Source: USA TODAY

International Space Station astronauts planned to crack the hatch Saturday morning on a spacecraft like none they’ve entered before: a commercial cargo ship designed, built and operated by a private company.

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule made history Friday, completing a three-day journey from Cape Canaveral to become the first private space vehicle to berth at the orbiting station.

Station flight engineer Don Pettit snared the unmanned craft with a robotic arm as it floated freely below the outpost following a slow, stop-and-go approach.

“Looks like we caught a Dragon by the tail,” Pettit radioed just before 10 a.m. EDT, as mission controllers cheered.

Around noon, the capsule was secured to a docking port alongside Russian and European space agency ships.

It was a triumphant moment for SpaceX and NASA nearly six years after they partnered to develop a commercial resupply service for the station in anticipation of the shuttle’s retirement.

Many doubted a company started four years earlier by a young Internet entrepreneur with no spaceflight experience could pull off missions historically handled by big-budget government programs employing large contractors.

But SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule have continued to prove doubters wrong during their second and most complex demonstration mission for NASA.

“It’s just a fantastic day and I think a great day for the country and for the world,” said company CEO Elon Musk. “This really is, I think, going to be recognized as a significantly historical step forward in space travel.”

As a commercial venture, Musk has ambitions to dramatically lower the cost of space travel and to fly people to the station soon and eventually all the way to Mars.

SpaceX is a contender to fly NASA astronauts, and supporters see its rapid success as validating the agency’s controversial shift toward reliance on commercial crew taxis.

As after Tuesday’s Falcon 9 launch, hundreds of employees gathered at company headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., to cheer the successful arrival at the space station and chant Musk’s name during a news conference. “We love you, Elon!” a woman yelled.

NASA managers were nearly as effusive.

“We knew (in 2006) that you had something special going on here,” said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of the demonstration program that has paid SpaceX nearly $400 million. “This really is the beginning of a new era in commercial spaceflight.”

Added Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager: “It was a remarkable ride. As a country we should be very proud.”

Celebratory messages poured into Twitter, where “dragon” was a top trending topic.

Final-approach challenges

Pending the Dragon’s safe return to Earth on Thursday, SpaceX’s successful link-up with the station effectively certifies the company as ready to begin executing a $1.6 billion contract to fly at least a dozen resupply missions.

The first may come as soon as September; the rocket is already at the Cape.

Another company, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., is also developing commercial vehicles that could fly to the station before the end of the year.

For SpaceX’s Dragon, Friday’s hours-long final approach to the station was not without challenges.

SpaceX and NASA mission controllers in Hawthorne and Houston, respectively, held the spacecraft for extended periods, with its thrusters pulsing to maintain its position, as they analyzed data from new rendezvous sensors.

An unexpected retreat ordered as Dragon closed within 100 feet suddenly raised the possibility that the berthing might fall short.

“There were definitely some close moments where we potentially could have called an abort,” Musk said.

He credited fast thinking and adjustments made by both mission control teams.

Engineers narrowed the view of a laser radar system that was picking up stray reflections from a station module but ultimately completed the berthing without it.

Dragon finally climbed to its “capture point” 30 feet beneath the station, setting up a grappling attempt shrouded in darkness rather than the preferred daylight conditions.

From his perch inside a windowed cupola, Pettit wasted no time snagging the capsule with the station’s 58-foot robotic arm, as both spacecraft flew 250 miles above northwest Australia at a speed of 17,500 mph.

Pettit joked he thought the event was just another simulation.

“We’re ready to turn it around and do it for real,” he said.

Next step: Re-entry

The berthing was the culmination of years of work and dozens of simulations that gradually brought together the disparate cultures NASA and SpaceX embody.

“That trust and that teamwork really made all the difference today,” said Holly Ridings, NASA’s lead flight director for the demonstration mission.

Ridings exchanged hugs with colleagues who seemed as happy as if a shuttle had just docked. A purple stuffed dragon doll was propped on her console.

