The Interview: Yael Klein Airplus | Buying Business Travel

Airplus International's UK managing director Yael Klein talks about the prospects for 2013 and the corporate card specialist's plans for the year

CONTROL IS THE KEY word for 2013, according to Yael Klein ? whether it?s using virtual cards or changing the way businesses use their data. She says control is the reason why 2012 saw more people embrace the virtual card. ?They have been around for a while ? we launched our virtual card solution six or seven years ago,? she says. ?But now people are understanding more about what you can do with the product.?

Klein, who?s been with Airplus for more than 12 years and its UK managing director for the last six, thinks the growth of virtual cards will continue during 2012. ?It?s a way of controlling costs again. For a long time we had a UK market that issued plastic to everyone. Everyone travelled around paying on plastic, and then you looked at the data and tried to control spend. With the new cards you can set the budget and what merchants it can be used with ? it gives the corporate options to control spend even more. We?ve seen this with the government.?

?I think in this day and age when people want to save money and are looking for more control, we?ll see more use of these cards. It?s a trend going back to lodge cards, effectively ? though no one will say it like that because ?lodge? sounds like an old-fashioned beast. It?s lodge with more technology attached to it.?

HIGH MARKET SHARE
Launched on the Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP) platform, Airplus was born in 1989 as a subsidiary of Lufthansa. ?They wanted a solution that linked Lufthansa?s net rate programme to corporate payments,? says Klein. ?It was great for Airplus as a start-up, because the only way you could get net rates with Lufthansa was with an Airplus card. In a very short time frame we had a very high market share.? Once Airplus became independent from Lufthansa those net rates were rapidly opened up to the whole card market, and Airplus needed new directions to grow, moving into other sectors and starting to go global at theend of the 1990s.

Klein herself went global at an early age. She was born in Germany but grew up in Kenya, before returning to study tourism and business in Heidelberg. After graduating, her career took her to various destinations, including a stint in Singapore. She?s been based in London for the last seven years.

Klein says that, internationally, Airplus?s main competitors today are American Express and Citibank. ?Only three providers are truly global,? she says. ?But on a local level I wouldn?t have enough fingers to list them ? and the UK is one of the most competitive markets we operate in.?

However, she says she welcomes the competition. ?We?ve seen quite a few new kids on the block, especially in the virtual card arena. They can be fast, flexible outlets and they keep us on our toes.

?I think this is a good thing, not when people come in and try and buy market share ? which rocks the market and ruins it for ?a while ? but as competitive new ideas which get you thinking. That?s always good. Some of these entrants will stay in the market? and some will leave ? that?s just the normal process.?

So how does Airplus stand its ground amid fierce competition? ?We can differentiate because travel payment is all we do ? it?s the only thing we have to do and have to do well. If we don?t, we?re out of a job. Every morning more than 1,000 people get out of bed and think about nothing but travel payment and how we can improve it.?

She says the competitive environment helps drive innovation at Airplus, and cites the launch, at the end of last year, of a car rental account that enables more efficiencies for customers, including VAT-able document invoices ? which save resources on reclaiming VAT ? and more powerful data. ?You can go into your management information system and see who?s not refuelling their hire cars. I do that quite a lot, I?m afraid ? I?m always running late and don?t have time to refuel. It?s expensive on a large scale. Now you?ll be able to catch and address the culprits ? like myself.?

SMART SOLUTIONS
Likewise, the roll-out of the new Airplus smartphone app offers benefits to corporates and their travellers, but Klein doesn?t think it will completely replace plastic any time soon. ?The app is great if you?ve lost your card abroad, and we can issue a card number instantly to your phone. It will also be a great help for those who only travel a few times a year. But I don?t think the world is ready to get rid of all its plastic and have everyone checking out with an iPhone. Technology has to advance, and so do people.?

The Airplus MD says travel buyers? requirements from their data are changing. ?Originally they wanted the data for negotiating rates, but this doesn?t seem to be so much at the forefront of their minds at the moment. The last few years have been pretty tough, and it?s been more about how can we save and track compliance, and save process costs by making that process slicker.

?It?s also been more about security and tracking, knowing where someone is in case of a crisis. Of course, some people are still negotiating, but many are spot buying instead.?

OPTIMISING PROCESSES
She adds: ?Very often customers come to us with an issue and they won?t know whether they need a card ? it will be about achieving certain end goals.

?Cards are just a means to help them do that, part of a payment system that helps them optimise processes. So, for example, nobody has to type in whatever they spend ? you have automatic reconciliation from the purchase order to the actual flight or product, a no-touch work stream that goes straight into the general ledgers. And on the other side it gives them the data to keep them updated on whether they?re on-track with budgets or policies.?

Encouragingly for those in the travel industry, Klein says businesses are thinking differently in this latest chapter of the recession. ?It?s interesting: the first time round, people simply stopped travelling ? the corporates stopped dead. But they?ve learned from this that it?s not helpful for their business, and instead, to optimise their data to save money and travel more effectively.?

• Yael Klein is the London-based managing director of Airplus International (UK), provider of global business travel payment solutions. She has an extensive travel background and experience of the travel payment industry, having worked at Airplus International for over 12 years. Prior to her current role, she worked as a consultant and an international key account manager, specialising in global sales. She has a degree in international tourism.

