For-profit colleges are pulling in billions in student aid money, while producing questionable educational results, mediocre job placement statistics, and high loan default rates. Such colleges are coming under increasing scrutiny this summer, as federal regulators and government officials take a hard look at their business practices and their use of public money.

I hesitated about putting this story on my top twelve list. Students at for-profit colleges have so far engaged in very little activism themselves, and students at other institutions generally haven’t taken up their cause in any organized way. But this is a big higher education story, and it’s only going to get bigger.

It’s one that’s only going to grow more intertwined with other student activism stories. As the current investigations of for-profit higher ed bear fruit, the huge scale of the funding that’s going to that sector is going to become far better known.

And as this article from Wednesday’s Chronicle of Higher Education makes clear, public-private partnerships that involve for-profit institutions are coming under new scrutiny. (Summary: California’s public community college system was forced this week to abandon an agreement that would have encouraged its students to take courses at Kaplan University.)

For-profit higher education is booming right now, but it may be heading for a fall.

This post is the fifth in a series of twelve exploring the student activism stories that are likely to make news on the American campus in the 2010-11 academic year.

I wrote a lot this spring about SB 1070, the controversial Arizona immigration enforcement law. Students (and administrators) stepped up in opposition to the bill, and momentum for boycotts and other actions in response grew steadily after passage.

The worst provisions of SB 1070 were temporarily suspended by a federal judge the day before they were scheduled to go into effect, but that case is moving forward. It’s possible that another judge will lift the suspension this fall, and there’s already discussion in the Arizona legislature about ways to recast the law to address constitutional objections.

As long as the judge’s stay remains in effect, and there’s no further action in the legislature, SB 1070 is unlikely to be a big issue on the campuses this fall. But as soon as either of those conditions changes, this law will become a big national issue again, and quickly.

The University of California Irvine moved in May to suspend the school’s Muslim Student Union for a year, after Muslim students affiliated with the MSU participated in disruptive protests at an on-campus speech by an Israeli official.

Irvine claimed that the MSU had “planned, orchestrated, and coordinated” the disruption as a group, justifying the one-year suspension. But the MSU argued that they had done no such thing, and the organization’s new president argued that the ban would “deprive Muslim students — both current and incoming — of a place where they can develop a sense of community with one another and with the broader UCI campus community.”

The MSU appealed the sanction, and a ruling on the appeal is expected by the start of classes this fall.

Whatever the administration decides, this story is likely to continue to develop in the fall. If the ban is rescinded, expect national attention from the media and the right-wing blogosphere. If it’s kept in place, look for Muslim students at Irvine and beyond to seek ways to circumvent its restrictions. Either way, the case — which the LA Times called “the first in recent memory at UC recommending the ban of a student group for something other than hazing or alcohol abuse” — raises important questions about student autonomy and campus organizing.

This post is the third in a series of twelve exploring the student activism stories that are likely to make news on the American campus in the 2010-11 academic year.

The State University of New York made news earlier this summer when it was reported that a major donor had promised SUNY Stony Brook a $150 million donation — but only if the state legislature changed the system’s tuition policy.

The tuition policy revision, then a feature of the governor’s proposed state budget, would allow each SUNY campus to set its own tuition rate, with the money from any hikes staying on campus to be used as the local administration saw fit. The plan also contained provisions encouraging public-private partnerships on SUNY campuses.

State legislators were not able to come to agreement on the bill during the budgeting process, leaving it — and that $150 million donation — in limbo. But supporters have pledged to bring it back to the floor when the legislature reconvenes in September.

With privatization one of the biggest boogeymen of higher education activists these days, and tuition one of the most contentious issues on the campus, this proposal for a massive shift in policy at one of the nation’s largest university systems is sure to attract a lot of attention in the fall.

This post is the second in a series of twelve exploring the student activism stories that are likely to make news on the American campus in the 2010-11 academic year.

This post is the first in a series of twelve exploring the student activism stories that are likely to make news on the American campus in the 2010-11 academic year.

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill began on April 20, but the magnitude of the disaster only became clear gradually in the weeks that followed. The crisis unfolded while most American students were preparing for and taking their final exams, and by the time it was obvious that this was one of the country’s worst ever environmental catastrophes, the academic year was over.

It’s not clear that the BP spill would have inspired a huge amount of campus protest even if its timing has been different — students tend to organize around issues that they can influence, particularly on a local level, and the entire country’s response to the BP spill mostly took the form of shock and impotent frustration.

But the spill has shifted the terms of the environmental debate in the United States, and though a specific student response to it is even less likely now than it would have been while it was going on, its effects will be reflected in the organizing that does arise this year — particularly if another environmental disaster takes place.