Advocate Online

They're Talking On Campus. . .

... About a recent finding that society reaps significant rewards when a higher percentage of its residents have postsecondary education. “Education Pays 2007: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society,” from the College Board, gives an overview of the benefits of various levels of educational attainment.

Higher rates of volunteering, voting, and donating blood correspond to higher levels of education, say the report’s authors, as do socially valuable behaviors, such as tolerance for the opinions of others.

College benefits individuals also, according to the report, with a higher rate of employer-paid health and pension benefits, greater lifetime earnings, and less unemployment.
The study found college completion rates to vary widely by race. For example, in 2006, white men were 107 percent more likely to have earned a bachelor's degree than African-American men, and white women 71 percent more likely  than black women. More on the findings at www.collegeboard.com.

... About a finding that 58 percent of respondents to a Zogby Interactive poll think that political bias of college professors is a serious problem.

The survey also found that 65 percent believed non-tenured professors were more motivated to do a good job in the classroom.

There were divisions along party lines (73 percent of Republicans found the problem to be serious, while only 6.7 percent of Democrats were so concerned).  And critics claimed that most respondents didn’t understand what tenure is.