named) was discussing Islamic art and included for a brief period (under 10 minutes) a screen image of Muhammad, the founder and prophet of the Muslim faith. The instructor had warned students of her plan. The image (above) shows Muhammad…

Franklin Pierce University While campus sustainability efforts have steadily grown over recent decades, COVID caused a pause at many institutions. On the one hand, closures had a positive impact on energy usage. “You can create a net-zero campus pretty easily by just shutting it down,” quips Jay Antle, executive director of the Center for Sustainability and a history professor at Johnson County C…

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Congress is sending more than $1.5 billion to colleges and universities thanks to earmarks and pouring millions more into student success grant programs as part of the $1.7 trillion spending package for fiscal year 2023 that lawmakers approved late last month. The bill signed into law by President Biden increases the maximum annual Pell Grant award to $7,395—a $500 in…

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Congress is planning to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $7,395—a $500 increase—and put more money toward several student success grant programs as part of a $1.7 trillion spending package for fiscal year 2023. The 4,155-page draft spending plan, unveiled early Tuesday morning, will be voted on this week as lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives pl…

Purdue University Fort Wayne / YouTube Another year has come and gone, and colleges and universities are once again sending holiday greetings to students, alumni and other members of their community. From comedic sketches to parody songs to heartfelt ruminations on the past year, each video offers a glimpse into its institution's campus and community. Here are a few of Inside Higher Ed's favorite…

Chico State University California State University, Chico, is in turmoil over how administrators dealt with a professor accused of having sex with a graduate student and then threatening to kill two colleagues who reported him. "I know this past week has been deeply disturbing and unsettling to our students, faculty and staff," President Gayle E. Hutchinson said in a campus memo last week, speaki…

A few things are dependable in higher education, no matter what the high-level trends are. One is that some faculty members are going to do outrageous things, leaders on their campuses are going to get mad and Inside Higher Ed's readers won't be able to get enough of it. Another is that administrators at some colleges are going to make decisions that are foolish or short-sighted, professors are g…

(Note: This article has been updated to correct and clarify several key points about the ability of accrediting agencies to accredit institutions outside their regions, and about the WASC Senior College and University Commission's policies on that topic.) The season of accreditation swapping appears to be upon us. Days after it became evident that Florida's public universities are considering lea…