Huntsville may be ahead of the curve when it comes to science education, but plenty of work remains to ensure that the education system adequately fills an increasingly technology-based workforce.

That was the gist of a congressional hearing held Monday morning at Bob Jones High School to discuss the future of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the Rocket City and beyond.

The hearing was hosted by U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, who chairs the subcommittee on Research and Science Education for the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Brooks was joined by Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Chicago, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee. Lipinski told those present that fewer than 40 percent of college students who start out in a STEM-related field follow through and get a degree in that field.

That leads to a shortage of qualified employees to fill positions in science and technology fields, which are experiencing an increasing demand for workers, Lipinski said.

“We need to do a better job at training our students,” Lipinski said.

For ideas on how that should be done, the congressmen turned to a panel of local education and industry leaders, who testified about the status of STEM education in Huntsville. Panelists spoke repeatedly of improved communication and collaboration between education and industry.

Andrew Partynski, chief technology officer for SAIC, told the congressmen that there is a lack of communication about what type of students the industry is seeking.

“We still have a lot to do with the universities to communicate the kind of needs we have,” Partynski said.

Dr. Neil Lamb, director of educational outreach for HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, agreed. Lamb said the industry needs students whose book-based learning is supplemented by hands-on experience.

For that, there need to be partnerships between schools and the industry to provide students with internships and other opportunities for experience, Partynski said.

Dr. Camille Wright, director of secondary instruction for Madison City Schools, said her district partners with local universities through initiatives such as dual enrollment and articulated credit. The business community also provides internships and job shadowing for students.

And an advisory committee of business and industry leaders helps guide the district on its curriculum. “They work with us to ensure that our curriculum matches the skill set needed in the industry,” Wright said.

Dr. Robert Altenkirch, president of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, testified that internships with NASA and other industry leaders help higher education students better understand what they learn on campus.

When Brooks and Lipinski asked how the federal government could better promote scientific entities like HudsonAlpha and SAIC, Lamb of HudsonAlpha talked about preventing other industries from “poaching” STEM graduates.

Wright spoke out against the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which she said has forced school districts to narrow their focus on reading and math — to the detriment of science education.

“As an unintended consequence, that’s where your money will go,” Wright said.

Lamb said that the Bush-era legislation inflicted “enormous harm” on the way science is viewed in the country. His comment was met by applause from the small audience.

According to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, the move away from science is reflected in student performance. That assessment showed that just 34 percent of fourth-graders, 30 percent of eighth-graders and 21 percent of 12th-graders in the nation scored at or above proficiency in physical science, life science, Earth science and space.

President Obama has said he is trying to change the focus of students’ education, placing on his agenda an $80 million proposal for a new competition designed to support effective STEM teacher preparation. His administration also hopes to create a $60 million fund to help improve math education.

Obama’s office announced the initiatives in February. They have been met with skepticism from some GOP leaders who question the price tag on the plans.

Teachers and their supporters gathered near the White House on Saturday afternoon to chant, cheer, and march for a variety of changes they hope to see in public schools—most notably, a 180-degree shift away from standards- and testing-based accountability.

Aside from that message, those who attended the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action in the scalding sun preached everything from boosting support for teachers’ unions, to booting U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, to getting more federal money for low-income schoolchildren. Student poverty was repeatedly cited as the most pressing problem in public schools.

The more than two hours of speeches and hourlong march, along with other related events, were organized by teachers and teacher-educators who say they are fed up with test-driven accountability for schools—and, increasingly, for teachers. Speakers ranged from such prominent education authors as Jonathan Kozol and Diane Ravitch to the actor Matt Damon.

Organizers estimated the size of the crowd at 5,000, but a rough count by Education Week put it closer to 3,000. Before the event, organizers had said they were expecting 5,000 to 10,000 people.

The gathering, according to the organizers, was aimed at sending a message to national and state policymakers about its participants’ disgust with those policies and to highlight their own principles for improving public education. Members have created a series of position papers outlining the loosely organized group’s views on high-stakes testing, equitable school funding, unions and collective bargaining, and changes to curriculum.

