Volume 1, Issue 4 July 13, 2018
A Weekly Look at News and Notes from the Louisiana Board of Regents
BOARD OF REGENTS IN THE NEWS
Theunissen sworn in to state education board
July 12, 2018

Former state Sen. Gerald “Jerry” Theunissen of Jennings said Wednesday that he is honored by his appointment to the state Board of Regents by Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Speaking after his swearing in, Theunissen said he is ready to make a mark in higher education by serving as a member of the state’s top higher education policy board.
Tulane Brain Institute awarded $1 million grant
July 11, 2018
Tulane University's Brain Institute has been awarded a five-year $1 million grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents to purchase scientific equipment for its facilities.

The grant will fund the purchase of one piece of significant research instrumentation in each of the five years for Tulane's neuroscience research facilities. This will include two new microscopy systems for the Tulane Brain Institute Cell and Tissue Imaging Center in the Uptown campus as well as a new near-infrared brain imaging system for the Tulane Brain Institute's Human Research Core in the downtown campus.

LOUISIANA HIGHER EDUCATION NEWS
UL Lafayette honors Blanco's public service
with creation of policy center
July 11, 2018
Blanco is a UL Lafayette alumna and the only woman to serve as Louisiana governor.

The policy center and archive will house Blanco’s gubernatorial papers. It also will contribute interdisciplinary, independent research to a host of public policy areas, including criminal justice reform, poverty and economic opportunity, governmental ethics, and education.

“Gov. Blanco championed these issues throughout her career,” said Dr. Jordan Kellman, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, which will oversee the policy center in partnership with the University’s Edith Garland Dupré Library.

LA tops in students seeking financial aid
July 10, 2018

Louisiana now ranks first in the nation in terms of students applying for federal financial aid.

More than 76 percent, or three out of every four, of the more than 49,000 Louisiana seniors who were enrolled in public and private high schools for the 2017-18 term have completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid application. 
LSU changing admissions procedures for fall 2019
July 10, 2018
LSU’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge is changing its admissions procedures, moving toward what it calls a more “holistic evaluation” of prospective students that will include, for the first time, a required letter of recommendation from a teacher, advisor, school administrator or counselor.

UNO professor gets grant to study oysters, and other New Orleans higher education news
July 8, 2018

UNO professor gets grant to study oysters
A federal grant to a University of New Orleans professor looks to make sure Louisiana’s supply of oysters can keep up with the state’s appetite.

The $300,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to professor Thomas Soniat seeks to develop a model for a sustainable harvest of Gulf oysters, as the bivalve’s habitat may not be enough to sustain Louisiana’s oyster industry in the future, according to a UNO news release.

The grant “provides a unique opportunity to bring together academic scientists, state regulators and industry leaders from the Gulf states to ensure that oyster reef quality is maintained and enhanced, and that oyster populations are sustainably fished,” Soniat said.

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Tulane adds member to governing board
Steven Paul, a neuroscientist and the CEO of Voyager Therapeutics, has been named a member of the Board of Tulane, the university’s main governing body.

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Tulane and Loyola host admissions conference
Tulane and Loyola universities are set to co-host the International Association for College Admission Counseling Conference from Tuesday through Friday, welcoming more than 1,400 college admissions and high school counselors from around the world, including participants from 100 nations, are expected to attend the conference this year, breaking a record, according to a Tulane news release.

The university said the focus of the conference will be on trends affecting international student admission, recruitment and enrollment.
NATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION NEWS
Why Corporate America is recruiting high schoolers?
With more job openings than unemployed workers in the US economy, companies are finding it hard to fill jobs. One solution is for corporations to train high school students with the skills needed in the labor market. Sometimes, they start as young as kindergarten.

Since 2011, more than 400 companies have partnered with 79 public high schools across the country to offer a six-year program called P-Tech. Students can enroll for grades 9 to 14 and earn both a high school and an associate's degree in a science, tech, engineering or math related field.

To meet state attainment goals, higher ed will have to get explicit about race
Nearly every state  has set, revised or adopted a degree attainment goal in the last few years, fueled primarily by projections that 65% of job vacancies will require some type of post-secondary training by 2020.

In most cases, however, these degree attainment goals do not focus on the various racial and ethnic sub-populations in each state, which the Education Trust’s senior director of Higher Education Research and Data Analytics, Andrew Nichols, said is problematic, particularly as the nation’s demographics continue to shift toward a browner population.

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