Over the next five days, Pettit and colleagues are scheduled to spend about 25 hours unloading some 1,100 pounds of cargo from Dragon and packing the spacecraft with 1,400 pounds more for the return home.

All the gear was considered nonessential, in case Dragon suffered a catastrophic failure.

A fiery re-entry through the atmosphere and splashdown in the Pacific is planned early Thursday. Only then can the mission be declared a complete success.

But having achieved that feat once before in 2010, Musk said it was appropriate to raise champagne glasses Friday.

“The most important part of the mission has been successfully achieved, so we’re incredibly excited,” he said. “I think it is fair at this point to celebrate a significant victory.”

Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

1. Facebook unveils Instagram-like app

Facebook capped a tumultuous week of stock trading by announcing a new iPhone app, “Facebook Camera.”

The app, which is strikingly similar to the recently purchased Instagram, allows users to take, edit and upload photos directly to Facebook. You can also comment and like photos from the app.

In an interview with All Things D, the app’s product manager said the Instagram team had no hand in developing the app.

Why use this instead of Facebook to post photos?

The app allows you to edit photos in ways Facebook’s main app does not. It also uploads photos faster and is an “easier, more elegant experience,” according to USA TODAY’s Brett Molina.

2. Yahoo makes search splash with new “search browser”

Yahoo! Axis lets you search without ever having to leave your webpage. Search results are delivered visually, so you can see not only the text but the look of a webpage before deciding to check it out.

“Our search strategy is predicated on two core beliefs,” said Shashi Seth, Yahoo’s senior vice president for Connections. “One, that people want answers, not links and two, that consumer-facing search is ripe for innovative disruption, especially on the front-end.”

You can download the app in Apple’s App Store or get it as a plug-in for most popular browsers.

3. Legal battle erupts over commercial-skipping service

Fox, NBC and CBS are suing Dish Network over its new product that automatically skips commercials on some recorded programs.

Dish’s Hopper DVR automatically records prime-time shows from the big TV networks and stores them for eight days. When a consumer wants to watch a show, the Hopper’s Auto Hop feature automatically strips out commercials.

Fox said this service “will ultimately destroy the advertising-supported ecosystem.”

Dish says there’s no difference between what this service provides and what customers already do with DVRs.

4. SpaceX continues its historic mission

The SpaceX Dragon capsule was captured by the International Space Station Friday morning, ushering in a new era of private-public space cooperation.

The Dragon capsule will stay connected to the space station for a week, deliver 1,014 pounds of cargo and then return to earth filled with experiments.

SpaceX says it will be able to send astronauts to the space station in three to four years.

5. Wireless carriers try to ease network load

Wireless carriers are struggling to meet demand for data as more and more people upgrade to smartphones. Some carriers, like Verizon, are killing unlimited data plans to discourage rampant data usage.

Verizon, AT&T and other carriers are also seeking to “offload” customers from their cellular networks and onto local Wi-Fi spots. This helps keep the networks unclogged and will help customers avoid overages on their data plans.

AT&T is leading the way by automatically switching subscribers over to Wi-Fi in Starbucks and by installing large Wi-Fi hotspots in busy locations like Time Square and in downtown San Francisco.

Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

The jury deciding former presidential candidate John Edwards’ fate ended its sixth day of deliberations Friday without a verdict. The 12-member jury will resume talks Tuesday, following a three-day Memorial Day weekend break.

Edwards, the Democrats’ 2004 vice presidential nominee, has been on trial for five weeks. He is charged with six criminal counts, including conspiracy and accepting illegal campaign contributions. He was accused of using roughly $1 million from two wealthy donors to cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter, a former campaign videographer.

Edwards faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines, if convicted on all charges. But legal experts say it is very difficult to prove a violation of obscure campaign-finance laws.