For the most part, those aren’t formal policy prescriptions, and no stronger positions emerged from the rally Saturday. However, policy proposals aren’t necessarily among the organizers’ goals.

“What we’re talking about is creating the right conditions, not prescriptive policies,” said Sabrina Stevens Shupe, a former teacher in Denver who has turned full-time activist and was one of the event’s leaders. “There’s no one silver bullet that’s going to save anything,” she added, referring to attempts to craft education reforms over the past 30 years.

Patrick McCarthy, an 11th grade English teacher from Woodstock, Va., said he is tired of devoting weeks of the school year to preparing students for standardized tests. If he had his way, students would instead spend that time writing more, and improving their writing and critical-thinking skills.

“I’m so tired of hearing teachers are the bad guys,” said Mr. McCarthy, who will start his 17th year as a teacher later this year.

The July 30 event appeared to foster a feeling of solidarity among teachers from across the country who say they have felt under attack. Teachers from Central Falls, R.I., where a move for wholesale replacement of the district high school’s staff drew headlines last year, and from Wisconsin, where a new state law curbed collective bargaining rights for most public employees, made a point of attending. However, not everyone present could pretend to be likeminded on every issue.

Raquel Maya, a graduate student studying elementary education at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, said she understands the arguments against merit pay for teachers—a policy measure that many teachers oppose. Her mother is a longtime elementary school teacher who Ms. Maya said has lost some of her passion.

“But you do need accountability” for student achievement, and testing provides that, she said.

The four-day Save Our Schools gathering also attracted hundreds of teachers and parents to American University on July 28-29 for a series of workshops and seminars about fostering activism and engaging parents, among other topics.

Some of the organizers’ methods during their stay in Washington have been unorthodox. On Wednesday, for example, they created an art installation of 50 dolls, each inside its own cardboard box to represent teachers’ feeling of being boxed in, and placed it outside the U.S. Department of Education headquarters. The move earned them an invitation to speak with Secretary Duncan and members of his staff.

However, the organizers rebuffed an overture from the White House. Although they have denounced the No Child Left Behind Act and the Obama administration’s continued emphasis on high-stakes testing, organizers declined an invitation to meet on Friday with Roberto Rodriguez, a White House education adviser. Organizers cited a busy schedule and instead urged members of the administration to observe and join the march.

Kelle Stewart, a 1st grade teacher from Portsmouth, Va., said she attended in part because five years of teaching exclusively in Title I schools had led her to believe the money spent on testing could be put to better use. In addition, she said that not enough teachers and parents are a part of the debate about education reform, and that the Save Our Schools movement is an opportunity to correct that.

“As teachers, this is a chance for us to model appropriate behavior and how to disagree with each other respectfully,” she said. “We want to encourage healthy debate—it only makes for a richer discussion. That’s a democratic guiding principle, and we have a chance to reiterate that to our students.”

She said had it been her choice, the event organizers would have taken up the White House on its meeting invitation.

“We have to compromise,” she said. “We have to work together.”

The movement has also been the subject of criticism, most notably from the Center for Education Reform, a Washington-based advocacy group for charter schools and other forms of school choice. The center took issue with the SOS group’s call for additional federal money for schools but less prescriptive accountability and testing requirements.

The SOS coalition “advocates for the status quo, and reform to them is about money, control, and no high-stakes tests or accountability,” Jeanne Allen, the center’s president, said in a statement. “SOS is about deforming education, not reforming it. They put up the guise that this is for the families and students, but in truth, these groups want to restrict and remove any power parents have in their child’s education.”

Testing Targeted
On Saturday, another art installation set up at the rally involved several tombstones, each inscribed with a message noting the deaths of imagination, creativity, joy, freedom, and critical thinking, among others. The cause of death for all of them? They were killed by high-stakes testing, in the opinion of the organizers.

Mr. Damon, the actor and Academy Award-winning screenwriter, told the crowd that his strengths and talents couldn’t be measured by any test, and that his mother, an early-education professor, had made sure he didn’t take any standardized exams.

“My mom went to the principal and said: ‘It’s stupid. It won’t tell you anything. It will just make him nervous,’ ” he told the star-struck audience. His imagination and love of acting came from the way he was taught, he said.

