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The crisis that is about to break out involves student debt and how we finance higher education. Like the housing crisis that preceded it, this crisis is intimately connected to America's soaring inequality, and how, as Americans on the bottom rungs of the ladder strive to climb up, they are inevitably pulled down - some to a point even lower than where they began.

"Facebook activated its Safety Check tool, which allows users in an area affected by a crisis to mark themselves or others as safe. Facebook created the tool to help in times of crisis, a spokeswoman, Anna Richardson White, said on Saturday, and it has activated it five times in the last year after natural disasters. But this was the first time it was activated for something like this, she said. "People turn to Facebook to check on loved ones and get updates, which is why we created Safety Check and why we have activated it for people in Paris," Ms. White said."

"In the moments following the twin explosions at the Boston Marathon, many of the initial reports disseminated through social media proved to be false. Jeremy Stahl, social media editor for Slate.com, shares his rules for social media responsibly in the midst of tragic, breaking news."

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"Wherever the money is coming from, and however it is being spent, the root of the crisis in higher education (and the evidence that investment in universities may amount to a bubble) comes down to the fact that additional value has not been created to match this extra spending. Indeed, evidence from declines in the quality of students and graduates suggests that a degree may now mean less than it once did."

"The other states will begin to jump in. What starts as a plan to help wait-listed students will quickly gain steam as a "solution" to the "higher education crisis." And due to the particular economics of bundling, it puts the entire architecture of higher education in jeopardy."

"As Hurricane Sandy bears down on the east coast of the U.S., here's a roundup of accounts suggested by local and state government officials you can follow to get real-time emergency information, plus tips for using Twitter during a crisis."

"Millions of Americans who went to college seeking a better future now face crushing debt from student loans-while the industry makes a handsome profit. How a broken system landed so many in this mess."

"I've called educational technology issues the "academic freedom crisis of the twenty-first century" because I think how faculty present information to students is just as important as what information they present. If administrators force us to use tools that prevent faculty from teaching what we want to teach as well as we can teach it, they don't need to tell us what to teach in order to prevent us from getting our message out. If those tools can be used to replace faculty entirely, then even our content choices will become irrelevant because we won't have anyone around to hear our message. So what bothers me most about this message is its very limited definition of what academic freedom is."

"The University of Virginia expects to lay off or request retirement from as many as 38 employees at its School of Continuing and Professional Studies this spring. Lower student demand and the end of program partnerships have led to a drop in enrollment and an $8 million budget shortfall, according to Dean Alex Hernandez. His team views reorganization as its last option to address the crisis."

The latest move, however, makes such tactics seem insignificant. It involves putting school buildings on the market to raise cash ("School District Bets Future on Real Estate," The New York Times, Sept. 5).

"I don't know who's going to send out transcripts - kids are already appying for rolling admission, so I have no idea. And some schools require a letter from a guidance counselor. So I don't know what we're going to do." "I found this app for their smartphone, which helps them search scholarships, and I got really excited. And then I got really depressed, because I'm trying to replace a guidance counselor with a dollar smartphone app."

"Now a revolution has begun (see article), thanks to three forces: rising costs, changing demand and disruptive technology. The result will be the reinvention of the university."