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Pressure's Off? Colleges Foot Bill for Low-Income Students
Compiled by the DiversityInc staff
November 29, 2007
Pressure's Off? Colleges Foot Bill for Low-Income Students
Skyrocketing tuition rates, increasing wealth gaps, competition and pressure from the federal government is pushing more colleges to start footing, or at least helping out with, tuition rates to give more low-income families a chance at quality education. Williams College and Amherst College, for example, are replacing loans with grants in their financial-aid packages, and other schools are investing in debt-reduction programs aimed at low-income students to ease student debt, reports The Wall Street Journal. Eight percent of schools now have endowments valued at more than $1 billion--double the percentage from 1996--and many are using these financial nets to offset costs of grants and new financial-aid programs, reports the Journal. What does this mean for the work force? More students are entering lower-paid professions about which they are passionate as opposed to pursuing higher-paying vocations because they don't feel they have other options to pay off their college debt, which means more productivity for the employers who hire them. Why are black and Latino students caught in the battle to cut college costs? Click here to find out.
(See also: Get Educated or Die and How to Get a Free Education at Harvard)
'Vote for the White Man'? Are Early Caucus-Goers Playing Dirty?
Iowa caucus-goers are pulling out all the stops when it comes to advocating for their candidates … or advocating against others. NPR reports that voters are making their opinions known, from scrawling "HILLARY STAY HOME" on the side of a barn to urging voters to support Democrat John Edwards with handwritten notes that read "Vote for the White Man!" What do the candidates say about it? The Edwards campaign called the notes left by his supporter "deeply offensive and unacceptable," reports NPR.
Get more Election '08 coverage on DiversityInc.com and read this week's roundup of political news important to you.
Don Imus Returns Monday--Are You Ready?
It's been eight months since Don Imus was ousted from the airwaves by former employers CBS Radio and MSNBC, but the news headlines really haven't stopped. As Imus prepares to return to the airwaves on Monday, can we expect the same shtick that got him fired? Probably. "The best part is his acerbic wit and personality, and that's not going to change," ABC Radio Executive Phil Boyce, who is overseeing Imus' launch, told USA Today. On Monday, ABC will begin syndicating Imus' radio show weekdays and a rural cable channel will simulcast the show to about 30 million households, reports USA Today. One executive on the show says that Imus will regularly feature two African-American guests but did not say who they are, according to the paper. Who are Imus' top 10 enablers? Click here to find out.
(See also: Imus Coming Back? Will Sponsors Follow? )
AsianWeek's Most Infamous 'Yellow Face' Films
Why is it OK for non-Asian actors to play Asian roles in films, but not OK for non-black people to play the roles of blacks? Some Asian members of the industry aren't sure why people are "pretending to be Asian" and getting away with it--and they're not happy about it. That's why AsianWeek created a two-part series of the "25 Most Infamous 'Yellow Face' Film Performances." Which one's the worst?
Ignore Spanish Speakers at Your Own Risk
As the national healthcare crisis continues to worsen and Latino immigrants are disproportionately the ones without care, smart companies are starting to adjust their marketing campaigns to get their attention. Blue Cross of California, a WellPoint subsidiary, for example, created a web portal--Nuestro Bien--that provides in-language healthcare information in a culturally relevant setting to encourage Spanish, English and bilingual speakers to take charge of their health, reports AISHealth.com. Aetna launched a Spanish version of its "Plan for Your Health" portal in September, and Kaiser Permanente has a Spanish-language web site with access to in-language enrollment information, forms and telephone services in 140 languages, according to AISHealth.com. WellPoint and Aetna are two of DiversityInc's 25 Noteworthy Companies in 2007. Kaiser Permanente is No. 27 in The 2007 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity®.
GDP Rockets Ahead Despite Subprime Mess
Despite a subprime-mortgage mess and higher-than-ever oil prices that have consumers spending less, the U.S. economy is bounding ahead, growing at a 4.9 percent rate in the summer, which is the fastest growth rate in four years, reports MSNBC. But can the economy withstand an ever-worsening housing market and lower inflation rates? The Federal Reserve cautions the economy is in for a "rough patch," reports MSNBC.
Black NFL Pioneer Who Helped Break Color Barrier Dies
Former NFL Cleveland Browns' player Bill Willis died Tuesday, reports the Cincinnati Post. He was 86. Willis, a 1977 inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a defensive machine, helped break the color barrier in the National Football League back in 1946, much as Jackie Robinson did in the realm of baseball a year later, by becoming one of the first African Americans to play professional football after World War II.
(See also: Race and Sports: When Fast-Moving Objects Collide)
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