Tuition Cuts: The Political Dynamics of Higher Education Finance

Increasingly, states are restricting tuition growth through political pressure and statewide governing and coordinating boards. During the 1990s, California, Virginia, and New York all cut or restrained tuition, and recently Michigan, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey have restricted tuition growth either through legislation or intense gubernatorial pressure. This case study examines the most extensive use of tuition cuts nationally, in the state of Massachusetts from 1995 to 2001. This case reveals the causes and effects of tuition cuts as a policy measure, and also the political dynamics underlying public higher education finance in increasingly politicized environments

Thwarted Ambition: The Role of Public Policy in University Development

Paradoxically, Massachusetts is the home of a world-class system of private higher education and a struggling system of public higher education. The influence of private higher education and persistent indifference by state government repeatedly thwarted UMass’s ambition to increase its stature on the national scene. The result was a “boom or bust” cycle of financial support that made rational planning and institutional expansion extremely difficult, exacerbating the university’s late start toward world-class status

Approaches to Implementing Virtual Reality for All

This article discusses practical approaches and strategies to help educators determine how they can start implementing virtual reality (VR) in their courses while addressing the needs of diverse learners and engaging all students in meaningful VR learning experiences. The practical approaches and strategies shared in this paper center around three main areas of access: accessibility considerations, access to available technology, and access to VR experiences

Leveraging the Affordances of Virtual Reality Systems within K-12 Education: Responding to Future Innovations

It is estimated that by 2021, revenue from virtual reality systems could reach two hundred and fifteen billion dollars (Reyes, 2017). The leading investors in virtual reality systems include some of the largest technology companies: Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. This increased revenue spending has influenced and continues to influence improvements in virtual reality systems. As these new advances emerge, it is imperative that policymakers, educators and instructional designers consider the fusion of pedagogy and technology when using virtual reality systems

Rethinking governance from the bottom up: the case of Muslim students in Dutch universities

Abstract This paper discusses the results of a study of faculty and university staff at two major universities in the Netherlands: the University of Amsterdam and the Free University of Amsterdam. I sought to understand how faculty viewed the role of the university in relationship to national and European goals promoting social cohesion and the integration of Islamic minorities in Dutch society. To a person, my informants were convinced that European universities did not, and should not, play a major role in promoting social cohesion. Some faculty members were merely indifferent to the problem and the university's role; others were actively hostile to the idea that the university should address what was clearly, in their minds, a state political problem. The paper discusses the governance implications of promoting social cohesion within these challenging institutional contexts, by building social networks among students and reinterpreting traditional policies of pillarization

Hepatitis and Encephalitis due to Coxsackie Virus A9 in an Adult

Coxsackie virus infection most commonly manifests itself in the neonatal period as a multisystem disease. This life-threatening neonatal infection has been recently treated with a new anti-picornaviral drug, pleconaril. In contrast, in adults Coxsackie virus is an uncommon source of hepatitis, but Coxsackie virus type B has been described in case reports to cause hepatitis. This is the first case report of hepatitis and encephalitis secondary to Coxsackie virus type A9 in an adult. This virus was found in a culture of the cerebrospinal fluid and was confirmed by PCR. The patient recovered completely without specific treatment

Mucopolysaccharidosis Type VII

Deficiency in β-glucuronidase activity (EC 3.2.1.31) leads to the lysosomal storage disease mucopolysaccharidosis type VII not only in humans but also in a recently discovered murine mutant, the gus^mps/gus^mps mouse. Clinical and pathologic abnormalities common to the human and mouse phenotypes include shortened life span, dwarfism, dysmorphic facial features, skeletal deformities, corneal clouding, mental retardation and abnormal lysosomal storage material in the brain and peripheral organs. In the first part of this thesis, neonatal gus^mps/gus^mps mice and their normal littermates were transplanted with syngeneic normal bone marrow. Neurological function was then evaluated with two behavioral tests: the grooming test, a developmentally regulated and genetically based activity, and the Morris water maze test, which assessed spatial learning abilities. The results of these tests indicated that the behavioral deficits in the mutant mice were not restored to normal. Treated normal mice also showed significant functional deterioration, indicating the detrimental consequence of this therapy in the neonatal period. The second part of this thesis focused on a novel approach to somatic gene therapy using microcapsules. A non-autologous fibroblast cell line engineered to secrete high levels of β-glucuronidase was enclosed in perm-selective and immuno- protective microcapsules and implanted into the peritoneal cavity of gus^mps/gus^mps mice. During the 4 weeks of therapy, the biochemical and histological abnormalities of the mutant mice had significantly improved. β-Glucuronidase activity was restored to >50% of normal in the plasma and 11.3%-65.8% in the kidney, liver and spleen. No significant activity was found in the brain. As well, the secondary elevations of other lysosomal enzymes such as β-hexosaminidase and α-galactosidase had decreased in the kidney, liver, and spleen. Urinary glycosaminoglycan content had decreased in the treated mutants indicating that the β-glucuronidase was exerting a therapeutic effect. However, after three and a half weeks of therapy, the treated mutants became severely ill and developed haemorrhagic ascites. Since normal mice treated with similar microcapsules showed no adverse effects, we hypothesized that an immune response had been generated against the foreign protein (β-glucuronidase) by the mutants, leading to the high morbidity. Thus in spite of the biochemical and histological correction observed after bone marrow transplantation and somatic cell gene therapy, the long term efficacy of these treatments needs to be further evaluated.ThesisMaster of Science (MS