Campus Overload

Announcing... A new way to read my stories

Jenna Johnson — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:38:00 GMT

I am sure that you noticed that Campus Overload became rather quiet in the last few months. I have been shifting to a new page, which I finally get to show you today: Jenna Johnson, Higher Education Reporter.

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U-Va. Board of Visitors blasted by American Association of University Professors

Jenna Johnson — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:44:49 GMT

The nation’s leading association of university professors released a scathing report on Thursday that criticized the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, especially its leader, for ousting U-Va. President Teresa Sullivan last summer for reasons that were “procedurally and substantively arbitrary.”

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Dept. of Education says U-Va. accreditor did not break federal laws by placing school ‘on warning’

Jenna Johnson — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:54:00 GMT

U.S. Department of Education officials announced last month that the University of Virginia’s accrediting agency did not break any federal laws when it placed the public institution “on warning” for violations related to the U-Va. governing board ousting and then reinstating the university’s president in June.

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U-Va. Rector Helen Dragas says entire board asked to participate in creating presidential goals

Jenna Johnson — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:31:00 GMT

University of Virginia Board of Visitors Rector Helen E. Dragas responded Tuesday to faculty leaders who questioned her motives and processes in setting goals for the president. Dragas wrote in a letter to the U-Va. Faculty Senate Executive Committee that presidential goals are a “confidential personnel matter,” so she is limited in what she can share.

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After Post article, U-Va. Faculty Senate tells Rector Helen Dragas “This kind of behavior must end.”

Jenna Johnson — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 02:22:01 GMT

I wrote an article for Saturday’s paper about the working relationship between University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan and Board of Visitors Rector Helen Dragas, which several sources say has been growing increasingly tense. In early February, Sullivan sent an email to the entire governing board raising “strong objections” to a list of 65 goals that Dragas sent her for the remainder of the school year.

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Peace Corps releases 2013 ranking of colleges that produce the most volunteers

Jenna Johnson — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:41:00 GMT

Yes, yes, the college ranking craze has hit even the public service sector. Today, the Peace Corps plans to publicly release its latest ranking of colleges and universities that produced the most volunteers during their last fiscal year, as self-reported by the volunteers.

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University of Maryland releases Big Ten non-disclosure agreement

Jenna Johnson — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:31:49 GMT

Back in November, news that the University of Maryland had joined the Big Ten athletic conference prompted this question from several plugged-in Terps fans and U-Md. supporters: Who made this decision, and why weren’t more people involved?

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U-Md. Big Ten move: Student government left out of discussion and decision-making

Jenna Johnson — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:27:15 GMT

At about 3:20 a.m. on Nov. 19, the day that the University of Maryland would publicly announce it had joined the Big Ten Conference, the student government’s top leaders released a formal one-page letter supporting the move.

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U-Va. Provost John Simon’s e-mail regarding accreditation warning

Jenna Johnson — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:18:00 GMT

The University of Virginia’s accrediting body announced Tuesday that its trustees placed the elite public flagship “on warning” for allegedly violating two compliance standards earlier this year during a leadership shake-up. (You can read the full story here: “U-Va. receives warning from accreditors after failed ouster of president in June.”)

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Sen. Mark Warner to JMU student: ‘Good luck on exams’

Jenna Johnson — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:37:55 GMT

On Friday morning, James Madison University Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and University Planning Mark J. Warner e-mail-blasted the campus to wish students well on their exams and encourage them to properly manage their higher stress levels.

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U-Va. expects accreditation update on Tuesday

Jenna Johnson — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 23:09:00 GMT

For the past few months, University of Virginia officials have swapped correspondence with the region’s accrediting agency regarding concerns raised by the unexpected ouster and eventual reinstatement of U-Va. President Teresa Sullivan in June. On Tuesday, the commission is expected to announce its latest verdict.

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NYU student replies-all to 40,000 classmates, sparks ‘replyallcalypse’

Caitlin Dewey — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:33:00 GMT

Passing notes is so old school. At New York University, a glitch in the school’s e-mail system allowed students to share their most vacuous thoughts not with a couple classmates, but with the entire student body.

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Do campus smoking bans work?

Jenna Johnson — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:30:56 GMT

Nearly two years ago I wrote an article about how Towson University in Maryland was one of the first residential colleges in the region to enact an all-out ban on smoking anywhere on campus.

Since then, these bans have become trendy on college campuses across the country. All of the schools in the University System of Maryland will be smoke-free by the start of next school year, as will be George Washington and American universities in the District. Nationally, more than 800 schools have banned smoking — and more than 600 of those schools forbid all tobacco products.

