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With its focus on breaking down the economic and educational barriers that women and girls face, members of the Association of American University Women's Student Advisory Council (AAUW SAC) advise AAUW on key national issues that might confront college students. Two women’s college students – Meg Beyer of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA, and Ashlee T. Oliver of Hollins University in Roanoke, VA – are among the ten students recently appointed to the Council.

By Jim Maceda
NBC Nightly News » December 22, 2008

Defiant School Girls To Taliban: “You Can Spray Us [With Acid] A Thousand Times; We Will Not Stop Going To School” Students Who Were Injured In A Recent Acid Attack In Southern Afghanistan Are Now “The Faces Of Defiance”

Dec. 19, 2008 -- Mount St. Mary’s College and Judson College have been recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for their distinguished records of service to their communities. The Foundation announced this week that both women's colleges were among the 119 U.S. colleges and universities selected for its 2008 Community Engagement Classification.

By Nancy Oliver Gray, President of Hollins University
Dec. 18, 2008
For families with children in college now or planning to attend college next fall, the national recession is making the challenge of paying for a college education even more daunting. In a recent survey of more than 2,500 high school students by MeritAid.com, almost 50 percent indicated they are more apprehensive than ever about affording college at all.

From the Trinity University President Patricia A. McGuire's December 14, 2008 Blog

Trinity President Patricia A. McGuire's blog takes up the global challenge of women's education:

"...beyond traditional educational elites, both here in the U.S. and around the world, women continue to suffer intellectual impoverishment along with material poverty, gross discrimination and frequent physical oppression."

from

Sat., December 13, 2008
by Mary Jordan

Across Much of South Asia, a Daughter's Life Is Circumscribed By Tradition and Poverty. But for Some, the Dreams Die Slower.

by David Moltz
Walsh Hall is the center of activity at the College of Saint Mary, a Roman Catholic women’s institution in Omaha, Neb. Among its many uses, the building houses faculty and administration offices, computer labs, a chapel and an art gallery. Its upstairs residents, however, are what makes Walsh Hall unusual: it is home to 31 single mothers and their children.

The Mothers Living and Learning program, now in its ninth year, is an on-campus residential option for single mothers who wish to pursue their bachelor’s degree while raising their children. The top two floors of Walsh Hall are open to women who have up to two children who will be no older than ten by the year of their mother’s graduation.

From coffee shops and dinner tables to Saturday Night Live, the media’s treatment of women has been scrutinized and dissected throughout the election cycle. From Senator Hillary Clinton’s run for the Democratic nomination to John McCain’s selection of Governor Sarah Palin as his VP candidate, women have been in the news. Our media panel - some of America's most listened-to journalists - will consider the ways women have been portrayed.

Nov. 9, 2008

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright speaks with Kelsey Hubbard about her path to the White House and the current state of women leaders. (Nov. 9)

Secretary Albright is a 1959 graduate of Wellesley College.

- by Elisabeth Muhlenfeld
Anyone who reads the New York Times "Education" section, USA Today's editorial page, or U.S. News and World Report's annual college issue might reasonably conclude that there are five pressing issues in higher education: three for policy wonks (Spiraling Costs, Accountability, and Campus Safety-including everything from terrorism to binge drinking); and two for everyone else (Getting into Harvard and Gaming the Financial Aid System).

Gov. Sebelius is a 1970 graduate of Trinity Washington University

by Scott Rothschild
Topeka — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who has spent months campaigning for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, cast her vote Tuesday and talked about Obama’s Kansas ties.

“I like to remind people that Barack Obama may have been raised in some exotic locations, but he was raised by Kansas women,” Sebelius said to reporters outside her polling place at Presbyterian Manor.

Wellesley College Dean of Admission Jennifer Desjarlais discusses the advantages for students who choose to attend an all-women's college, and reviews the disproportionate number of women's college graduates who run Fortune 1000 companies and sit at the highest levels of government.

by MARISSA SILVERA
As Hispanic women balance family values and responsibilities with the ambition to attend college, admissions counselors are providing them with culturally sensitive retention tools.

Thanksgiving Day. Christmas Day. Election Day? While students at most colleges and universities in Wisconsin will have to find time between classes to cast ballots Nov. 4, those at the 2,700-student Alverno College in Milwaukee get the day off to vote and get involved in the political process

by Anna Quindlen*, Oct. 13, 2008
One of the greatest natural resources in America is going underused. And she may be sitting right at the next desk.

By ELIZA BORNE *
October 5, 2008
By attending a women's college, I've gotten something more valuable than an education: a reeducation.

by Kavita Ramdas *, Oct. 2, 2008
This has been like no other year for bringing the issue of women and power to the attention of the American public. Hillary Clinton's competitive bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, followed by John McCain's strategic selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, has made crystal clear the power and influence of women in the political arena today.

September 2008
By Georges Desvaux, Sandrine Devillard-Hoellinger, and Mary C. Meaney
The gender gap isn’t just an image problem: our research suggests that it can have real implications for company performance. Some companies have taken effective steps to achieve greater parity. Companies that hire and retain more women not only are doing the right thing but can also gain a competitive edge. They can take several basic steps to achieve even greater parity. These companies will be able to draw from a broader pool of talent in an era of talent shortages. What’s more, research shows a correlation between high numbers of female senior executives and stronger financial performance.

You might recently have read that Dorothy Pratt died, at the age of 93.

I read the obituaries regularly. I am at a stage in my life when many of my parents’ friends – people who were very much a part of my life when I was growing up – are passing away, as are the parents of my own friends.

- from

Metro Atlanta's three women's colleges are going strong, even while the number of women's colleges nationwide has declined.

You don't have to look very hard to see that women's colleges in the U.S. are disappearing.

In 1960, the nation boasted 200 institutions that admit only women. Today, that number has dwindled to about 60. Increasing competition, both in the higher education marketplace and for funding support, is often cited as the main reason women's colleges have chosen to accept men or have closed their doors altogether.

A dress by New York fashion designer and Mount Mary alumna Donna Ricco made its way to national television twice during the week of June 16. The black and white sleeveless dress was worn by Michelle Obama on ABC’s “The View” on June 18 and caused quite a stir among the show’s viewers.

Donna Ricco was then interviewed on the “Today Show” Friday, June 20, by co-host Meredith Vieira.

from

Sunday, June 8, 2008
by Sarah Odell

Hillary Rodham Clinton followed me to college, and it was through her run for office that I learned what even Wellesley couldn't teach me: that I am, in fact, a feminist, and that it's a label that matters now more than ever.

I started my freshman year at Clinton's alma mater in the fall of 2006, after spending the spring semester of my high-school senior year interning in her Senate office. When Clinton announced that she was running for president in January 2007, I expected the campus to be energized and to support one of Wellesley's own.

By Mary Gail Hare, Baltimore Sun Reporter, June 1, 2008

When she chose a small women's college in Baltimore, Jennifer E. Hale never imagined how the next four years would broaden her horizons and transform her outlook on life from bashful to bold.

"In high school, I was a homebody, always afraid to branch out," said the North Harford High graduate.

Her attitude changed on a pre-admission tour of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.

Sunday, April 20, 2008
By NANCY OLIVER GRAY
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST
TRAINING LEADERS
A recent national poll by Scholastic News of more than 30,000 first through eighth-graders revealed a startling statistic: 81 percent of girls in that age group have no interest in becoming president of the United States.