More than 140 public universities have increased tuition for certain academic programs such as business, engineering and science in response to spending cuts for higher education, according to a study by Cornell University's Higher Education Research Institute. These "differential tuition" policies target programs that are more expensive to teach and generally promise higher salaries after graduation, USA Today reported. The report, compiled by Cornell economics professor Ronald Ehrenberg, warns that differential tuition policies may discourage low-income students from entering expensive programs, creating socioeconomic divisions between groups of students in different academic departments.
Congress responded to calls from President Barack Obama to extend an interest rate cut for federally subsidized student loans, according to Inside Higher Ed. Both Democrats and Republicans have introduced bills that extend the current rate, but the proposals differ in how they intend to pay for the rate extension, Inside Higher Ed reported. One bill, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, proposes to finance the extension by eliminating a corporate tax loophole. Another bill, introduced by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., proposes cutting oil subsidies to compensate extension costs. A bill proposed by Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., would cut funding for a health care program that promotes disease prevention and public health. If congressional action is not taken, the interest rates will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Professors at the University of California, San Diego entered a legal battle with 12 Kumeyaay Native American tribes on Monday over the ownership of 10,000-year-old human remains, which were discovered after school officials excavated a campus site in 1976, U-T San Diego reported. Dorothy Alther, the head of the Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee, which represents the 12 tribes, said that the remains legally belong to the Kumeyaay people under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a law passed in 1990 that requires federal agencies to return Native American cultural items to their respective peoples. A 2010 addition to the law stipulates that even if artifacts cannot be culturally identified as belonging to a modern tribe, they should be returned to the tribe on whose "aboriginal land" they were found, according to U-T San Diego. The remains are currently housed at the San Diego Archaeological Center in Escondido, Calif., U-T San Diego reported.