“None of these qualities that make me who I am can be tested,” Mr. Damon said, then went on to pay tribute to the crowd.

“There are millions of us behind you. Our appreciation for you is deeply felt,” he said. “We love you, and we will always have your back.”

The event also drew the endorsements of others in the entertainment world, including the actor Richard Dreyfuss and the comedian Jon Stewart. Mr. Stewart, who recorded a video aired during Saturday’s rally, joked that he couldn’t attend in person because a dog ate his car.

Events around the country were organized in state capitals to coincide with the march in Washington for those who supported the cause but couldn’t travel so far. Still, marchers in person Saturday included teachers and supporters from at least as far away as California, Idaho, and Texas.

The marchers sported megaphones and signs as they stopped traffic, at one point drawing cheers from protestors who were denouncing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The SOS crowd carried a collection of signs that read “Wisconsin is the canary in the coal mine,” “Build Schools Not Bombs,” and “A Charter School is Not Superman”—the last a dig at the 2010 documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman,’ ” which many educators have criticized as denigrating regular public schools.

“High-stakes has got to go! Hey-hey! Ho-ho!” some of the crowd chanted.

Support From Unions
The Save Our Schools movement began with a small group of teachers, including former Connecticut teacher Jesse Turner, now the director of the Literacy Center at Central Connecticut State University, who walked from Connecticut to the nation’s capital last August to protest the No Child Left Behind law and the Race to the Top, the Obama administration’s signature school improvement competition.

The Save Our Schools efforts predated actions by state legislatures across the country this spring to curb teachers’ collective bargaining powers and tenure, said Bess Altwerger, a member of the movement’s organizing committee, who hosted a reception for Mr. Turner last summer. The attacks on unions and collective bargaining further galvanized the group, however, and eventually both national teachers’ unions threw their support behind the Save Our Schools effort.

The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have donated about $25,000 each to the effort, although most of the rest of the donations have come from one-time gifts provided through the Save Our Schools website, according to organizers. Conference organizers estimated that they’d raised over $125,000 in all. After this weekend, they will have to begin fundraising efforts anew to keep their work going.

Another large donation came from Ms. Ravitch, the education historian, who said she contributed $20,000 she won for the 2011 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize. Ms. Ravitch, who co-writes an opinion blog for Education Week; Mr. Kozol, a former teacher who has written extensively about educational inequities; and the educator and school reformer Deborah Meier, who blogs with Ms. Ravitch, were among those who spoke at the July 30 rally as well as during the conference at American University.

The SOS group will wrap up its gathering with a closed-door meeting Sunday, at which participants will try to determine how to keep the momentum from the rally going. Movement organizers haven’t disclosed the meeting’s location, and it is not open to the press.

Elaine Mulligan, a former special education teacher who is now working on a federally funded technical-assistance project in special education, attended even though she is unsure whether the event will have any long-term effect.

But it’s a start, she said, noting that she brought a friend who doesn’t pay attention to education issues.

“I don’t think it will work. I think it’s incremental, and I have to do what I can,” she said. “Maybe [my friend] will tell someone, and maybe they’ll tell someone. I hope that everybody does the same thing.” Via

Virtual schools allow students to obtain or complete their education using modern technology such as the Internet. They are not for everyone but are another tool educators now have available to achieve the goal of an educated population. Virtual schools recognize the need to focus on learning outcomes regardless of how education is delivered.

Traditional one-size-fits-all teacher/classroom public education is as antiquated as the one-room schoolhouse. Modern public education has been evolving for a number of years, though it isn’t recognized as such by many people who are not educators.

In Jackson-Madison County, the public education system already is comprised of a number of specialized magnet schools that offer unique education opportunities. High schools offer dual-credit college courses that can give students a head start on higher education. A new Bridge Academy was established to accommodate non-traditional students. Pre-kindergarten classes are available throughout the school system to help prepare at-risk children for learning. Special programs exist to help special-needs students and students with advanced learning capabilities. The school system has an alternative school for students with discipline problems, though it still does not fully meet their needs.

