Colleges Directing Efforts to Federal Funded Student Loans

The vast majority of colleges have begun to prepare themselves for what the Obama administration considers a likely transition of all student lending to the federal direct student loan program -- but a solid majority of lending is still being made through the competing lender-based guaranteed loan program, according to an analysis of federal data by Student Lending Analytics. The Education Department reported this week that 96 percent of colleges had taken at least some crucial steps toward being able to issue loans through the government-run program, to which legislation passed by the House and pending in the Senate would shift all federal student loan origination. But with the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act seemingly stalled behind health care on Congress's agenda, and the July 1 deadline for institutions to switch looming, the Student Lending Analytics data suggest that many colleges are hedging their bets. On a related note, Rep. Timothy Bishop, a New York Democrat who supports the president's legislation, said in comments before the Council for Higher Education Accreditation Thursday that it was "likely" that Congress would delay until 2011-12 implementation of major changes that the SAFRA bill would make in the Perkins Loan Program.

Haiti Tragedy Impacts University

Over the last two weeks we've seen horrifying images from Haiti. The Haitian people have been living in devastated conditions for some time, the earthquake just brought their plight to the forefront of the media. This tragedy has also impacted several U.S. students and faculty.

Lynn University announced yesterday that all signs indicate that four students and two faculty members who have been missing in Haiti since the earthquake were killed by the disaster. Eight other Lynn students who were part of the service trip were able to return safely to the United States. A statement from Lynn's president, Kevin M. Ross, praised the dedication of those who went to Haiti. "Theirs was a journey of hope. Theirs -- a selfless commitment to serving others," he said. "They were on the ground in Haiti to find, feed and focus on the poor of that nation. In the day and a half before the quake, they did just that -- doling out rice at a distribution center and holding the hands of sick children in a dilapidated orphanage. They intended to do much more. In their absence, it is incumbent upon the rest of us to follow in their stead."

Anyone interested in donating to Haitian relief can contact the American Red Cross.

You're Never Too Old to Fulfill Your Dream

We are bombarded daily with what is wrong with our world, albeit the economy, crime, environment, just life in general. Then we hear a story that gives us hope and a renewed sense of purpose. This is one of those stories.

Harriet Richardson Ames dream was to receive her degree in education. She realized that dream the day before she died at 100! Ames, who turned 100 on Jan. 2, had earned a two-year teaching certificate in 1931 at Keene Normal School, now Keene State College. She taught in a one-room schoolhouse in South Newbury, and later spent 20 years as a teaching principal at Memorial School in Pittsfield, where she taught first-graders.

Through the years, she had taken classes at the University of New Hampshire, Plymouth Teachers College and Keene State to earn credits for her degree. With her eyesight failing, she stopped after retiring in 1971 and was never sure if she had enough credits.

Her wish for a degree became known when a Keene State film professor interviewed her a couple of years ago for a piece on the college's own centennial, which the school celebrated last year.

The school decided to research her coursework and see if it could award Ames her long-sought diploma. The offices of the provost, registrar and other departments worked quickly in the last month to determine, that indeed, it could.

"She wanted to be the best that she could be," said Norma Walker, coordinator of the Keene State College Golden Circle Society, an alumni group for classes that graduated 50 or more years ago.

Walker said when she mentioned to Ames during a recent visit that the college was working on the degree, Ames started to cry and said, "'If I die tomorrow, I'll know I'll die happy, because my degree's in the works.'"

College officials, including Walker, drove the document to Ames' bedside on Friday.

Harriet Ames finally realized her dream and gives the rest of us the courage to realize ours.

DNA for a Day

The Society of Biology and Edvotex have scheduled eleven one day seminars called, DNA for a DAY throughout England and in Glasgow, Scotland and Belfast, Northern Ireland this February through July, 2010.

The training course is for teachers and technicians and will center around bringing biotechnology, genetics forensics and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to life in the classroom.


Full schedule and details

Media Copywright Law Clashing with the Classroom

In the latest clash of copyright law and instructional technology, the University of California at Los Angeles has stopping allowing faculty members to post copyrighted videos on their course Web sites after coming under fire from an educational media trade group.

The policy, enacted earlier this month, has been planned since last fall, when the Association for Information and Media Equipment — a group that protects the copyrights of education media companies — charged the university with violating copyright laws by posting the videos to the password-protected course Web pages without the proper permissions.

Read the full articleon Inside Higher Ed.

IBN Forges Partnership in Science Education with Singapore

Science education in Singapore will receive a boost with new partnerships forged between the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the world's first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute, and four partner schools to develop future scientists and technopreneurs. IBN will formalize partnerships with the School of Science and Technology, Singapore (SST), NUS High School of Mathematics and Science (NUS High School), Singapore Polytechnic (SP), and National Junior College (NJC) through Memoranda of Understanding (MOU).* This major initiative will take place at the 7th IBN Young Researchers' Nite, which will be officiated by Guest-of-Honor, Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

NSF Awards SRI $2.4M to Study Science Programs

SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development institute, has been awarded $2.4 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a five-year research study focused on science in afterschool settings.

The study will examine publicly funded elementary and middle school grantees of California's Afterschool Education and Safety (ASES) program. SRI's research study will explore the social networks connecting afterschool programs with each other and with outside institutions such as science museums and technical assistance providers.

"We will examine the network links between afterschool providers and science institutions to understand how the network structure influences students' exposure to high-quality science learning materials," said principal investigator Barbara Means, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International. "The larger goal of the study is to create new knowledge that helps afterschool and informal science stakeholders improve programs and broaden their impact."

Findings from the study will be available to practitioners, intermediaries, policymakers, funders and others with an interest in improving the quality of informal science and afterschool learning.

About SRI International