Lora Haggard, who oversaw campaign-finance compliance for the Edwards’ campaign, told jurors the Federal Election Commission never required the money to be reported as political donations, even after Edwards was indicted. Federal prosecutors counter that the funds were given to influence the presidential election and, as such, amount to illegal campaign contributions.

“When the experts can’t agree, it should be no surprise that there appears to be disagreement among the jurors,” said Hampton Dellinger, a North Carolina lawyer who is following the case closely.

The eight-man, four-woman jury began deliberations on May 18 and have made repeated requests to see more evidence, including financial records involving money given by wealthy Texas lawyer Fred Baron and notes from a lawyer to Rachel ‘Bunny” Mellon, the 101-year-old banking hieress who provided the bulk of the money used in the coverup.

Abbe Lowell, Edwards’ attorney, said in closing arguments that the case should define what is the difference between “a sin and a felony.” He contended there was no question that Edwards was unfaithful to his wife, lied repeatedly about his affair and that he fathered a daughter out of wedlock with Hunter.

Prosecutors argued that Edwards “knowingly and willingly” accepted the money from Mellon and Fred Baron to cover up his extramarital affair so he could further his political aspirations. There was testimony that Edwards was angling to be Barack Obama’s attorney general or get a high-profile speaking slot at the 2008 Democratic convention.

At the time, the limit for individual donations in the 2008 presidential campaign was $4,600.

(Contributing: Catalina Camia)

Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

INDIANAPOLIS —Singer-actress Olivia Newton-John was back in the spotlight on Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The four-time Grammy Award winner and star of the movie Grease gave the command to start engines in the Firestone Indy Lights Freedom 100 race, which was won by Argentina’s Esteban Guerrieri of Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

On Saturday, Newton-John will act as grand marshal for the 2012 IPL 500 Festival Parade in downtown Indianapolis.

“I love racing,” said Newton-John, who watched her nephew, Emerson Newton-John, drive in the Indy Lights event.

Unfortunately, he was taken out early in the race in a three-car accident. He was uninjured.

“I followed Emerson’s career ever since he raced go-karts,” Newton-John said before the green flag dropped. “My nephew was named after Formula One driver and two-time Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi.”

While in the Indy media center, Newton-John, a native Australian, talked about her work in the fight against breast cancer, of which she is a survivor. She is also an advocate for health awareness and healthy eating.

But when the topic of Vegemite — the popular Australian food paste, which looks like axle grease — came up, Newton-John smiled cheekily.

“We spread it on toast and butter, bread and butter,” said Newton-John. “It’s an Aussie favorite. Want to try some?”

No one volunteered.

Other celebrities attending race: Among those who will be in Indianapolis this weekend: Country singer Martina McBride (national anthem), Food Network star Guy Fieri (Indy 500 paced car driver), actor/TV host Howie Mandel (honorary announcer) and singer Gladys Knight (Indy 500 honoree). Baseball legends Tommy Lasorda and Pete Rose are also planning to attend.

Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

We can hear the oohs, aahs and ooh-la-las all the way from the south of France.

Twilight star Kristen Stewart is smoking hot right now in a plunging red Reem Acra gown on the red carpet at boyfriend Robert Pattinson’s Cosmopolis premiere in Cannes.

Hollywood Life was quick to rave that this is the “sexiest” Stewart, 22, “has EVER looked.” Splash said she “ravished” in red. E! said she “upped her sex appeal.”

Pattinson was there, but Stewart opted to pose with her On the Road co-star Tom Sturridge, who also happens to be Pattinson’s best pal. Sturridge is engaged to Sienna Miller, who has been spotted back in London with her growing baby bump.

Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

The week that has passed since Facebook’s (FB) fumbled IPO has done little to quiet the controversy and discontent surrounding the biggest technology IPO in financial market history.

By tumbling from their initial offering price — rather than skyrocketing, as many hoped — the current value of Facebook’s shares has triggered a litany of regulatory probes and lawsuits in response to investor ire.

