August 2nd, 2010
Education News
Roundup
Articles posted by five reliably interesting sources of
news about higher education.
Representation and
Computation
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53020
August 2nd, 2010
If you want some heady reading for the weekend, this post
on cognition and representation is the ticket. It offers a good
development of the physical symbol system hypothesis and
"the attempt to identify the code, or the codes, in which
knowledge is supposedly represented." In particular, "What all
of them appeared to have in common is the idea that mental
representations are coded symbolically and are structured and
computable." This is a view with which I disagree. To the extent
that I am willing to countenance representations at all (and I'm
sceptical here) I am more inclined to Searle's line of reasoning,
"the most radical criticism of the classical view is the claim that
the mind/brain is indeed a representational organ, but that the
nature of representations is not that of a formal code." It's not
a long paper, but it will keep you working for a while. Maurizio
Tirassa and Marianna Vallana, Cogprints, July 30, 2010 4:26
p.m. [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Putting It to Provosts
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/aascu
August 2nd, 2010
CHICAGO -- Like many advocacy groups, higher education
associations are notoriously self-referential (if not self-
reverential). They're quick to promote the good work of their
own members, but are typically loath to draw attention to
institutions with which they compete.
Which made it all the more striking when George L. Mehaffy,
a vice president of the American Association of State Colleges
and Universities, opened a meeting of provosts here late last
week by projecting on the video screen overhead the bold
commercial that Kaplan University has used to promote itself
-- in large part by not-so-subtly dissing traditional colleges and
universities like those that belong to AASCU ("It's time for a
different kind of university," the professor at the lectern tells
students apologetically. "It's your time.")
Published by: philosophyandrew
"It is our time," Mehaffy told the public university provosts
when the commercial ended, "time to get serious about
the process of change in American higher education. It is
important that we resolve to make substantive changes --
major changes, not changes around the margins -- and that we
do so with a fierce sense of urgency."
To the chief academic officers in the audience at AASCU's
Academic Affairs summer meeting, virtually all of whom are
facing intense budget pressures at the same time that state and
national leaders are telling them their campuses need to be
more productive and efficient, the idea that something needs
to give was not a hard sell.
They also seemed to accept the idea that if significant change
was to come from within higher education, rather than be
imposed on it from outside, provosts were those best able
to bring it about, situated as they are between presidents
focused increasingly on fund raising and often distant from
the front lines and faculties focused mainly on their disciplines
and often wary of, if not hostile to, transformative change.
("Someone has to do something, and it’s just incredibly
pathetic that it has to be us," Mehaffy quoted "that great
philosopher," the Grateful Dead's late Jerry Garcia, as saying.)
And the provosts generally welcomed the prospect that
Mehaffy and AASCU were holding out: a yearlong (at least)
project on "re-imagining undergraduate education" in which
the association plans to work with campus leaders to identify
a set of initiatives aimed at driving both institution-wide
reforms and possibly national efforts (such as open-access
course development) in which AASCU member colleges might
share.
But while the chief academic officers seemed open in theory
to the idea of driving transformative change, and spent
two full days hearing from colleagues about initiatives and
pilot projects of various types they had undertaken on their
campuses, many of them readily acknowledged that they
weren't quite sure how likely it was that sweeping change
would unfold on their campuses, and what it might look like
if it did.
"I don't know what model leads us out of this particular
wilderness," said Harry Hellenbrand, provost and vice
president for academic affairs at California State University's
Northridge campus.
But collaboration will be key, said Sally M. Johnstone, provost
and vice president for academic affairs at Winona State
University, in Minnesota. "One big lesson that seems obvious
is that anything that I think of is not going to be anywhere near
as good as that that we can come to collectively."
1
August 2nd, 2010
Red Balloons and Institutional Change
That was one of the two key themes that Mehaffy and AASCU
emphasized in calling their new effort "the Red Balloon
Project," which was inspired by the contest that the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency sponsored to mark its
40th anniversary. The agency moored 10 bright red weather
balloons in locations across the United States and offered a
$40,000 prize to the person or people who could most quickly
report the locations of all 10.
Using a website that took advantage of social networking and
other technologies, a five-person team of professors and grad
students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found
the balloons in under nine hours -- and it took them only a
few days in advance of the contest launch to set up the entire
network.
The contest captured Mehaffy's attention, he told the provosts,
both because of what it says about how networked technology
has transformed the way that knowledge is created and shared,
but also about how much collaboration can drive problem
solving.
"We are collectively smarter than we are individually, and we
now have tools to make that smartness happen," Mehaffy said.
The meeting was part pep talk from national experts on
institutional change (like Mark Milliron of the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, whose "Optimist's Education Agenda" has
become wildly popular fare on the higher ed conference
circuit) and part nuts and bolts presentations by academic
officers who have put in place innovative practices on their
own campuses.
The latter included efforts to reduce the need for
remedial course work, like Northern Kentucky University's
collaboration to reach into local high schools (and a related
effort at Eastern Kentucky), to Southeast Missouri State
University's campaign to teach synchronous courses via video
conferencing technology to touch hard-to-reach students and
drive down costs, to Northern Arizona University's aggressive
steps to trim underenrolled majors and concentrations, in the
face of enrollment growth and budget pressures that have left
the university with 24 percent more students and 10 percent
fewer faculty person hours than it had five years ago.
"If we don't think we're going to have to reinvent ourselves, we
are delusional," said Liz Grobsmith, provost and vice president
for academic affairs at Northern Arizona.
She and Karen Pugliesi, the vice provost, described efforts to
corral a program development process that "evolved through
a process of elaboration and accretion," as Pugliesi put it, by
weeding out undersubscribed sub-majors in many fields. "We
had not just one or two majors in environmental science or
geography, but six in each," she said.
