Author: Editor

Boundless Potential: How Colorado Trustees Are Collectively Advocating For Public Higher EducationColorado higher education is at a crossroads. For decades, funding for Colorado higher education has not kept pace with inflation, and at the same time, the state’s student body has become increasingly more diverse. Today’s students are older, working more or working while in school, raising families and often attending postsecondary education institutions part-time. There is an opportunity for institutions to continue to represent the interests of their respective student bodies, but there is also a collective power in aligning key stakeholders around the needs of the state’s talent pool and determining how resources can be best aligned to support lifelong learning opportunities for all Color...

Is Santa Clara U. Better Than Princeton? Earnings Data Say “Yes”As one who ranked colleges for Forbes for about a decade, I am abundantly aware of both the complexities and the usefulness of assessing the quality of colleges and universities. Moreover, as I recently wrote on here, prospective students often tragically stumble choosing colleges, and rankings are one tool that helps them make informed decisions about where to attend. A recent entry into ranking colleges is a company called Optimal, which recently issued its Best Colleges 2021 rankings. It appears that Optimal’s philosophy is that kids (and sometimes adult learners) go to colleges overwhelmingly for the primary purpose of getting a good job, so the real important question is: how much money will I make after I graduate? Usi...

FIRE submits written testimony supporting Montana HB 349The Montana House Judiciary Committee held a hearing yesterday for HB 349, a bill that would require public institutions of higher education in Montana to define student-on-student harassment in accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education. HB 349 also enshrines students’ freedom of association rights in state law, allowing student organizations predicated on common beliefs to require their members and leaders to share their values and beliefs. “Montana’s institutions of higher education have long struggled to define harassment.” While FIRE frequently testifies in support of this kind of legislation, Montana’s House Judiciary Committee does not currently allow individuals and groups from out-...