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Source: http://buyingbusinesstravel.com/feature/2820275-interview-yael-klein-airplus

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Refugees again, Palestinians flee Syria's war

In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 photo, Palestinian children who fled their houses in the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in south Damascus, sitting inside a children library, at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. The Palestinian exodus from Syria has also revived decades-old debate over the Palestine refugees' 'right of return' to their homes that are now in Israel, adding to the complexity the conflict whose sectarian and ethnic overtones have spilled over into neighboring countries raising fears of a regional war. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 photo, Palestinian children who fled their houses in the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in south Damascus, sitting inside a children library, at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. The Palestinian exodus from Syria has also revived decades-old debate over the Palestine refugees' 'right of return' to their homes that are now in Israel, adding to the complexity the conflict whose sectarian and ethnic overtones have spilled over into neighboring countries raising fears of a regional war. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 photo, a Palestinian family who fled thier home in the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in south Damascus, look out through the window, at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. The Palestinian exodus from Syria has also revived decades-old debate over the Palestine refugees' 'right of return' to their homes that are now in Israel, adding to the complexity the conflict whose sectarian and ethnic overtones have spilled over into neighboring countries raising fears of a regional war. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 photo, Palestinian children who fled their houses in the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in south Damascus, sitting inside a children library, at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. The Palestinian exodus from Syria has also revived decades-old debate over the Palestine refugees' 'right of return' to their homes that are now in Israel, adding to the complexity the conflict whose sectarian and ethnic overtones have spilled over into neighboring countries raising fears of a regional war. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 photo, a Palestinian woman who fled her home in the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in south Damascus, carries her children inside a school, at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. The Palestinian exodus from Syria has also revived decades-old debate over the Palestine refugees' 'right of return' to their homes that are now in Israel, adding to the complexity the conflict whose sectarian and ethnic overtones have spilled over into neighboring countries raising fears of a regional war. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 photo, a Palestinian woman who fled her home in the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in south Damascus, feeds her baby inside a school, at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. The Palestinian exodus from Syria has also revived decades-old debate over the Palestine refugees' 'right of return' to their homes that are now in Israel, adding to the complexity the conflict whose sectarian and ethnic overtones have spilled over into neighboring countries raising fears of a regional war. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

EIN EL-HILWEH, Lebanon (AP) ? When Syrian warplanes bombed a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus last December, Umm Sami rounded up her three sons, shut the windows and locked the doors so they could neither hear nor heed the call to arms by rebels and pro-government gunmen fighting in the streets.

Then she told her sons they were leaving their home in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the Syrian capital for neighboring Lebanon, where they would wait out Syria's civil war.

"There will be no more martyrs for Palestine in my family," the 45-year-old widow said. "This war is a Syrian problem."

Now safe in Lebanon, Umm Sami and her family have joined thousands of other Palestinian refugees who have found shelter in the country since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad erupted nearly two years ago. The conflict has left more than 2 million people internally displaced, and pushed 650,000 more to seek refuge abroad.

Umm Sami's resolve to keep her sons out of the fight in Syria ties into a deep-rooted sentiment among a generation of Palestinian refugees who say they are fed up with being dragged into the region's conflicts on a promise of getting their own state.

The Palestinian exodus from Syria has also revived a decades-old debate over the refugees' right of return to their homes that are now in Israel. That has added another layer of complexity to a conflict already loaded with sectarian and ethnic overtones that have spilled over into neighboring countries, raising fears of a regional war.

Palestinians living in Arab countries ? including the half-million refugees in Syria ? are descendants of the hundreds of thousands who fled or were driven from their homes in the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948. Having scattered across the Middle East since then, Palestinians consistently have found themselves in the middle of the region's conflicts.

After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein, hundreds of Palestinians were killed as the Sunni and Shiite militias fought for dominance of the country. Iraq's Shiite majority saw Saddam, who like most Palestinians was a Sunni Muslim, as a patron of the stateless Palestinians, granting them rights the dictator denied his own citizens because they were of the rival sect.

About 1,000 Palestinians fled the 2004-07 sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad, living in a refugee camp near the Syrian border before being resettled in third countries.

During Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, Palestinians played a major role, fighting alongside Muslim militiamen against Christian forces.

Umm Sami, who was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon before the war, was twice forced to flee the fighting, most notably in 1982 when her family escaped the Sabra and Chatilla camps during the notorious massacre of Palestinians there by Christian militias.

She would eventually bury her father, two brothers and her husband ? all fallen fighters ? before leaving for Syria and settling with her four sons in Yarmouk, one of nine Palestinian camps in Syria.

Her youngest son died in a traffic accident while serving in the Palestinian unit of the Syrian army just weeks before the anti-Assad revolt started in March 2011. None of her other sons joined the revolution, she said, because "they don't want to die."

Unlike in Lebanon, where Palestinians are cramped into notoriously lawless camps, banned from all but the most menial professions and barred from owning property, Palestinians in Syria are well integrated and enjoy full citizenship rights, except for the right to vote.

But when the uprising against Assad erupted in the southern province of Daraa in March 2011, some Palestinians living in a camp there joined in the peaceful protests. When the fighting spread to the northern city of Aleppo in last summer, some took up arms against the regime.

In Damascus, most stayed on the sidelines, but as the civil war reached Yarmouk late last year, a densely populated residential area just 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the heart of the capital, most residents backed the rebels. Some groups, however, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, opted to fight alongside Assad's troops.

Palestinian officials say more than 700 Palestinians have been killed in the Yarmouk fighting. Most of the camp's 150,000 inhabitants have fled, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Some of them have found safe haven in areas of Damascus and other Syrian cities, but most have escaped to camps in Lebanon.

"We go from catastrophe to catastrophe, from refugee camp to refugee camp, but at least we are alive," Umm Sami said in Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern port city of Sidon. She and her sons, who are all in their 20s and university graduates, fled Yarmouk with only the clothes on their backs, leaving behind a two-bedroom apartment and jobs that paid the bills.

Now, they are jobless in Lebanon, officially barred from legal employment, and left to live off help from relatives and handouts from the camp's mosques.

Ein en-Hilweh normally houses 65,000 people, but since mid-December, when a flood of refugees from Yarmouk started arriving, the population has steadily grown by several hundred a day, putting a further strain on resources.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon last month to seek Israeli permission to bring Palestinians caught in Syria's civil war to their homeland. Last week, he said that Israel agreed to allow 150,000 Palestinians refugees from Syrian into the West Bank and Gaza ? as long as they relinquished the right of return to what is now Israel. Abbas said he refused.

