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Haiti Earthquake Relief -- Make a donation to the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center's Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers' campaign and Union Plus will match your donation dollar-for-dollar, up to $100,000. CLICK

Chicago Federation of Labor Scholarship:
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IFT Legislative Update, Jan. 15: State of State message starts new session

SUAA Mini Briefing, Jan. 26

IBHE Friday Memo: Friday, Feb. 5: Friday Memo is snowed in (and under). Will return next week.

>> Read the IBHE's News Digest

Illinois AFL-CIO Legislative Update, Feb. 5

The Alliance for Retired America Friday Alert; President’s Budget Includes $250 Stimulus Payment for Social Security Recipients
(Feb. 5)

IBHE Meeting Schedule

All meetings will begin at 1 p.m. and last about three hours

April 6, Chicago TBD
June 1, Springfield TBD
Aug. 10, Chicago  TBD
Oct. 5, Chicago TBD
Dec. 7,  Chicago TBD

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OVER YOUR SHOULDER:
The changing role of the university


For-Profit Colleges Change Higher Education's Landscape Nimble companies gain a fast-growing share of enrollments (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 7)

For This U. of Phoenix Student, Perseverance Pays Off (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 7)

Q&A: What For-Profit Colleges Are All About (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 7)

Decline in College Art Positions(Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 7)

Considering the Future of U. of California (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 7)

BLOG: Ask the Administrator: Is Working at a CC the Kiss of Death in Academia? (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 7)

Policy Matters Top 10 Higher Education State Policy Issues for 2010 (American Association of State Colleges and Universities, January 2010)

BOOK REVIEW: Tales Out of School (New York Times, Feb. 5)

For Students at Risk, Early College Proves a Draw -- Early-college schools, once for the affluent and overachieving, are serving more low-income students. (New York Times, Feb. 7)

PEOPLE TO WATCH

On the Basketball Court with Arne Duncan (The New Yorker, Jan. 26)

DAVID HOROWITZ: Still Banned at Saint Louis U. (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 8)

UPI SCHOOLS

Eastern receives $6 million in state funding Reduction in funding for 2011 (Daily Eastern News, Feb. 8)

U of I tuition increase reflects national trend
9% hike in Champaign, 15% in Florida, 30% in California (Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 6)

UIS sees record-setting enrollment for spring semester (Champaign News-Gazette, Feb. 4)

Chicago State makes Olympic effort to bolster athletic squad University hopes former athletes will inspire off field too (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 3)

EIU spring enrollment down slightly [ about 1 percent]  (Charleston Times-Courier, Feb. 2)

Retention rate above national average Quality of education experience, ability of developing loyalty, significant variables (Daily Eastern News, Feb. 1)

IL SCHOOLS

Chicago schools pile up lunch waste Kids eating lunch in Chicago schools toss out nearly a quarter of a million foam trays every day — and that's just the beginning (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 7)

U. of C. president's relationship with professor causes stir on campus Board sees 'no conflict of interest' (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 5

Teacher pension fund suit: Northern Trust botched assets -- The Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund has filed suit against Northern Trust Co., alleging the bank and investment management company improperly managed fund assets by placing them in risky, long-term securities that plummeted in value. (Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 2)

UI unveils Web site on budget(Champaign News-Gazette, Feb. 5)

OPINION: No guarantees with UI exit plan -- The University of Illinois is inviting employees to leave, but past state early retirement plans have proven to be financial boondoggles. After several days of speculation about an early exit program, University of Illinois administrators sent out the official e-mail Tuesday informing employees of the details. (Champaign News-Gazette, Feb. 4)

OPINION: Chief e-mails tell disturbing story (Champaign News-Gazette, Feb. 2)

Teaching methods praised during event for [SIU} medical school’s 40th anniversary (Springfield State Journal-Register, Feb .2)

University waiting to endorse e-books (Daily Illini, Feb. 1)

Voters say no to New Trier referendum -- A $174 million plan to renovate and add on to New Trier High School's Winnetka campus went solidly down in defeat Tuesday night. (Winnetka Talk, Feb. 2)

Special-needs pupils victims of state financial woes (Courier-News, Feb. 2)

SIUC's spring enrollment is down again (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 2)

New [Chicago] Board of Education chief getting the lay of the land(Chicago Tribune, Feb. 1)

IN & ABOUT SPRINGFIELD

Pawnbroker says he's dropping out of race Quinn comment, Democratics to begin replacement talks (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 7)

