Now it’s the Legislature’s turn.

Salt Lake Community College is launching a new program, “Capitol Voices,” on Wednesday featuring Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, and House Speaker Becky Lockhart, R-Provo.

Their half-hour exchange with reporters will be televised on SLCCTV, which can be viewed online and on Comcast Ch. 17 throughout the county, except in Kearns and Salt Lake City. The broadcast will be livestreamed at 9 a.m.Wednesday.

The format is similar to KUED Channel 7′s long-running program, “The Governor’s Monthly News Conference,” broadcast from the public television studios on the University of Utah campus.

“We have some great resources at the college similar to what KUED does,” said Tim Sheehan, SLCC vice president of institutional advancement. “We thought maybe we should do the same thing.”

Sheehan said the intent is to reach out to the community with programming that has a broader appeal than the typical fare of classroom lectures, campus events and city council meetings.

“We think this is one that makes sense,” Sheehan said. “People want to hear from their legislative leaders.”

He said for now, only the Senate president and House speaker will participate, meaning viewers won’t hear from the minority Democratic leadership.

“It seems to us the speaker and president may bring the highest profile,” Sheehan said. “It’s a logistics issue as well, who will draw the most attention and who will reporters be most interested in.” More…

We’re right on track with how many start. Now, several groups are trying to help more girls finish their education.

Earlier this month, Eighth-grader Tori Castillo went on a date of sorts with her grandmother to the University of Utah’s annual Defining Your Path Conference. The goal of the gathering is to help young girls plan their futures.

Carol Morelli Farmer brought her with a purpose. “I was 45 when I went back to college, and got my degree four days before I turned 50,” she said. “That is what these young girls need to understand, is that they can be empowered with the knowledge of learning.”

Organizers planned the conference so that girls would start planning for college and careers that prepare them for changing workforce.

“I think, specifically, it’s very important for women, especially in Utah where we have the stereotype that women quit college,” said Alisha Stamper, with the American Association of University Women.

Just in recent years, the gap between male and female graduation rates in Utah has grown to 6 percent — no other state is even close. The second largest gap, New Jersey 2.7 percent, and the national average is 1.3 percent.

It’s such a troubling trend a researcher at Utah Valley University started asking why. “Many of them really don’t think they need to graduate from college. They believe they’re being encouraged to attend college, but not necessarily graduate,” said Dr. Susan Madsen, a professor of management.

Madsen wants more girls and their families to appreciate the benefits of higher education, beyond just “getting a job.” And that message seems to have connected with at least one aspiring undergrad.

“It was empowering as I heard it and saw all the possibilities,” Castillo said.

The state has set up a commission to look into what’s behind the gender gap in education, and what steps can be taken to fix it. More…

Specifically, the Draper Republican’s gibe rattled cages in liberal arts colleges and in departments like English, history and the arts, where the joke has long been that graduates need to prepare certain phrases such as, “Do you want fries with that?” to go along with their Chaucer and appreciation for Renaissance painters.

But when Stephenson threw down his gauntlet and dissed the value of what has long been the core of any educated person — humanities, arts and social sciences — the faculty and students of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHaSS) at Utah State University pushed back.

Biology major Megan Paxton scoffed when she heard the “nowhere” remark. “I disagree. Very strongly,” she said. “The humanities are part of every sophisticated society. The arts keep us from turning into technical barbarians. They promote expression and higher thinking.”

The college, whose professors teach 60 percent or more of the general education classes required of all Aggie students — from aerospace studies majors to business majors, from mathematicians to zoologists — has no apologies for its support of the liberal arts. In fact, CHaSS has just launched an alumni magazine to trumpet the value of its curriculum and the successes of its graduates and their “degrees to everywhere.”

Dean John Allen, a rural sociologist, says a broad liberal arts education teaches critical thinking and communication skills; global perspectives; problem-solving and flexibility; and prepares students not just for that first job, but for life. National surveys of business executives consistently list “nowhere” skills and perspectives at the top of their lists of new employee attributes, he says.

“They want people with skills in critical thinking, quantitative analysis and complex problem solving. That’s what we do in a liberal education,” Allen said. “We bring that extra ability to integrate knowledge across fields and understand macro issues. We bring in the ethical decision-making process.” More…

Edward C. Pease is professor of journalism and head of the Department of Journalism & Communication at Utah State University. D. Whitney Smith is a junior journalism major.

The problem, wrote Harold Salzman of Rutgers and B. Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown, is that fewer than half of all college graduates in science and engineering actually take jobs in those fields. So instead of pressing colleges to produce more science graduates, they wrote, the country needed only to persuade new graduates to take the right jobs.

A study released on Wednesday by another Georgetown research team suggests, however, that lot of persuasion may be necessary.

Among its findings, the study, from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, shows that science and engineering graduates enjoy high demand in a variety of fields, with a bachelor’s degree in a science major commanding a greater salary than a master’s degree in a nonscience major.

And, the new report says, English-speaking science graduates are much less likely than foreign-born science graduates to take a job in a traditional science career, which American graduates often view as too socially isolating.

