Duke Federal Relations: DC Digest

DC Digest - October 8, 2010

In Today's Issue:

DC Trip Promotes Duke's Global Interests
Perkins Debate Offers Tough Choices
Duke Federal Relations is now on Facebook!
Duke Law Professor to Chair TARP Oversight Panel
Associations Urge Priority for Higher Education in FY12 Budget
House Report: Pell Grants By Congressional District
Republican Gains in Congress Could Thwart Democrats' Higher Ed Plans
Duke Law Prof Comments on Tech Transfer Report
Not Everyone is AWOL (ROTC on elite campuses)
Opinion: Obama's Bashing of Career Schools is Biased
Senator Harkin: For-Profit College's Dropout Rates Top 50%

DC TRIP PROMOTES DUKE'S GLOBAL INTERESTS
Duke's global strategy received a warm welcome in Washington, D.C., Tuesday as Greg Jones, the university's chief international strategist, and Nora Bynum, Duke's Director of Global Strategy, traveled to our nation's capitol to meet with representatives from both domestic and foreign groups.

The purpose of the trip was to highlight Duke's efforts that span all of its 10 schools and both the faculty and student bodies. Jones and Bynum's visit included meetings with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Chinese Embassy and the U.S. State Department's Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs.

Read More:
DC Trip Promotes Duke's Global Interests (DukeNews)

PERKINS DEBATE OFFERS TOUGH CHOICES
Although the debate over proposed changes to the Perkins student loan program has been off the radar screens of many outside of the nation’s capital, it continues to be a hot topic in the Washington student aid world. The debate boils down to three basic options:

    * Fund a major expansion of the program, by removing some of its most important student benefits, so more students can avoid taking private loans
    * Keep the program as-is, possibly requiring hundreds of millions of dollars in new money
    * Get rid of Perkins loans all together

Read More:
Perkins Debate Offers Tough Choices (NAICU)

THE OFFICE OF FEDERAL RELATIONS IS NOW ON FACEBOOK
Visit our Facebook profile to see content not available anywhere else! The OFR Facebook page is a place for you to learn about some of the great things happening at the intersection of Duke and Washington life. Check out photos, videos, and links to interesting and relevant stories, staff and faculty visits to DC, federal officials' interactions with the university, OFR's daily activities, and much, much more.

Check us out: http://www.facebook.com/DukeFederalRelations

DUKE LAW PROFESSOR TO CHAIR TARP OVERSIGHT PANEL
Senator Ted Kaufman, a senior lecturing fellow at Duke Law, was selected on Monday as chairman of the Congressional panel overseeing the $700 billion financial sector bailout program. Last week, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, picked Mr. Kaufman, a critic of Wall Street, to fill the seat vacated by Elizabeth Warren, who left the panel to become a special adviser to President Obama charged with helping set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Read More:
Senator Kaufman Selected as New Top TARP Cop (Reuters via NewYorkTimes)

ASSOCIATIONS URGE PRIORITY FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN FY12 BUDGET
AAU and APLU urge the Obama Administration to continue to make federal student aid and other federal higher education programs a priority for strategic investments in the FY12 budget:

"As presidents of the organizations that represent most of America’s public and private research universities, we applaud the Administration’s ambitious goal to once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. We believe that our collective memberships can play a valuable role in advancing this goal. We respectfully urge continued support for federal student aid and select higher education programs at the Department of Education in the Administration’s FY2012 budget submission to help meet this goal."

Read More:
AAU, APLU Urge Priority for Higher Education in FY12 Budget (AAU.edu)

HOUSE REPORT: PELL GRANTS BY CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Mississippi's Second Congressional District received more money in Pell Grant awards than any other district in the 2009-10 academic year, a total of more than $164-million, according to an analysis by the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce. The analysis, which uses preliminary numbers, breaks down the total amount of Pell Grant awards and the number of recipients by Congressional district and compares those tallies to the comparable figures for the 2008-9 year. The analysis could be a useful tool for lawmakers to tout during the closing days of their re-election campaigns over the next few weeks. - from the Chronicle of Higher Ed

Read More:
Pell Grant Awards: District by District (edlabor.house.gov)

REPUBLICAN GAINS IN CONGRESS COULD THWART DEMOCRATS' HIGHER ED PLANS
The outcome of this fall's Congressional elections will shape prospects for federal spending on student aid and research over the next two years, and could alter the course of higher-education policy debates on Capitol Hill, including those on for-profit colleges.

DUKE LAW PROF COMMENTS ON TECH TRANSFER REPORT
The system put in place by the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 -- which gives universities significant control over intellectual property associated with the results of federally funded research at their institutions – has been more effective than the pre-1980 system in making research advances available to the public and spurring innovation, says a new report from the National Research Council. Nevertheless, the current system needs improvement, said the committee that wrote the report.

Arti K. Rai, the Elvin R. Latty Professor of Law at Duke University, who testified at a 2007 Senate hearing on Bayh-Dole, said the report's authors seemed to have avoided more sweeping or dramatic proposals out of a desire to focus on what was practical for universities to do themselves, at a time when Congress appears unlikely to consider legislation to reform Bayh-Dole.

Read More:
Tweaking Technology Transfer (InsideHigherEd)
National Academies Press Release (nationalacademies.org)
Report Urges Universities to be More Realistic in Tech-Transfer Hopes (Chronicle of Higher Ed)

NOT EVERYONE IS AWOL
Secretary Gates's speech on campus last week has renewed debate about ROTC at top universities, but contrary to widespread belief, units continue to thrive at some Ivies and liberal-leaning publics.

Read More:
Not Everyone is AWOL (InsideHigherEd)

OPINION: OBAMA'S BASHING OF CAREER SCHOOLS IS BIASED
The Christian Science Monitor's editorial board says in an editorial on Thursday:

"The US Department of Education proposes stiff rules on the for-profit schools of higher education while largely ignoring similar problems in state and nonprofit colleges and universities. An equal hand is needed."

Read More:
Obama's Biased Bashing of Career Schools (Christian Science Monitor)

SENATOR HARKIN: FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES' DROPOUT RATES TOP 50%
Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Thursday that data obtained from a sampling of for-profit colleges show that more than half of their students drop out without earning a degree or certificate. Industry officials immediately disputed the analysis, which Senator Harkin released during a hearing on for-profit colleges that Republicans called unfair and one-sided.

Read More:
Sen. Harkin: For-Profit Colleges' Dropout Rates Tops 50% (Washington Post)