Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Carolina News Student drug-use reports can be released by Matthew McGuire College Press Exchange Colleges and Universities will have increased freedom to release information about students’ discipline history and to notify parents if a student under the age of 21 is caught drinking or using illegal drugs on campus, under final regulations issued by the U.S. Education Department. The amendments to the Family Ed ucational Rights and Privacy Act (FER PA) go into effect Aug. 7 and carry out the Higher Education Amendments made by Congress in 1998. Under the amendments, colleges will now be able to inform parents and legal guardians if a student under the age of 21 has been caught drinking alcohol on cam pus or using illegal drugs. . Previously, colleges were required to prove that the student was financial ly dependent before reporting the crimes to the parents or guardians. Colleges will also be allowed to re lease the final results of on-campus dis ciplinary proceedings where students were found guilty of sex crimes or vio lent crimes. Additionally, colleges will also be able to release education records to a court without a parent or student's con sent - and without notification - if a par ent or student has brought a lawsuit against the college. The recent amendments allow schools to release the records at their own dis cretion. Schools that continue to withhold that information are not violating fed eral law. The recent amendments continue to chip away at information universities can withhold under FERPA, which Congress passed in 1974. A federal act was passed in 1992 that allowed school administrators to release annual reports on campus crime and al lowed them to release incident reports kept by campus police. Daniel Carter, vice president of col lege safety watchdog group Security On Campus, is glad to see inroads on FER PA, which does more to deter student safety than protect it, he said. “This is a positive step in helping to get crime information out there,” he said. Lack of professors, large enrollment become problems for many colleges by V. Dion Haynes Chicago Tribune Faced widi a large enrollment surge from the children of Baby Boomers and a flurry of expected retirements, col leges and universities across the nation are bracing for a shortage of tens of thou sands of professors. Education experts are predicting that overall college enrollment will rise by 2 million to 16 million students over the next decade. No one has an exact figure on the number of faculty positions that will open over the next decade, but with an aver age 20-1 faculty-student ratio, the figure could reach an estimated 100,000 posi tions. The college faculty crunch comes at a time when elementary and secondary schools are encountering their own teacher shortages and when all schools are facing intense public pressure to raise the quality of education. Experts say the competition for fac ulty could create a sellers market, which in turn could drive up salaries, exacer bating universities' current practice of hiring more part-time and non-tenured professors and forcing institutions to in troduce more independent study cours es to reach more students with fewer in structors. In the 1960s and 1970s, enrollment also surged when millions of Baby Boomers flooded the nation's colleges and universities. Back then, schools re sponded by building new campuses, ex panding curricula and hiring new pro fessors. Now, tens of thousands of those pro fessors have reached their 50s, 60s and 70s and are nearing retirement, accord ing to the Project on Faculty Appoint ments at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. Though colleges and universities banned mandatory retirement in 1994, one-third of the nation's faculty is 55 and older compared to one-fourth a decade ago. If the hot job market and lure of In ternet start-ups continue, finding enough qualified faculty to replace retirees and to meet future demand could be much tougher this time around, some experts said. During the first boom, “we didn't have the acute competition from the pri vate sector,” said Patrick Callan, presi dent of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a think tank in San Jose, Calif. “The competitive impact is strong,” Callan added. “But in California, [the problem of hiring new faculty] is more pronounced, with a combination of high I----— student demand, high cost of living and Silicon Valley.” Experts said the shortage of college professors will be particularly dramatic in Texas, Florida, Arizona and Califor nia. In a decade, for example, California alone is expecting 793,000 additional public and private school students. The population of college-bound stu dents has been growing steadily for 15 years. l ne numoer or mgn scnoor graauates in the U.S. has risen to 2.8 million this year from 2.3 million in 1985, accord ing to the Western Interstate Commis sion for Higher Education in Boulder, Colo. The population is expected to reach 3.2 million by 2008. Moreover, the number of so-called non-traditional students-adults 25 and older-has been climbing rapidly. Illinois' college enrollment is ex pected to grow a modest 87,000 by 2020, according to the state's Board of Higher Education. Unlike the fast boom in the 1960s, — which was spread throughout the coun try, this second wave will be concentrated in 20 states mainly in the Wfest, Pacific Northwest, Southwest and South. A survey conducted by the State Higher Education Executive Officers showed that college officials consid ered attracting and retaining professors and maintaining competitive salaries for faculty their No. 2 and No. 3 most im portant issues. “At least 17 states said they are con sidering new initiatives on [faculty] sup ply and demand,” said Alene Russell, se nior research associate for the Denver oiganization, which represents higher ed ucation boards in all 50 states. In Arizona, where college enroll ment is expected to grow to 120,000 in 10 years from 105,000, Gov. Jane Hull recently signed legislation placing a propo sition on the November ballot that would increase higher-education spending by $40 million a year. Professors seepages l News Briefs ■ Confederate Air Force members to vote on name change Midland, Texas (AP) - Leaders of a vintage airplane collectors group known as the Confederate Air Force say they'll call a vote to decide whether to change the group's name because of concerns it may be costing them business at airshows. Since the uproar began over the Confederate battle flag recently re moved from the South Carolina State house dome, attention has been drawn to the use of symbols linked to the Confederate era and slavery. The organization’s name has noth ing to do with the Civil War, the name stuck after somebody painted it on the tail of a fighter plane in the 1950s. The group's 8,500 members maintain about 140 airplanes that flew during World War II and fly some of them at air shows across the country. ■ Lancaster man shot to death on birthday Lancaster (AP) - Deputies are look ing for the Lancaster man who they say shot his friend to death on his 21st birthday. Rodney Jordan was shot sev eral times Saturday evening by at least two guns and died because of blood loss, Lancaster County Coroner Mike Morris said. Jordan was slain following an ar gument with Demario Mingo, Lan caster County Sheriff Johnny Cauthen said. No arrests have been made. ■ State seeks design for Cooper bridge Charleston (AP) - In another ma jor step toward building a new Cooper River bridge here, state trans portation officials have started search ing for a company to design and build it. The state Transportation Depart ment released requests for proposals to design and build what the agency called the "Bridge to the Future." As of 5 p.m. Friday, 37 companies from across the country had asked for copies, indicating heavy interest in the bridge, estimated to cost as much as $550 million. And it's a sign of strong competi tion for the job, transportation officials said. The agency has formed a selection committee that will rank the design ers and builders. The firms have until Sept. 15 to submit proposals. Write tor 1 he Cramecock this summer! We need writers for all sections. Call us at 777-7726, or come by Russell House 333.