Leading Lady: Sallie Mae and the Origins of Today's Student Loan Controversy

Over the past 40 years, the student loan industry has evolved from a relatively small, government-sponsored program into an $85 billion a year industry with thousands of lenders and industry-related companies. But, in recent months, the industry -- and its biggest player Sallie Mae -- have been at the center of controversy and calls for reform

States' Evidence: What It Means to Make 'Adequate Yearly Progress' Under NCLB

States will soon announce the schools or districts that did or did not make "adequate yearly progress," or "AYP" under NCLB. But the question that provides the most insight into a school's performance is not whether a school made AYP, but rather how a school did or did not make AYP

Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed

Outlines best-practice strategies historically black colleges and universities in Texas used in the 1990s to lower student loan default rates and avoid losing federal aid, including campuswide collaboration, partnerships, and teaching financial literacy

Data Protection Litigation in New Zealand: Processes and Outcomes

This article examines the first 14 years of New Zealand's experience with regulating data protection from the standpoint of the processes for resolving disputes that are available to complainants. The Privacy Act 1993 applies to both the private and public sectors and provides a "one size fits all" regime unlike those of other jurisdictions. The extent to which it provides effective remedies may be studied through the reported case law of the dedicated tribunal that hears privacy complaints.The article examines the decisions of this tribunal and the few instances where further appeals have occurred. It also includes a statistical analysis of the nature of defendants (how many were from the public as opposed to the private sector), which information privacy principles were litigated the most, the remedies obtained and the range and average amount of compensation awarded. In addition an assessment is made as to the extent to which parties were legally represented and the effect this had on outcomes for them.The success of a country's privacy law depends on its ability to provide real remedies in concrete instances affecting real people. The article assesses the success or otherwise of the New Zealand regime in achieving this and in particular the merits of a system of dispute resolution that largely avoids recourse to the courts. The article finds that legal issues and technicalities have played a major part in litigation before the tribunal and that these have been a hurdle for litigants

Using a Data Lens to Strengthen Your Work

Data is everywhere, but philanthropy and the nonprofit sector lag behind in how to make it work for us. Many organizations collect data, but few use it to be strategic, to build their program's capacity, or to bring voice to issues that matter most. By integrating a data lens into your work, you'll work smarter through refined questions and solutions, and new collaborations. In this guide, we'll give you some ideas to help you start applying a data lens to your work, share stories of success from other programs, and offer practical tips on overcoming challenges

Foundation Giving for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Infrastructure 2004-2012

In the special report Foundation Giving for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Infrastructure 2004-2012, Foundation Center presents the first-ever analysis of U.S. foundation support globally for nonprofit and philanthropic infrastructure organizations and services. This analysis spans nine years of funding, encompassing 717 different funders and 12,200 grants. It finds that a set of the largest U.S. foundations provided $134 million in support for nonprofit and philanthropic infrastructure organizations, networks, and services in 2012; since 2004, their support has totaled more than$1 billion. About 41% of this giving funded philanthropy-specific organizations and networks -- from the Mexican Center for Philanthropy to Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. The other 59% targeted a range of organizations and activities -- from funding nonprofit-related research at major universities and think tanks to providing operating and project support to Foundation Center. This special report was created with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Student Connection

If there was one overarching theme from the 2009- 2010 academic year, it was community-based learning. Through volunteerism, participation in local planning events, and interactions with regional leaders in the field, Master’s students gained knowledge and strengthened professional skills that will serve them well in building sustainable communities

Dermal denticle assemblages in coral reef sediments correlate with conventional shark surveys

Abstract It is challenging to assess long‐term trends in mobile, long‐lived and relatively rare species such as sharks. Despite ongoing declines in many coastal shark populations, conventional surveys might be too fleeting and too recent to describe population trends over decades to millennia. Placing recent shark declines into historical context should improve management efforts as well as our understanding of past ecosystem dynamics. A new palaeoecological approach for surveying shark abundance on coral reefs is to quantify dermal denticle assemblages preserved in sediments. This approach assumes that denticle accumulation rates correlate with shark abundances. Here, we test this assumption by comparing the denticle record in surface sediments to three conventional shark survey methods at Palmyra Atoll, Line Islands, central Pacific Ocean, where shark density is high and spatially heterogeneous. We generally found a significant positive correlation between denticle accumulation rates and shark abundances derived from underwater visual census, baited remote underwater video and hook and line surveys. Denticle accumulation rates reflected shark abundances, suggesting that denticle assemblages can preserve a signal of time‐averaged shark abundance in low‐energy coral reef environments. We offer suggestions for applying this tool to measure shark abundance over long time‐scales in other contexts

