FAP654: Affirmative action, Free Stuff Thursday, Metrology, Danielle French

Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: The U.S. Senate fell short Wednesday of the 60 votes needed to proceed to a vote on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would offer a pathway to permanent residency for students in the country without documentation who complete two years of college or military service. In a statement on the floor following the 52-44 vote, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D.-Ill.), pledged his commitment to continue pushing the bill — derided by many as an amnesty act — although he conceded, “I don’t know when the next chance will be.”
+ Inside HIgher Ed: Proposal 2, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, passed by voter referendum last November and prohibits “state and local government from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the areas of public employment, public contracting and public education.” In the views of administrators, who have fought the initiative at every turn, the law leaves the university’s hands tied both at the admissions stage and in the financial aid office, where scholarships can no longer be directed specifically to members of underrepresented groups.
+ But that doesn’t preclude outside, private organizations from stepping in. The Alumni Association of the University of Michigan — a private, nonprofit group that is legally separate from the university system — last week announced its plans to begin offering scholarships next fall that would consider race and gender in its selection process. The association sees the program as a way to bolster the campus’s minority recruitment efforts despite the legal restrictions imposed on the university itself.
+ NASFAA: “Sallie Mae and the investor group seeking to terminate its $25 billion buyout of the big student lender failed to reach agreement by a judge’s deadline Tuesday on dropping conditions of the deal that prevent the company from talking to other potential suitors,” reports the Associated Press. “The investor group, led by private-equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co., told a judge that it was conveying to Sallie Mae in writing the group’s waiver of ‘any and all of their rights under the merger agreement … that would in any way inhibit Sallie Mae from conducting its business or pursuing its strategic alternatives.’ It wasn’t clear what the stumbling blocks were to reaching an accord. Spokesmen for Sallie Mae didn’t immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.”
+ Concerned about your student loans? Consider student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com or 877-328-1565

Scholarship Update
+ Joe D. Simmons Scholarship
+ The Scholarship will be seeking candidates for an award of $3,000 to support the study of metrology and/or of measurements-based quality technology during the 2008-2009 school year. Application forms will be available November 1, 2007. The award - to be administered by the school of the recipient - can be used to cover tuition, fees, books, and incidental academic expenses for the winning scholar.
+ Application period opens on November 1
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Thursday
+ Quicksilver updates to B52
+ GMail is rolling out IMAP
+ Flight simulator in Google Earth
+ RapidTyping for Windows
+ Photo Drop for the Mac
+ Gizmo Project updated to include video
+ Grand Central has limited new memberships

Podsafe Music
+ Danielle French, Drowning

Reminders
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