Colleges Try to Ease Immigrant Students' Stress as Government Steps Up Deportations

Kelly Field
February 24, 2017

The Trump administration’s recent moves to increase deportations of undocumented immigrants have colleges searching for ways to help immigrant students who fear authorities will target them or their families.

“There is deep anxiety and stress among our students. The fear and fear-mongering brought on by this administration cannot be overstated.” On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland issued new guidelines meant to increase arrests and speed deportations of undocumented immigrants. Those documents don’t affect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a policy of the Obama administration that allows young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children to remain in the United States to study or work. But President Trump’s new policies and threats to revoke DACA have caused widespread anxiety among "DACA­mented" students — those who successfully applied for DACA benefits — as well as other undocumented students on campuses.

In response, counseling centers, already stretched thin by rising demand for mental-health services, are adding new programs for these students; campus legal clinics are offering advice to them and their families; and many departments are creating spaces and forums where students can share their feelings of frustration and fear, or simply vent.

Read full story via the Chronicle of Higher Education here.

Asian Last Names Lead To Fewer Job Interviews, Still

Jenny J. Chen
February 23, 2017

What's in a name? A lot, according to a new study from researchers at Ryerson University and the University of Toronto, both in Canada.

The study found that job applicants in Canada with Asian names — names of Indian, Pakistani or Chinese origin — were 28 percent less likely to get called for an interview compared to applicants with Anglo names, even when all the qualifications were the same. Researchers used data from a previous study conducted in 2011 where they sent out 12,910 fictitious resumes in response to 3,225 job postings. The previous study, also in Canada, similarly found that applicants with Anglo first names and Asian last names didn't fare much better than applicants with Asian first and last names.

Read full story via NPR here.

Vocal Critic of Office for Civil Rights Is Likely to Lead It

By Peter Schmidt
February 17, 2017 


Leading conservative activists are predicting that the Trump administration will put a prominent critic of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in charge of it, to scale back its efforts.

Although the White House has yet to tip its hand on its pick as the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, speculation among plugged-in Republicans whose views have influenced other cabinet picks centers on two well-known conservative figures: Gail Heriot and Peter N. Kirsanow.
Both Ms. Heriot and Mr. Kirsanow are members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who recently have accused the department of overreach in dealing with sexual assault and the rights of transgender students on college campuses. Both also have been vocal critics of colleges’ consideration of race in admissions and student housing.

Both Ms. Heriot and Mr. Kirsanow are members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who recently have accused the department of overreach in dealing with sexual assault and the rights of transgender students on college campuses. Both also have been vocal critics of colleges’ consideration of race in admissions and student housing.

Read full story here. 

80 Cents on the Dollar

By Rick Seltzer
February 15, 2017

Higher education administration is still a man’s world if you’re measuring pay and position title.
A gender pay gap at the top levels of higher education leadership has persisted over the last 15 years, according to new research released Tuesday by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, known as CUPA-HR. A gulf between the number of men and women in the most prestigious, highest-paying jobs has not closed significantly, either.

Women working in administrative positions mostly filled by men did earn relatively more than many of their peers who work in positions largely filled by women -- and in a handful of cases, those outnumbered women earned more than their male counterparts. While that may offer little or no comfort to women administrators who believe in equal pay for equal work across the board, it could show that colleges and universities are attempting to recruit and keep women for positions in which they are underrepresented.

Read full article here.

Ball State University sees growth in minority workforce

The Herald Associated Press
February 16, 2017

MUNCIE, IND.
The number of female employees at Ball State University is holding steady and the school's minority workforce is growing.

The university's director of affirmative action, Melissa Rubrecht, told The Star Press (http://tspne.ws/2lPnN96 ) that its female population has been relatively stable over the past decade, at around 54 percent of the workforce.

The number of minorities working at the school increased from 8.9 percent to 11.5 percent in the last 10 years.

"This is a good indication over the last 10 years that we are moving in the right direction as far as increasing the demographics of our workforce," Rubrecht said.

The school had more than 3,900 employees at the end of October, when a workforce snapshot indicated that more affirmative action should be taken to recruit employees with disabilities.

Real the full article here.

EEOC Slows Rule On Affirmative Action Rule For Disabled

By Vin Gurrieri
February 15, 2017

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday that it will impose a two-week delay of its regulations boosting federal agencies' hiring goals for individuals with disabilities and enhancing support services for those workers, citing a Trump administration directive to slow rules that haven’t yet taken effect.

Full article here.