A Glimpse Inside the Coffers: Endowment Spending at Wealthy Colleges and Universities

Even as ongoing national conversations about income inequality intensify, wealth stratification is occurring not only among individuals but also among institutions of higher education, a study from theEducation Trust finds.The report, "A Glimpse Inside the Coffers", found that roughly 3.6 percent of the nation's colleges and universities held 75 percent of all postsecondary endowment wealth. Despite that wealth, however, few of the hundred and thirty-eight colleges and universities with at least $500 million in their endowments were found to be investing significantly in students from low-income families, with nearly half those institutions ranking in the bottom 5 percent nationally in terms of the enrollment of first-time, full-time Pell Grant recipients.The assets of these institutions totaled$149.5 billion at the beginning of 2010 and had grown to $202.3 billion just four years later. According to the report, if the thirty-five institutions that currently spend less than 5 percent of their endowments annually were to increase their spend-out rate to the 5 percent required of private foundations, an additional$418 million would become available for other things. And if those funds were allocated solely to financial aid, they could be used to enroll an additional 2,376 low-income students at the current net price for four years -- a nearly 67 percent increase from the enrollment numbers for first-time, full-time low-income students in 2012-13. Alternatively, the same $418 million also could be used to reduce the net price for low-income students at these institutions by an average of$8,000 per year for four years."It's common for institutional leaders to say that endowment spending is all about preserving the excellence of their institutions for years to come. But our data show that most could easily afford to do more to educate more low-income students now without compromising their futures," said Andrew Nichols, director of higher education research and data analytics and co-author of the report. "By choosing to serve more low-income students, these wealthy institutions could be leaders -- not just in riches, but in extending opportunity.

USING ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING THEORY AS A MEANS OF MOBILISING KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES IN THE CONTROL OF INFECTION

This research investigates learning and infection control knowledge within hospitals in the United Kingdom (UK). Fundamental infection control practices are not always carried out by clinical staff caring for patients, as a result infections are transmitted (Pittet et al 2000). Failure to carry out infection control practices may reflect a division between the espoused and actual practice of clinicians (Huzzard and Ostergren 2002). This division may be contributed to by infection control teams and educationalists relying on classroom based, pedagogic teaching and failing to investigate the value of other learning theories (Courtney 1998). This study is based upon an investigation of the utility of situated learning within clinical infection control practice. The situated learning is based upon a combination of underpinning learning theories including community of practice and knowledge creation theory. The investigation consists of a discussion of the background of infection control in UK hospitals followed by a review of the literature concerning individual and organisational learning theory and learning in clinical practice. This review results in the production of a research model which combines learning theories, providing a guide for subsequent empirical research phases. A mixed methods, pluralist research methodology is produced employing qualitative and quantitative research methods. The first empiric phase of the research reveals evidence of a division between espoused and actual infection control practice, of tacit learning in practice, and of existing knowledge structures and relationships that could be further developed to facilitate and guide situated learning in practice. This evidence is used in conjunction with individual and organisational learning theory in the second empiric phase of the research in which an educational intervention employing situated learning in practice takes place. Results of this intervention study reveal improvements in infection control knowledge and practice amongst research participants indicating that situated learning, when harnessed and guided in clinical practice is able to offer a resilient means of contributing to the creation and application of knowledge within challenging learning environments

An analysis of teacher efficacy, resident efficacy, and teacher-student relationships with behaviorally challenged youth in residential treatment settings.

This dissertation contributes to the existing body of research investigating teacher efficacy, collective teacher efficacy, academic efficacy, and teacher-student relationships within residential treatment centers (RTCs) for adolescents. While past RTC research identifies a link between positive resident outcomes and supportive relationships with RTC staff members, no prior studies have investigated this link from the perspective of classroom teachers. Additionally, although specialized trainings strengthen interpersonal relationships between RTC residents and staff members, most are directed toward therapeutic and milieu staff, not teachers. The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) to examine whether teachers\u27 individual and collective perceptions of teaching efficacy improved after a specialized training, (b) to identify whether students\u27 perceptions of student-teacher relationship and academic efficacy improved after teachers received a specialized training, and (c) to examine whether individual and collective teacher efficacy has an association with student academic efficacy and the quality of the teacher-student relationship. One hundred seventy-four (boys N = 81, girls N = 93) adolescents enrolled at two different RTCs participated in this study. Several findings emerged: (a) separate trends in teacher efficacy appeared, teacher efficacy increased among teachers working with girls but decreased among those working with boys, (b) collective teacher efficacy among all teachers decreased after the training, (c) no differences in student academic efficacy occurred over time, (d) no differences in students\u27 perceptions of the student-teacher relationship occurred over time, (e) students whose teachers had lower individual but higher collective efficacy scores had higher student-teacher relationship scores, and (f) student academic efficacy was not related to individual or collective teacher efficacy. This study showed that interactions between teachers and students in R TC settings are complex and multifaceted processes. Many results were inconsistent with prior studies, which have primarily examined students in non-RTC settings. This dissertation further emphasizes the need for continued research with students placed in RTCs. Implications for future research include the design of specialized trainings for RTC teachers, the enhancement of efficacy beliefs among RTC teachers and students, and the impact of gender and attachment traits (among both students and teachers) upon efficacy beliefs and teacher-student relationships

