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Good morning June 1, 2024

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LEADING THE NEWS


SURVEY: MANY AMERICANS REMAIN SKEPTICAL ABOUT THE VALUE OF COLLEGE DEGREES

USA Today  (5/24, Wong) reported that although a college degree “has often been
sold as the key to a higher-quality, affluent life,” a new survey from the Pew
Research Center “suggests Americans have mixed views about that narrative – and
data shows people without degrees have seen their earnings increase in the last
decade.” Just 1 in 4 adults “said it was extremely or very important to have a
four-year degree if you want a well-paying job in the current economy.” Just 22%
of adults “said the cost of getting a bachelor’s is worth it even if it means
taking out student loans. Nearly half said the cost is only worth it when
students don’t have to go into debt.” Roughly half of Americans “say a four-year
degree is less important today than it was in the past to secure a well-paying
job.” The skepticism is “more pronounced among conservative Americans than
people who identify as Democrats or somewhat Democrat.”

        Inside Higher Ed  (5/24, Palmer) reported that the team leading the
survey “analyzed federal data on the labor force, earnings, hours, household
income, poverty characteristics and net worth to compare earnings trends of
Americans with and without four-year degrees.” Divided by gender, “the data
shows that men and women without degrees have had different experiences in the
labor market over the past 50 years. Earnings for young men with a high school
degree had been on the decline since 1973, though their earnings have seen
modest growth over the past decade, according to the report.” Wages for women
with “no college degree, however, haven’t fallen since the 1970s, and they
remained relatively stable even during the economic downturn of 2001 and the
Great Recession.” But for men and women alike, “the data is clear that
completing a four-year degree substantially increases earning potential.”


HIGHER EDUCATION


EMORY UNIVERSITY STUDENT SUES OVER SUSPENSION RELATED TO AI STUDY TOOL

The Wall Street Journal  reported a student at Emory University, filed a lawsuit
against the university after being suspended for developing an artificial
intelligence (AI) tool named “Eightball.” The tool, which creates study
flashcards from uploaded class materials, won a $10,000 prize at a university
startup competition. However, the university later suspended Craver for
potential academic dishonesty linked to this AI tool. Emory University argues in
court documents that Eightball could enable cheating by spreading class
information beyond the school.


DOCUMENTS REVEAL HOW TEXAS UNIVERSITIES ARE COMPLYING WITH DEI BAN

The Texas Tribune  (5/24, Dey) reported, “In the most comprehensive picture yet
of how Texas’ DEI ban has changed campuses across the state, recent
communications with lawmakers reveal the range of steps university leaders have
taken to comply with the law and keep billions in state funding.” University
system leaders described their efforts in written responses to the Republican
author of the DEI ban, after he “warned them they could lose their funding or
face legal consequences if they weren’t following the law, which went into
effect in January.” In documents “and in public testimony before senators,
leaders from all of Texas’ seven university systems said they have closed
multicultural offices, fired or reassigned DEI staff and stopped requiring
diversity statements, or letters in which job candidates in academia share their
previous efforts to promote diverse learning spaces and help students of all
backgrounds succeed.” Despite those efforts, “university leaders have said it’s
been difficult to strike a balance between the DEI ban’s requirements and grant
funders’ expectations.”


REPORT: ACT TEST SCORES HELP PREDICT REMEDIAL COURSE PLACEMENT

Inside Higher Ed  (5/24, Knox) reported, “A new report from ACT, the company
that owns and administers its namesake standardized exam, found that its test
scores are a better predictor of a students’ need for remedial courses in
college than the traditional measure of high school GPA.” The study, published
Wednesday, “posits that the COVID-19 pandemic led to two factors influencing
placement in remedial courses: grade inflation at the high school level that
made determining need harder for colleges, and a more lenient approach by
institutions to college readiness.” The report concluded that the pandemic “made
test scores like the ACT composite better indicators of academic unpreparedness,
and that colleges looking to improve retention rates should incorporate them
into their remedial placement decisions.”


UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO WITHHOLDS DEGREES FROM FOUR GRADUATING SENIORS WHO
PARTICIPATED IN PRO-PALESTINIAN ENCAMPMENT

The Chicago Tribune  (5/29) reported the University of Chicago alerted four
graduating students that their degrees will be withheld pending a school
disciplinary process related to their involvement with the campus’
pro-Palestinian encampment. A spokesman “said the school could not comment on
individual student disciplinary matters, but noted that the process is standard
practice after a formal complaint is reviewed by the university’s Disciplinary
Committee.” While the four students” are still able to participate in graduation
and other end-of-year events, and their degrees can be later conferred depending
on the resolution of the disciplinary process,” if the committee ultimately
determines “that certain policies have been violated, their degrees could be
denied, despite four years of coursework and tuition.” One of the seniors said,
“This is not a new tactic for the university. They’ve used these tactics of
intimidation to try to scare us into silence.” Another said, “I loved this
university. But this year made my UChicago dream a nightmare.”

        San Jose University Professor Suspended After Acting As Liaison For
Pro-Palestinian Protesters. CBS San Francisco  (5/29) reported Sang Kil, a
longtime San Jose University professor, “said that on May 24 she received an
email that accused her of violating the Collective Bargaining Agreement” because
she acted a liaison between pro-Palestinian campus protestors and campus
administration. Joanne Wright, the school’s senior associate vice president of
university personnel, accused Kil in the letter of “‘repeated violations of
university policies,’ including encouraging students to violate policies,
engaging in harassing conduct towards colleagues, and creating a risk of harm by
publicly identifying and posting inflammatory comments about a colleague.” Kil
denied the “over-the-top claims,” and says she was denied due process by “not
being given a report summarizing the evidence against her.” Kil is currently on
administrative leave, “seeking guidance from her union and possibly some legal
counsel.”


REPORT: COLLEGES KNOW LITTLE ABOUT MENTAL-HEALTH APPS THEY PURCHASE FOR THEIR
STUDENTS

The Chronicle of Higher Education  (5/30) reported, “College students’ levels of
clinically significant mental-health symptoms have doubled during the last
decade, with more than 60 percent of students meeting the criteria for one or
more psychological problems.” With a new report, released Thursday, a team of
seven researchers reviews “in some detail available evidence for nine of the
digital mental-health interventions most often purchased by colleges for their
students. In many of those cases they found little, no, or outdated evidence of
effectiveness.” The researchers also analyzed services “at 200 randomly selected
colleges and interviewed administrators and other experts at 20 institutions,”
finding “surprisingly little evidence on the apps’ use and effectiveness.” The
authors recommend that colleges “consider how best to align the digital tools
with a college’s existing counseling services, suicide-prevention and
peer-support initiatives, and other wellness programs.”


LOUISIANA LAW ESTABLISHING MORE FLEXIBLE RETIREMENT PLANS COULD BOOST FACULTY
RETENTION

Inside Higher Ed  (5/29, Blake) reported, “Thousands of faculty and staff at
Louisiana’s 28 public higher education institutions now have access to more
flexible and lucrative retirement benefits, under a new law signed into effect
by Republican governor Jeff Landry on May 21.” The legislation was designed “to
minimize brain drain and retain quality faculty and staff members in a state
that ranks significantly lower than most in both base compensation and
retirement contributions.” Under the new law, “current employees who have been
on the job for more than five years will be granted a 12-month window to switch
plans; employees of four years or fewer have until their fifth anniversary to
make the switch. Faculty and staff senate representatives, who had passed
multiple resolutions in support of the bill, called the legislation a ‘massive
win’ – especially because Louisiana is one of 15 states that does not enroll
public employees in social security.”


