Honor for Cowen: Tulane University’s Scott Cowen was named as one of the country’s 10 best college presidents by Time magazine. The magazine honored Cowen for being a deft academic leader and civic booster in the years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Tulane has seen student applications more than double in the years since Katrina, despite having to cut enrollment, fire professors and consolidate academic programs. “One of the critical decisions we made was to integrate public service into the university’s core curriculum so that every student would engage in public service for all four years,” Cowen told the magazine. Other honorees include E. Gordon Gee of Ohio State, John Sexton of New York University and Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan. See the full list here.
Going up: A Wall Street Journal survey of leading economists finds that on average, they project interest rates will start rising by September 2010. That’s a politically sensitive time, just before midterm Congressional elections. At the same time, unemployment rates are expected to stay over 9.5% through 2010. Economists told the Journal that job growth will return over the next year, at a rate of about 50,000 additional jobs a month. That’s below the 100,000 jobs a month the economy needs to add every month to keep up with people joining labor force. Read the full report here. (Registration required)
