February 22, 2012, 12:01 am

The Chronicle of Higher Education

By Geoffrey Pullum

Lucy Ferriss recently mentioned here on Lingua Franca some comments of former Harvard president Larry Summers. He questions the importance of foreign-language instruction in 21st-century higher education:

English’s emergence as the global language, along with the rapid progress in machine translation and the fragmentation of languages spoken around the world, make it less clear that the substantial investment necessary to speak a foreign tongue is universally worthwhile. While there is no gainsaying the insights that come from mastering a language, it will over time become less essential in doing business in Asia, treating patients in Africa or helping resolve conflicts in the Middle East.

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/02/22/foreign-language-instruction/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The Chronicle of Higher Education

To Fix Student Lending, Rethink the Concept

By Andrew Gillen and Richard Vedder

This past fall, Occupy Wall Street protesters around the country called for far-reaching changes in our society, including forgiveness of student-loan debt. While we believe loan forgiveness is a bad idea for a variety of reasons, we also think the protesters are right in calling attention to the nation’s Byzantine and inefficient system of student lending. Here are a number of beneficial steps that policy makers can take to begin to fix our student-loan system….

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http://chronicle.com/article/To-Fix-Student-Lending/130884/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Inside Higher Education

February 22, 2012 – 4:29am

The University of Utah has changed its admissions policy for older applicants — those who have been out of high school for seven years and who have not previously enrolled in a college — following a complaint that it violated the rights of one such individual, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. The new policy specifies exactly which courses in high school applicants must have completed, earning certain minimum grades. The complaint concerned an applicant who was rejected — without as clear a system in place — when he mentioned having only a fourth grade reading level.

http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/02/22/u-utah-changes-admissions-policy-older-students

Inside Higher Education

February 22, 2012 – 3:00am

Two more colleges have sued the Obama administration over its requirement that religious employers, including colleges, provide insurance covering birth control — despite a recent compromise that would require the insurance company, not the institution, to pay for that coverage. Louisiana College, a Baptist institution, and Geneva College, a Pennsylvania college affiliated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, filed lawsuits Tuesday with assistance from the Alliance Defense Fund. They join two colleges that have filed suit through the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The Alliance Defense Fund says that more lawsuits can be expected.

http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/02/22/more-college-lawsuits-over-birth-control-mandate

Inside Higher Education

February 22, 2012 – 3:00am

By Mitch Smith

A forthcoming book says Benjamin Elijah Mays’s presidency at Morehouse College helped shape the future of the country’s only historically black all-male institution and the nation as a whole….

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/02/22/biography-follows-life-mlk-mentor-morehouse-president

Inside Higher Education

February 22, 2012 – 3:00am

By Mitch Smith

WASHINGTON — A booming middle class, shortage of local university spots and ready supply of talented English speakers have long made India a favorite recruiting target of American colleges….

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/02/22/indian-recruitment-focus-aiea-conference

Inside Higher Education

February 22, 2012 – 3:00am

By Scott Jaschik

WASHINGTON — Twenty-five years passed between the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Bakke and Grutter cases. Both rulings upheld the right of colleges to consider race and ethnicity in admissions, but only in certain circumstances (and a companion case with Grutter rejected the use of race in other circumstances). Now, only nine years after the latter rulings, the Supreme Court is returning to the issue of affirmative action in higher education. To defenders of affirmative action, that’s not a good sign….

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/02/22/colleges-await-supreme-court-review-affirmative-action

By TAMAR LEWIN

Published: February 21, 2012

New York Times

The news that the Supreme Court is revisiting the use of race as a factor in admissions decisions, just nine years after upholding it in a University of Michigan case, has admissions officials worried about maintaining diversity and confounded that the question is being reconsidered so soon.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/education/colleges-worry-supreme-court-could-make-diversity-more-elusive.html?hpw

February 21, 2012, 8:21 am

By Jacques Berlinerblau

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Above is an interview I conducted for the Faith Complex series with Mr. Chaim Levin. Entitled “Davven the Gay Away?” (A Jewish play on the phrase “pray the gay away” heard in some Christian circles) the episode calls attention to Mr. Levin’s struggles to maintain a gay and Orthodox Jewish identity….

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/on-being-gay-and-an-orthodox-jew/44195?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

February 21, 2012, 12:15 pm

The Chronicle of Higher Education

A Massachusetts family-court judge who ordered a pregnant woman with schizophrenia to undergo an abortion and be sterilized says her decision cost her a job at Boston University’s law school, The Boston Globe reports.…

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/judge-says-boston-u-rescinded-her-job-offer-after-controversial-abortion-ruling/40687?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en