palaeoverse: A community‐driven R package to support palaeobiological analysis

1. The open-source programming language ‘R' has become a standard tool in the palaeobiologist's toolkit. Its popularity within the palaeobiological community continues to grow, with published articles increasingly citing the usage of R and R packages. However, there are currently a lack of agreed standards for data preparation and available frameworks to support the implementation of such standards. Consequently, data preparation workflows are often unclear and not reproducible, even when code is provided. Moreover, due to a lack of code accessibility and documentation, palaeobiologists are often forced to ‘reinvent the wheel’ to find solutions to issues already solved by other members of the community. 2. Here, we introduce palaeoverse, a community-driven R package to aid data preparation and exploration for quantitative palaeobiological research. The package is freely available and has three core principles: (1) streamline data preparation and analyses; (2) enhance code readability; and (3) improve reproducibility of results. To develop these aims, we assessed the analytical needs of the broader palaeobiological community using an online survey, in addition to incorporating our own experiences. 3. In this work, we first report the findings of the survey, which shaped the development of the package. Subsequently, we describe and demonstrate the functionality available in palaeoverse and provide usage examples. Finally, we discuss the resources we have made available for the community and our future plans for the broader Palaeoverse project. 4. palaeoverse is a community-driven R package for palaeobiology, developed with the intention of bringing palaeobiologists together to establish agreed standards for high-quality quantitative research. The package provides a user-friendly platform for preparing data for analysis with well-documented open-source code to enhance transparency. The functionality available in palaeoverse improves code reproducibility and accessibility, which is beneficial for both the review process and future research

Preventing the adverse cardiovascular consequences of allogeneic stem cell transplantation with a multi-faceted exercise intervention: the ALLO-Active trial protocol

Background: Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) is a potentially lifesaving treatment for high-risk hematological malignancy, but survivors experience markedly elevated rates of cardiovascular disease and associated functional impairment. Mounting evidence suggests regular exercise, combined with a reduction in sedentary time through replacement with light exercise may be a useful therapeutic strategy for the prevention of cardiovascular comorbidities. However, this type of intervention has yet to be evaluated in patients undergoing allo-SCT. The ALLO-Active study will evaluate the efficacy of a ~ 4 month multi-faceted exercise intervention, commenced upon admission for allo-SCT, to preserve peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) and peak cardiac output, compared with usual care. The study will also evaluate the effect of the intervention on functional independence, quality of life, and symptoms of fatigue. Methods: Sixty adults with hematological malignancy scheduled for allo-SCT will be randomly assigned to usual care (n = 30) or the exercise and sedentary behaviour intervention (n = 30). Participants assigned to the intervention will complete a thrice weekly aerobic and progressive resistance training program and concomitantly aim to reduce daily sedentary time by 30 min with short, frequent, light-intensity exercise bouts. Participants will undergo testing prior to, immediately after inpatient discharge, and 12 weeks after discharge. To address aim 1, VO2peak and peak cardiac output (multiple primary outcomes, p < 0.025) will be assessed via cardiopulmonary exercise testing and exercise cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, respectively. Secondary outcomes include functional independence (defined as VO2peak ≥ 18.mL.kg−1.min−1), quality of life, and fatigue (assessed via validated questionnaire). Exploratory outcomes will include indices of resting cardiac, vascular, and skeletal muscle structure and function, cardiovascular biomarkers, anxiety and depression, transplant outcomes (e.g., engraftment, graft-versus-host disease), and habitual physical activity, sedentary time, and sleep. Discussion: Multi-faceted exercise programs are a promising approach for ameliorating the cardiovascular consequences of allo-SCT. If this intervention proves to be effective, it will contribute to the development of evidence-based exercise guidelines for patients undergoing allo-SCT and assist with optimising the balance between acute cancer management and long-term health. Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR), ID: 12619000741189. Registered 17 May 2019