Supporting First-Generation Freshmen (Best Practice at the University of Kentucky)

A living / learning community at the University of Kentucky is designed to assist first generation freshmen make the transition into college.

Read More: (Chronicle subscription required) http://chronicle.com/article/U-of-Kentucky-Opens-a/129996/

U.S. Department of Education Revises FERPA

On December 2, 2011, the Department of Education revised FERPA regulations.  The amended regulations will go into effect January 3, 2012.  The final regulations were designed to allow a more comprehensive use of student data, including an appropriate use for institutional research, evaluation, accountability, and process improvement.  They are also focused on improving privacy protections and enforcement.  Learn more: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-02/pdf/2011-30683.pdf

Latino Student Voices On College, Culture And Identity

Read about eight hispanic students’ who tell their personal stories about the challenges and successes they encountered as they began their collegiate career.

Assessing Graduation Rates

The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA just released a new report, Completing College: Assessing Graduation Rates at Four-Year Institutions that, ”demonstrates how considering the incoming characteristics of one’s student body, such as how students rate their emotional health, how they select their institution, whether they are the first in their family to attend to college, can help colleges and universities more precisely predict their graduation rates.”

-http://heri.ucla.edu/

Increasing Student Engagement

New NSSE 2011 Annual results report on Fostering Student Engagement Campus Wide

Student Debt on the Rise

Project on Student Debt releases their sixth annual Student Debt and the Class of 2010 report, which finds student debt levels continue to rise. Two-thirds of college students who graduated in 2010 carry an loan debt of $25,000 (avg.) which is five percent higher than those that graduated the year before.