South Korean Student Urges Princeton to Better Educate International Students on Race

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Princeton student Ukyung (Heidi) Nam, a first-year student from South Korea, says that the school’s International Orientation program needs to do a better job of educating students on race in America. “IO [International Orientation] shouldn’t stop at teaching about topical and logistical issues, such as visas and paid work,” she writes in The Daily Princetonian, the student newspaper. “It must integrate an actual session on race and the history and culture of racism in the United States into its programming.” Read her opinion piece here. (October 2023) …

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EducationUSA Offers Services for International Students

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U.S. News & World Report takes a look at EducationUSA, a network of advising centers supported to the U.S. State Department. Its mission is to help students who want to study in the U.S. According to the story, EducationUSA has some 430 advising centers in more than 175 countries and territories. The centers can help students find the best school for them and help with the admission process. Read the full story here. (October 2023) …

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Can Digital Learning Save Higher Ed?

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As colleges become battlegrounds for U.S. politics, and face declining enrollments, educators are worried that they have lost the American public’s trust. One way to fix this might be to expand access to online degrees. Michael D. Smith, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, argues that academics should embrace digitization as a means of saving the institutions they work for. Read his take in the Chronicle of Higher Education. (October 2023) …

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Amid War in the Middle East, Tensions Grow on US Campuses

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Student activists in the U.S. have long championed both the Israeli and Palestinian causes. Amid the war between Israel and Hamas, many students report feeling threatened for their opinions. Activists claim to have been doxed (when your identity is unwillingly leaked to the public) and threatened online. Douglas Belkin and Melissa Korn speak to students affected for the Wall Street Journal. (October 2023) …

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Nobel Prize in Medicine Winner a ‘Patron Saint’ to ‘Undervalued, Unappreciated and Unrecognized’

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Katalina Karikó won the award for helping pioneer mRNA technology, which was used to develop the COVID-19 vaccine. Before that, she fled authoritarian Hungary, failed to earn tenure and toiled as an underpaid research assistant for years, with few taking her ideas seriously. Yet she never gave up on her research. In this op-ed for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Dr. Priya E. Mammen insists that Karikó’s accomplishment is “nothing short of heroic.” …

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‘Guaranteed Admission’ Could Expand College Access

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Sonoma State University, a public institution in California, is offering guaranteed admission to any high school student who meets the minimum academic standards. In doing so, it joins university systems like the State University of New York, which sent 125,000 automatic acceptance letters last year. The scheme could expand access to education by reaching students who otherwise wouldn’t or couldn’t apply. Universities benefit, too, by admitting more students as the number of applications drops nationwide. Jessica Dickler has more for CNBC. (October 2023) …

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Republican Search for New US House Leader Returns to Square One

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Republicans, whose party infighting has paralyzed the U.S. House of Representatives for three weeks, will begin again on Monday to try to pick a new speaker to lead the chamber and address funding needs for Israel, Ukraine and the federal government. Factional strife between right-wing hardliners and more mainstream Republicans led to the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 3 and derailed leadership bids by two would-be successors: No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise and prominent conservative Jim Jordan. The leadership vacuum has stymied congressional action as it faces a Nov. 17 deadline to avoid a government shutdownmore

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Hispanics Now Outnumber Whites in Texas

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All About America explores American culture, politics, trends, history, ideals and places of interest. Hispanics are now the largest population group in Texas, surpassing non-Hispanic white residents who have outnumbered other racial groups in the state since at least 1850. The switch likely happened in late 2021 but was not officially confirmed until the U.S. Census released official population numbers in June 2023. The numbers show that Hispanics have been the state’s largest population group at least since July 2022. Texas officials were expecting the change. “A significant proportion of that was being driven by more births than deaths,” saysmore

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Mike Pence Faces Cash Shortage, Questions About Campaign’s Future

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With three months to go before the Iowa caucuses that he has staked his campaign on, former Vice President Mike Pence faces mounting debt and lagging poll numbers that are forcing questions about not only whether he will qualify for the next debate, but whether it makes sense for him to remain in the race until then. Pence ended September with just $1.18 million left in his campaign account, a strikingly low number for a presidential contest and far less than his rivals, new filings show. His campaign also has $621,000 in debt — more than half the cash hemore

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Lawyer Chesebro Pleads Guilty in Trump’s 2020 Georgia Election Case

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Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony Friday just as jury selection was getting underway in his trial on charges accusing him of participating in efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia. Chesebro, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in a last-minute deal. His plea came a day after fellow attorney Sidney Powell, who had been scheduled to go to trial alongside him, entered her own guilty plea to six misdemeanor counts. Inmore

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US Sounds Alarm on Russian Election Efforts

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Russia’s efforts to discredit and undermine democratic elections appears to be expanding rapidly, according to newly declassified intelligence, spurred on by what the Kremlin sees as its success in disrupting the past two U.S. presidential elections. The U.S. intelligence findings, shared in a diplomatic cable sent to more than 100 countries and obtained by VOA, are based on a review of Russian information operations between January 2020 and December 2022 that found Moscow “engaged in a concerted effort … to undermine public confidence in at least 11 elections across nine democracies.” The review also found what the cable describes asmore

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Jordan Still Running for Speaker; Plan for Temporary One Falls Flat

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Refusing to give up, Representative Jim Jordan told Republican colleagues on Thursday that he was still running to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives — leaving Republicans few viable options after his backers resisted a plan to expand the temporary speaker’s powers to reopen the House. The combative Ohio congressman delivered the message at a fiery closed-door meeting at the Capitol as the Republican majority considered an extraordinary plan to give the speaker pro tempore more powers for the next several months to bring the House back into session and conduct crucial business, according to Republicans familiar withmore

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Biden to Discuss Israel, Ukraine in Thursday Address

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U.S. President Joe Biden is set to address the nation Thursday night and discuss the U.S. response to the recent Hamas attack on Israel as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine. Biden visited Israel Wednesday, bringing a message of support to Israelis while also working to secure humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The U.S. announced $100 million in aid for Gaza and the West Bank, and the Biden administration is expected to propose $100 billion in supplemental assistance for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and security along the U.S.-Mexico border. “My administration was in close touch with the leadershipmore

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US Military Academy Sued Over Race-Based Admissions  

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The group that successfully won a landmark college affirmative action lawsuit earlier this year is suing to end raced-based admissions at the United States Military Acadamy at West Point.   According to a report from CNN, the conservative group Students for Fair Admissions is asking that the academy be prohibited from considering or knowing an applicant’s race during the admissions process. (September 2023).  …

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Republican Jeff Landry Wins Louisiana Governor’s Race, Reclaims Office for His Party

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Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican backed by former President Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor’s race, holding off a crowded field of candidates. The win is a major victory for the GOP as they reclaim the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek reelection due to consecutive term limits. Edwards is the only Democratic governor in the Deep South. “Today’s election says that our state is united,” Landry said during his victory speech Saturday night. “It’s a wake up call and it’s amore

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