Menfolks

More than a year after he took office promising to put a welcoming new face on U.S. foreign policy, President Obama has left allies in higher education increasingly puzzled over one glaring omission.

Cuba.

Mr. Obama took several steps last year toward improving U.S. relations with Cuba, allowing relatives of Cubans to travel, communicate, and send money back to their home country. But he stopped short of ending a policy imposed by President George W. Bush in 2004 that...

College men participate in campus activities at disproportionately low rates, but deliberate efforts to recruit them can help, according to the findings of a two-year study of 14 institutions that was presented here on Tuesday at the annual conference of Naspa—Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.

"We didn't want to find out how to force men to volunteer. We wanted to find out how to get them to willingly volunteer," said Gar E. Kellom, who led the study and...

Nebraska's community colleges reached an agreement on Tuesday to resolve a long-simmering dispute over governance and the allocation of state funds, a state senator who helped mediate the dispute announced.

The dispute reached a high point of acrimony last year after one of the colleges was kicked out of the association that manages the institutions, and it in turn sued the other five.

The college that filed the lawsuit, Metropolitan Community College, in Omaha, contended that...

More than half of young adults, including college students, are worried about their current economic situation, and many do not approve of President Obama's handling of the economy, according to the results of a recent survey.

A report on the findings, "Survey of Young Americans' Attitudes Toward Politics and Public Service: 17th Edition" says that students at four-year colleges diverged from young adults over all on a range of opinions. The students were more likely to say that it's...

Since 2007, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has used Congressional hearings and other means to raise questions about endowment spending by colleges. While he's not now pressing for legislation for a mandatory payout, in an interview last week with The Chronicle, Senator Grassley made clear that even in a recession, he still expects universities to stick with an ethic of responsible spending for the benefit of students. Following are edited excerpts from that...

Besides providing access to higher education, colleges must do more to help more students finish, Hilary Pennington, director of special initiatives for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said at the American Council on Education annual meeting here on Monday.

Colleges should be accountable if their students fail to graduate, Ms. Pennington said, speaking at a plenary session. "Once we cash a student's tuition check, we must accept responsibility for their success."...

The Obama administration promised on Monday expanded enforcement of civil rights in education, saying that gender and racial discrimination still hinders far too many students from grade school through college.

In an initiative tied to the 45th anniversary of the civil-rights marches in Selma, Ala., Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited that city and announced plans to open "compliance review" investigations at more than 30 school districts nationwide and six...

Nearly 5,000 campus officials here this week at the annual conference of Naspa—Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education are hashing out not only vital issues in their field but also the future of their professional association.

At a forum on Monday afternoon, the group's president, J. Michael Segawa, fielded financial and organizational questions about the possible consolidation of Naspa with ACPA—College Student Educators International. The two major...

The Obama administration wants research data to drive more of its higher-education policy...

More than a third of all college faculty members took a pay cut during 2009-10, and overall faculty pay showed no salary increase, according to a report released this week. The results are in contrast to those in the recent past, when professors' pay increased nearly 4 percent per year.

The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, which conducts the annual survey, says only faculty members at private doctoral institutions saw a salary increase of any...

Jonathan D. Spence, an expert on Chinese history and culture and a professor emeritus at Yale University, will deliver the 2010 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced on Monday.

The humanities endowment calls the annual lecture, which carries a $10,000 honorarium, "the most prestigious honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the...

Hamilton College, in Clinton, N.Y., planned to announce on Monday that it was no longer considering applicants' financial need in admissions decisions. The announcement comes in a year that has so far brought mixed news on colleges' affordability efforts. Two prominent colleges have...

The attorney general of Virginia, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, has sent a letter to the state's public universities and colleges asking them to eliminate campus policies that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Mr. Cuccinelli. a Republican who took office in January, wrote that only the state's General Assembly can extend legal protection to gay state employees,...

A new analysis by Congressional budget analysts shows that President Obama's proposal to end the bank-based system of distributing student loans would save $67-billion over 10 years, more than 20 percent less than the previous year's estimate.

The estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has both budgetary and political implications for Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats who had hoped to use the earlier budget-office estimate of $87-billion in savings...

In the face of a stubborn gap between the rich and poor in America, colleges must open the door to higher education "wider than it has ever been opened" to prevent even more people—and the country—from falling behind, Eduardo J. Padrón, president of Miami Dade College, said at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education here on Sunday.

Mr. Padrón, who leads the country's largest community college, urged the leaders of both private and public...