Entries in On Campus by Mallory Noe-Payne

As sexual assault victims on college campuses begin to speak out, many are asking: what's the solution?  

This week on The Takeaway, California Representative Jackie Speier talked about one creative proposal that she hopes will help hold colleges accountable for how they handle sexual assault on their campuses. 

Affirmative action cases at the Supreme Court have always dealt with some version of the question,"is affirmative action constitutional?" 

However, in the latest case making headlines, that question is flipped on its head. Instead of asking whether affirmative action is allowable under the Constitution, Schuette v. Bamn asks if it's ok that a state ban affirmative action. And the answer is, yes. 

For years, the Higher Education Act has set the ground rules for all federal financial aid to students. Now, the Act is up for reauthorization.

To prepare for the day when Congress has to give its stamp of approval on the massive bill, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has begun holding hearings on provisions lawmakers want to re-evaluate.

Law school students typically graduate with just over $140,000 in student loan debt. (Tulane Public Relations via Wikimedia Commons)

It's a figure we've heard before: student debt in America has surpassed a trillion dollars. But, according to a recently released report from the New America Foundation, about 40 percent of that debt stems from students earning graduate degrees.

Where is President Obama speaking for graduation this year? What about Colin Powell? Or John Legend?

As members of the Class of 2014 get ready to don their caps and gowns, On Campus has pulled together some of the biggest names that have already been booked as commencement speakers this Spring.

In partnership with On Campus, The Takeaway recently talked with Mike Wasserman, the Massachusetts executive director of the non-profit Bottom Line which helps disadvantaged and first generation students apply for and graduate from college, and Jasmine Boyd-Perry, a junior at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

It's been planned, it's been written, it's ready to go. But what's the final step in preparing for the implementation of a new test? To test it. Sounds like process, but it's a critical step.

The new federal Common Core standards, designed to layout what each student should know at the end of each grade, are ready for their close up. Over the next several weeks school children across the country will be taking the new tests, but it's not their grades that will matter.

#itooamharvard.

If you search the hashtag on the web you'll get a whole slew of responses -- from articles in the Washington Post and Boston Globe, to a Buzzfeed link with over a million views.

The social media campaign, born from an independent study project on minorities' experiences as part of the Harvard community, has gone viral and reflects frustrations with stereotypes by students of all races.

Higher Education is no longer the United States' great equalizer. That's the premise of Suzanne Mettler's new book, “Degrees of Inequality: How the Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream.”

Updated November 4, 2015

The SAT redesign announced in 2014 had us here at On Campus wondering about the "test optional" and "test flexible" trend  emerging in higher education. More schools are dropping tests like the SAT and ACT as an application requirement, relying instead on GPA. Just how widespread is this trend? According to Fairtest.org, a standardized testing watchdog, more than 800 universities or colleges no longer require either test.