U.S. Department of Education Announces Public Hearings

HEADLINES

U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education Announces Public Hearings (U.S. Department of Education, May 24, 2021) “The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education announced today that it will hold virtual public hearings on June 21, 23, and 24 to receive stakeholder feedback on potential issues for future rulemaking sessions.”

Education Department Will Use Lengthy Process to Restore Student-Debt Accountability (The Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription required], May 20, 2021) “The gainful-employment regulation, which seeks to hold colleges accountable for their students’ earnings compared with their students’ loan debt, will go through the federal rule-making process, again, more than a decade after it was first proposed.”

Community College Collecting Some Momentum (The Daily Item [Pennsylvania], May 21, 2021) "A community college in Sunbury is closer to reality than ever before with the partnership between Marywood University or Scranton and the Susquehanna Valley Community Education Project (SVCEP) offering another affordable educational opportunity for Valley residents in the next few years. With a goal of opening a community college in Sunbury by 2023 or 2024, accreditation is required by the Middle States Commission for Higher Education if the planned community college is not affiliated or branch campus of an existing community college."

California Overhauls Its Law School Accreditation Rules, Emphasizing Diversity and Student Learning (Law.com, May 19, 2021) "California-approved law schools will have to set student learning goals and create diversity and inclusion plans under a sweeping set of revised rules adopted this month by the State Bar of California."

BOG Member Raises Alarm Over Accreditation Board’s Role in FSU Search (Politico, May 18, 2021) “At least one member of the state university system Board of Governors said an accreditation board overstepped its boundaries by interfering with Florida State University’s search for a new president. In an email to BOG leadership on Sunday, Alan Levine wrote that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges ‘short-circuited’ Florida’s governance by implying FSU could lose its accreditation while considering Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran for its top job.”