College Earns Headlines in National Media Centre College media advisory - Nov. 14, 2000 Christian Science Monitor: "Best in which show? A new survey challenges how the heavy hitters in college rankings decide which schools are on top" Repoter Mark Clayton, in the Nov. 14 edition of the Christian Science Montor, singles out Centre College for praise in an article describing a new survey of quality in higher education. Clayton was reporting on the release of the first National Survey of Student Engagement, a comprehensive national study of student engagement in learning. Funded by a foundation grant, the survey collected information from 63,000 students at 276 colleges and universities. Student questions and answers focused on evidence of active learning and transformation of students from the freshman to the senior year. Centre was one of four colleges to rank near the top of five crucial learning benchmarks established by NSSE. On-line story: USA Today: "1980 star returns to Centre line" A 24-inch story by Tom Gantert in the Nov. 14 edition of USA Today profiled David Cress, a 40 year-old who opted to return to class and to the gridiron at Centre after a 20-year absence. Cress originally enrolled at Centre 1978-80, earning All-Conference honors in football before leaving the college at the end of his sophomore year. The USA Today story details his saga of returning to Centre to pursue an academic dream and opting to also play football after a chance meeting with football coach Andy Frye. (Story available only in print editions; not posted on-line.) Business Week: "Time for the Stadium Boom to Go Bust?" Centre economics professor Bruce Johnson is cited in the Nov. 20 issue of Business Week magazine for his research evaluating public subsidies for professional sports teams. Those who support using tax dollars to build stadiums for sports teams often justify the subsidies by claiming that cities gain enormous intangible benefits such as civic pride, community spirit, and big-league prestige from their teams. But in three different cases, Johnson and his co-authors, John Whitehead ’85 and Peter Groothuis, have found that the value of intangible benefits fall far short of the cost of new stadiums and arenas. Their work casts doubt on the practice of granting large subsidies to sports teams. Two of the cases appear in an article in Contemporary Economic Policy, January 2000, and the other will appear in the Journal of Sports Economics in February 2001. (On-line story, available only to subscribers.) - end - Communications Office Centre College 600 W. Walnut Street Danville, KY 40422 Public information coordinator: Patsi Barnes Trollinger Telephone 859-238-5719 - trllngrp@centre.edu News and Events Home Page