Another development is a proposal to reconfigure the school system’s middle schools to address the special needs of those students. Research has shown that this age group is where many students begin to lag behind. Addressing their specific needs is a hallmark of modern, flexible, public education.

While not exactly public education, home-schooling programs exist to allow parents another alternative to educate their children. These programs meet state public education requirements and often are partly integrated with local public school activities.

Traditional classroom education still meets needs of many students. Increasingly, however, other alternatives are called for to help today’s students and families meet the challenges of a rapidly changing, high-tech world. Public education, too, must adapt to these needs with innovation and creative thinking. This calls for public education administrators, teachers and parents who embrace change. It also calls for public support as new methods are adapted and new ideas are experimented with.

The goal of public education is to turn out students prepared to meet a rapidly changing future. How we get them there is not as important as reaching the final destination.

Effective Jan. 1, 2012, new regulations will establish more accountability on the behalf of insurance providers. Because University-sponsored insurance is mandatory for students, these new regulations will not affect students’ ability to obtain health insurance coverage.

In smaller ways, students may experience some benefits.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, insurance companies will not be allowed to levy lifetime coverage limits on student health plans, drop students’ coverage when a student becomes ill but has an error on an application, or deny coverage to students who are younger than 19 and have pre-existing conditions.

Before the health care law was enacted, many students were covered only under their parents’ plans until they were 21 years old, but the new act allows them to stay on until age 26. This means Washington University students will be able to use their parents’ insurance as secondary coverage in addition to the University-sponsored plan.

Virginia Wells, director of the health center at the College of William & Mary, a public university in Williamsburg, Va., attested to the health care law’s measurable benefits.

“When students require hospitalization or specialty care away from the confines of the University Health Center, their parents’ health plan becomes their secondary coverage, which helps offset the charges which may have exceeded the limits of their primary plan,” Wells said. “Before the affordable health care act, undergraduate and graduate students over the age of 21 would not have the option of this secondary coverage.”

Nearly 3 million college students participate in university-sponsored health plans across the country, according to recent studies, and more than 2,000 colleges and universities collaborate with insurance companies to provide students, faculty and staff with health care.

Washington University partners with Aetna to provide all full-time undergraduate and degree-seeking graduate students with health insurance. Some provisions included in the student health plan are a $500,000-per-year maximum, a $350 preferred-care deductible, a $10,000 out-of-pocket maximum and 80 percent coinsurance for covered expenses.

Bradley Stoner, associate professor of anthropology and medicine at Washington University, said that the University student health plan offers standard coverage that is comparable to insurance available to the general public.

“For a young, healthy student body, these kinds of limits and coverage should be pretty good,” he said.

According to Alan Glass, assistant vice chancellor and director of the Habif Health and Wellness Center, the University anticipates few significant changes to the student health insurance program for the 2011-2012 academic year.

For the 2010-2011 school year, the student health fee is $575. According to the Student Health Services website, this fee covers the Aetna health insurance policy, care and services rendered at the health center and the equipment used to treat patients. The insurance premium makes up 70 to 75 percent of the student health fee. The premium is guaranteed to remain the same despite projected increases in the student health fee.

“The student health fee for 2011-2012 will be no higher than $632 for the basic student plan,” Glass wrote in an e-mail to Student Life.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposals to slash state spending on higher education has triggered anxiety across California’s already budget-battered public colleges and universities about possible new waves of staff and faculty layoffs, reductions in class offerings and higher tuition bills.

Administrators said it was too soon to say definitively how they would respond if the Legislature approves the $1.4 billion in proposed state funding cuts for the University of California, California State University and the state’s community college system. But they predicted that daily life at the schools would surely suffer in various ways, including more-crowded classes and less pristine campuses.

“It’s not so much the quality of instruction but the quality of the overall educational experience for these students” that may be affected, said Steve Boilard, higher education director at the state Legislative Analyst’s Office,

Among the most concrete predictions came from California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott, who said the cutbacks will mean, in effect, that about 350,000 students will not be able to enroll in any classes at those 112 schools.