With no end to the Syria conflict in sight, residents of Ein el-Hilweh have started building a camp within a refugee camp for their compatriots escaping the violence across the border.

They've converted the camp's children's library into housing for dozens of families. Reading rooms, offices, hallways and even bathrooms have been partitioned with makeshift walls, boards and even blankets as families try to carve out space to cook, eat and sleep.

In the library's front yard, a new structure is being built to house at least 10 more families.

"We do what we can to help and find them a home, because they are not going back to Syria soon," said Sheik Jamal Khatab, who oversees the registration of refugees and distribution of aid.

The biggest challenge facing the Palestinian refugees, Khatab said, is not to be dragged into the Syrian civil war ? on either side. He also warned that the hardship awaiting Palestinians after the war ends will be tougher than the one they have been living as stateless people.

"It's in our interest not to interfere in this conflict, even though the Syrian regime is a tyrannical regime," he said. "We are not Syrians, and any side that will win this war will consider us enemies."

___

Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-28-ML-Syria-Palestinian-Exodus/id-5433e6400df34263b59c05c07d4265f9

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Pickup truck used by George W. Bush auctioned for $300,000

DALLAS (Reuters) - A pickup truck used by former President George W. Bush at his Texas ranch was sold for $300,000 at an auction on Saturday after he donated it to benefit a charity that serves U.S. military families.

The 2009 Ford F-150 King Ranch 4x4 SuperCrew was sold as part of the Barrett-Jackson auction house's sale of collectible cars in Scottsdale, Arizona. The auction house did not disclose the identity of the buyer.

Bush and former first lady Laura Bush used the pickup at their ranch in Crawford, Texas, where they frequently entertain friends, family and visiting dignitaries.

"I haven't driven on a street in many, many years, but I have been able to drive this truck on my ranch," Bush said in a statement.

The right airbag panel on the truck was signed by the former president. The buyer also received a video showing Bush autographing the airbag panel and driving around the ranch, which is about 120 miles from his Dallas home.

Proceeds from the sale benefit the Fisher House Foundation, a charity that provides free housing for families of military service members who are receiving medical treatment.

(Editing By Cynthia Johnston and Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pickup-truck-used-george-w-bush-auctioned-300-064646938.html

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What is Windows Azure and what are the benefits | Business ...

Home > Blog > Technology made easy > What is Windows Azure and what are the benefits

Today large companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, that have extensive experience managing large data centers, are offering customers to ?rent? data capacity. This is great news for companies that want to focus on their core business application and not worry about the underlying platform. Microsoft?s cloud platform offering is called Windows Azure. In this article you?ll get an overview of the history of cloud computing, the Microsoft offering and how you can benefit.

A typical usage scenario

Imagine that you just started a new business providing an environmentally friendly carpooling service. For the business to flourish you need a modern, flexible online application that allows your customers to choose and book vehicles, see a map of the currently available cars, manage their booking history and connect with their friends using social media. Since you are convinced that your business will be a great success you want to make sure that the online booking application can handle hundreds of thousands of customers.

No matter what type of application you want to build, you need to have a basic platform in place. This includes an operating system that needs to be patched and up to date, the network, including load-balancers and routers, storage of your data. The platform needs to be scalable to support all your customers worldwide. Since you are a startup with limited funds, you don?t want to pay for such capacity up front. In addition, you don?t want to have to worry about hiring people to look after servers, network appliances, software updates and backup.

Luckily, in this day of age you don?t have to! This is the beauty of cloud based platform services. You can rent a data platform and pay for it as you go, just like you do for utilities like water or electricity. That is why it?s called utility computing ? you only pay for what you use.

Some cloud computing history

Amazon, which started as an online bookstore in 1994, is probably the biggest online retailers in our time. By the early 2000?s Amazon had one of the largest network of computers in the world. They continued to invest in computing resources to be able to manage the heavy load during holidays when just about everyone went online to shop. The question was, what were they to do with all that computer equipment that was idle during off-peak seasons? They decided to sub-lease this equipment and in mid-2006 they launched Amazon Web Services (AWS). Since then, many other companies including Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and VMware have joined the game.

Cloud computing services

There are different levels of Cloud computing services available; Software as a service (SaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). The most basic offering is ?Infrastructure as a service?. With this service you get access to physical hardware in a data center, (including power, cooling and networking) but the rest you need to manage yourself. The next level of service is ?Platform as a service?. In addition to the infrastructure you also get the operating system, a database, a web server, an environment for executing your code and additional services such as identity management , etc. With the ?Platform as a service? you only have to worry about the actual business application you want to provide.

An overview of Windows Azure

Windows Azure is the cloud computing platform provided by Microsoft. It became commercially available to customers in February 2010, since then it has gone through a number of updates with additional functionality added ranging from mobile services to media management. Today you can select between a range of different offerings:

Web sites : You can use Windows Azure if you want to launch a web site. You can develop the site using a wide range of different web application frameworks (like ASP.NET and Node.js) or using open source applications (like WordPress or Joomla).

Virtual Machines : You can use Windows Azure to run Windows or Linux virtual machines in the cloud. This is a great option if you need additional computer capacity for existing applications but you don?t want to add more servers to your own datacenter.

Mobile services : Windows Azure includes features that accelerate the development of mobile applications. You can easily incorporate user authentication using Windows Live, Facebook, Twitter, or Google.

Media : You can use Windows Azure if you want to create, manage or distribute media. The platform provides functionality to protect content, to provide live or on-demand streaming of video and to convert media to various formats.

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Cloud services : You can use Windows Azure to build or extend existing enterprise applications. Windows Azure includes a services bus which enables integration with other applications such as SAP.

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Big Data : You can use Windows Azure as a platform for enormous amounts of data (petabytes ? thousands of terabytes, millions of gigabytes). With the built in tools you can provide data warehousing and business intelligence solutions for improved business analytics.

The business benefits

Using a cloud computing platform service like Windows Azure provides companies with numerous benefits.