“It sort of fits the stereotype, frankly,” said the report’s lead author, Anthony P. Carnevale, a research professor at Georgetown who serves as director of the Center on Education and the Workforce.

In recent months, the center has also issued reports that analyzed students’ future earnings based on their undergraduate majors, and that tied lifetime earnings as much to students’ choice of occupation as to their degrees. More…

Urquhart, co-chairman of the higher education appropriations subcommittee, introduced a handful of ideas Wednesday he hopes will turn into legislation that could improve Utah’s colleges and universities. He plans to start a discussion that could develop into concrete legislation.

“I think we have a good system. I think it’s a sound system, but I do think it’s an under-performing system,” he said at a press conference at the state Capitol.

One of Urquhart’s primary concerns relates to the number of students who require remedial courses upon entering college.

“Many of our high school students are graduating from high school unprepared for college, unprepared for the workforce,” he said.

That’s because the higher education system doesn’t have high expectations for its incoming students, he said, and that needs to change. Urquhart proposes higher admission standards and adaptive testing at the high school level could reduce the need for remediation by better preparing students.

What’s more, eliminating remedial courses at the University of Utah and Utah State for students straight out of high school would show teenagers a lot is expected out of them. Non-traditional students would still have the option to take remedial courses at those schools if they needed to brush up.

“At our two research institutions in particular, we should make sure that our students are prepared,” he said.

Another problem facing the state is that too few of Utah’s students finish college once they start, Urquhart said, particularly young women.

“If we have students starting and not completing, then they’re not getting that all-important certificate that tells the world they know something,” he said. “That’s a frighteningly expensive way to get education.”

The senator said there isn’t enough flexibility within the current higher education framework. Students who are fathers and mothers or who work full-time are more likely to drop out due to not being able to conform to their school’s schedule. If colleges and universities collaborated and shared their various online curriculum, students statewide could benefit from the courses already in place at schools such as USU and Weber State.

“Let’s break down these silos,” he said.

The Utah System of Higher Education released a statement Wednesday thanking Urquhart for opening up the dialogue.

“Our state is fortunate to have exceptional colleges and universities that provide students with a wealth of post-secondary opportunities, and we welcome input from the Senator and his colleagues on achieving even greater excellence in our system of higher education,” according to the statement.

Urquhart said his proposals are still in the preliminary stages, and he welcomes feedback at www.SteveU.com. He plans to present his ideas at the higher education appropriations subcommittee on Nov. 17. More…

Give the same group another two years, and you’ll get an extra 24 graduates per 100 original enrollees. Double the original four years to eight, and you’ll get eight additional grads, for a total of 48 graduates per 100 enrollees.

And the graduation numbers are lower for part-time students working toward a four-year degree. For every 100 who enroll, just 25 will have degrees eight years later.

“Nationally, half the students don’t complete their B.A., and the numbers are dramatically worse when you look at low-income and minority groups,” said Dominique Raymond, spokeswoman for Complete College America, the nonprofit group that did the national study, which included data from only 33 states.

“Students don’t finish because life gets in the way.”

Many universities set up their programs for the students of earlier generations. Those students’ parents paid for tuition, food and housing, which allowed the students to focus and finish on time.

But student enrollment today includes many more people who are holding down full-time jobs, who have families that require their attention and who are struggling to pay their own tuition, Raymond said.

“Higher education in the United States has made terrific strides in terms of access,” she said. “Now it’s an issue of success and completion.”

Students who don’t complete their certificate programs, associate or bachelor’s degrees leave school without the career advantages that come with a degree, but they often carry tuition debt. More…

In evaluating this decision, some might suggest that we made the wrong sacrifices, as we have not necessarily experienced financial return on investment for the tuition we paid.

But a few months after Maureen’s graduation, we unexpectedly became foster parents to a teenager. We felt uniquely under-qualified and unprepared to raise a 14-year-old young man who had experienced a challenging upbringing to that point. A substantial portion of the burden for raising him fell upon Maureen, who worked hard to develop strategies to assist him in his development and education.

Today, that 25-year-old young man, a returned LDS missionary and graduate of the University of Utah, would attribute much of his success to Maureen. Her confidence and capability in contributing to our son’s cognitive, personal, social and emotional development can unequivocally be attributed to her university training. And though not necessarily quantifiable in terms of dollars earned in the workforce, this experience, among many, has proven an extraordinary, and vital, return on our investment.

The findings from the recently released Utah Women and Education Project, conducted at Utah Valley University, reinforce in clear and remarkable terms the value of education for women. The conclusions are in stark contrast to the fact that a highly disproportionate number of Utah’s women are starting but not completing college, and many Utah adults polled believe it is not important for a woman to complete higher education.

UVU’s project, combined with findings from other studies, demonstrates that women who complete college have healthier babies and children; are themselves healthier, more confident and less depressed; and have a higher quality of life. Research empirically demonstrates that most women in Utah at some point will need to support themselves and/or their family and will earn significantly more and have better job opportunities if they have completed college. And if a mother has a college degree, her children, both boys and girls, are significantly more likely to obtain a college degree. The list of personal, economic and societal benefits of college education for women is extensive (for a complete list of benefits, go to www.uvu.edu/wep). More…