UCLA students go through commencement last June. Even before Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal, UC leaders had decided to raise annual undergraduate tuition for the 2011-12 year by 8%. (Luis Sinco, Los Angeles Times / June 10, 2010)

“We just can’t keep doing more with less,” Scott said Tuesday. “This is really sad because we are going to turn away students we would love to educate.”

The governor’s plan also calls for community college fees to rise from $26 per credit unit to $36, which Scott noted would still be among the lowest in the nation.

At Los Angeles City College on Tuesday, psychology student Nela Laveni said higher fees would mean requesting additional hours at her part-time job at an insurance office to continue her schooling.

“That’s the main reason people decide to come here, because it’s so much cheaper,” said Laveni, 18, who is in her first term at the college. “That might be too expensive for me.”

Instructors at the college said they wondered which materials and course offerings would be cut next. Last year, for example, the school’s business department ran out of money for the paper used for teaching and for exams. Now, instructors either buy it with their own money or ask students to bring their own, the teachers said.

Rob Sambrano, who has taught computer and business courses at the college for six years, said the budget cuts and fee increases could keep students from enrolling and improving their job skills during sour economic times.

“A lot of people that are unemployed and looking for work, they’re turning to us to get some skills under their belt and return to the job market,” he said. “And what are we doing? We’re cutting back.”

UC leaders already had decided to raise annual undergraduate tuition for the 2011-12 year by 8%, or $822, to about $11,124, not including campus fees or living costs. That is about triple what it was a decade ago, although financial aid will shield many students from the latest increase.

The university’s regents are not likely to seek an additional tuition increase for the current school year or for the fall unless voters in June reject the governor’s proposal to extend several tax measures, said Patrick J. Lenz, UC’s systemwide vice president for budget. But if the tax plan collapses, he said, “options that may not be very palatable today become more realistic.”

Lenz said it was probably too late in the UC admissions process for enrollment for this fall to be substantially reduced. However, the number of slots for midyear transfer students could be cut, and the freshmen numbers for 2012 might be affected too.

Rather than revive last year’s required furlough days for most faculty and staff, the most likely scenario to cope with the $500-million proposed reduction in state funding for UC’s 10 campuses would be layoffs, he said. And programs deemed not essential to the university’s teaching and research missions “are going to be subject to a great deal of scrutiny and are at jeopardy of being closed.”

At California State University, Chancellor Charles B. Reed said officials would consider reducing enrollment, eliminating classes, laying off staff, furloughing employees and increasing class sizes to address the proposed $500-million loss in state support.

Less likely, Reed said Tuesday, are further tuition increases at the 23-campus university. In November, Cal State trustees approved a 5% increase for winter and spring terms this year and an additional 10% boost for fall 2011. That will bring undergraduate tuition to $4,884, in addition to campus fees that average about $1,000.

Cal State had been ramping up enrollment by 30,000 students for this spring after two years of cuts. The governor’s budget proposal means the system once again is likely to have to restrict enrollment for fall 2011, Reed said.

Overall, the cuts will lead to a lower quality of education for Cal State’s 433,000 students, Reed predicted. “In the end, we won’t be able to provide access to as many students, students will not get the kinds of services and classes and sections they deserve and that they are paying for,” he said.

Via:Los Angeles Times

The student body consists of over 3,000 undergraduate, 897 post-graduate, and 1,247 doctoral students, and awarded 1,448 degrees in 2007. The university employs 611 full-time faculty and 396 part-time or adjunct faculty members in 2007. Rice has a very high level of research activity and had $77.2 million in sponsored research funding in 2007. Rice is noted for its applied science programs in the fields of nanotechnology, artificial heart research, structural chemical analysis, and space science. Rice was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1985. The university is organized into eight schools offering 40 undergraduate degree programs, 51 masters programs, and 29 doctoral programs.

Rice opened in 1912 as a coeducational institution with free tuition. The university was founded several years after the murder of its namesake, the prominent Houston businessman William Marsh Rice, who left a $4.6 million ($111 million in current dollars) funding endowment in his will. It is listed as one of thirty Hidden Ivies and as one of Newsweek’s “New Ivies”.

