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New Zealand universities face fines after dormitory deathNEW ZEALAND AFP  19 October 2019 New Zealand universities and dorm accommodation providers were told on 15 October they could face hefty fines following a gruesome case in which a student's decomposing body lay undetected in his room for weeks, reports AFP.Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the teenager's fate, which emerged last month, showed voluntary standards aimed at caring for students in halls of residence had failed. He said a mandatory code of practice would come into force in 2021, including fines of NZ$100,000 (USS$63,700) for breaches that led to a student's death or serious injury. "The [voluntary] code has effectively broken down... and now it's time for the government to be more involved," Hipkins told Radio New Z...

OPINION: Investments in child care facilities are critical to building a more equitable system of careA little more than a month ago, President Biden announced his American Jobs Plan, which includes $25 billion to invest in facilities upgrades in child care settings and to build the supply of infant and toddler care. The plan also includes investments to replace all lead pipes and service lines in drinking water systems to ensure no child is at risk of exposure to lead. When combined with investments in making child care more affordable for families and supporting compensation for the child care workforce, these investments could have a transformative impact on the lives of children, families and providers. There is a demonstrated need to make investments in the physical infrastructure of ...

What I Learned From Students About Their Pandemic StrugglesStarting last fall, as a staff writer for the magazine, I followed a group of A.P. students in Columbia, Mo., as they managed the trials of remote learning. One of the pleasures of my job is how often it exposes me to new environments or subject matter, some of it utterly foreign to my own experience. Reporting on these young people may well have been the first time that I felt that my own life paralleled, over and over again, what I was covering. As I was getting to know the young people I was focusing on in Missouri, I was watching my own sons, high school freshmen in a suburb of New York City, adjust to — or struggle with — the quirks, but also the disappointments, frustrations, cruelties, tedium and loneliness of months that i...

Northwestern Athletic Director Resigns Amid Backlash Over Harassment CaseHayden Richardson, a member of the team from 2018 to 2020, filed a lawsuit in January 2021 against the university, its deputy Title IX coordinator, its associate athletic director for marketing, Polisky and Bonnevier, claiming that she had been groped, harassed and lifted without her permission by intoxicated fans and alumni during university-sponsored events and tailgating parties. She said in the lawsuit that she had been encouraged to continue taking photographs and mingling with potential donors to elicit funds for the university even though she raised concerns about those actions to Bonnevier and Polisky. The lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District Court in the school’s state of Illinois, also contends that the Title I...

Survey reveals disturbing results on campus sexual violenceUNITED STATES About one quarter of undergraduate women say they’ve been sexually assaulted, according to a disturbing new national survey in the United States, which found that at one institution, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the figure was a startling one in three, writes Natalie Musumeci for the New York Post.The Association of American Universities (AAU) released the findings of its Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct last week in which 181,752 students from 33 public and private institutions participated. According to the survey, 41.8% of all participants reported experiencing sexual touching or penetration involving physical force and the inability to consent.“The disturbing new...