Higher Ed

These suggested story ideas come from California Watch investigative reporter Erica Perez. Feel free to pursue them in your community. And let us know what you find.

Moving on up
On top of awarding Associate in Arts degrees and providing opportunities for students to transfer to four-year schools, community colleges offer an array of services, including job training, remedial education and recreation classes. Among the most measurable outcomes is the number of students who transfer to four-year universities. A look at transfer rates for your local community colleges over time could produce rich stories. Find out which schools in your area have the highest and lowest transfer rates. Look at whether these rates have increased or decreased over time. Conduct interviews to find out possible reasons for the patterns or trends. Talk to students about their experience trying to transfer. Keep in mind that you must put transfer rates in context. They say a lot about the students each college enrolls – and some enroll better-prepared students.

Campus crime
Take a look at the campus crime reports for your local university to get a sense of what’s going on. Are there significant numbers of certain types of violations – such as assaults, burglaries, hate crimes or liquor violations? Look at the data going back a few years to see if the numbers have changed or stayed the same. Compare your campus with similar campuses elsewhere to see if there are patterns. Interview campus police officers, students, campus-safety experts and others. Use public-records requests to view individual incident reports.

Who gets in?
Particularly in tough budgetary times, colleges and universities may change admissions practices to bring in more revenue. Take a look at admissions data for your local state university or college. Are there more out-of-state students paying higher tuition than in-state students with lower tuition fees? Has the university boosted the number of international students? Has it bolstered its international student recruitment programs?