William Marsh Rice University
Motto: Letters, Science, Art
Established: 1891 (opened 1912)
Type: Private
Endowment: $4.6 billion (2008)
Chairman: James W. Crownover
President: David Leebron
Provost: Eugene H. Levy
Faculty: 611 full time, 396 part time/adjunct
Staff: 1,964
Undergraduates: 3,001
Postgraduates: 2144
Doctoral students: 1,247
Location: Houston, Texas, US
Campus: Urban, 285 acres (1.15 km2)[5]
Former names: The William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science and Art
Colors: Blue & Grey

Nickname: Owls
Mascot: Sammy the Owl
Athletics: NCAA Division I Conference USA
Affiliations: SACS, AAU
Website: www.rice.edu

The University is organized into two undergraduate and eight graduate schools. The undergraduate student body comes from all 50 U.S. states and 106 countries. In its 2009 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the university’s undergraduate program eighth among national universities, while ranking the medical, law, and business schools among the top 12 in the country. Duke University was ranked as the thirteenth best university in the world in the 2008 THES – QS World University Rankings of universities worldwide.

Duke’s research expenditures are among the largest 20 in the U.S. and its athletic program is one of the nation’s elite. Competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the athletic teams have won ten national championships, including three by the men’s basketball team.

Besides academics, research, and athletics, Duke is also well known for its sizable campus and Gothic architecture, especially the Duke Chapel. The forests surrounding parts of the campus belie the University’s proximity to downtown Durham. Duke’s 8,610 acres (35 km²) contain three contiguous campuses in Durham as well as a marine lab in Beaufort. Construction projects have updated both the freshmen-populated Georgian-style East Campus and the main Gothic-style West Campus, as well as the adjacent Medical Center over the past five years.

Duke University
Latin: Universitas Dukiana
Motto: Eruditio et Religio
Motto in English: Knowledge and Faith
Established: 1838
Type: Private
Endowment: $4 billion (May 2009)[1]
President: Richard H. Brodhead
Faculty: 2,877
Students: 13,457
Undergraduates: 6,340
Postgraduates: 7,117
Location: Durham, North Carolina, US
36°0′4″N 78°56′20″W / 36.00111°N 78.93889°W / 36.00111; -78.93889Coordinates: 36°0′4″N 78°56′20″W / 36.00111°N 78.93889°W / 36.00111; -78.93889
Campus: Urban
8,610 acres (34.8 km2)
Former names: Brown School (1838–1841)
Union Institute (1841–1851)
Normal College (1851–1859)
Trinity College (1859–1924)
Colors: Duke blue and white

Nickname: Blue Devils
Athletics: NCAA Division I FBS
26 varsity teams
Affiliations: AAU, ACC, UMC
Website: www.duke.edu
Latin text from university archives. Population data for fall 2007; financial data for FY07. UMC ties historic and symbolic, but governance-independent.

Benjamin Franklin, Penn’s founder, advocated an educational program that focused as much on practical education for commerce and public service as on the classics and theology. Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European universities, concentrating multiple “faculties” (e.g., theology, classics, medicine) into one institution[citation needed]. Penn is today one of the largest private universities in the nation, offering a very broad range of academic departments, an extensive research enterprise and a number of community outreach and public service programs. Penn is particularly well known for its business school, law school, education school, medicine school, health school, social sciences/humanities, and its biomedical teaching and research capabilities.

In FY2009, Penn’s academic research programs undertook more than $730 million in research, involving some 3,800 faculty, 1,000 postdoctoral fellows and 5,400 support staff/graduate assistants. Much of the funding is provided by the National Institutes of Health for biomedical research. Penn tops the Ivy League in annual spending, with a projected 2009 budget of $5.542 billion.[citation needed] In 2008, it ranked fifth among U.S. universities in fundraising, bringing in about $475.96 million in private support.

Incorporated as The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn is one of 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities.

