KANM Student Radio, founded in 1973 at Texas A&M University, began as Student Government Radio, broadcasting via cable on 107.5 FM in partnership with Mid-West Video Corporation. Initially airing from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. weekdays, it offered diverse genres like hard rock and country. Despite early financial struggles, accumulating $5,783.64 in debt by 1977, KANM grew its influence through the 1970s and 1980s, facing technical issues like outages in 1978 and 1979.
It became independent in the 1980s, moving to the Pavilion complex in 1983 with equipment donations. KANM pioneered online streaming in 1998, transitioning to online-only by the mid-2010s. In 2024, it secured a low-power FM permit (KAGZ-LP 95.5 FM), marking a return to airwaves. Now located in the Memorial Student Center, KANM remains student-run, promoting non-commercial music and hosting events like the bi-annual “Save the Music” concert.
Howdy! I am so stoked to announce that we recently got to work with The Highway 6 Band, a sick group based out of College Station, to produce a KANM Library Session!!
Here’s a quick clip of the band performing their original song “Me or the Road” 🔊 pic.twitter.com/0lWpzZhFDU
In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, charitable donations to U.S. colleges and universities amounted to $58 billion. This figure represents a slight decline of 2.5% from the previous year’s record of $59.5 billion, but it remains the second-highest level of donations in history (CASE) (Inside Higher Ed). This figure includes money donated for new building projects and other capital expenses.
Some benefactors contribute to the lifecycle upkeep of buildings they help fund. These contributions often come in the form of endowed funds specifically designated for the maintenance, repair, and renovation of facilities. Such endowments are crucial as they provide a continuous source of funding to ensure that buildings remain functional and in good condition over time.
Charitable giving to colleges and universities in the U.S. is governed by a range of standards and best practices designed to ensure transparency, accountability, and effectiveness. These standards help donors, institutions, and the public understand and manage the complexities of philanthropic contributions. Key standards include:
Donor Intent and Restrictions:
Documentation: Donor intent should be clearly documented in gift agreements or endowment contracts to ensure funds are used as intended.
Restrictions: Restrictions on the use of funds must be explicitly stated and agreed upon by both the donor and the institution. These can include specific programs, scholarships, research, or infrastructure projects.
Transparency and Reporting:
Annual Reports: Institutions should provide detailed annual reports on how donated funds are being utilized, including breakdowns of expenditures and outcomes.
Stewardship Reports: For major gifts or endowments, institutions often provide personalized stewardship reports to donors, detailing the impact of their contributions.
Governance and Oversight:
Board Oversight: Boards of trustees or equivalent governing bodies should oversee fundraising practices and the management of donated funds.
Audit and Compliance: Regular audits and compliance checks should be conducted to ensure adherence to donor restrictions and institutional policies.
Ethical Fundraising Practices:
Professional Standards: Fundraisers and development officers should adhere to ethical standards set by professional organizations such as the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
Confidentiality and Respect: Institutions must respect donor confidentiality and handle all interactions with integrity and respect.
Tax and Legal Considerations:
IRS Regulations: Donations must comply with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations to qualify for tax deductions. This includes proper documentation of gifts and adherence to rules regarding charitable contributions.
501(c)(3) Status: Colleges and universities must maintain their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, which requires adherence to various federal and state laws governing charitable organizations.
Gift Acceptance Policies:
Policy Framework: Institutions should have clear gift acceptance policies outlining the types of gifts they can accept, including cash, securities, real estate, and in-kind contributions.
Review and Approval: Complex or potentially problematic gifts should be reviewed by a gift acceptance committee or similar body to assess risks and alignment with institutional priorities.
Endowment Management:
Spending Policies: Endowments should have spending policies that balance the need for current income with the preservation of principal to ensure long-term sustainability.
Investment Strategies: Institutions should adopt prudent investment strategies for their endowments, often guided by the principles of the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA).
Recognition and Acknowledgment:
Donor Recognition: Institutions should have systems in place to appropriately recognize and thank donors, which can include naming opportunities, public acknowledgments, and donor recognition societies.
Acknowledgment Letters: Prompt and accurate acknowledgment letters should be sent to donors, including the necessary information for tax purposes.
By adhering to these standards, colleges and universities can effectively manage charitable contributions, ensuring that donor intent is honored, funds are used appropriately, and the institution maintains trust and credibility with its supporters and the broader public.
“Ten Books on Architecture” 30-20 B.C | Vitruvius
No single charitable organization claims hegemony over all others in the realm of charitable giving to U.S. universities but there are a others in the domain.
Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP):
Role: AFP is a professional association that supports fundraisers through education, training, and advocacy. It serves a wide range of nonprofit sectors, including higher education.
Ethical Standards: AFP’s Code of Ethical Standards and Donor Bill of Rights are widely recognized and adopted by fundraising professionals in higher education.
National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO):
Role: NACUBO represents chief business and financial officers through advocacy, professional development, and research.
Financial Management: It provides guidance on the financial management of gifts, endowments, and other resources critical to higher education institutions.
Council on Foundations:
Role: This membership organization supports grantmaking foundations in the U.S., including those that fund higher education.
Philanthropic Guidance: It offers legal resources, best practices, and networking opportunities for foundations that support colleges and universities.
Charity Navigator and Guidestar (Candid):
Role: These organizations evaluate and rate nonprofits, including higher education institutions, based on their financial health, accountability, and transparency.
Public Accountability: By providing ratings and financial data, they help donors make informed decisions about their contributions to colleges and universities.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS):
Role: As the federal tax authority, the IRS oversees the tax-exempt status of educational institutions and enforces compliance with laws governing charitable contributions.
Regulations: The IRS provides guidelines and requirements for tax-deductible donations, ensuring legal compliance in charitable giving.
