Higher Ed Roundup: Week of March 24 – March 28

Study Reports Record Congressional Earmarks for Higher Ed

Unforeseen Consequences from Changes in Texas Admissions Policies

Concern about Credit Cards on College Campuses

Study Reports Record Congressional Earmarks for Higher Ed

While many in Congress have decried the practice of pork-barrel spending, a new study reveals that U.S. lawmakers handed out $2.25 billion in earmarks for colleges and universities in the 2008 fiscal year, mostly for scientific research. The analysis, which was conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education, found that spending on academic earmarks is up $300 million since the Chronicle‘s last survey on the subject in 2003, and about $1.75-billion since 1998. The number of institutions receiving earmarks has increased significantly too, up 25 percent from 2003, with the most going to Mississippi State University, which received $43-million for 30 such awards. Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, was the most frequent seeker of earmarks, followed by Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Pete Domenici (R-NM).

Critics say that many colleges lobbied for earmarks to circumvent the more rigorous grant review process used by federal science agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Chronicle questions whether the money spent on these pork-barrel projects would have been better spent on the NIH, whose budget has failed to keep pace with inflation over the past several years.

Unforeseen Consequences from Changes in Texas Admissions Policies

A change in the admissions policies at Texas’s public universities that was intended to increase minority enrollment and socio-economic diversity of the campuses — without using affirmative action — has not achieved its goals, according to several new studies presented at the American Education Research Association’s annual meeting this week. The studies, which were conducted by the Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project, looked at the impact of a policy the state put into effect in 1999 that guarantees students admission to the public college of their choice if they graduate in the top ten percent of their high-school class. The state implemented this new policy after a federal appeals court in 1996 barred the use of race-based admissions in admissions at the state’s public colleges.

Researchers found that the 10 percent plan did not lead to higher minority enrollment even though more black and Hispanic students were eligible for admission, suggesting that fiscal concerns and a lack of college-going history in their families may have prevented matriculation. Similarly, another paper found that there was not as much of an increase in socioeconomic diversity as expected at the flagship campuses, as the bulk of new applicants were top students from wealthier high schools.

Concern about Credit Cards on College Campuses

As credit card companies deploy more aggressive marketing tactics on college campuses, a new survey from the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups finds that more than two thirds of college students have credit cards and are using them in ways that put them at a perilous risk for increased debt. According to the report, 34 percent of students reported carrying a balance on their credit cards, the amount of which increased throughout their college years, to an average of $2,623 by the senior year. That amount increases to $2,785 for student loan borrowers, and to $4,116 for those with a history of defaulting on their credit card debt. Meanwhile, 24 percent of students say they use their credit cards to pay for tuition.

Soaring credit card use on college campuses has already attracted the attention of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who announced plans last month to investigate colleges relationships with credit card companies. Four-fifths of students surveyed by U.S. PIRG said they support stricter rules for credit card marketing, saying that they receive an average of five mail solicitations and four phone calls from credit card companies each month.