Faster time to market- Since you don?t have to worry about the underlying infrastructure or platform and only focus on developing the functionality of your business application it can be completed in a fraction of the time, thus reducing your time to market.

Reduced costs- Since you are only paying for what you are using, the pay-as-you-grow model, reduces the upfront costs. Since Microsoft can pass on volume discounts to their customers the ongoing costs are also lower than if you were to host the full platform yourself.

Increased scalability ? As your customer base grows and the usage of your application increases you can just add additional capacity to make sure your application is running smoothly. You don?t ever have to worry about running out of server capacity.

More flexibility and creativity ? Applications can very quickly be deployed to the Windows Azure platform which means that changes can be applied without any downtime. This makes it an ideal platform for your developers to let their creative minds run wild and for them to add functionality to your application that you would otherwise not have dared to implement.

The natural choice for businesses moving forward

As you have probably guessed, the numerous benefits that Windows Azure provides makes it the natural choice moving forward for businesses that need to deploy new applications. Why would they spend resources of their own to provide something someone else does better and cheaper? As I mentioned in the introduction, there are a number of large companies that provide cloud based services today so whether you are set on Microsoft?s offering or Amazon?s, make sure you take advantage of a platform in the cloud!

(If you have difficulties reading this article, you can access the full article in pdf here).

Source: http://www.businessproductivity.com/what-is-windows-azure-and-what-are-the-benefits/

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Chelsea holds on to beat Arsenal 2-1

By STEVE DOUGLAS

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 10:46 a.m. ET Jan. 20, 2013

LONDON (AP) -Chelsea held off a stirring second-half fightback by London rival Arsenal to claim a 2-1 win on Sunday, tightening its grip on third place in the Premier League.

Juan Mata's excellent finish and a penalty from Frank Lampard gave Chelsea a two-goal lead after only 16 minutes, with Arsenal outclassed in the first half.

The visitors showed huge improvement in the second half and Theo Walcott's 58th-minute goal offered them hope of at least a draw under gentle but regular snowfall at Stamford Bridge.

However, Chelsea hung on desperately for only its third win in eight home matches under interim manager Rafa Benitez. Arsenal stayed sixth, 11 points behind Chelsea but with a game in hand in the fight for Champions League qualification.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Chelsea holds on to beat Arsenal 2-1

??LONDON (AP) -Chelsea held off a stirring second-half fightback by London rival Arsenal to claim a 2-1 win on Sunday, tightening its grip on third place in the Premier League.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45087177/ns/sports-soccer/

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Buzzword: Multi-generational?what does it ... - Shea Homes Blog

by Shea Homes Arizona on January 18, 2013

As life carries on for each member of your family, your single-family home will go through phases of being a playroom to an empty nest to a?semi-permanent family reunion?? While multi-family homes consist of separate families living in separate units in the same building, also known as apartments or condos, multi-generational homes consist of one family living under one roof ? in other words, a potential madhouse! However, at Shea Homes we offer plans that can accommodate the changing family needs of our customers.

Whether you have new graduates returning home from college or parents willing to avoid retirement homes at all costs, our Shea Homes Arizona?s architectural team designs homes specifically for multi-generational families.? These plans provide enough space for every family member to be comfortable while enjoying each other?s company, as well as having the ability to retreat to your own quarters.?

In your multi-generational home, you have the choice of guest suites, casitas or even a second master bedroom to ensure you have the space you need for additional family members.? For aging parents or grandparents, first-floor bedrooms, single-touch appliances, lever door handles, or other accommodating options can be built in your home for their health and mobility needs. For increased flexibility and livability, we may also offer wider hallways and no-step entries to make navigating a baby stroller or wheelchair simple at home. Everyday appliances can be provided on both floors of your home or in the neighboring casita so that clutter and chaos in the kitchen is avoided and space is available. (Option change fees may apply, will vary per floor plan, and should be discussed in advance with Community Representatives.)?

Multi-generational homes don?t look any different than typical single-family homes, but they function quite differently. ?With a vast range of needs required for multi-generational homes, the architecture and design can be tricky.? But here at Shea Homes, we can provide your ultimate home designed specifically for your baby, toddler, college grad, elders and YOU!

Tagged as: arizona, buying a new home, home building, multi-generational, phoenix, shea homes

Source: http://blog.sheahomes.com/living/multi-generational-what-it-means-for-you/

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Barbra Streisand to receive Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barbra Streisand will add the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award to her roster of honors, in recognition of her achievement as a director, writer, producer and film star, the group said on Friday.

Streisand, who shot to fame in the 1960s on Broadway and as a major recording star, will receive the honor at the 40th Annual Chaplin Award gala in New York on April 22 which will feature celebrity guests and a host of film and interview clips.

"The Board is very excited to have Barbra Streisand as the next recipient of The Chaplin Award," Ann Tenenbaum, The Film Society of Lincoln Center's board chairman, said in a news release.

"She is an artist whose long career of incomparable achievements is most powerfully expressed by the fact that her acclaimed 'Yentl' was such a milestone film."

The group cited Streisand as the first American woman artist to receive credit as writer, director, producer and star of a major feature film.

It also noted she is the only artist to receive an Academy Award, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America award, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards, France's Legion d'honneur and the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also the first female film director to receive a Kennedy Center honor.

"We welcome her to the list of masterful directors who have been prior recipients of the Chaplin Award Tribute," added Tenenbaum, referring to luminaries such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese.

Stars ranging from Bette Davis and Elizabeth Taylor to last year's recipient, Catherine Deneuve, have received the award, which was renamed for its first recipient Charles Chaplin, who returned to the United States from exile to accept the commendation in 1972.

Streisand, 70, starred in such hits as "The Way We Were" and "Funny Girl," for which she won an Oscar, and went on to direct films including "The Prince of Tides" and "The Mirror Has Two Faces."

