Member News

Clarkson University plans to transfer 16 graduate-level teaching programs to Siena College, pending approval by the New York State Education Department, the two private nonprofit institutions announced this week. Officials said they expect the move to be completed in June.  About 100 students are currently enrolled in the affected master’s and certificate programs, officials said. Eight full-time faculty and staff members from Clarkson will move to Siena as well. Tuition will remain the same for currently enrolled students, but Siena might change prices for new cohorts once the transfer is complete, said Margaret Madden, the college’s provost. No money changed hands between the two colleges in the deal. 

A growing number of small US colleges are under pressure, according to a Bloomberg analysis of the latest federal data that shows more higher education institutions facing enrollment declines and other strains. About 200 schools met at least three of the five metrics that Bloomberg used to identify rising pressure on non-profit higher-education institutions with less than 5,000 students, according to a review of the most-up-to-date government data from the US Department of Education. Those factors include high acceptance rates, falling enrollment and repeated years of operating losses.

Representative Virginia Foxx, who is leading a House investigation of campus antisemitism, blasted Harvard University on Tuesday for handing over “useless” documents in response to subpoenas. “I don’t know if it’s arrogance, ineptness, or indifference that’s guiding Harvard,” Representative Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said in a statement. “Regardless, its actions to date are shameful.” Many of the 2,500 pages were duplicates of already submitted documents, she said, and heavy redactions made some documents worthless.

Brown University will again require that applicants submit standardized-test scores, university officials announced Tuesday, making it the third Ivy League school to reinstate that pre-pandemic admission norm in recent weeks. The school will continue to give an advantage to applicants whose parents attended or work at Brown, and will still allow students to apply early, if they choose.

Liberty University (VA) has agreed to pay an unprecedented $14 million fine for the Christian school’s failure to disclose information about crimes on its campus and for its treatment of sexual assault survivors, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday. The fine is by far the largest ever levied under the Clery Act, a law that requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to collect data on campus crime and notify students of threats. Schools must disseminate an annual security report that includes crime reports and information on efforts to improve campus safety.