Photo by Frank Curran Lowell and UMass Lowell signed a master agreement in August, committing the university to providing nearly $8 million in cash and in-kind contributions for the community over the next 20 years. The agreement includes new funds for repair and upkeep of the city-owned minor league baseball field and a commitment to […]
Higher education
Posted inEducation
You’re in college. Think.
This is an excerpt from Professor Duncan’s address to students, faculty and staff at Stonehill College’s Academic Convocation on Wednesday, August 30. MY SUBJECT IS anti-intellectualism: The distrust of and contempt for intellectual and educational activities. The rejection of rationality, reason, and critical thought, on the one hand, and the embrace of emotion, faith, and […]
Posted inEducation
Esports: More than a game
FOR MOST PEOPLE over the age of 30, playing video games is perceived as a waste of time, a solitary, non-social activity that serves to melt one’s brain. Yet as a 20-year old who has been playing video games for about 15 years (and whose brain is still intact), I believe that perception is way […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
On college costs, little relief in sight
US students carry $1.2 trillion in college debt — and Massachusetts is set to do its part to keep that staggering figure growing. The Globe reports today that all of the state’s public colleges and universities are poised to raise costs for in-state students by 5 to 10 percent for the coming year, with the […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
The private college trap
The Globe Magazine over the weekend carried a provocative headline: “Work hard. Go to college. Get ahead…and other bad advice we’re giving low-income students.” The story by Neil Swidey doesn’t quite match the headline, but it nevertheless paints a very troubling portrait of low-income students getting in way over their heads financially at what Swidey […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
McKenna’s marketing deal with the Globe
As the Suffolk University soap opera heads toward some resolution today, one storyline hasn’t received much attention — the decision by President Margaret McKenna to enter into a $670,000 advertising and marketing agreement with the Boston Globe. The advertising deal came up last weekend when Suffolk board chairman Andrew Meyer and three other trustees told […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Suffolk’s McKenna gaining upper hand
Suffolk University President Margaret McKenna met for four hours on Wednesday with her nemesis on the board of trustees, a sign that some resolution of the ugly public fight over McKenna’s tenure is in the offing. The board is scheduled to meet to fire McKenna on Friday, but her powwow with board chairman Andrew Meyer […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Suffolk-cating presidents
Suffolk University is in a constant identity crisis. Of course, when you have five presidents in six years, that’s bound to happen. And, if the university’s board of trustees has its way, the downtown school may be making yet another change at the top. But this time, it’s not happening without a fight. Reports began circulating last […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion, Politics
A higher ed turning point
STATE FUNDING FOR the University of Massachusetts system is up for debate once again on Beacon Hill. Gov. Charlie Baker and legislative leaders want UMass President Marty Meehan and the UMass board of trustees to roll back tuition and fee increases approved in June. However, in return for trimming student costs, Meehan wants the Legislature […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service, The Download
Educating illegal immigrants
The question of granting in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants for public colleges and universities continues to vex lawmakers. Should we punish children who, through no fault of their own, landed here when their parents came through back channels? Should we deny these students the ability to learn and lift themselves out of the inevitable low-income […]