This week, there’s more Covid news, endowments soar, students demand reform to Greek Life, the Common Application updates some of its questions, and we’ve also got a test-optional update.
In Covid-related news, a federal appeals court in Indiana upheld a mandate by Indiana University that requires students to be vaccinated. A judge on the panel wrote, “People who do not want to be vaccinated may go elsewhere.” Further east, students and faculty at Penn State University are calling for a vaccine mandate on campus. Currently, PSU recommends vaccines but does not require them. The increased demand for the vaccination mandate comes days after a student died from complications from the virus.
Some college and university endowments posted their largest returns in 35 years. While this is great news for colleges and universities with significant endowments, this widens the wealth gap between higher-education institutions.
College students at schools around the country are demanding that their schools reform how they deal with sexual assault cases. Students outside and within Greek Life are looking for change. You can read more about the movements at UVM and Dartmouth.
The 2021-2022 Common Application went live last week and there are a few changes. Some of those changes include a question that provides applicants the option to share their preferred first name; the addition of a pronoun question to give students the option to multiselect or add a pronoun set; and a shift in the presentation of a question from “sex” to “legal sex” to reduce student confusion.
In other application news, more than two-thirds of bachelor’s-granting schools are now test-optional!
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