ACE Launches Online Toolkit for Institutions Serving Veterans

ACE today launched its Toolkit for Veteran Friendly Institutions, an interactive online resource to help colleges and universities build effective programs for student veterans.

The site, located at www.vetfriendlytoolkit.org, highlights a variety of best practices including veteran-specific orientation offerings, on-campus veterans service centers, prospective student outreach efforts, faculty training, and counseling and psychological services for student veterans. It also includes video clips, profiles of student veterans programs across the United States and a searchable database of tools and resources.

Click here for more details.

Live Webcast: Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the “Looming Student Debt Crisis”

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight and the Courts hearing begins at 10:00 a.m.

The Looming Student Debt Crisis: Providing Fairness For Struggling Students

MONDAY BUZZ: HHS Publishes Final Student Health Insurance Rules

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Friday released the final rules on student health plans issued as part of the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform bill signed into law in 2010. Although recent discussion around these rules has focused on contraception, they cover a much broader area and will impact most students and campuses in the coming months.

Click here for a summary of the final rules’ major provisions.

The proposed rules were published in the Federal Register on Feb. 11, 2011. ACE and a group of higher education associations sent a letter March 2 to HHS and the White House, requesting HHS immediately issue the final version of the proposed rules. As we noted, the delay has caused problems for some campuses in their contract negotiations for student health insurance coverage for the 2012-13 academic year.

Also see:

New Rules for Health Plans
Inside Higher Ed

New Contraceptive Policy for Religious Colleges Would Cover Some Student Health Plans
The Chronicle of Higher Education

Another Hurdle for Health Reform’s Contraceptives Mandate
The Washington Post (free reg. req.)

ACE Honors James M. Rosser for Commitment to Diversity in Higher Education

ACE today presented James M. Rosser, the sixth president of California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State L.A.), with the 2012 Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award for his outstanding contributions and sustained commitment to diversity in higher education.

The award is named in honor of Reginald Wilson, senior scholar emeritus at ACE and former director of the association’s Office of Minority Concerns, and was presented at ACE’s 94th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, CA.

Click here for more details.