NORTH DAKOTA HIGHER ED BOARD COULD REVIVE BILL THAT THREATENS TENURED POSITIONS

Inside Higher Ed  (5/30, Quinn) reported last year, the North Dakota House of
Representatives “overwhelmingly passed a bill that threatened tenure
protections,” but just after the House “passed the measure, the State Board of
Higher Education, which employs...public college and university presidents,
finally took a public stand against it.” Now, roughly a year “after the bill’s
failure, a draft report from a board committee suggests the board may push for
far broader reductions to tenure protections than the legislation would have
implemented. The changes could affect 11 public higher education institutions,
with a stated goal of fewer tenured positions specifically at the state’s
community colleges.” The draft report from the board’s “Tenure/Post-Tenure Ad
Hoc Committee makes some sweeping recommendations that could lead to
double-digit decreases in the share of tenured and tenure-track faculty members
at community colleges, along with reductions in the award of tenure on all state
campuses.”


SURVEYS SHOW LGBTQ+ COLLEGE STUDENTS FACE HIGHER RISK OF LONELINESS, MENTAL
HEALTH CRISES

Inside Higher Ed  (5/30, Mowreader) reported that a May 1 report from The Trevor
Project, “which supports young people who belong to the LGBTQ+ community in the
U.S., found one in 10 LGBTQ+ youth (aged 13 to 24) attempted suicide in the past
year, and half of respondents who wanted mental health care in the past year
were not able to get it.” A similar May 22 survey from TimelyCare and Active
Minds “found 70 percent of LGBQ+ college students experience loneliness, 10
percentage points higher than their non-LGBQ+ peers.” Ninety percent of LGBTQ+
young people “said recent politics impacted their well-being at least somewhat,
and half said it negatively impacted them ‘a lot’ (53 percent), according to the
Trevor Project’s survey.” The two new studies highlight “current and present
needs to create wraparound and holistic aid for students from minority genders
and sexualities.”

From ASEE

CoNECD 2025 – Abstract Deadline Extended


The call for abstracts for CoNECD (Collaborative Network for Engineering and
Computing Diversity) 2025 has been extended! ConECD is currently seeking
evidenced-based research and practice abstracts. Interested authors should
submit a 300 – 500 word abstract by 23:59 pm Eastern on Monday, June 3.


Learn more.


ACCREDITATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT


REPORT REVEALS “MISALIGNMENT” BETWEEN PROJECTED JOB DEMAND, AVAILABLE
CREDENTIALS

Inside Higher Ed  (5/29, Weissman) reported that a “new report from the
Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce” found a “great misalignment”
between projected job demand “in many local labor markets and the mix of
credentials available to workers seeking jobs requiring more than a high school
diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree.” The report, released on Wednesday,
focuses on “middle-skills credentials,” which include “sub-baccalaureate
certificates and associate degrees, in 565 local labor markets across the
country.” The report noted that, “as of the 2020-2021 academic year, there were
nearly 4,800 providers of these kinds of credentials, including community
colleges, nonprofit and for-profit colleges, private work training
organizations, and technical and cosmetology schools.” The report found that in
283 of the local labor markets studied, “at least half of middle-skills
credentials would have to be offered in different fields than currently offered
to satisfy projected job demand.”


RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT


WEST COAST UNIVERSITIES FORM CONSORTIUM FOR OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY RESEARCH

Oregon Capital Chronicle  (5/28) reported three West Coast universities have
formed the Pacific Offshore Wind Consortium to study the potential impacts of
offshore wind energy. Announced on May 14 in Sacramento, California, the
consortium includes research centers from Oregon State University, Cal Poly
Humboldt, and Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. The creation of the
consortium follows the Biden Administration’s goal of producing 30 gigawatts of
offshore wind energy by 2030 and its call for university “centers of excellence”
to support research into this area. The consortium’s goal “is to combine
resources and expertise to garner more funding and to undertake more
collaborative information sharing and research with state and federal agencies,
tribes and towns on the West Coast.”


FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY TO HOST STATE’S NEW OFFICE FOR OCEAN ECONOMY

The South Florida Sun Sentinel  (5/28, Man) reported, “Florida’s new Office of
Ocean Economy – a statewide effort to harness public and private research,
education, technology and business applications involving water – will be housed
at Florida Atlantic University.” The effort “was sponsored by Democratic and
Republican state lawmakers from South Florida.” Rep. Chip LaMarca (R) “described
the program last week during a Broward Legislative Delegation gathering in
Davie.” Even though it’s called “ocean,” LaMarca “said it encompasses anything
that involves water, whether it’s fresh or ocean.” He also “said the new office
aims to spur the development of discoveries, and take them from the pages of
medical or scientific journals and help them become products that advance
medical science or are commercially successful.”


JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS BEGIN “URGENT ASSESSMENT” OF US BRIDGES AFTER
BALTIMORE COLLAPSE

The Baltimore Sun  (5/29, Gardner) reported after a “massive container ship,
named the Dali, collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a couple of Johns
Hopkins engineers wondered about the probability of such an event.” They
hypothesized that “it was more likely than previously believed,” and that
thought resulted “in a request to the National Science Foundation – which awards
Rapid Response Research grants for projects with ‘severe urgency’ – leading to
the funding for a study. Three Hopkins professors, four Hopkins undergraduate
students, two doctoral students and one Morgan State University student” have
begun an “urgent assessment of the country’s bridges, particularly the larger
ones near major ports of entry.” Their research comes “as the National
Transportation Safety Board – the agency investigating the collapse of the Key
Bridge – has encouraged the nation’s bridge owners to act swiftly in protecting
their assets from a similar fate.”


PENN STATE STUDY OFFERS NEW MEASUREMENT SYSTEM TO JUDGE SHORT-TERM SMOKE
POLLUTION LEVELS

NPR  (5/29) reported, “A new Penn State study offers a different measurement
system using wildfire forecasts and on-the-ground sensors to monitor the amount
of smoke pollution, so people can get accurate and up-to-date information.” Data
show “major wildfire smoke events like Central Pennsylvania saw last year could
become more likely with climate change, and researchers are looking to find
better measurement systems to keep people safe.” Study author Manzhu Yu “said
the popular websites like National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
and the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-Chem) that showed smoke
intensity during last summer’s wildfires were often inaccurate – typically
underestimating the amount of pollution in the air.” Yu also argued the current
measurement was good for annual assessments on long-term exposure, but needed
adjustments to better judge short-term pollution issues such as wildfire smoke
and daily movement of people.


CALTECH ANNOUNCES EIGHT SCIENTISTS WILL BE THIS YEAR’S ROSS BROWN INVESTIGATORS

Forbes  (5/30, T. Nietzel) reported that the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences
at the California Institute of Technology “has announced the eight distinguished
scientists who will be this year’s Brown Investigators.” Each recipient will
receive “up to $2 million over five years to support research on fundamental
challenges in the physical sciences, particularly those with potential practical
applications in chemistry and physics.” A $400 million pledge in 2023 was “one
of the largest individual gifts in the institution’s history, by Ross M. Brown,
an engineering alum who amassed a fortune with his company that made equipment
for cryogenic gas processing. Caltech used the gift to establish the Brown
Institute for Basic Science, which was charged with administering the Ross Brown
Investigators Award program.” The award is given annually “to tenured scientists
chosen from a list of nominees at top-rated research universities.”


INDUSTRY NEWS


GOOGLE TURNS OFF SOME AI SEARCH RESULTS AFTER PROVIDING FALSE INFORMATION

CNN  (5/24, Duffy) reported Google was forced to walk back some of its new
artificial intelligence search tools just days post launch after the tools
returned factually incorrect results. Earlier this month, Google “introduced an
AI-generated search results overview tool, which summarizes search results so
that users don’t have to click through multiple links to get quick answers to
their questions. But the feature came under fire this week after it provided
false or misleading information to some users’ questions.” Google confirmed to
CNN that the incorrect results have been removed from its search. Google
spokesperson Colette Garcia also said in a statement that “the vast majority of
AI Overviews provide high quality information, with links to dig deeper on the
web,” adding that some viral examples of Google AI mistakes appear to have been
manipulated images.

        Also reporting are TechCrunch  (5/26, Ha), The Atlantic  (5/24, Mimbs
Nyce), and the Financial Times  (5/24, Subscription Publication).


TESLA REFOCUSES ON ROBOTAXIS, DROPS EV DELIVERY GOAL

Reuters  (5/24) reported that Tesla dropped its goal of delivering 20 million
vehicles a year by 2030 in its latest impact report. The company appears to be
shifting focus away from electric cars and towards robotaxis. It has also binned
plans for an all-new model costing $25,000. CEO Elon Musk touted autonomous
driving technology as Tesla’s main growth source while refraining from
commenting on the timeline for low-cost cars. Reuters first reported that Tesla
preferred robotaxis over cheaper electric cars.


ZUCKERBERG BOOSTS POPULARITY WITH OPEN-SOURCE AI MODEL

The New York Times  (5/29, Isaac) reported Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has
gained renewed popularity in Silicon Valley following the release of Meta’s
fully open-source artificial intelligence model in July. This model, which has
been downloaded over 180 million times, allows developers to freely modify and
utilize the technology. This open-source approach starkly contrasts with the
more guarded strategies of tech firms like Google and OpenAI. The move to
open-source A.I. has not only improved Meta’s internal systems but has also
increased developer engagement with Meta’s technology ecosystem. Despite some
past controversies associated with Zuckerberg and Meta, the open-source
initiative has been positively received, marking a significant shift in his
reputation among technologists.


ENGINEERING AND PUBLIC POLICY


WSJOURNAL: FTC ANTITRUST CASE AGAINST AMAZON CONTRADICTED BY EVIDENCE

In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal  (5/28, Subscription Publication)
accused Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan of blocking the American
Booksellers Association from its antitrust lawsuit against Amazon because their
arguments would contradict the FTC. The Journal argues Khan’s antitrust policy
is a “legal mess,” concluding that most evidence contradicts her claims that
Amazon raises prices on books.


ELEMENTARY/SECONDARY EDUCATION


LOUISIANA TEENAGER CREATED AWARD-WINNING APP TO HELP STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH

The Washington Post  (5/28) reported on “Boredom Buster,” an app created by a
teen that “doles out advice for how young people can keep busy based on how
they’re feeling.” Vaishnavi Kumbala, an 11th-grader at Haynes Academy for
Advanced Studies in Metairie, Louisiana., created the app in 2021 after “she saw
her peers suffering with their mental health and wanted to do something about
it.” Her platform won the 2021 Congressional App Challenge in Louisiana’s First
District. The annual competition, run by the US House, “encourages middle school
and high school students to consider careers in computer science.” Since
winning, Kumbala has been “on a mission to get her free app to students across
the country, many of whom are struggling with mental health.” While it is “not
intended to be a substitute for other means of help from therapists and doctors,
the app can work in tandem.”


FRIDAY'S LEAD STORIES

 • OpenAI Disrupts Russian, Chinese, Other Influence Campaigns Using Its Tech
 • Education Department Reviewing Federal Student Aid Office
 • Colorado State University Partners With Gallagher Re For Research On Tropical
Cyclone Risk Trends
 • AI Career Coaches Show Promise
 • Reuters Report: TikTok Working On “Clone” Algorithm Separate From Chinese
Source Code
 • NYTimes Analysis: Most Swing-State Voters Remain Pessimistic About The
Economy
 • Survey: Educators Share Top Challenges To Teaching Math, Science Through
Problem-Solving



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