December 4, 2003
Peer Portfolio
OPEN ADMISSIONS: Members of the University of California, Berkeley’s admissions office recently opened up a part of their complex process to the media in an effort to educate the public. Higher-education reporters from a dozen news organizations attended the event and, after a brief primer in the morning, listened as screeners considered — out loud — applications from six high school seniors. The event was a response to the controversy stirred up when UC Regent John Moore released a report noting that Berkeley had admitted a few hundred students with SAT scores below 1,000 while rejecting many others who scored better than 1,400. Officials at the institution called the report “misleading.”
INTERNATIONAL U: The University of New Mexico is reaching out to students from Mexico and Latin America. The vice president for student affairs at UNM recently spent time in Mexico touting the school and one program in particular that would bring high school students from those countries to campus for an immersion program. The three-week program for high school juniors and seniors — slated to begin next summer — will teach students survival skills, test their language skills and help them sort through potential UNM programs of interest. The program is aiming to bring between 100 and 200 Mexican students to the campus next July.
TUITION IS THE ANSWER: Officials at the University of Illinois, Chicago are seeking an 8 percent tuition increase for current undergraduates in the fall of 2004. The money generated would help restore some of the academic services that have been cut during the last two years, according to UIC Provost Michael Tanner. “I regret we have to increase tuition by this much,” he said. “It’s a better alternative to the erosion of quality that would inevitably occur.”
A PAY RAISE ON CAMPUS: The lowest paid employees at the University of Virginia got good news recently — more money. Between 100 and 200 employees will get a boost of 18 cents per hour in January. The lowest-paid employees will be bringing in $8.37 per hour, or $17,410 per year. It’s the first change in the institution’s minimum hiring rate in three years.
A NEW KENTUCKY HOME: Lots of people, including University of Kentucky employees, stand to benefit from a new housing program in the city of Lexington, Ky. The “Live Where You Work” program is an effort to revitalize housing in and around the city’s downtown area. Eligible employees can receive financial assistance of up to $15,000, housing information and education, and innovative financing options. The university says the program will help attract and retain quality employees, in addition to sprucing up the surrounding neighborhoods. The city also hopes the effort will lead to less congestion on Lexington roadways as people live closer to their place of employment.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DEFENDERS HONORED: Three key players in the successful defense of the University of Michigan Law School’s affirmative action policy were recently honored by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Jeffrey Lehman, the president of Cornell University and former dean of the University of Michigan Law School, UM President Mary Sue Coleman, and former UM president Lee Bollinger, who is now the president at Columbia University, were presented with National Equal Justice Awards.
Peer Portfolio is a look at what’s news on the campuses of some of UW’s peer institutions.