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U-Md.’s Big Ten decision: An online course teaches about the law the Regents are accused of violating

Jenna Johnson — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:31:00 GMT

The University System of Maryland's governing board is now under fire from legal experts who say it violated the state’s Open Meetings Act when it met in private to discuss moving to the Big Ten Conference. Meanwhile, its flagship school offers an online course in the very law it is accused of breaking.

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Details emerge about University System of Maryland regents’ private meetings

Jenna Johnson — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:33:27 GMT

(This post has been updated.)

In the frenzy leading up to the University of Maryland joining the Big Ten Conference on Monday, the University System of Maryland Board of Regents met twice behind closed doors to discuss the move and vote to endorse it.

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Where and when did Maryland regents vote on U-Md. moving to the Big 10?

Jenna Johnson — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:31:38 GMT

Where and when did the University System of Maryland regents vote on a proposal for the state’s flagship school to move to the Big 10 athletic conference?

On Monday morning starting at 9 a.m., I and several other reporters staked out the site of a regents education committee meeting at the student center at the University of Baltimore. We weren’t there by accident. We had been led to believe by senior officials that the campus would be the location for a regents meeting to discuss the high-stakes athletic move.

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George Washington University is actually not the most expensive school in the country

Jenna Johnson — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:28:00 GMT

George Washington University was dumped from U.S. News and World Report’s latest ranking of top colleges Wednesday, because school officials have been misreporting at least one key piece of data for more than a decade. Quickly, Twitter and the comments section of my blog lit up with assertions that GWU is the country’s most expensive school.

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George Washington University ‘unranked’ by U.S. News

Jenna Johnson — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 20:45:00 GMT

George Washington University is now unranked by U.S. News and World Report, following a disclosure earlier this month that it had misreported statistics about the academic achievement of its incoming freshmen.

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Obama’s reelection sparks racially charged protest at Ole Miss

Jenna Johnson — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:58:00 GMT

Around midnight on election night, news spread on Twitter that a group of University of Mississippi students were protesting President Obama's reelection. The crowd quickly grew from a few dozen to as many as several hundred, and the rhetoric took an ugly turn as some people shouted racial slurs.

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Iowa State College Republicans chairman: GOP needs to value college voters

Jenna Johnson — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:43:00 GMT

AMES, IOWA ---- On election night, about three dozen Iowa State University students gathered in a lecture hall to eat pizza, watch the news and track electoral votes on a chalk board. At about 10:30 p.m. their chairman, Kyle Etzel, ducked out to do an interview with the student television station. At that point, things weren’t looking great for Mitt Romney, but there were still a lot of votes out in Ohio and Florida.

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Randal J. Kirk resigns from the U-Va. Board of Visitors

Jenna Johnson — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 01:23:13 GMT

Randal J. Kirk has resigned from the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, stating in a letter dated Oct. 18 to Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) that he has moved to Florida and it is "not practical" for him to continue to serve on the board. Kirk also noted that his Florida residency might have disqualified him from remaining on the board, which caps the number of out-of-state members allowed.

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Starting salaries: How can women catch up with the guys?

Jenna Johnson — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:36:11 GMT

The American Association of University Women released a report today showing that one year after graduating college, men already made more money than women.

Overall, the pay gap was 18 percent. When adjusting for different career choices and other variables, the gap was 6.6 percent. (You can read more here: “One year out of college, women already paid less than men, report finds.”)

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U-Va. accreditors: ‘Questions remain’ about board’s integrity and procedures

Jenna Johnson — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:22:59 GMT

For the past few months, the University of Virginia has been corresponding with its accrediting agency about the leadership upset in June.

The accreditors wanted to know how and why the governing board asked U-Va. President Teresa Sullivan to resign, only to reinstate her a couple weeks later. In June, they raised questions about the board’s integrity, compliance with policies and interaction with faculty.

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Patrick Hogan named University of Virginia chief operating officer

Jenna Johnson — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:22:15 GMT

The University of Virginia has hired a new chief operating officer, Patrick D. Hogan, and taken a major step toward rebuilding the president’s senior leadership team after a tumultuous summer.

Hogan is a business executive who worked for Ernst &Young for more than three decades and oversaw the company’s global quality and risk management. Hogan is a longtime member of the U-Va. commerce school’s advisory board, and last year he was appointed to the university’s Medical Center Operating Board.

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Halloween costume ideas for higher education wonks

Jenna Johnson — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:34:29 GMT

Sure, every Halloween is going to inspire the same routine lineup of costumes — witches, pirates, superheroes, construction workers and anything that can have the adjective “sexy” put before it. But the holiday also brings topical costumes — the witty, newsworthy or ironic getups that only make sense for a finite amount of time.

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