Quick Takes | Higher education round-up: Jan. 18

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth to end AP credit

Beginning with the class of 2018, incoming students to Dartmouth College will not be able to earn college credit through Advancement Placement exams.

This comes after about 10 years of discussion at the college. The faculty who voted concluded that the AP classes have not been at the level they used to be. “The concern that we have is that increasingly, AP has been seen as equivalent to a college-level course, and it really isn’t, in our opinion,” Hakan Tell, chairman of the college’s Committee on Instruction, said.

Dartmouth will continue to use AP scores to help determine class placement for its students.

Princeton University

Princeton Police renews call to be armed

Police officers in Princeton’s Department of Public Safety and the union that represents them are calling for the right to carry a gun on duty.

Sworn DPS officers currently wear bulletproof vests and carry a baton, pepper spray and handcuffs, but are not allowed to carry a gun. DPS Executive Director Paul Ominsky said his department is always thinking about the arming issue and monitoring crime on campus.

Princeton President Shirley Tilghman, however, stands by her position that guns don’t have a place at Princeton, The Daily Princetonian reported.

Yale University

Students decry fall rush ban

Fraternity leaders at Yale are claiming that a recent ban on fall rush for freshmen has caused lower recruitment numbers than in past years, The Yale Daily News reported.

Yale administrators decided to prohibit freshmen from rushing in the fall semester in March 2011 as part of an effort to help students get adjusted to other aspects of campus life when first arriving at school.

A Yale fraternity leader said in an email that the ban “discourages freshmen from making bonds with fraternities early in the year. And [they] potentially [will] not form the important bonds that a fraternity offers.”

Boston College

Apps see major drop

After adding a new mandatory essay for high-school applicants, Boston College announced that it saw a 26-percent decrease in applications this admissions cycle.

The school directly attributed the decrease to the new, 400-word essay. Last year’s application total of 34,051 marked a record high for the school. Approximately 25,000 students applied this year.

BC admissions officials told The Chronicle of Higher Education that the smaller applicant pool was not necessarily a bad thing, since more students will likely be committed to matriculating if they are accepted.

University of North Carolina

Group files sexual assault complaint

Several UNC students and a former administrator filed a complaint against the University on Wednesday arguing that UNC “facilitated a hostile environment for students reporting sexual assault.”

The complaint accuses the University of violating the Title IX amendment and the Clery Act’s Campus Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights, which requires universities to offer sexual assault victims with rights like being notified of counseling services.

“We’re not filling to try to vilify the University,” 2011 UNC graduate Annie Clark said. “We’re filing because this is a problem that’s been happening for years. We’re doing this because we love UNC and we want the best for it, not because we’re angry at it.”

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