Investors who piled into the much-anticipated IPO and held on have suffered significant losses. Shares of the No. 1 social networking firm went public at $38 on May 18 and traded as high as $45 the first day before pulling back.

This week the pullback turned into a face plant. On Friday, a week after the stock’s debut, shares fell $1.35, or 3.4%, to close at $31.91, nearly 16% below the IPO price and 29% below that day’s high.

Regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, this week have said they will look into the trading that occurred in the stock.

Meanwhile, several lawsuits have been filed against the Nasdaq trading exchange as well as against Morgan Stanley, the deal’s main underwriter, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Specifically, three Facebook investors sued Morgan Stanley as well as other underwriting banks on the deal and Zuckerberg, alleging that Facebook’s revenue estimates were reduced just prior to the IPO and allegedly only some lucky investors were informed of the change in outlook.

Facebook has denied the allegations. Morgan Stanley said in an e-mailed response it conducted the IPO in compliance with the law.

Some investors may be trying to undo their involvement in the IPO and get some of their money back. Morgan Stanley is reviewing trades made by its clients and may reimburse some investors if it’s determined errors by Nasdaq caused the losses, the Associated Press first reported and USA TODAY confirmed Friday.

That’s a far cry from the hoopla and celebrating of the past few weeks preceding the tech giant’s launch as a publicly trading company.

Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

A gunman in Valparaiso, Ind., took hostages at a real estate office this morning and held them several hours before releasing them late in the afternoon, police say. He told officers an agent owed him money.

Police said he shot himself twice in the head as a SWAT team was preparing to enter, and died later at a hospital.

Update at 8:37 p.m. ET: The unidentified gunman died tonight at a local hospital, Valparaiso police Sgt. Michael Grennes tells the Associated Press.

Update at 6:31 p.m. ET: The gunman shot himself twice in the head and was taken to a hospital, said Valparaiso Police Chief Michael Brickner, AP is reporting. He officers believe he shot himself before officers entered the building about 5 p.m. CT (6 p.m. ET).

The still-unidentified gunman is reported in critical condition.

Update at 6:13 p.m. ET: The gunman reportedly killed himself as a SWAT team was storming the office.

ABC Chicago says he shot himself in the head twice, according to police.

AP says two loud bangs were heard as officers were breaking windows and rushing inside.

Update at 5:18 p.m. ET: The remaining two hostages have been released, Valparaiso police have announced.

Valparaiso Police Sgt. Michael Grennes said a man was released about an hour ago, followed by a woman about 30 minutes later, the Associated Press reports.

NBC Chicago said one was taken away in an ambulance.

Update at 5 p.m. ET: The office controller told The Times of Northwest Indiana that she encountered the suspect this morning standing over the body of an injured female co-worker.

Carolyn Biesen said the man displayed a gun when she ordered him to leave, and she returned to her office. She then heard the gunman fire two shots, and later heard gunfire that she believed came from police.

Biesen did not describe her co-worker’s injuries.

She said 10 people were in the office when the gunman entered about 10 a.m. CT (11 a.m. ET) and that she believed only two remained with him at 3 p.m.

The unidentified gunman came to the office Thursday looking for a real estate agent he claimed owed him money, she added.

Original post: Police are talking with a gunman who has been holding an unknown number of hostages at a real estate office in Valparaiso, Ind., according to news reports.

Officers exchanged fire with the gunman when they arrived at the Prudential Executive Group Real Estate office, but there is no confirmation of injuries.

The gunman told police he believes someone at the office owes him money, the Associated Press reports.

Most of the firm’s employees have been released, police said.

“We still have some workers in the building here at this time,” Valparaiso police Sgt. Mike Grennes told reporters this afternoon.

Police received a call at 10:05 a.m. CT (11:05 a.m. ET) that a gunman had entered the building. At least five people were allowed to leave the building over the next three hours, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported.

NBC News says people inside texted to others that it was a domestic dispute between the gunman and his girlfriend.

The FBI is aiding the negotiations.

Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

John H. Sununu, a top surrogate for Mitt Romney, wrongly claimed Bain Capital was “able to save jobs … about 80% of the time” at companies in which it had invested. Sununu was misreading or misrepresenting a Bain statement on revenues, not jobs.

Sununu, a former governor of New Hampshire and an early supporter of Romney, spoke to reporters May 22 on a conference call. When addressing Bain Capital, the private-equity investment firm founded by Romney, Sununu said: “About 80% of the time they were able to save jobs at companies.” To compound his error, Sununu went on to say Bain’s record on jobs creation was “certainly better than [Obama's] batting average of trying to save jobs in alternative energy.” But Bain never made such a claim about jobs.

In a March 13 letter to its investors, Bain said “revenues grew during our ownership in 80% of the more than 350 companies in which we have invested.” It did claim that “the revenue growth in our companies has created hundreds of thousands of jobs over our 28-year history.” But there’s no doubt that other jobs were also lost at some of those companies. Bain provided no net job estimate, saying “experts agree that calculating net job growth across a portfolio of companies is difficult to do with precision.”

The Boston-based company followed that letter with a statement May 21 in which it repeated its revenue growth estimate without providing any specific information about jobs. The statement was in response to one-sided TV ads and Web videos aired by President Obama and a super PAC that supports him, Priorities USA Action. “Despite political attacks that emphasize the few companies that have struggled, the facts are that during Bain Capital’s ownership, revenues grew in 80% of the more than 350 companies in which we have invested,” the statement read.

We cannot verify Bain Capital’s claim of revenue growth or its claim that its revenues created “hundreds of thousands of jobs.” The firm did not provide any support for either claim.

Also, Bain’s statement refers to its 28-year history — not just Romney’s 14 years in charge. Romney cofounded Bain in 1984 and took a leave of absence in February 1999 to head the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics. He did not return to Bain, and he formally transferred his ownership in the company to other partners, as the New York Times reported in a Dec. 18, 2011, article about Romney’s tenure at Bain.

As we reported before, private-equity firms are designed to create profits for investors, not necessarily jobs. A widely cited study released last year by the National Bureau of Economic Research reviewed private-equity transactions from 1980 to 2005 — tracking 3,200 firms and their 150,000 establishments — to assess the impact on jobs. It concluded that, in general, private-equity firms have “only a modest net impact on employment.”

Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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A woman who texted her boyfriend while he was driving cannot be held liable for a crash he caused while responding, a judge ruled Friday.

The question of personal liability of someone texting not present in a vehicle that crashed hadn’t ever been directly addressed in case law, Morris County Superior Court Judge David Rand said.

Motorcyclists David and Linda Kubert, who were living Dover, N.J., each lost a leg in the Sept. 21, 2009, crash in Mine Hill, N.J.

Kyle Best of Wharton, N.J., who was driving a pickup truck, veered head on into them, and Best pleaded guilty earlier this year to using a hand-held cellphone while driving, careless driving and failure to maintain a lane in Montville (N.J.) Municipal Court.

Rand dismissed Best’s girlfriend, Shannon Colonna, from the civil suit the Kuberts had filed against both Best and Colonna, noting that the duty to drive carefully is a motorist’s responsibility.

Colonna, who was 17 at the time of the accident, was not in court Friday, and her lawyer, Joseph McGlone, declined comment.

Colonna and Best, who was 19 at the time of the accident, were texting each other in the seconds before the crash. A few seconds after Best texted Colonna, he called 911 to report the crash, and he tried to administer first aid to the victims at the scene.

Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

Between 2001 and 2005, Augustana College in Illinois enrolled roughly 3,500 freshmen. Only three of them came from Colorado.

These days, there are so many Coloradoans on campus that they’re forming their own club. The class entering this fall will include 24 Colorado residents, following two years of 14 each in the freshman class.

