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Higher Education News

World & Nation
Columbia University has announced that it will shut down Fathom, its for-profit, online learning venture, which had been designed to sell Web-based courses and seminars to the public.

In two years of operation, the venture attracted widespread media attention but was never profitable. The site will probably go offline sometime in March. The university had contributed millions of dollars to the undertaking, although officials would not divulge the exact amount.

Fathom’s demise follows those of for-profit online learning ventures at New York University, Temple University, and the University of Maryland University College.

Minority students have less access to college than they did before affirmative action, according to a report released by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). The report states that the expansion of access for Black and Hispanic students has been offset by policies giving advantages to white students. These special advantages include considerations for children of alumni and donors, prepaid tuition plans, and current movements to tighten admissions and end remedial programs.

The AAUP report acknowledges that more Black and Hispanic students are attending college; but the rate for white students has risen much faster, creating a wider racial gap. For more information, visit www.aaup.org.

Students at two-year institutions are more likely to leave college without getting a degree than are students at four-year institutions, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Students cited the need to work as the most common reason for leaving college early, but the study also found that many of the departures were tied to low grades. Most students who left without completing a degree departed in their first year.

The report, “Short-Term Enrollment in Postsecondary Education,” is based on the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, which can be found at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/bps/.

Faculty & Staff
After a decade-long struggle, a majority of the 2,700 graduate assistants at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana have voted for union representation by the Graduate Employees’ Organization, an American Federation of Teachers affiliate.

The union organizing campaign reached its climax during a March student sit-in, which convinced the administration to agree to an election.

Most professors of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics receive little training in how to teach those subjects, according to a new report that encourages universities to value good teaching as highly as good research.

The report from the National Academies’ National Research Council, said professors in those disciplines need more instruction on how to tell if students are learning and how to evaluate their own classroom performance, noting that few programs now exist to help professors improve.

Professional News
The winners of the annual U.S. Professors of the Year award have been announced by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The winning professors are James Adams, a professor of art at Manchester College in Indiana, baccalaureate; Dennis Jacobs, Notre Dame, doctoral; Francisco Jimenez, Santa Clara University, comprehensive; and Alicia Juarrero, Prince Georges Community College in Maryland.

A defense lawyer charged with helping her client direct terrorist activities from jail has been barred from serving as a mentor for Stanford University law students, the law school’s dean has announced in a decision that has angered some students.

The dean, Kathleen M. Sullivan, said that the head of the law school’s public-interest programs had not adequately consulted with faculty members and administrators before offering Lynne Stewart the title of mentor.

Tenure Status of Faculty at Public and Private Institutions.