Columns:: Around Academe

since 12/15/98

Columns::August 25, 2003

Around academe

Distance education increases
Distance education at American colleges has grown substantially since online education was introduced in the late 1990s, according to survey results from the U.S. Education Department. Enrollment in for-credit distance-education courses grew to 2.9 million in the 2000-2001 academic year from 1.3 million in 1997-1998, the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics estimated.

Court won’t reconsider prayer ruling
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has declined to hear a case concerning group prayers before evening meals at the Virginia Military Institute.
The vote by the judges on the appeals court let stand a previous lower court ruling that declared the group prayers violated the U.S. Constitution’s separation of church and state. A spokesperson for Virginia’s attorney general, which represented the military college in the lawsuit, says the case will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. But a VMI rep says the issue is no longer “on the radar” of the administration, which stopped the 50-year tradition of dinnertime prayers shortly after the lawsuit was filed in 2001.

--Juliett Dinkins

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