The campus of Salahadin University--peaceful, bustling, and collegial-- is a rare sight in Iraq, where sectarian violence has brought the higher education system to the verge of collapse. Home to the country's historically repressed four million to five million ethnic Kurds, it is an oasis of stability and tranquility while much of the rest of…

This publication is intended for financial aid administrators and counselors who help students begin the aid process--filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), verifying information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA. The Federal Student Aid Handbook consists of the Application and…

The 2010 Public Policy Agenda summarizes the American Association of State Colleges and Universities' (AASCU's) principles and priorities in key areas of higher education policy. This paper is intended to serve as a point of reference for the association's members and other interested organizations, as well as federal and state policymakers.…

In hindsight, the warning signs were abundant that Seung-Hui Cho was mentally troubled and potentially dangerous. However, authorities at Virginia Tech did not put together all the pieces until after the 23-year-old student opened fire on the Blacksburg campus on April 16, 2007, and killed 32 people before taking his own life. In the aftermath of…

Newspaper headlines these past couple of months have sent many people reeling, as school violence dominates both K-12 and higher education settings once again. Within the first 15 days of February alone, a total of six shooting incidents took place, resulting in numerous deaths and many injuries. Coupled with the anniversaries of both the Virginia…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and its companion projects serve colleges and universities committed to monitoring and improving the quality of the undergraduate experience. While participating institutions receive detailed customized reports, the "Annual Results" series presents noteworthy aggregate findings from the…

This article discusses what lies ahead for education facilities and business in 2009 and beyond. For schools and universities, that's a safe prediction every year, but it's even more likely in 2009. Economic uncertainty is raising anxieties, tax coffers are dwindling, and budgets are collapsing, but the educational needs of students are just as…

In this article, the author hopes that educators can begin a long-overdue public discussion about how they encourage and defend their students' civil liberties--while doing a lot more to enhance their safety. To start, they need to confront the problem that nearly all their students, like their children, believe that "ratting out" a friend or…

Community colleges, while safe, are not immune to violence. In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, community colleges are committed to making campuses safer. From training first responders to understanding and identifying potential threats, the author describes what schools are doing to eradicate their so-called [in] securities and improve…

Schools and universities looking to be safer and prevent accidents should review their pedestrian-safety efforts. Over the last several years, a variety of research has assessed the effectiveness of pedestrian-safety programs. In one study, researchers found that marked crosswalks had no effect on reducing pedestrian accidents. Even more…

At the University of Chicago, the third Monday in November began with an hour of violence. Around 12:30 a.m., an assailant fired a shot at a staff member who was walking on the campus. At 1:15 a group of men robbed two female students on a nearby street. Just before 1:30, Amadou Cisse, a doctoral student, was shot and killed while walking to his…

Many campus law enforcement administrators reach a point where they need to request additional staff. Unless the department is awash in extra funding or is in the wake of a major incident that brought significant attention to current manpower, they're likely fighting an uphill battle for growth. The effectiveness of formulas that analyze the size…

The decision that led to the 1992 opening of the University of Connecticut's new public safety complex was excellent timing. Three years after the complex opened, complete with a state-of-the-art Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), an emergency operations/training center and an indoor firing range, the quiet, nearly 4,000-acre UConn campus…

Now more than ever, campus safety is of paramount importance. A reliable emergency mass notification system is one way to ensure the safety of constituents, and Brandeis University (MA) recently invested in a system that does the job. In this article, the author interviews John Turner, the school's director of networks and systems. Turner…

Gregory A. Love, then a student at Morehouse College, in Atlanta, was beaten in 2002 with a baseball bat by a fellow student in a dormitory shower after Love made what his attacker perceived as a homosexual advance. The attacker was later convicted of aggravated assault and battery. Love sued Morehouse, arguing that the institution was liable for…