Professor sues USC for alleged racial, religious harassment [Daily Trojan]

The flava:
A USC professor filed a lawsuit against the University Thursday, citing discrimination and harassment on the basis of religion and ethnic descent. 

Ali Abbas, a practicing Muslim of Egyptian descent who has taught at the Viterbi School of Engineering and the Sol Price School of Public Policy since 2014, alleged in the complaint that he was targeted by racial and religious harassment. The complaint also alleges USC did nothing after Abbas reported the jokes regarding his background. 

“Throughout [Abbas’] employment, continuing to the present, he was targeted and suffered through harassing conduct from [USC] and its agents and employees based on being [a Middle Eastern man and practicing Muslim],” the complaint read. “[Abbas] was extremely disturbed by USC’s refusal and failure to address or discipline the senders of the offensive texts, which indicated to [him] that USC endorsed and ratified the sending and content of the texts.”

The article:
https://dailytrojan.com/2020/07/31/professor-sues-usc-for-alleged-racial-religious-harassment/

As the pandemic upends higher education, is residential college worth the cost? [PBS NewsHour]

ICE Confirms New Foreign Students Can't Take Online-Only Course Loads In The U.S. [NPR]

The flava:
Newly enrolled international students whose colleges and universities are operating entirely online this fall won't be allowed to enter the U.S. after all.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed on Friday that its guidance granting visa flexibility to nonimmigrant students only applies to those who were actively enrolled at American schools on March 9.

"Nonimmigrant students in new or initial status after March 9 will not be able to enter the U.S. to enroll in a U.S. school as a nonimmigrant student for the fall term to pursue a full course of study that is 100 percent online," the agency said.

The article:
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/07/24/895223219/ice-confirms-new-foreign-students-cant-take-online-only-course-loads-in-the-u-s

big hungry

Is there paralysis at your college (or pathological reluctance to stand up and speak or act) because of fear that someone will "zap" you (or your colleagues or students), "mob" you, "cancel" you, or post a misinterpreted recording of you at your worst moment online?  

The true story of the heartthrob prince of Qatar and his time at USC [Los Angeles Times]

The flava:
Los Angeles has long enjoyed a reputation as a playground for the rich, but the handsome teenage prince who arrived nine years ago operated on a different level.

He came from the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar on a private jet with a squad of servants, a bottomless natural gas fortune and the stated goal of a college education. He installed himself in the Beverly Wilshire, the hotel that “Pretty Woman” made famous, and embarked on a lifestyle that few undergraduates could imagine — luxury suites for Lakers games, lunch at the Ivy and regular excursions to gamble in Las Vegas.

He took the town with an entourage, a rotating collection of cousins and friends from back home, in a fleet of exotic sports cars, rubbing elbows with a flashy set that included Scott Disick of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” and announcing his exuberance in custom trucker hats emblazoned with his initials: KHK.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the son and, later, brother of Qatar’s emir, eventually graduated from the University of Southern California and returned to the Middle East. He became an officer in the country’s internal security service and has cultivated an image as a jet-setting heartthrob. His Instagram account, with more than a million followers, has featured the dashing, goateed royal yachting, driving priceless autos, skydiving, and occasionally cuddling with baby tigers.

His college years in L.A. were a closed chapter in a colorful life, and they probably would have stayed that way were it not for a series of indictments last year by federal prosecutors in Boston. . . .

The article:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-16/qatar-prince-usc-ucla-la

Paul Quinn College, Minerva Project Announce Urban Scholars Program Launching Fall 2020 [Business Wire]

The flava:
Paul Quinn College (PQC), America’s first urban work college and one of the most celebrated colleges in the country, is pleased to announce the launch of the Urban Scholars Program in partnership with Minerva Project, a pathbreaking educational innovator. The co-designed program is an innovative, accredited, degree-granting program offered out of the newly established Honors College at Paul Quinn College to train the future leaders of our cities and country. . . . 

With the exception of a two-month winter break, students will attend classes year-round for three years. There will be no geographic restraints, nor residency requirement. Students will enroll in this program from all corners of the United States and be able to live at home. After their first year, Urban Scholars will work between 15 and 20 hours per week, as is standard with the PQC Corporate Work Program. The tuition for each semester will be fully covered by Pell Grants for the highest need students, and the full cost of other fees will be covered by employer subsidies and scholarships in the second and third years. The Paul Quinn College x Minerva Urban Scholars Program will enable students to earn a bachelor’s degree, gain relevant work experience, and work towards solving some of the greatest challenges of our time, all over the course of only 36 months, and for less than $7,500 in out-of-pocket costs for Pell eligible students. . . .

The article:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200709005295/en/Paul-Quinn-College-Minerva-Project-Announce-Urban

COVID-19 at West Virginia University

COVID-19 at Harvard

July 6, 2020
Dear members of the FAS community,

On June 15, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences provided an interim report on fall planning efforts that outlined three possible pathways for how we might return students to campus. After careful deliberation, and informed by extensive input from our community, we write today to announce our plans to bring up to 40% of our undergraduates to campus, including all first-year students, for the fall semester. Assuming that we maintain 40% density in the spring semester, we would again bring back one class, and our priority at this time is to bring seniors to campus. Under this plan, first years would return home and learn remotely in the spring. We also will invite back to campus those students who may not be able to learn successfully in their current home learning environment. . . .

https://www.fas.harvard.edu/news/fas-fall-2020-plans

COVID-19 at Austin Community College

https://www.austincc.edu/coronavirus

should you take a gap year? students, let’s talk.

Aloha, I’m Katie! I'm a Filipina teen studying abroad at Cornell University. I study Information Science and love entrepreneurship, design, and creative writing. I want to do too many things, and I want to make it all work… so that’s what my YouTube channel @Katie Tracy is about. Join me on this crazy journey and together, we'll learn, struggle, and hopefully find the courage to live our dreams.

College campuses are trying to reopen in the fall. The main source of opposition? The faculty. [Chicago Tribune]

The flava:
Just because students might be returning to college campuses this fall doesn’t mean professors will be joining them.

Controversy over whether instructors need to be in the classroom during the fall term has erupted at campuses including the University of Notre Dame, where professors are pushing back, noting the dangers of face-to-face classes while the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage. . . .

On the other end of the spectrum, the University of Chicago recently announced that it will not require any of its instructors, including graduate students, to teach in person for the fall quarter. . . .

The article:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-illinois-colleges-fall-classes-faculty-20200701-ta423pg6avfqfgd6ou2zauikkq-story.html