The Black & Magenta Blog

Ohio is joining a federal initiative set at increasing the number of students who graduate, according to an article in today’s Dispatch. About half of all college students don’t graduate.

Ohio ranks 35th in the country in the number of residents ages 25 to 64 who have bachelor’s degrees, according to the article.

From the article:

The 17 states taking part in the alliance had to pledge to make college completion a priority by:

• Setting state and campus-specific graduation goals.

• Creating plans to reach those goals.

• Collecting and publicly reporting the state’s and schools’ progress in closing the gaps.

Ohio’s strategic plan for higher education calls for schools to raise the graduation rate by 20 percentage points and enroll 230,000 more students by 2017. The state also wants to increase the number of degrees awarded to minority and first-generation students, who are the most likely to drop out after the first year, said Eric D. Fingerhut, Ohio’s higher-education chancellor.

As a carrot to encourage colleges to focus on student success, the state is moving away from funding schools based entirely on student enrollment, instead using measures such as how many students complete their courses and get degrees.

Ohio’s private, liberal-arts colleges, like Muskingum, have the best graduation rates; 66 percent complete a degree within 6 years. At Muskingum, 41.6 percent graduate within 4 years of enrollment, 58.6 percent within 5 years and 60.7 percent within 6 years, according to 2007 statistics from Scholarships.com.

In conversations with Vice President of Enrollment Jeff Zellers, and other area college officials, the Times Recorder found that each has been expanding its diversity among college students, and also how diversity is defined.

From the article in Sunday’s paper:

When people think about diversity, people tend to think only of race and ethnicity, Muskingum Vice President of Enrollment Jeff Zellers said.

“We do believe it’s important to have racial and ethnic diversity, but sometimes people get hung up on those and forget about others. We have socioeconomic diversity within the student body, geographical diversity and then we have our learning disability program, so we have students who have learning challenges and that’s a diversity as well,” Zellers said.

More than 40 percent of Muskingum’s students are from Appalachia, which makes them diverse, Zellers said.

About 9 percent of students are minorities at Muskingum — 7 percent are African American, and about 2 1/2 percent are Asian, Hispanic and/or Native American.

Muskingum’s 9 percent is considerably higher by comparison to 3 percent at Zane State, according to the article.

Sophomore Landel Shakespeare is quoted in the article, and said Muskingum might be able to attract more minority students by creating more minority-focused programs. Zellers said the college is actively recruiting minorities, and during visits, tries to pair minority prospects up with minority faculty members to make them feel more comfortable.

Dr. William Schlacks, professor of music and chair of the music department, passed away this morning. Thoughts and condolences can be left in the comments section below. Look for more information on the life and legacy of Dr. Schlacks in the first, Fall 2009 edition of the B&M.

Muskingum President Dr. Anne C. Steele sent the following to students today:

To: Muskingum University students
Fm: Anne C. Steele

With profound sadness and deepest grief, I am writing to let you know that Dr. William Schlacks, The Ruth Dorsey Neptune Distinguished Professor of Music, passed away this morning. Dr. Schlacks inspired us all. He was a truly gifted educator and renowned musician. Please keep his wife Mary, daughters Erin and Samantha, and the entire Schlacks’ family in your prayers.

Our Chaplain, Rev. Will Mullins and our University Counselor, Ms. Tracy Bugglin, will be available in the Chapel and in the Top of the Center this afternoon. Please know that all of  our faculty and staff are here to help you in any way they can.

Muskingum might be number one in our hearts, but it didn’t make the Center For College Affordability and Productivity’s top 600. Forbes.com’s coverage of the list and all the top colleges and categories can be found here.

If you hadn’t heard yet, “Muskingum College” is now “Muskingum University,” as the Times Recorder reported. If you haven’t already, you’ll be receiving correspondence from the college at some point with the new name. Muskingum President Anne Steele also has released a statement discussing the name change.

Changing a name, in that respect, is expensive. Think of all the different things that have the word “college.” How is all of that being paid for? We’ll try and find out after we all return.

Muskingum administrators first indicated their interest in name change last October, when the B&M covered Malone’s name change. Additional stories from local media sources can be found here and here.

Presumably still licking his wounds from the verbal beating he took from Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart last month, CNBC’s Jim Cramer will host his show from Ohio State’s campus in April.

Cramer is the guy with the rolled up sleeves that always manages to overdo the dorky soundboard and gets all worked up over stock pickings. He will tape his April 22nd show at OSU as a stop in a nationwide tour of 13 campuses.

I’m not sure if this actually something that he normally does, but it should be interesting. According to the Associated Press, students from an investment management class will compare their stock-picking skills against Cramer’s.

Enjoy not having to make payments on your student loan? Don’t get used to it, because starting tomorrow that will no longer be the case for students borrowing from Sallie Mae, the bank most of us evidently borrow from.

From the story in Saturday’s Dispatch:

The company, formally known as SLM Corp., is replacing its signature loan with a shorter-term version that requires students to make interest payments while in school. For many families, the move is expected to push private loans out of reach in an already-tight credit market.

The upside is that the cost of a private student loan will be cut by about 40 percent, said Jack Hewes, chief lending officer for Sallie Mae, which is based Reston, Va.

Families also would repay loans between five years and 15 years, compared with the previous 15 years to 30 years. Despite the shorter term, Sallie Mae says the monthly bills upon graduation wouldn’t rise dramatically.

This is because the interest payments students make while in school would avoid negative amortization, where the loan balance grows because of deferred interest.

The loans will be available for the 2009-10 school year.

As an example of how the loans will work, Sallie Mae paints the scenario of a student who wants to borrow $17,000 over two years.

For the first semester of freshman year, the student would pay $40 a month. That figure would rise each semester, reaching $160 by the second semester of sophomore year. The $160 monthly payments would continue until graduation.

Once out of school, the student would owe only the principal of $17,000.

This would be paid off over the next six years at $328 a month. Under the previous setup, the student would have repaid the money over 15 years at $250 a month.

The new requirement will lower the total cost of the loan to $28,000, compared with the previous $45,000.

At a time when President Obama has promised to make college more affordable and Governor Strickland is pushing his education plan, this comes at quite a hit. This will most definately have an impact on some students’ decision to go to or remain in college.

Governor Ted Strickland’s education plan implementing all-day kindergarten isn’t without its loopholes. Waivers can allow districts to opt-out, allowing them to dodge Strickland’s key requirements, an article in today’s Columbus Dispatch explains.

Under Strickland’s plan, the Tri-Valley Local School District, in Muskingum County, would get no increase in funding over the next two years — despite being required to make changes that would require more classrooms and more teachers and thus much more spending. Tri-Valley Superintendent Mark Neal commented in the Dispatch’s front page story:

“I see waivers not only as a way to continue not to fully fund the cost of a high-quality education, but also as a tool to further exacerbate the disparity between low-wealth and high-wealth school districts,” said Mark Neal, superintendent of Tri-Valley Local Schools in Muskingum County.

“Basically, the model acknowledges what an adequate education should look like and then provides a way for those who cannot afford it to opt out.”

But at the same time, Neal said, he’d be grateful for waivers. Tri-Valley would receive no additional state aid during the next two years under the governor’s plan and would not have the money for the additional teachers and classroom space required under the proposal, he said.

How frequently waivers would be granted and under what circumstances has yet to be determined, according to the Dispatch.