Campus Talk: U.S. Supreme Court to revisit university affirmative action case this week

Editor’s note: Each Tuesday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Campus Talk,” a recap and deep-dive into education topics.

U.S. SUPREME COURT TO REVISIT UNIVERSITY AFFIRMATIVE ACTION CASE THIS WEEK: The U.S. Supreme Court is expected on Wednesday to hear additional arguments in an affirmative action case on race-abased admissions to public colleges and universities when it takes up again Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. The high court for the second time will analyze the constitutionality of the Texas university’s admissions plan. The plan affects only a very small portion of applicants and includes race among a long list of other factors, such as leadership qualities, extracurricular activities and socioeconomic status. Justice Elena Kagan, who was part of the Obama administration when it supported Texas in a lower court case, will sit out Wednesday’s arguments before eight of the nine justices.

MEXICAN CONSULATE SELECTS ARKANSAS TECH FOR SCHOLARSHIP FUNDING: Representatives from the Consulate of Mexico in Little Rock recently announced that Arkansas Tech University will be the lone institution of higher learning in the State of Arkansas to receive IME Becas Fellowship scholarship funds during the 2016 calendar year. Andre Guerrero, member of the local IME Becas Fellowship committee that recommended Arkansas Tech for the scholarship funding, said that the university’s demonstrated commitment to serving Hispanic students was a key factor in the decision. The IME Becas Fellowship program was created by Mexico in 2005 to contribute to the education and improvement of individuals of Mexican origin living in the United States. IME Fellowship scholarships are awarded competitively based on academic achievement and financial need.

JOHN BROWN UNIVERSITY LAUNCHES ENTREPRENEURSHIP MINOR: John Brown University announced this week it will add entrepreneurship minors to certain degrees. Students will take classes on venture financial management, building innovative teams and culture, and market discovery and validation. Students across all disciplines can enroll and start classes in fall 2016. JBU will graduate students with an entrepreneurship minor starting in 2018.

HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT SUFFERS DECLINE IN Q3: The number of jobs in higher education declined 1.31% in Q3 2015, the fourth consecutive quarterly decline for the industry and the largest quarterly decline since at least 2007, according to a recent report from HigherEdJobs. According to an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by HigherEdJobs, colleges and universities lost about 21,200 jobs during the third quarter compared to the same period last year. Broken out further, one-third of the positions, or 7,100 jobs, were at community colleges, despite making up only 4% of all higher education jobs.