State lawmakers returning this week to packed agenda -- No problem is bigger than the state’s hobbled budget, with a deficit of $13 billion or more.  (Springfield State Journal-Register, Feb.7)

Hynes would consider spot on ticket, but not pursuing it (Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 8)

OPINION: Quinn rally makes for almost perfect night (Southtown Star, Feb. 8)

To Kirk Dilliard and Bill Brady: It’s The Pensions Stupid -- For two guys at the 20% voter approval level, 91% and 87% should send a strong signal: the 95% of voters who are not eligible for state pensions do not want to pay taxes to make the other 5% retirement millionaires. (Champion News, Feb. 5)

State senator threatened with eviction from Barrington office -- Sen Duffy  says he won't complain if he is booted from his office because the state government hasn't been paying the rent on time. (Daily Herald, Feb. 8)

OPINION: Fix Illinois' fiscal mess — now (Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 3)

In Illinois Campaign, Republicans Squabble Amid Attempt to Regain a House Seat (New York Times, Feb. 1)

HEALTH & SAFETY

Grad Student Sues U. of Kentucky in Gun Dispute (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 3)

MONEY . . .

• hard times

With Federal Stimulus Money Gone, Many Schools Face Budget Gaps -- The stimulus helped forestall drastic cuts at public schools, but many are now approaching what officials call a “funding cliff.” (New York Times, Feb. 7)

OPINION: College tuition hikes are a tax hike on families -- "Between a decade of budget cuts to higher education and reductions the university has already made, there's no fat to cut. That leaves one other place to go to make up the shortfall: students and their parents," says the Journal Star in today's editorial. "Call it a hidden tax hike on families of college kids. It's one more reminder of the real-world consequences of a state government that can't get its budget under control. It's just shameful." ( Peoria Journal Star, Feb. 7)

age? -- Should a candidate for governor be able to get a major-party nomination if only one-fifth of an already small number of primary election voters give him or her the nod? (Springfield State Journal-Register, Feb.8)


http://www.sj-r.com/schoenburg/x503201689/Bernard-Schoenburg-Should-state-have-threshold-percentage

Yale, With $150 Million Deficit, Plans Staff and Research Cuts  (New York Times, Feb. 3)

OPINION: Rising College Costs: A Federal Role? -- The Obama administration, even as it tried to restrain other domestic spending in its 2011 budget request, has called for expanding the Pell Grants, the main federal college aid program for low-income families. If adopted by Congress, the president’s formula would raise the top grant to $5,710 in 2011, compared with $5,550 this year, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, and make the program available to an additional one million students. (New York Times, Feb. 3)

Contributions to Colleges Drop 12% (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 3)

Sharp Drop Is Seen in Gifts to Colleges and Universities  (New York Times, Feb. 2)

Contributions to Colleges Drop 12% (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 3)

Sharp Drop Is Seen in Gifts to Colleges and Universities  (New York Times, Feb. 2)

Parents, students on edge over soaring tuition (Daily Herald, Feb. 2)

UI Flash Index stays at 91.2 in January -- indicating economic recovery in Illinois has been slow. (Champaign News-Gazette, Feb. 2)

What's a Degree Really Worth? (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 2)

The Education Exception -- Programs important to colleges generally avoid Obama budget freeze, with sizable increases proposed for student aid and research. Humanities would get pinched, and a community college program eliminated. (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 2)

Higher education faces greatest financial state of emergency in decades (Las Vegas Sun, Feb. 2)

---

• & students

Recession Affected Students' Financial Attitudes and Behaviors, Study Finds (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 8)

Lobbying Imperils Overhaul of Student Loans -- An aggressive lobbying by large student lenders has imperiled a plan to end subsidies to private lenders. (New York Times, Feb. 4)

Industry Lobbying Imperils Overhaul of Student Loans (New York Times, Feb. 4)

Parents, students on edge over soaring tuition (Daily Herald, Feb. 2)

Renewed Push on Pell (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 1)

It's Up to the Department Now -- Months of negotiations on the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed revisions to regulations intended to guard against abuses of the federal financial aid program ended Friday with no agreement on the most controversial issues under consideration. (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 1)

College Students Struggling University counseling centers across the country are seeing many more students with complex mental-health diseases. (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 1)

---

• & the nation

Obama's 2011 Budget Proposes More Money for Education and Research (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 1)

SCHOOLS . . .

