On Campus Blog

How will the University of Minnesota juggle athletic and academic fund-raising?
When University of Minnesota Athletic Director Norwood Teague showed his sports facilities plan to regents yesterday, he sparked a discussion over how successfully the U could juggle — or marry — academics and athletics in the competitive world of fund-raising. (The $190 million proposal would be privately funded, Teague stressed.) The presentation started off with…
Video on homelessness at Minneapolis Community and Technical College
In December 2010, I reposted a Star Tribune story on homelessness among Minneapolis Community & Technical College students. Two and a half years later, an MCTC class led by former Star Tribune photo director Peter Koeleman has produced a 16-minute documentary on the subject, called “No Place to Call Home.” MinnPost has it written up…
Democratic Rifts Stymie Senate Bill on Student Loan Rates A bipartisan Senate coalition blocked a Democratic proposal to retroactively cut interest rates on higher education loans in half, leaving any student loan rescue in doubt. (The New York Times) N.Y.U. Impeding Compensation Inquiry, Senator Says Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, wants to examine the university’s loans…
UMN athletic director proposes ambitious sports facilities plan
University of Minnesota Athletic Director Norwood Teague has released a $190 million sports facilities plan he says will “change the future of Gopher athletics.” He told regents today he wants to build eight projects over the next six to eight years using private funds. U athletic officials have long felt behind competitors in athletic facilities.…
Are debt levels among MnSCU, UMN and private-college students about the same?
Well, this is surprising. Just got this from the Minnesota Private College Council earlier this week. Despite all the talk about tuition and financial aid, the debt levels of graduates from the various public and non-profit four-year colleges and universities don’t seem all that far apart. It’s not broken down to account for income level,…
How a flipped classroom benefited one St. Mary’s student
A lot has been written about the concept of “flipped” classrooms, in which students watch lectures and do readings before class so they can spend class time applying the material they’ve learned. To me it’s seems like a common-sense approach that provides obvious benefits: better-informed conversations and more efficiency in addressing students’ questions and reinforcing…
Elizabeth Warren’s Student Loan Fairness Act Gains Endorsement Of More Than 1,000 Professors Warren’s proposal, presented in May, would offer the same interest rate on federal Stafford loans as the one that banks receive from the Federal Reserve. Under her plan, the rate on government-issued student loans would fall from 6.8 percent to 0.75 percent, saving…
How a University of Minnesota student set global warming to music
This is really cool — but disturbing. University of Minnesota undergraduate student Daniel Crawford has made The New York Times with his unusual portrayal how much the planet has been warming. His “A Song of Our Warming Planet” is an example of “data sonification.” He has converted global temperature figures into musical notes — and…
Joel Wiggins starts term as Crown College president
This month, Joel Wiggins began his term as president of Crown College, a private Christian college in Saint Bonifacius. The college says that although presidents of private colleges usually rise through academia, Wiggins — a Crown alumnus — is “a longtime business incubator manager, Christian pastor and university instructor.” More: His background includes 13 years…
The marketing infographics of Concordia University in St. Paul
The use of infographics in marketing seems pretty uncommon among Minnesota’s colleges and universities. I recently wrote about how the University of St. Thomas was taking the plunge, and Macalester College has dabbled as well (though that didn’t seem to have as much of a marketing bent.) A spokesman from the University of Minnesota told…