More recently she has returned to screen acting, in "Meet the Fockers" with Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, and "The Guilt Trip," a Christmas 2012 release co-starring Seth Rogen.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/barbra-streisand-receive-lincoln-centers-chaplin-award-213414611.html

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Poll: Youth attitudes on 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade

Jan. 18, 2013 ? On the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, more young people -- all of whom were born at least 20 years after the decision -- identify as "pro-choice" rather than "pro-life," according to a national poll of more than 4,000 high school and college students conducted by Jennifer L. Lawless, professor and director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University and Richard L. Fox (Loyola Marymount University.

These labels, however, might obscure a deeper divide in youth political attitudes. Fifty percent of young people believe that abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, and 50 percent believe it should be illegal in all circumstances or except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. "The poll results suggest that the 'pro-choice' and 'pro-life' labels might obscure our understanding of young people's attitudes toward abortion," says Lawless. "Nearly one-third of high school students, for example, do not identify with either label. Yet their attitudes about the circumstances under which abortion should be legal are clear."

The overwhelming majority of high school (88 percent) and college (78 percent) students, however, are not "very worried" about the outlawing of abortion rights. In fact, respondents report being far more worried about war (55%), a terrorist attack (52%), global warming (44%), gun violence (36%), and illegal immigration (28%) than they are the outlawing of abortion rights.

"What emerges as striking from these poll results is the fact that the overwhelming majority of young people are not worried about the outlawing of abortion rights. Despite a presidential campaign that emphasized women's rights and reproductive freedom, more than 80 percent of high school and college students do not feel threatened. Even if we focus only on Democrats in the sample, they are more concerned about war, a terrorist attack, the environment, immigration, and gun violence," observed Lawless.

These results are based on a national sample of 2,100 college students (ages 18 through 25) and 2,166 high school students (ages 13 through 17). The poll, conducted by American University / GfK Custom Research LLC, was in the field from September 27 -- October 16, 2012, and has a margin of error of +/- 2.2 percentage points.

Key Findings from the Poll of High School and College Students:

? HIGH SCHOOL vs. COLLEGE GAP: Whereas more than half of college students (53%) consider themselves pro-choice, only about one-third of high school students self-assess this way. High school students are also twice as likely as college students not to identify with either the "pro-choice" or "pro-life" label.

? GENDER GAP: Girls and young women (46%) are somewhat more likely than their male counterparts (39%) to consider themselves "pro-choice." Women are also significantly more likely (21%) than men (13%) to report being "very worried" about the potential for outlawing abortion rights in the future.

? PARTY GAP: As is the case among the adult population, Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans to consider themselves pro-choice (63% compared to 25%) and more than three times as likely to believe that abortion should be legal under all circumstances (35% of Democrats compared to 10% of Republicans). Finally, 26% of Democrats are very worried about the outlawing of abortion rights, whereas only 10% of Republicans express similar concerns.

Summary of Results -- High School and College Students' Attitudes Toward Abortion High School Students College Students Total Sample Self-Identified Label Pro-Choice 32 % 53 % 42 % Pro-Life 37 33 35 Don't Know 31 15 23 Attitudes toward Legalized Abortion Should be legal under all circumstances 22 26 24 Should be legal under most circumstances 23 29 26 Should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother 40 34 37 Should be illegal in all circumstances 15 10 13 "Very worried" about outlawing abortion rights 12 22 17 Sample Size 2156 2110 4266 National poll conducted by American University / GfK Custom Research LLC, from September 27 -- October 16, 2012. Margin of error of +/- 2.2 percentage points.

According to Lawless, "The gender gap in considering oneself 'pro-choice' or 'pro-life,' as well as attitudes about legalized abortion, are similar to the gender differences recent polls uncovered in adult populations. This finding suggests that attitudes about reproductive freedom are in place relatively early in the political maturation process."

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/bu7c5XYNJXo/130118145251.htm

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Quadrantid meteor shower: Will moon wash out the show?

Quadrantid meteor shower-watchers will have to deal with a three-quarter-full moon, but the event peaks overnight Wednesday, meaning the show will go on.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / January 2, 2013

A meteor streaks across the sky near Lafayette, Ind., during the annual Geminid meteor shower in December. The Quadrantid meteor shower, the first of 2013, peaks Wednesday night.

Michael Heinz/Journal & Courier/AP/File

Enlarge

Just when you thought the New Year's fireworks were over, a defunct comet is providing a natural encore.

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One of the year's meteoric show stoppers ? the Quadrantid meteor shower ? peaks overnight Wednesday.

Anyone with the good fortune of living under very dark skies on a moonless night could expect to see as many as 120 meteors an hour when the shower's source region in the sky ? or radiant ? is directly overhead.

Wednesday, however, the shower will have competition from a moon nearly three-quarters full, so moonlight will mask most of the dimmer bulbs on the shelf. Given the moon's phase, that translates into a rate of between five and 10 meteors an hour visible to people from urban centers through suburbs and into rural areas, according to estimates from the American Meteor Society.

The shower actually spans six days, starting Jan. 1. But this year Earth is encountering the bulk of this cosmic debris in the predawn darkness of Jan. 3.

While other meteor showers typically derive their names from constellations near each shower's radiant, the Quadrantids appear to come from a kind of netherworld between the end of the Big Dipper's handle and the four stars that comprise the head of Draco, the dragon. Astronomers already recognize a meteor shower each October as the Draconids. The Ursids come each December. And it's hard to get excited about something that could have been named the Dippids. So Quadrantids it is. Warning: You can't take that explanation to the bank.

Skywatchers have been observing the Quadrantids at least since 1825.

Somewhere between a short item entitled "Account of the Poison Plants of the Southern Parts of Brazil" and "Professor Buckland's Notice of the Hyaena's Den near Torqay," the Edinbrugh Philosophical Journal informed its readers that "on the 2d of January 1825, about 5 a.m.; Antonio Brucalassi ... observed ... a singular electric phenomenon." He saw what researchers later would refer to as a fireball, with "a great number of shooting stars ... seen before and after the appearance of the meteor." The issue was dated 1826.

