Higher Education News

World & Nation
A dozen corporations that earned more than $12.2 billion in profits in 1996 through 1998 owed no corporate income taxes over that period.

A study of 250 large publicly traded companies, conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington research organization, shows that 24 of these companies owed no tax or received credits against past or future tax obligations in 1998

Altogether, 71 of the 250 companies paid taxes at less than half the official 35 percent corporate rate during the three-year period. Corporate profits overall soared 23.5 percent during the three-year period, the group reports, but corporate tax revenues grew just 7.7 percent, More at: www.ctj.org/itep.

A 50-state survey by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research finds that a number of states have a renewed interest in reorganizing their higher education systems.

The survey also notes that more states are linking budget appropriations to how well colleges achieve certain goals, such as increasing graduation rates and reducing class sizes. But, the report also notes, most tie only a small share of their higher-education appropriations to performance.

The good news in the report is: Higher education's share of state budgets is continuing to increase. The bad news: The increased funding doesn't produce significant raises for professors at public colleges.

More on the report, Governance and Coordination of Public Higher Education in All 50 States, at www.ncinsider.com/nccppr/.

In the past 10 years, the typical liberal arts college has doubled its spending on information-technology services, according to new data from a continuing survey of college costs.

The survey, known as the Cost of Supporting Technology Services, or COSTS, project also reports that, for the typical institution, computer hardware replacement costs accounted for 14-to 24-percent of total annual spending on instructional technology services.

Faculty & Staff
The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has ruled that Temple University graduate teaching assistants are employees as well as students and eligible for collective bargaining. This decision paves the way for unionization on that campus and possibly at other public universities in the state.

The three-member labor board rejected a ruling by a hearing officer in January, saying that the hearing officer's decision to dismiss the case had incorrectly relied on a 1976 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that had been effectively nullified last year by the National Labor Relations Board.

The NLRB decision came in a case involving the Boston Medical Center. In this case, the board ruled that medical residents and interns were employees entitled to collective bargaining.

The Pennsylvania decision follows a string of decisions by both national and state labor boards expanding the collective bargaining rights of graduate assistants as well as part-time and full-time faculty.

Professional News
Some college and university admissions officials are considering affirmative action programs for men, according to panelists at the National Association for College Admission Counseling annual meeting.

The admissions officers suggested such measures might be warranted because fewer men are enrolling in the nation's colleges and universities. One admissions officer noted that boys tend not to come into their own academically until late in high school, suggesting this factor should be taken into account in college admissions decisions.

Thomas Mortenson, a senior scholar at the Center for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, has noted that, nationally, fewer than 45 percent of undergraduates are men, down from about 57 percent in 1970. Mortenson attributes the trend partly to the diminishing role of the man as the family breadwinner and his increasing "disengagement from family life." Visit the Association at: www.nacac.com.

Women and Minorities Now Serving As College Presidents
American Council on Education, The American College President: 2000 Edition