University of Pennsylvania
Motto: Leges sine moribus vanae
Motto in English: Laws without morals are useless
Established: 1740
Type: Private
Endowment: US $5 billion
President: Amy Gutmann
Staff: 4,038 (Faculty), 2,276 (Staff)
Students: 19,816
Undergraduates: 10,153
Postgraduates: 9,653
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Campus: Urban, 279 acres (1.13 km2), West Philadelphia campus; 600 acres (2.4 km2), New Bolton Center; 92 acres (0.37 km2), Morris Arboretum
Colors: Red and blue
Nickname: Quakers
Athletics: NCAA Division I
Affiliations: Ivy League, AAU, COFHE
Website: www.upenn.edu

Founded by William Barton Rogers in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, the university adopted the German university model and emphasized laboratory instruction from an early date.Its current 168-acre (68.0 ha) campus opened in 1916 and extends over 1 mile (1.6 km) along the northern bank of the Charles River basin.MIT researchers were involved in efforts to develop computers, radar, and inertial guidance in connection with defense research during World War II and the Cold War. In the past 60 years, MIT’s educational programs have expanded beyond the physical sciences and engineering into social sciences like economics, philosophy, linguistics, political science, and management.

MIT enrolled 4,172 undergraduates, 6,048 postgraduate students, and employed 1,008 faculty members in the 2007/08 school year. Its endowment and annual research expenditures are among the largest of any American university. 73 Nobel Laureates, 47 National Medal of Science recipients, and 31 MacArthur Fellows are currently or have previously been affiliated with the university.

The Engineers sponsor 33 sports, most of which compete in the NCAA Division III’s New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference; the Division I rowing programs compete as part of the EARC and EAWRC. While students’ irreverence is widely acknowledged due to the traditions of constructing elaborate pranks and engaging in esoteric activities, the aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT affiliates would make it the seventeenth largest economy in the world.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Motto: Mens et Manus
Motto in English: Mind and Hand
Established: 1861 (opened 1865)
Type: Private
Endowment: US $10.068 billion
Chancellor: Phillip Clay
President: Susan Hockfield
Provost: L. Rafael Reif
Faculty: 1,008
Students: 10,220
Undergraduates: 4,172
Postgraduates: 6,048
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Campus: Urban, 168 acres (68.0 ha)
Nobel Laureates: 73
Colors: Cardinal Red and Steel Gray
Mascot: Beaver
Athletics: Division III (except for Rowing)
33 varsity teams
Affiliations: NEASC, AAU, COFHE, NASULGC
Website: web.mit.edu

In 1861, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences became the first U.S. school to award the Ph.D.

The university’s assets include a US$17 billion endowment (the second-largest of any academic institution) and more than a dozen libraries that hold a total of 12.5 million volumes (making it, according to Yale, the world’s second-largest university library system).Yale has 3,300 faculty members, who teach 5,300 undergraduate students and 6,000 graduate students.Yale offers 70 undergraduate majors: few of the undergraduate departments are pre-professional. About 45% of Yale undergraduates major in the arts and humanities, 35% in the social sciences, and 20% in the sciences.All tenured professors teach undergraduate courses, more than 2,000 of which are offered annually.[citation needed] Yale’s graduate programs include those in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences — covering 53 disciplines — and those in the Professional Schools of Architecture, Art, Divinity, Drama, Forestry & Environmental Sciences, Law, Management, Medicine, Music, Nursing, and Public Health.

Yale’s residential college housing system is modeled after those of Oxford and Cambridge. Each residential college houses a cross-section of the undergraduate student body and has its own facilities, seminars, resident faculty and graduate fellows.

Yale and Harvard have been rivals in academics, chess, rowing, and football for most of their history, competing annually in The Game and the Harvard-Yale Regatta.

Yale University
Motto: אורים ותמים (Hebrew) (Urim V’Tumim)
Lux et veritas (Latin)
Motto in English: Light and truth
Established: 1701
Type: Private
Endowment: US $17 billion
President: Richard C. Levin
Faculty: 3,619
Students: 11,398
Undergraduates: 5,316
Location: New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Campus: Urban, 397 acres (161 ha)
Former names: Collegiate School
Colors: Yale Blue since 1894; prior color, green
Nickname: Bulldogs, Elis, Yalies
Mascot: Handsome Dan
Athletics: NCAA Division I (FCS Football) Ivy League
Website: www.yale.edu