PATAKI PROPOSES TUITION HIKE
Republican Gov. George Pataki suggested a SUNY tuition hike of $500 per year in his January 18 budget proposal, according to next-day reports in the Albany Times Union. The change would raise SUNY tuition from $4,350 to $4,950.
City University tuition would increase $250.
Democratic leaders such as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver were outraged, calling the proposal a “disgrace.” It remains to be seen if state Democrats can or will actually do anything about the proposed hikes, but it’s really the thought that counts.
Also, the Executive Budget includes a $190 million tax break for wealthy New Yorkers, and a decrease in tuition assistance for lower income students.
“If there’s an alternative, I’m willing to listen,” Pataki told the Times Union.
BUSH RAISES PELL GRANTS FOR SOME, ELIMINATES OTHERS
According to January 14 Associated Press reports, President Bush will raise the maximum Pell Grant award by $500 over the next five years, increasing the maximum by 12 percent to $4,550.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy noted, “The president has been strongly committed to Pell Grants and ensuring that more students are eligible.”
“There is a serious shortfall in the program and the president is committed to addressing it,” he said.
Democratic leaders and student advocacy groups have welcomed the increase, but say it does not do enough to solve Pell’s problems, and falls short of the president’s campaign pledge to raise the maximum grant to $5,100.
In a related story, CNN.com reported on December 23 that changes in Department of Education policy would make approximately 90,000 students ineligible to receive Pell Grants, according to Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education. The council represents 2,000 colleges and universities, both public and private.
Hartle also said that around one million students would see decreases in their grants after the changes.
STUDENT RECEIVES $350K IN OHIO UNIVERSITY HARRASSMENT CASE
An Ohio University (OU) photojournalism professor was forced to help pay $350,000 to a student who accused him of sexual harassment, according to the January 14 Cleveland Plain Dealer.
In October 2002, Becky Humes, then an OU student, filed a complaint with the university claiming that Professor Larry Nighswander touched her breast, made suggestive comments, and used his position to coerce her into posing semi-nude for him. The charges were initially dismissed by the university in 2003. Humes filed a $3 million federal lawsuit later that year. The case was settled by a $350,000 payment to be provided by the university and Nighswander, an agreement by OU to change its harassment policy, and a guarantee of free tuition at OU grad school for Humes.
Humes’s case was buoyed by the testimony of two other women who came forward with accusations against Nighswander. One of the women’s deposition included, according to the Plain Dealer, an “unwanted sexual encounter in a Columbus hotel, and a separate photo shoot during which he tried to unbuckle her pants after she refused to remove them.”
Nighswander was forced to resign from the university in August 2004, but left with a severance package of $92,667 and kept his tenure.
COLLEGEHUMOR.COM “SHOCKS” CLOSE TO 20,000
Deep in the bowels of the U.S. Patent Office, there is the Big Shocker. The foam representation of the famously uncomfortable-sounding sexual gesture has been patented and marketed by the creators of CollegeHumor.com, according to a January 24 New Yorker article. Since the beginning of its sale on the website, nearly 20,000 of the oversized foam hands have been sold, with a profit of almost ten dollars for each unit.
“We figured that other people would copy them,” Collegehumor co-creator Josh Abramson told The New Yorker. “So we have a U.S. government document that has a picture of the shocker on it. It’s kind of funny.”
In 2004, Collegehumor.com made revenues of $405,000 from merchandise sales and advertising, according to The New Yorker.
