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Here’s the latest and greatest of college admissions news:

A group of professors have taken the global problem of education into their own hands by forming the new nonprofit charity Professors Beyond Borders, the Chronicle reports. The goal of this initiative is to create a network of academic scholars who will volunteer in Latin America, Asia, and other world regions, developing intellectual capital and assisting in the growth of global interdisciplinary education. Haiti will be one of the first stops for Professors Beyond Borders.

Another recent Chronicle article, titled “The Sweet and Subtle Science of Wooing the Admitted,” discusses the measures some colleges take (specifically Lafayette) to convince their accepted students to attend their program. Lafayette’s courtship methods include personalized campus tours, emails and phone calls from school alumni, emails and phone calls from current students, big receptions, and small get-togethers. “It’s more important than ever because the stakes are higher,” explains Lafayette’s VP for Communications, Robert J. Massa. “College is more expensive, and there’s much more competition for students.” Last year Lafayette had to reach far into its waiting list to enroll 616 students into its freshman class, just four students shy of its 620 goal.

In the Chronicle’s “Leave Internships to Us, College Leaders Tell Feds,” author Sara Lipka describes how colleges are frustrated by the fact that the U.S. Labor Department is responsible for setting educational internship standards, and that these requirements are not left to the discretion of individual universities. These universities argue that whether or not an internship provides educational value and what exactly the roles and responsibilities of employers and student employees demand, should not be federal concerns. In a letter sent to the Department of Labor, 13 schools, including Northeastern University, Boston University, New York University, and the University of California, respectfully requested “that the Department of Labor reconsider undertaking the regulation of internships.” Whether or not an internship exploits a student, explains Northeastern president Joseph E. Aoun, may be a matter for federal law, but “assessing education merit is colleges’—and their accreditors’—prerogative.

Between 2008 and 2009, 15% more students at Providence College asked for more scholarship money after an initial offer proved insufficient. That number (100 students, to be exact) remains the same this year. Sandra J. Oliveira, Providence College’s executive director financial aid, advises students seeking more funds to personally call her office and share specific details of economic hardship; a simple email probably won’t cut it. According to the New York Times blogger Jacques Steinberg, this advice should be applied to any student at any institution. (Source: “No Glimmers of Recovery Seen From Financial Aid Office“)

UCLA Today is proud to announce that eight out of ten UC campuses (UCLA, Berkeley, Davis, Riverside, Irvine, Santa Barbara, and San Diego) are listed in “The Princeton Review’s Guide to 286 Green Colleges.” Working in collaboration with the U.S. Green Building Council hundreds of universities across the country were evaluated based on their commitment to environmental standards.

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