Some 14 years after Signore Brucalassi's observation, scientists in the US and Belgium would independently posit that what Brucalassi saw was a recurring event.

In 2003, the shower was pegged to a near-Earth asteroid dubbed 2003 EH1. Using data gathered by the Lowell Observatory's Near-Earth Object Search, Peter Jenniskens, with the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., ran calculations that showed how in the past, the object's closest approach to the sun coincided with Earth's passage through the densest part of the debris ? quite like meteors from comets, he noted.

After some additional sleuthing, he suggested that 2003 EH1 was the remnant of comet C1490 Y1, observed in Asia between 1490 and 1491 and that later broke apart.

While this year's Quadrantid shower risks being a relative washout visually, you may be able to snag more meteors on your FM radio. As meteors plummet through the atmosphere and heat to the point of glowing, they leave a streak of ionized gas behind them ? briefly. Ionized gases reflect radio signals.

By tuning to a powerful FM station roughly 800 miles away that broadcasts on a quiet part of the FM band where you live, you may be able to pick up the "ping" of a passing meteor. They sound like this. Nothing like Steely Dan, but clearly noticeable. For detailed information on observing meteor showers via radio, try this website.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/R9EwzgbJtGA/Quadrantid-meteor-shower-Will-moon-wash-out-the-show

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Special fares to India - Book by Jan. 23, 2013 - e.g. Chennai/Madras from $1,009

Pickup time

Drop off time

Source: http://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/india?selectedPromotion=1084673&specialid=6761

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NIH scientists identify protective role for antibodies in Ebola vaccine study

Public release date: 14-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Ken Pekoc
kpekoc@niaid.nih.gov
301-402-1663
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

WHAT:
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have found that an experimental vaccine elicits antibodies that can protect nonhuman primates from Ebola virus infection. Ebola virus causes severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates, meaning that infection may lead to shock, bleeding and multi-organ failure. According to the World Health Organization, Ebola hemorrhagic fever has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola virus infection.

Several research groups have developed experimental vaccine approaches that protect nonhuman primates from Ebola virus and the closely related Marburg virus. These approaches include vaccines based on DNA, recombinant adenovirus, virus-like particles, and human parainfluenza virus 3. But how these vaccine candidates confer protection is an area that is still being explored: Do they activate immune cells to kill the invading virus? Or do they elicit antibodies that block infection?

In this study, scientists at NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and OHSU's Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute built on earlier work with an experimental vaccine composed of an attenuated vesicular stomatitis virus carrying a gene that codes for an Ebola virus protein. They observed how cynomolgus macaques responded to a challenge of Ebola virus before and during treatment with the vaccine and in conjunction with depleted levels of immune cells. Their results showed that important immune cellsCD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cellshad a minimal role in providing protection, while antibodies induced by the vaccine appeared to be critical to protecting the animals.

The scientists say this finding will help improve future Ebola virus vaccine development. They plan to focus their studies on what level of antibody production is needed to establish protection from Ebola virus infection in humans.

ARTICLE:
A Marzi et al. Antibodies are necessary for rVSV/ZEBOV-GP mediated protection against lethal Ebola virus challenge in nonhuman primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1209591110 (2013).

WHO:
Heinz Feldmann, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Laboratory of Virology at NIAID's Rocky Mountain Laboratories. Dr. Feldmann is an expert on viral hemorrhagic fevers and emerging viruses.

###

CONTACT:
To schedule interviews, please contact Ken Pekoc, (301) 402-1663, kpekoc@niaid.nih.gov.

NIAID conducts and supports researchat NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwideto study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov/.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 14-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Ken Pekoc
kpekoc@niaid.nih.gov
301-402-1663
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

WHAT:
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have found that an experimental vaccine elicits antibodies that can protect nonhuman primates from Ebola virus infection. Ebola virus causes severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates, meaning that infection may lead to shock, bleeding and multi-organ failure. According to the World Health Organization, Ebola hemorrhagic fever has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola virus infection.

Several research groups have developed experimental vaccine approaches that protect nonhuman primates from Ebola virus and the closely related Marburg virus. These approaches include vaccines based on DNA, recombinant adenovirus, virus-like particles, and human parainfluenza virus 3. But how these vaccine candidates confer protection is an area that is still being explored: Do they activate immune cells to kill the invading virus? Or do they elicit antibodies that block infection?

In this study, scientists at NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and OHSU's Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute built on earlier work with an experimental vaccine composed of an attenuated vesicular stomatitis virus carrying a gene that codes for an Ebola virus protein. They observed how cynomolgus macaques responded to a challenge of Ebola virus before and during treatment with the vaccine and in conjunction with depleted levels of immune cells. Their results showed that important immune cellsCD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cellshad a minimal role in providing protection, while antibodies induced by the vaccine appeared to be critical to protecting the animals.

The scientists say this finding will help improve future Ebola virus vaccine development. They plan to focus their studies on what level of antibody production is needed to establish protection from Ebola virus infection in humans.

ARTICLE:
A Marzi et al. Antibodies are necessary for rVSV/ZEBOV-GP mediated protection against lethal Ebola virus challenge in nonhuman primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1209591110 (2013).

WHO:
Heinz Feldmann, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Laboratory of Virology at NIAID's Rocky Mountain Laboratories. Dr. Feldmann is an expert on viral hemorrhagic fevers and emerging viruses.

###

CONTACT:
To schedule interviews, please contact Ken Pekoc, (301) 402-1663, kpekoc@niaid.nih.gov.

