college

Survey: Michigan small businesses want changes to graduation standards

Lindsey Smith — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:00:55 +0000

Small business owners want Michigan to make its curriculum standards for high school students more flexible.

The state passed broad standards in 2006 for all students. They are supposed to ensure all students are ready for college.

The Michigan Merit Curriculum requires four years of math and English language arts; three years of science and social studies; and two years of a foreign language. Complete standards are outlined here.

Michigan colleges struggle when students drop out, keep aid

The Associated Press — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:47:22 +0000

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - Michigan colleges are stuck with a bill worth millions of dollars when students with federal grants drop out but keep the cash.

The Detroit Free Press says Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn likely will raise tuition, partly to repay $4.1 million to the federal government. Spokesman Gary Erwin says two-year colleges have been hit "particularly hard."

Stateside: Gender neutral housing at universities

Stateside Staff — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:04:45 +0000

Universities across the country are opening up campus housing to transgender students and it's happening right here in Michigan.

The University of Michigan housing has announced it will set aside a block of gender neutral rooms for transgender and gender non-conforming students in the fall of 2013, as a part of the gender inclusive living experience.

We speak with Amy Navvab, a student at the University of Michigan and Chair of the Open Housing Initiative, and Amanda Hobson, Residential Coordinator at Ohio University where gender neutral housing is already available to students.

Listen to the interview above.

In move to Dartmouth, UM provost calls tuition increases 'unsustainable'

Mark Brush — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:55:44 +0000

It was announced yesterday that University of Michigan provost Phil Hanlon will become the next president of Dartmouth College starting July 1, 2013.

Hanlon, 57, is a graduate of Dartmouth and will become the college's 18th president.

In a New York Times piece, Hanlon indicated that university funding, in its current form, is reaching a breaking point:

Dr. Hanlon, who will be the 10th Dartmouth graduate to become its president, said he expected to focus closely on the college’s cost structure and finances. “The historic funding model for higher ed is close to unsustainable,” he said. “We can’t continue superinflationary tuition increases.”

Stateside: Paying off a degree of debt

Michigan Radio Newsroom — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 21:37:59 +0000

Graduating from college brings with it many things - four years of academic achievement, a degree, and for some... substantial financial debt.

Continuing our student debt conversation we spoke today with Detroit Free Press financial columnist Susan Tompor. Pam Fowler, Executive Director of Financial Aid at the University of Michigan, also joing us.

According to Tompor, one of the primary reasons students fall so deeply into debt is their failure to record the money they borrow.

Update: investigation dropped into alleged hate crime

Kate Wells — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:22:04 +0000

Update: September 27, 2012 1:15 pm

The Ingham county prosecutor won't press any charges in the alleged assault and hate crime involving MSU student Zachary Tennen - and Tennen's family supports that call.

50 years of friendship across continents, poverty, and war

Kate Wells — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 18:13:34 +0000

This next story is about an epic friendship between a white, 76-year-old Grand Rapids teacher, and the driven Liberian boy she inspired 50 years ago when she was a young Peace Corps volunteer.

Their bond has survived hunger, poverty, and a brutal civil war. And it’s created ripples across Liberia, leading to the country’s first school for social workers . Now, it’s reuniting both friends back here in Michigan.

Too much emphasis on a four-year degree, says Michigan Governor

Rick Pluta — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:27:43 +0000

Governor Rick Snyder said Michigan and the rest of the country lost sight of the value of vocational training as young people were encouraged to get four-year college degrees. The governor spoke today at a business conference in Grand Rapids, the West Michigan Policy Forum.

He said too many students have been pushed toward getting four-year college degrees when vocational education or community college might have made more sense.

“And so we sorta messed up over the past 20 or 30 years, 40 years. We’ve lost the focus on how important those roles are,” said Snyder.

The governor said the result is thousands of jobs in skilled trades go unfilled while people are looking for work.

“How dumb was that? I mean, if you stop and think about it. So we did supply on one chart, demand on another chart, and when everyone knows we need to have one chart where we bring supply and demand together, and create talent, and connect it,” said Snyder.

