October 30, 2005
Washington Post: "New Math for College Loans"
Following his comments during a news conference of college presidents on the issue of cutbacks in federally funded student financial aid (see preceding entry), Earlham President Doug Bennett spoke with Washington Post columnist Albert Crenshaw and further derided Congressional efforts to try to trim the federal budget deficit on the backs of the nation’s college students and their families. The only college administrator quoted in Crenshaw’s Sunday column, Bennett recalled one incident he’s aware of involving a student who took out a personal newspaper ad in search of someone to assist with his college bills. “These are painful moments, to see people stretch that hard,” said Bennett.
October 26, 2005
University Business Magazine: "Presidents Decry 'Raid on Student Aid'"
Earlham President Doug Bennett was among five college presidents from across the country chosen by University Business magazine — the nation’s leading journal for higher education administrators — to participate in a roundtable news conference addressing proposed cuts in federal funding of student financial aid. In its efforts to help reduce the size of the federal budget deficit, the House of Representatives’ Education Committee so far has suggested reducing support to various student loan programs by some $16 billion. “It’s crazy,” responds Bennett, also the current chair of the 1,000-member National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). “The key to a viable economy is a better educated citizenry, and we’re watching the Congress disinvest in education.”
October 17, 2005
Philadelphia Inquirer: "American Indian Observatory Will Host Hundreds"
In advance of the great Octagon Moonrise set to take place the evening of Oct. 22 amid the remains of what once were the largest set of geometric earthen enclosures built by man (near the present-day community of Newark, Ohio), Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Julie Shaw recounts how Earlham College Professor of Physics and Astronomy Ray Hively and his colleague, now retired Professor of Philosophy Robert Horn, were the first to document, in 1982, that the 2,000-year-old megastructure known as the Octagon Earthworks is precisely aligned to the moon’s rising and setting during a complex 18.6-year cycle. She also writes Oct. 22 “will be a major day” for the many hundreds — perhaps thousands — of astronomers, archeologists, Native Americans, students and others expected to travel to the site just northeast of the Ohio state capital of Columbus for the “once-in-a-generation” event.
October 06, 2005
History Offers Hope of Some Good from Hurricanes
As the emergency situation along the Gulf Coast begins to subside, social scientists have started thinking about the long term effects of the largest shift in U.S. population since the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression. Earlham Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Stephen Butler provides examples from history suggesting that while some of the results of major social upheaval may at first appear subtle, over time they can prove profound.