In terms of total spend, the US elementary and secondary school industry is about twice the size of the higher education industry according to IBISWorld. About $100 billion is in play every year for both (which we cover during our Ædificare colloquia); with higher education spending only half of what elementary and secondary school systems spend on facilities.
Note that some districts are including construction for faculty housing.
Our focus remains on applying global standard to create educational settlements that are safer, simpler, lower-cost and longer-lasting — not on the hurly-burly of local school bond elections. We recommend consulting the coverage in American School & University for more detailed and more timely information.
Professor Karl Siebert, who teaches FDSC 4300, The Science and Technology of Beer, demonstrates how to properly pour a beer and discusses the sensory experience of beer appreciation. In a recent study, Siebert identified the key component in a ‘perfect’ head of beer: a barley protein known as Lipid Transport Protein 1 or LPT1.
Today at the usual hour we introduce the project which will require harvesting power reliability statistics from any and all educational settlements willing to share their data. As the links before demonstrate, we have worked in this domain for many years. Join us with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
This paper introduced the concept of reliability theory and established a mathematical framework for analyzing system reliability in terms of lumped parameters. It defined important concepts such as coherent systems, minimal cut sets, and minimal path sets, which are still widely used in reliability engineering.
We are tooling up to update the failure rate tables of IEEE 493 Design of Reliable Industrial and Commercial Power Systems; collaborating with project leaders but contributing to an essential part of the data design engineers use for scaling their power system designs. The project is in its early stages. We are formulating approaches about how to gather data for assemble a statistically significant data set.
Today at the usual hour we introduce the project which will require harvesting power reliability statistics from any and all educational settlements willing to share their data. As the links before demonstrate, we have worked in this domain for many years.
“On the Mathematical Theory of Risk and Some Problems in Distribution-Free Statistics” by Frank Proschan (1963): This paper introduced the concept of increasing failure rate (IFR) and decreasing failure rate (DFR) distributions, which are crucial in reliability modeling and analysis.
“Reliability Models for Multiple Failures in Redundant Systems” by John F. Meyer (1965): This paper addressed the problem of reliability analysis for redundant systems, which are systems with multiple components designed to provide backup in case of failure.
“Reliability of Systems in Series and in Parallel” by A. T. Bharucha-Reid (1960): This work analyzed the reliability of systems composed of components arranged in series and parallel configurations, which are fundamental building blocks of more complex systems.
“A Stochastic Model for the Reliability of Modular Software Systems” by John E. Gaffney, Jr. and Thomas A. Dueck (1980): This paper introduced one of the earliest models for software reliability, extending the concepts of reliability theory to the field of software engineering.
“Redundancy Techniques for Computing Systems” by John von Neumann (1956): This report by the pioneering computer scientist John von Neumann explored the use of redundancy techniques, such as triple modular redundancy, to improve the reliability of computing systems.
The Lion’s Pause, often simply called “The Pause,” is a fond, student-run café and social space located in Buntrock Commons at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Its origins date back to the 1960s when students recognized the need for a dedicated recreational and social hub on campus. The name “Lion’s Pause” reflects the college’s mascot, the lion, symbolizing school pride and community spirit.
Over the decades, The Pause has grown into a multifunctional venue, serving as a café, dining spot, and event space. It offers a range of casual foods like its iconic pizza, snacks, and beverages, all prepared and served by student workers. Beyond dining, The Pause plays a vital role in campus life by hosting concerts, dances, movie nights, open mic events, and other activities, fostering a vibrant and inclusive atmosphere for the St. Olaf community.
Famous People Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante | CLICK ON IMAGE
The American National Standards Institute is the Global Secretariat for ISO Technical Committee 260 (ISO/TC 260); organized to develop policy templates for standardization solutions that improve management of the workforce in any nation; in any sector or industry. These human resource management standards offer broad, evidence-based guidance to individuals with people management responsibilities, whether formally or informally assigned, in organizations for the benefit of both internal and external stakeholders.
Gleaned from inputs from human resource experts globally, these products are designed to provide guidance on key HR functions in support of its workforce and its management, and sustainable organizational performance. TC/260 is focused on the following tasks:
• Ensuring wide market relevance of its HRM standards. • Facilitating international business. • Providing guidance on professional standards of practice. • Facilitating measurement, comparability and consistency of HR practice with the aim of transparent benchmarking. • Improving internal processes. • Enabling organizations to better achieve optimal organizational outcomes with improved management of human capital
The original University of Michigan user-interest advocacy enterprise was participating member in this project* but that engagement was interrupted suddenly in October 2016 (See ABOUT). We have since picked up where we left off with the same people collaborating with Standards Michigan. ANSI remains the global Secretariat.
We maintain this project on the standing agenda of both our Global and our Human Resource colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
“I am sorry that my job is getting in the way of your learning. I hope that the time you gain can be productively used in employment so that you can pay for your college education”
Class Is Canceled Until Further Notice While I Do My Job – McSweeney’s https://t.co/TDhIsAkXau
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Christine Fischer, Lee S. Webster, Richard Robben
ANSI Contacts: Michelle Deane (mdeane@ansi.org)
US TAG Contacts: Lorelei Carobolante, Jim Lewis
*We left off just as the ISO/TS 30411:2018, Human resource management-Quality of hire metric (QoH) standard was rolling out. The QoH was, and still is a performance metric for talent acquisition teams, critical for determining the effectiveness of the recruitment process and has a consequential impact on an organization’s performance. The QoH structure is intended to be scalable to the needs of any organization regardless of size, industry or sector and is relevant to people with an interest in workforce planning, organizational design and development, talent management succession planning, recruitment, and human capital reporting. Read more about ISO/TS 30411:2018 on ISO’s news site, and access it on the ANSI Web Store.
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