Augustana’s dramatic growth in recruitment from Colorado is the result of a strategic marketing effort, embraced by several liberal arts colleges, to grow the college’s brand in the Denver metropolitan area, a region with few liberal arts colleges, skyrocketing public tuition, and significant growth in the college-going population.

The Denver and Phoenix metropolitan areas, potentially along with Las Vegas, are the latest in a long line of “target” cities — previously including places such as Atlanta, Dallas and Seattle — that colleges whose traditional recruitment markets are shrinking have hoped would provide an enrollment boost.

But administrators worry that once these areas are tapped, few other locales exist for targeted recruitment. For that matter, they say, regional liberal arts colleges may be getting to a point where marketing efforts — such as targeting new geographic regions or adding new sports or academic programs that appeal to full-paying or high-achieving prospective students — might not be enough to keep the colleges financially viable. Several administrators said they will probably employ such techniques only for two or three more years, just enough time to consider and carry out more substantive changes to their model.

“There is this big question of, what additional programs can we add to maintain steady state enrollments, or what existing and building markets can there be,” said W. Kent Barnds, vice president for enrollment, communication and planning at Augustana. “We’re getting to the point where we have to ask those tough questions.”

Demographic Questions

Augustana is one of hundreds of liberal arts colleges that have historically had a regional orientation in their student recruitment efforts. Unlike the wealthiest, most well-known liberal arts colleges, such as Williams and Amherst, which tend to attract students from across the country, Augustana’s students predominantly come from five states in the Midwest: Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

But most of those states are likely to see a decrease in their college-going population over the next few years. According to data from a 2008 report by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, Illinois’s high-school graduates seemingly peaked in 2008, as did the number of high-school graduates across the Midwest.

The Chicago metropolitan area was traditionally a major recruiting ground for Augustana and other Midwest colleges, and will probably continue to see some growth in high school graduates. But it is also seeing increased competition from regional liberal arts colleges on the East Coast, which are struggling with many of the same demographic challenges.

Where there is significant growth in students is in the Southwest, driven by internal migration and immigration. The number of high school graduates in Colorado is projected to grow by about 22 percent over the next decade, and the number in Arizona is projected to grow by about 31 percent. Other Southwestern and Western states such as Texas, Nevada, New Mexico and California are also projected to see increases in their college-going populations.

But Augustana is not going into all of the major metropolitan areas in these states. Barnds said the college has been methodical about picking where it is going, applying a fairly simple set of criteria.

First off, he said, having a direct flight to the area from the Quad Cities International Airport is important — a significant limiting factor, as the airport flies directly to just 10 cities. There are no direct flights to anywhere on the West Coast, or any East Coast states except Florida and Georgia.

Barnds also said that having minimal competition in any given metropolitan area is also a plus, which helps explain the choice of Phoenix and Denver over other options such as Atlanta. Most Arizona high school students who go to college attend one of the state’s three large public universities. There are no private, nonprofit, four-year undergraduate liberal arts colleges in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Colorado has two institutions that liberal arts colleges tend to think of as competitors — Colorado College and the University of Denver — but that is a small number compared to the state’s population. “When you look at Colorado, particularly the ‘front range’ part of the state, it’s primarily public universities,” Barnds said. “We look at that and we can say ‘Hey, we’ve got some distinction.’ “

Having some established regional presence, such as a large number of alumni, is also a positive, Barnds said.

Mining Towns

How a college like Augustana enters and recruits in a new city is methodical.

The college tends to lead with athletics, an aspect of the college that administrators think sets Augustana apart from competitors. Unlike many liberal arts colleges, Augustana has a football program, and it also has a reputation for producing Division III academic all-Americans. So the college has targeted athletes who are high-performing students but who might not have the ability or desire to play at the Division I level.

“What you need when you go into a new market is to lead with a program, some hook to get a student to take a look at Augustana,” Barnds said. The college has an athletics recruiter who spends several weeks in Denver over the course of the year meeting with students. Barnds added that recruiting athletes also helps put the college on other students’ radars.

Of the Coloradoans entering Augustana next fall, about two-thirds are athletes, compared to about one-third of the overall student body. Other than athletics, Barnds said the college also pays for guidance counselors to visit its campus and has sent faculty members to Colorado to work with high school students.

Augustana is far from the only college working the Denver market. Mark Moody, co-director of college counseling at Colorado Academy, a private high school in Denver, said he has seen a dramatic increase in the number of universities and colleges, particularly out-of-state liberal arts colleges, that are recruiting his students. Dozens of liberal arts colleges that tend to draw from a more regional market — such as Linfield College in Oregon and Rollins College in Florida — visited the high school this year. “Colorado is clearly a geographic area of interest around the country,” Moody said. The National Association for College Admission Counseling, a group that brings together admissions officers and high school counselors, is holding its annual meeting in Denver in October.

Colorado Academy has the type of students that a lot of colleges are seeking these days. They’re high-achieving, and many are paying full tuition at the high-school level and are likely to be able to pay full tuition for college. Colorado Academy students are already enrolled in a small school, so they are likely to look for something similar, Moody said.

This year representatives from about 150 different colleges and universities visited Colorado Academy — significantly more than the roughly 85 students who will graduate from the school this year. Moody says the number of recruiters has increased about 20 or 30 over the past two years.

Mark Hatch, Colorado College’s vice president for enrollment, said he has seen a significant growth in the amount of competition from colleges outside the region. “College fairs are more crowded,” he said. “All the time people tell us they’re coming west.”

He said that while he likes to “protect his backyard,” he doesn’t see the growth of liberal arts recruitment in the Denver area as a bad thing, particularly because it raises awareness of the liberal arts sector to families who might not be exposed to it. “One could argue that when we go to Boston, we’re better-known to families than when we’re in Denver. You can throw a rock and hit a good liberal arts college in Boston,” he said. “You get more students who are juniors and sophomores saying, ‘Where did Jimmy go last year? Isn’t there one of those schools an hour south of us?’ “

Nowhere Left to Go

The problem that colleges such as Augustana are starting to run into is that there are few untapped metropolitan areas left. Most either have a critical mass of liberal arts colleges or are seeing heavy recruitment from other, typically more local, colleges, so it would be tough for any liberal arts college to break through.

Barnds said Las Vegas and the Dallas-Fort Worth areas might hold promise, but beyond that, there are few places left to expand recruitment. “I think there might be one or two more markets, rather than seven or eight,” he said.

While the sheer numbers of high school graduates in places such as Denver and Phoenix are enticing, the population growth in those cities might not be among the groups that most colleges are looking for when they expand their reach. For many colleges, the recruitment growth is a way to either bulk up the quality of their classes their by drawing high achievers or to maintain their bottom lines with students who can pay full or close-to-full tuition. But the growth of high school students in the West is predominantly among low-income Hispanic and African American students.

“The reality is that the type of students that most colleges want to recruit doesn’t go that deep,” Hatch said. “Particularly when it comes to students of color, we as a country don’t have a good track record of getting them ready for private, selective colleges.”

Athletic programs that could be used to recruit students are also virtually tapped out. Augustana has 21 varsity teams. There are also not that many more academic programs to add without fundamentally changing the nature of the college.

Right now such short-term moves are holding off a significant change in how liberal arts colleges operate. As long as they can continue to tap into new groups of students who are willing to pay $40,000 in tuition for a liberal arts degree, then the college does not have to make substantial changes to how it operates.

Over the next few years, Augustana is planning to undergo a significant strategic planning initiative that will confront some of the major challenges the college’s president, Steven C. Bahls, and others believe will affect colleges like theirs over the next few decades. Among them: how to incorporate technology into the curriculum, how to address declining interest in traditional liberal arts programs, and how to change the financial model to make it more sustainable.

The goal of the recruitment expansion is to buy the time to get that process completed.

Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.