Are They Not All the Same? Racial Heterogeneity Among Black Male Undergraduates

An erroneous assumption is often made that Black men, one of the most stereotyped groups on college and university campuses, all share common experiences and backgrounds. Using Celious and Oyserman\u27s (2001) Heterogeneous Race Model as a conceptual framework, we explored within-group differences among Black male undergraduates at three private institutions. Data collected from 39 participants reveal insights into the origins and characterizations of diversity among Black men, as well as the stereotypes, competition, and social distance associated with racial heterogeneity. Implications for Black male solidarity on campuses where few are enrolled and expanding conceptualizations of interacting across difference are offered at the end of this article

Deduction of static surface roughness from complex excess attenuation

Data for complex excess attenuation have been used to determine the effective surface admittance and hence characteristic roughness size of a surface comprising a random distribution of semicylindrical rods on an acoustically hard plane. The inversion for roughness size is based on a simplified boss model. The technique is shown to be effective to within 4%, up to a threshold roughness packing density of 32%, above which the interaction between scattering elements appears to exceed that allowed by the model

Free surface dynamics in shallow turbulent flows.

This study aimed to understand the processes that govern free surface behaviour in depth-limited turbulent flows. Experimental data has shown that the turbulence properties at a point near the free surface relate directly to the properties of the free surface pattern. This would suggest a direct linkage between the free surface and the underlying turbulence field, but this cannot be true since the free surface pattern is strongly dynamic while the sub-surface turbulence field is relatively persistent. An oscillatory spatial correlation function was derived which explains the de-linkage, showing that the turbulence-generated surface pattern periodically inverts as it advects downstream. A model was developed, which shows that the observed free surfaces can be considered as an ensemble of overlapping but behaviourally independent oscillons. These are shown to influence a zone of fluid beneath the surface and invert at a frequency which is a function of the root-mean-square roughness height of the free surface. The spatial frequency of free surface oscillation relates strongly to the spatial frequency of turbulent structures, suggesting that the oscillon motion may form the trigger for near-bed bursting events. Given these relationships, it is proposed that measurement of the free surface behaviour may allow remote measurement of flow conditions. An acoustic wave probe was developed, which is able to remotely recover the key features of the water surface pattern. An array of such probes is proposed for the accurate measurement of temporal and spatial properties of turbulent free surfaces and hence the underlying bulk flow conditions

Weak convergence of spectral shift functions revisited

We study convergence of the spectral shift function for the finite interval restrictions of a pair of full-line Schr\"odinger operators to an interval of the form $(-\ell,\ell)$ with coupled boundary conditions at the endpoints as $\ell\to \infty$ in the case when the finite interval restrictions are relatively prime to those with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Using a Krein-type resolvent identity we show that the spectral shift function for the finite interval restrictions converges weakly to that for the pair of full-line Schr\"odinger operators as the length of the interval tends to infinity.Comment: 23 page

Asymmetry and Symmetry of Acts and Omissions in Punishment, Norms, and Judged Causality

Harmful acts are punished more often and more harshly than harmful omissions. This asymmetry has variously been ascribed to differences in how individuals perceive the causal responsibility of acts versus omissions and to social norms that tend to proscribe acts more frequently than omissions. This paper examines both of these hypotheses, in conjunction with a new hypothesis: that acts are punished more than omissions because it is usually more efficient to do so. In typical settings, harms occur as a result of relatively few harmful actions, but many individuals may have had the opportunity to prevent or rectify the harm. Penalising actors therefore requires relatively few punishment events compared to punishing omitters. We employ a novel group paradigm in which harm occurs only if both actors and omitters contribute to the harm. Subjects play a repeated economic game in fixed groups involving a social dilemma (total N = 580): on each round self-interest favours harmful actions (taking from another) and harmful omissions (failing to repair the victim’s loss), but the group payoff is maximized if individuals refrain from these behaviors. In one treatment harm occurs as a result of one action and two omissions; in the other, it is the result of two actions and one omission. In the second treatment, the more efficient strategy to maximize group benefit is to punish omissions. We find that subjects continue to prefer to punish acts rather than omissions, with two important caveats. There is still a substantial level of punishment of omissions, and there is also evidence of some responsiveness to the opportunity to enforce a more efficient rule. Further analysis addresses whether the omission effect is associated with asymmetric norm-based attitudes: a substantial proportion of subjects regard it as equally fair to punish harmful acts and omissions, while another portion endorse an asymmetry; and punishment behavior correlates with these attitudes in both groups

A Cartesian Grid Method for Shallow Waterflows over a Gravel Bed

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv