The University of New Hampshire and the state’s department of education have joined forces to expand collaborative efforts in such fields as curriculum and professional development in the New Hampshire public schools.
The formation of the 12-member “Schools and University Education Council,” which includes a teacher, a principal, a superintendent, a state vocational-education official, and unh faculty members, was announced last month by Education Commissioner Robert Brunelle and the university’s president, Evelyn Handler.
“About three-quarters of the freshmen at unh are graduates of New Hampshire high schools,” Ms. Handler said, “and we have a serious commitment to work with public-school systems to provide students with the best and most coherent education we can.”
Moreover, said the education commissioner, “it’s important that the university tell people what skills they expect in high-school students. And in elementary and high schools, it’s important that administrators talk to teacher-educators about what they are looking for in teachers.”
“Visiting professors” are familiar to college students, who often encounter such scholars in their courses when members of their regular faculty are on leave. But such visitors are also becoming more commonplace in high-school classes, as initiatives to expand the relationships between schools and colleges increase.
Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles is a case in point. Eight humanities scholars from the University of Southern California travel to the vocational-education magnet school on a regular basis to discuss literature and writing with students. Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the guest-teacher effort is coordinated by the university’s Joint Educational Partnership (jep), a 10-year-old program designed primarily to provide tutoring and other assistance by usc students at area schools and health clinics.
Says Richard Cone, jep’s director: “Many of the Manual Arts students would never have contact with a university professor. Once they’ve been taught by one and see they can handle the work, they might set their sights higher.”
College and university campuses are generally as busy in the summer as they are during the winter, but their summertime “students” are often either older--in the case of alumni participating in special seminars--or younger, as in such programs as those planned for elementary and secondary students at Duke University, Centre College of Kentucky, and Colorado State University.
Duke will run week-long “computer camps” for youngsters aged 10 to 17 this summer, starting with the fundamentals and advancing to special computer languages and applications in such fields as medicine, law, engineering, and chemistry. Students 12 and up may live on the campus; a non-residential session for 10- and -11-year-olds will also be offered. For further information, write Computer Kamp, 107 Bivins, Duke University, Durham, N.C. 27708.
Centre College’s three-week “Senior Scholars” program for high-school seniors will include courses in computers, energy, Russian society, and literature and writing. Total cost for qualified participants--including supplies, room, and board--will be $540; financial aid is available, according to the college.
Further information is available from Marshall Wilt, program director, Centre College of Kentucky, Danville, Ky., 40422.
Colorado State University faculty members will teach courses in mathematics, science, technology, and logic to “advanced pupils” from grades 5 through 12. The first of two week-long sessions will begin July 19th.
For further information about the “Enrichment Program for Highly Motivated Youth,” write William M. Timpson or Paula Hodges, Education Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co., 80523.
Responding to the deep cuts in federal financial-aid programs proposed by the Reagan Administration for fiscal 1983, a number of states are planning new loan and scholarship programs to minimize the impact on students from lower- and middle-income families.
A Kansas state legislative committee, for example, has introduced a bill to authorize loans to parents as well as students under the state’s Higher Education Loan Program. Any parent with a child in college would be eligible to borrow an amount up to the cost of that child’s education.
A bill currently before the Nebraska state legislature would offer high school students a $1,000 stipend to spend their senior year of high school in college.
Students ranked in the upper 10 percent of their high-school classes would be eligible for the state’s “early out” scholarship program.
Sororities are anachronisms, and college students who join them may be handicapped when it comes time to compete for positions in today’s job market. Those are the conclusions of a study by Barbara Risman, a doctoral student and sociology instructor at the University of Washington in Seattle.
“In a society where women marry into their standard of living, traditional gender-role socialization may be effective training for adolescent females,” she said. “But in a world where women spend much of their lives in the paid labor force, such training may be anachronistic.”
Women who spend their college years as independents, on the other hand, get more realistic preparation and may enjoy an advantage over sorority women in the workforce, the report said.