• nationally

Nearly half bring work home  -- Up to half of Americans bring their work home with them regularly, a national survey of 1,800 workers finds.  (Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 5)

20,000 Jobs Lost in January as Jobless Rate Falls to 9.7%  (New York Times, Feb. 5)

Charter Schools’ Political Success is a Civil Rights Failure (Education News, Feb. 4)

Obama wants to raise the bar of No Child Left Behind law (USA Today, Feb. 1)

OPINION: Union officials are disturbingly inflexible toward charter schools (Washington Post, Feb. 2)

Administration Outlines Proposed Changes to ‘No Child’ Law (New York Times, Feb. 1)

Supreme Court Decision About Law School’s Anti-Discrimination Policy Tests Religious Right Power On College Campuses – And Elsewhere (Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Feb.)

---

• internationally

Quebec Offers Fast-Tracked Canadian Citizenship to Foreign Students -- The move seems designed to take advantage of Australia's and Britain's problems in the Indian-student market.  (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 2)

COLLEGE ADMINISTRATION

Limits on Presidents' Love Lives -- U. of Chicago says leader's marital separation and relationship with a professor are personal matters, but governance experts see potential conflicts of interest and raise ethical questions. (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 3)

CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION

Faculty of La Sierra U. Backs Biology Dept. Against Creationist Critics (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 1)

A Core Curriculum for Civic Literacy (Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 31)

ADJUNCTS

OPINION: Countercyclical Hiring and Flight Risk -- Too many of the arguments I've read and heard for hiring more full-time faculty rely on moralistic appeals. The idea seems to boil down to a simpleminded equation of "market" with "bad" and "tradition" with "good." (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 3)

Back to School, as an Adjunct(New York Times, Jan. 30)

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

FACULTY / STAFF

Students, Faith, Catholic Colleges -- New research counters widely publicized studies about institutions leading the faithful "astray."(Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 1)

Clash Over Student Privacy -- The U.S. Education Department has fired the top federal official charged with protecting student privacy, in what the dismissed official says was a conflict with the agency's political leaders over their zeal to encourage the collection of data about students' academic performance. (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 1)

Ruling on online term papers cites copyright questions -- A district court judge in Illinois has ordered the owner of a Web-based company to stop selling term papers unless he can prove he has permission from the papers' authors. (USA Today, Feb. 1)

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

A Community College Climbs Back Slowly After Katrina (Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 31)

America's Forgotten Colleges(Huffington Post, Feb. 1)

NATIONAL NEWS

How Obama's budget affects Illinois -- President Barack Obama's budget boosts plans to buy an Illinois prison and use it as a detention center for terrorism suspects, but offers a setback to another Illinois concern, recommending no further military purchases of an aircraft made by Chicago -based Boeing Co. (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 2)

Obama sends $3.8 trillion budget to Congress (Market Watch, Feb. 1)

AFT

AFT Executive Vice President Lorretta Johnson Recognized as a Heroine of Education (AFT Leadernet, Feb. 5)

IFT discusses pensions Watch a short video that highlights important pension fact

Connect with fellow union members via social networking

LABOR

SEIU: Bank Of America Fraud Indictment Goes To Heart Of Financial Crisis (Workers Independent News, Feb. 4)

Study On Wages, Insurance And Retirement Shows It Pays To Be In A Union (Workers Independent News, Feb. 4)

Union leader: 'Card check' will pass in 2010 (The Hill, Jan. 31)

Teacher pension fund suit: Northern Trust botched assets -- The Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund has filed suit against Northern Trust Co., alleging the bank and investment management company improperly managed fund assets by placing them in risky, long-term securities that plummeted in value. (Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 2)

“A Welcome Debate” over Labor Reform Wilma B. Liebman, new chair of the NLRB, talks with Academe about labor law, academics, and reversing ossification. (Academe, January-February, 2010)

Medical expenses have 'very steep rate of growth' (USA Today, Feb. 4)

State health plans in jeopardy (USA Today, Feb. 3)

State Journal-Register: "Delays in paying health insurance bills hit home" -- The Jan. 15 edition of the Springfield State Journal-Register shines a light on how some health providers are asking state and university employees, retirees and their dependents to cover costs that should be paid by the state. (AFSCME Council 31, Jan. 15)

Teacher pension fund suit: Northern Trust botched assets -- The Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund has filed suit against Northern Trust Co., alleging the bank and investment management company improperly managed fund assets by placing them in risky, long-term securities that plummeted in value. (Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 2)

William and Mary Moves to End Large Pre-Retirement Raises (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 2)

IFT discusses pensions Watch a short video that highlights important pension facts