NIAID conducts and supports researchat NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwideto study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov/.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/nioa-nsi011413.php

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Canes, Fox Sports Carolinas Announce 2012-13 TV Schedule

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", "id":2012020028, "promo": false, "home":true},\ \ "1/24/2013":{ "cellContent":"

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", "id":2012020051, "promo": false, "home":false},\ \ "1/28/2013":{ "cellContent":"

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NHLN-US

", "id":2012020073, "promo": false, "home":true}\ \ }'; sssScheduleTeamCal = jQuery.parseJSON(sssScheduleTeamCal_String);

Source: http://hurricanes.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=650451&cmpid=rss-preston

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Anonymous Hacks MIT in Aaron Swartz's Name

The Internet is dealing with the suicide of gifted programmer and activist Aaron Swartz in a variety of ways—but Anonymous is responding with what it does best. Two of MIT's sites have been hacked into memorials. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/MlxJRNMLnnM/anonymous-hacks-mit-in-aaron-swartzs-name

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Live updates: Patriots-Texans AFC divisional playoff game

Scoring Summary First Quarter HouNE FG 13:57 Shayne Graham 27 yard field goal?13:57
Drive:?4 Plays, 3 Yards, 1:03 3 0 TD 1:28 Shane Vereen 1 yard TD run (Stephen Gostkowski extra point is GOOD)?1:28
Drive:?6 Plays, 65 Yards, 3:01 3 7 Second Quarter HouNE FG 10:16 Stephen Gostkowski 37 yard field goal?10:16
Drive:?11 Plays, 65 Yards, 3:51 3 10 TD 3:38 Shane Vereen 8 yard TD pass from Tom Brady (Stephen Gostkowski extra point is GOOD)?3:38
Drive:?7 Plays, 80 Yards, 2:56 3 17 TD 1:15 Arian Foster 1 yard TD run (Shayne Graham extra point is GOOD)?1:15
Drive:?5 Plays, 47 Yards, 2:23 10 17 FG 0:00 Shayne Graham 55 yard field goal?0:00
Drive:?5 Plays, 25 Yards, 0:24 13 17 Third Quarter HouNE TD 11:30 Stevan Ridley 8 yard TD run (Stephen Gostkowski extra point is GOOD)?11:30
Drive:?7 Plays, 69 Yards, 3:30 13 24 TD 1:21 Brandon Lloyd 5 yard TD pass from Tom Brady (Stephen Gostkowski extra point is GOOD)?1:21
Drive:?6 Plays, 63 Yards, 2:53 13 31 Fourth Quarter HouNE TD 13:07 Shane Vereen 33 yard TD pass from Tom Brady (Stephen Gostkowski extra point is GOOD)?13:07
Drive:?1 Plays, 33 Yards, 0:06 13 38 TD 11:35 DeVier Posey 25 yard TD pass from Matt Schaub (Shayne Graham extra point is GOOD)?11:35
Drive:?5 Plays, 37 Yards, 1:32 20 38

Source: http://scores.nbcsports.msnbc.com/fb/boxscore.asp?gamecode=20130113017

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pulitzer pernod: Production to Start on ABC Family Movie Home ...

Home
? ABC Family ? Production to Start on ABC Family Movie 'Home Again' Starring Jennie Garth ?

Gli acquisti che consiglio

Ringer actress Zoey Deutch will join her real-life mother, actress Lea Thompson, on the ABC Family series for at least two episodes, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. Zoey Deutch ? whose father is film and

Part of the Disney/ABC Television Group, ABC Family is distributed in over 97 million homes. ABC Family features programming reflecting today's families, entertaining and connecting with adults through relatable programming about today's relationships

Part of the Disney/ABC Television Group, ABC Family is distributed in over 97 million homes. ABC Family features programming reflecting today's families, entertaining and connecting with adults through relatable programming about today's relationships

ABC Family and Muse Entertainment has announced that production will begin this week on the new original Thanksgiving movie, Home Again (working title), starring Cameron Mathison (All My Children) and Jennie Garth

BURBANK: Production is scheduled to commence this week on ABC Family's original movie Home Again (working title), set to debut in November during the channel's Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas programming event. Globo TV International

Source: http://www.notiziecuriose.com/2013/01/10/production-to-start-on-abc-family-movie-home-again-starring-jennie-garth-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=production-to-start-on-abc-family-movie-home-again-starring-jennie-garth-2

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Source: http://lawrence30.typepad.com/blog/2013/01/production-to-start-on-abc-family-movie-home-again-starring.html

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Source: http://pulitzer-pernod.blogspot.com/2013/01/production-to-start-on-abc-family-movie.html

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Progress reported in Pa. university negotiations

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- The union representing faculty at Pennsylvania's 14 public universities is reporting progress on contract talks.

The union says it reached tentative agreements on compensation with state higher education officials.

However, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties said Monday that "significant divides" remain on issues including online education, health care and class size.

Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education officials are looking to save money. They say health care costs alone will increase by $7.5 million next year.

Union members have been working without a contract for 18 months. They have authorized their leadership to call a strike.

The parties will meet again on Wednesday.

The universities serve about 115,000 students.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/progress-reported-pa-university-negotiations-162241279.html

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Two-Year College Financial Aid Default Rates: Relative Density ...

In August, 2012, I summarized my?study?of?federal financial aid default rates for four-year institutions.?The following is a summary of the distribution of federal financial aid default rates for public, private nonprofit (NP) and private for-profit (FP) two-year institutions.

The data for the study was obtained from The National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Unless otherwise indicated I utilized the three-year default rate values from the database.

Descriptive Statistics

Let?s begin by examining basic descriptive statistics associated with default rates for two-year colleges. Table 1 depicts the highest mean default rate among the private FP sector. In addition, default rates among public two-year institutions exceed private NP by 5.47 percentage points.

Table 1 Summary of Default Rate
Sector	Mean	Std. Dev.	Freq.
Public 2yr	15.07	10.04	990
Private nonprofit 2yr	9.66	11.29	157
Private profit 2yr	22.48	12.05	632
Total	17.22	11.67	1779

Figure 1 ? a density distribution of default rates among two-year institutions ? also conveys a similar generalization that the private FP sector exhibits higher default rates than the public or private NP two-year sectors. Public two-year colleges also appear to have greater default rates than the private NP sector.