Snyder says he intends to convene a summit of educators and employers early next year to get a better sense of where the demand for jobs is strongest – and use that information to help re-design Michigan’s education system.

The governor has also called for stronger integration of pre-school through post-high school education.

Oakland University, professors reach 3-year deal

The Associated Press — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:04:45 +0000

ROCHESTER, Mich. (AP) - Oakland University in suburban Detroit and its professors have reached a three-year proposed tentative contract agreement.

The agreement was announced early Friday in a posting on the website of the 700-member Oakland University chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

Details of the proposed agreement are expected to be made public later. It's expected to include pay increases, merit pay adjustments and changes to benefits.

Classes begin Tuesday at the school. Voting to ratify the contract likely will take place in a few weeks.

In 2009, professors at the school went on strike for a week starting the day classes were expected to begin before a tentative contract agreement was reached.

EMU and professors' union reach tentative 3-year contract agreement

Mark Brush — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 17:06:58 +0000

Eastern Michigan University officials announced today they've reached a tentative agreement with the union representing EMU faculty members.

The current contract with the union was set to expire at midnight on August 31. EMU students start classes on Wednesday, September 5.

EMU officials say the contract "provides for salary increases of 2 percent per year for each year of the contract, as well as changes to health care plans."

Michigan's graduates cope with mounting student loan debt

Michigan Radio Newsroom — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:22:45 +0000

Students at Michigan's five largest universities sought more loans to pay for college, according to a Detroit Free Press database.

More young Michiganders are getting college degrees

Steve Carmody — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 20:14:19 +0000

A new report shows a growing percentage of Michigan young people have college degrees.

But one expert says the state must do more to keep those graduates from leaving the state.

Michigan State University hikes tuition 3.5%

Steve Carmody — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:31:49 +0000

It’s going to cost the average Michigan State University student $210 more to attend the fall semester.

The MSU Trustees today approved a 3.5 percent tuition increase for next year.

The increase will be slightly higher for out-of-state students.

Lou Anna Simon is president of MSU. She says no one wants to raise college tuition.

“There are stories about students who are definitely in debt at a higher level than they should be,” Simon told the MSU Board of Trustees before the vote.

Other Michigan public colleges and universities also approved tuition hikes this week, including the University of Michigan and Michigan Tech.

Michigan court district ranks No. 1 in lawsuits filed against student loan defaulters

Michigan Radio Newsroom — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:35:05 +0000

Federal data show that a federal court district in Michigan ranks number one in the country for the number of federal lawsuits filed against individuals who default on their student loans.

Relative to population size, defaulters in the Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit) were prosecuted at a rate about 10 times the national average during March 2012.

The Central District of California (Los Angeles) came in second, and the Northern District of New York came in third.

Out of the 279 suits filed in March, 57 were filed in the Eastern District of Michigan, 140 in the Central District of California and 13 in the Northern District of New York.

The report, published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, compared the total number of civil filings per month since March 2007. The number remained relatively stable (between 200 and 250) until Spring 2009, when it dipped slightly, bottoming out at 168 in December of that year.

The number then rose substantially to 598 in April 2011 before declining again towards the early 2009 average.

The Eastern District of Michigan’s leadership in per capita student debt lawsuits is nothing new. The court topped the ranks five years ago and came in second last year, according to the TRAC report.

The Institute for College Access & Success, a non-profit research and policy organization, reported that 60 percent of 2010 Michigan graduates carried student debt, owing an average of $25,675 — the 11th highest average in the nation.

- Suzanne Jacobs, Michigan Radio Newsroom

A pitch for graduating students - following your passion is key

Mercedes Mejia — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:47:44 +0000

It's graduation season across the country, and students are deciding what they want to do with their lives.

Seventy-one-year-old Ernie Caviani is a piano tuner and technician. He says following your passion is key.

Michigan Radio producer Mercedes Mejia has this audio postcard.

Ernie Caviani: This A is vibrating at 220 beats per second. This A is supposed to vibrate, if it matches it at 440, it’s just twice as much.

In my lifetime I’ve tuned a little over 30,000 pianos.