Figure 1

However, much of the information in the default rate distributions is left untapped in Table 1 and Figure 1.? Relative distribution methods provide a more illuminating analysis of sector differences in default rates. ?The motivation for this research is to fill the void in the literature for analyzing the distributional differences among the sectors of higher education. Relative density analysis provides the statistical tool to accomplish this goal.

Relative Density Analysis

I. Public & Private FP Comparison (Figure 2)

Figure 2

At the median default rate of the private FP distribution (reference group) the proportion of public two-year institutions (comparison group) with this level of default rate productivity is equal to .80. This means 80 percent of public two-year institutions enjoy lower median default rates than median private two-year FP institutions. This provides very strong evidence for superior default rate performance for public two-year institutions when compared to the private FP two-year sector.

II. Public & Private NP Comparison (Figure 3)

Figure 3

At the default rate median of the public two-year distribution the proportion of private NP two-year institutions with this level of default rate productivity is equal to .78. This means 78 percent of private NP two-year institutions enjoy lower median default rates than median public two-year institutions.? At the 30^th percentile of the public two-year distribution the proportion of private NP two-year institutions is equal to .72. This means 72 percent of private NP two-year institutions enjoy lower default rates than public four-year institutions at the 30^h percentile as defined by the public two-year distribution.

III. Private NP & Private FP Comparison (Figure 4)

Figure 4

At the 30^th percentile of the default rate associated with private FP two-year institutions the proportion of private NP two-year institutions with this level of default rate productivity is equal to .79. This means 79 percent of private NP two-year institutions enjoy lower default rates at the 30^th percentile of private FP institutions. At the median default rate of the private FP distribution the proportion of private NP two-year institutions with this level of default rate productivity is equal to .85. This means 85 percent of private NP two-year institutions enjoy lower median default rates than median private FP institutions.

IV. Brief Literature Review

A comprehensive literature review (Gross, et al. 2009) regarding the relationship between institutional characteristics and default rates summarizes the relationship as follows:

?Descriptive analysis suggests that students who attend less-than-two-year, proprietary, or community colleges have higher default rates than their peers at four-year or more selective institutions (Podgursky, Ehlert, Monroe, Watson, & Wittstruck, 2002; Woo, 2002a, 2002b), even when the time horizon for considering default is extended to eight years (Kesterman, 2005). Once borrowing behaviors, student background characteristics, and institutional resources are considered, however, these differences largely disappear (Emmert, 1978; Flint, 1997; Knapp & Seaks, 1992; Volkwein & Cabrera, 1998; Volkwein, Szelest, Cabrera, & Napierski-Prancl, 1998; Wilms, Moore, & Bolus, 1987). Students who attend proprietary or less-than-four-year institutions tend to borrow more, to come from lower-income families, and to belong to a racial or ethnic minority group?characteristics associated with increased likelihood of default (Gladieux & Perna, 2005; Goodwin, 1991). Moreover, greater institutional investment and instructional support is associated with decreased likelihood of default (Volkwein & Szelest, 1995). Generally, the wealthier the institution attended and the greater the student?s access to social and economic capital the less likely the student is to default.?

V. Discussion

High student default rates do not serve the short or long term interests of students, institutions of higher education or the expectations of taxpayers. ?High default rates threaten access to needed student financial aid, assuring institutions of higher education remain engines of equal opportunity and upward mobility.

In response to the above?analysis a colleague asks, ?What do the private nonprofits do differently?? Attract a different student?? Or do a better job of managing/supporting their students/graduates?? At a minimum the answer is most likely a combination of the two factors embedded in the question: 1) attracting students whose characteristics are associated with lower default rates and 2) institutional investment and instructional support decreasing the likelihood of default.

The following is narrowly focused on one component of the private?nonprofit?two-year college default advantage, specifically the advantage of attracting students whose characteristics lower the nonprofit default rate. As such, it is an incomplete answer to a complex issue. However, if I had to select one student variable impacting the issue at hand it would be the private nonprofit advantage in attracting students with higher socio-economic status (SES). Student SES is highly correlated with graduation rates and, very importantly for this analysis, the majority of research suggests that completing a postsecondary program is the strongest single predictor of not defaulting regardless of institution type (Gross, et al. 2009).

Table 2 depicts socio-economic status by sector for independent students below $12,000. These students are at much higher risk of not completing a postsecondary program and therefore more likely to default on their loans. The largest separation in Table 2 is between public and private nonprofit two-year institutions on the one hand and private for-profit two-year instituions on the other.? Public two-year colleges attract a smaller proportion (5%) of at-risk students than nonprofit institutions. However, inspection of Table 3, depicting the percent of aid applicants over $60,000, demonstrates a much larger advantage of nonprofit colleges attracting students more likely to graduate, lowering private nonprofit default rates.

However, the above measures which summarize the private nonprofit advantage in attracting students who are less likely to default do not capture the full distributional advantages nonprofits enjoy. Relative distribution analysis provides an opportunity to shed some light on the sector distributional differences.

Figure 5 demonstrates that at the median of the private nonprofit distribution the proportion of public two-year institutions with equivalent dependent aid applicants over $60,000 is equal to .97. This means 97 percent of median public two-year institutions have fewer dependent aid applicants over $60,000 than median private nonprofit two-year institutions.

Figure 5

I suspect this student SES advantage accounts for a large proportion of the default rate advantage enjoyed by private nonprofit colleges.? However, relative distribution analyses are descriptive by nature, not explanatory, so caution is warranted.? Obviously there are many other variables involved in the superior default outcomes that private nonprofit two-year colleges enjoy. In addition I have often thought there are some best practices that the nonprofits employ that public two-year colleges could emulate. Unfortunately too often the communication lines with private nonprofit colleagues haven?t allowed a deeper and richer understanding of their culture and processes.

Related posts

Reference

Gross, et al. (2009). What Matters in Student Loan Default: A Review of the Research Literature.?Journal of Student Financial Aid,?39(1).

Source: http://www.decisionsonevidence.com/2013/01/two-year-college-financial-aid-default-rates-relative-density-analysis/

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