When the process is complete, Pugliesi said, "we will have
fewer course options, but those we have will be well-designed,
and well-articulated."
Enthusiasm and Impediments
Few of the provosts in the room had to be persuaded that
the ways their academic programs have been operated in the
past are unlikely to work in an era where their campuses
Published by: philosophyandrew
are expected to increase significantly more (and less well-
prepared) students with the same or fewer financial resources.
But many acknowledged that in contemplating meaningful
changes, they would be working against an academic culture
that does not adapt quickly, to say the least.
"Some people will immediately seize an idea [out of the Red
Balloon project] and move rapidly forward," said Mehaffy.
"Others will think it's an interesting idea, form a committee,
get a consultant, maybe do a survey. Maybe three or four years
from now they'll do a pilot project on red balloons, while the
rest of the institution doesn't change."
As is true of many meetings of academic administrators,
discussions about bringing about change on campuses
frequently turned to the faculties, and in some cases
provosts described instructors on their campuses as being
stereotypically, almost preternaturally predisposed to oppose
any kind of progress or change.
But a number of the provosts said they had begun to see
progress in working closely with faculty leaders who, when
fully informed about the nature and extent of the budget and
other problems facing their universities, were willing partners
in contemplating meaningful changes.
Johnstone of Winona State described her efforts to get leaders
of the university's faculty union "really up to speed" on the
"constraints that are going to be facing the entire university,"
and getting their advice on "how I can move forward at a pace
this campus has never seen before."
"They get it," Johnstone said. And where a few years ago, the
faculty was an obstacle to change, "now it has really become
an opportunity, a way to move forward," she said. And that's
essential, she added, because "changes have got to come from
the faculty. You cannot change the campus without changing
the culture."
Added Abe Harraf, provost and vice president for academic
affairs at the University of Northern Colorado: "Faculty want
to come along. They just want to be participants instead of just
being told" what they have to do.
Going Forward
For all the brainstorming, many participants probably left
Chicago not at all sure where the Red Balloon project might
lead -- or whether it would lead anywhere at all. Even Mehaffy,
in his straight-ahead way, acknowledged as much: "We don't
really have a clue how this is going to turn out," he said.
But AASCU's hope is that taking advantage of technology to
create new channels among provosts for sharing ideas and
expertise would both help them carry out reforms on their own
campuses and point the way to multi-institutional projects
that AASCU might sponsor itself, up to and including the
formulation of common general-education courses that the
association might develop and make available to institutions
free.
The big challenge for AASCU institutions, and higher
education generally, Mehaffy said, is bringing the small signs
of progress and pockets of transformation that are unfolding
on campuses around the country to a broader level.
2
August 2nd, 2010
"All of the innovations are out there, they're just not out there
across our institutions in any widescale way," he said.
Time matters, said Selase W. Williams, provost and vice
president for academic affairs at Southern Connecticut State
University. Given the rapidly changing demographic pool of
the students who will be entering higher education in coming
years, dominated increasingly by those who are academically
underprepared, "if we're failing American higher education
today, we will fail even more miserably then."
"The challenge will be greater then than it is now," he said.
"We've got to get this right."
Bennington College invites applications and nominations for
the position of Executive Vice President for Finance and
Administration and Chief ...
Keiser University is a regionally accredited, private, career
university that provides educational programs at the
undergraduate and graduate levels ...
Job ID: 3059Regular/Temporary: RegularGENERAL
DUTIES: As a key member of the executive management team,
the Assistant Vice President oversees one or ...
The grammar of school,
psychological dissonance
and all professors are rather
ludditical
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53019
August 2nd, 2010
David T. Jones makes the good argument that the
very people calling academics Luddites are themselves
Luddites. He argues that they employ an old-style top-
down methodology that takes no account of the context of
application. "Rather than tell academics what to do, you
need to create contextualised experiences for academics that
enable appropriation of new models of teaching and learning.
What most senior managers at universities and many of
the commentators don't see, is that the environment at
most universities is preventing academics from having these
experiences and then preventing them from appropriating the
new models of teaching." David T. Jones, The Weblog of (a)
David Jones, July 30, 2010 4:19 p.m. [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Another Drop for Sociology
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/sociology
August 2nd, 2010
As the American Sociological Association gets ready to gather
for its annual meeting later this month in Atlanta, the job
market news remains glum.
An association report issued Friday shows a 35 percent decline
in the number of academic job postings in its job bank between
2008 and 2009, and that drop follows a 23 percent drop
Published by: philosophyandrew
between 2006 and 2008, the year that the economic downturn
started in full. (While not all sociology jobs are listed with the
association, the job bank is a good proxy for the overall market,
especially for tenure-track positions.)
Sociology is but the latest discipline to report depressing job
figures. In the last year, sharp declines have been reported
(either in job listings or projected jobs for the coming year) in
literature and languages, history, economics, art history and
other fields.
While the ASA report says that the discipline is experiencing
"the most challenging job market in memory," it expresses at
least hope that things could get better soon. "[I]t is possible
that the sociology job market hit bottom in 2009 and we can
expect some recovery in 2010 and 2011," the report says. "We
expect that after the recession, universities will open lines
that have been canceled and senior faculty members that are
deferring their retirements may retire from the academy."
The report also advises new Ph.D.'s who are "frustrated by
the tight academic job market" to consider moves to "broaden
their searches to research, applied and policy positions outside
the academy." The report notes that there appears to be
increased interest in hiring Ph.D.s for these types of jobs, that
they typically pay better than do academic jobs, and that many
sociology Ph.D.s are happy in such positions and believe that
they still make good use of their doctoral training.
But the ASA report acknowledges that graduate programs may
not be doing a good job of helping their grad students for such a
shift. In surveys of sociology Ph.D.s who have left academe, the
report says, their "biggest complaints were that they received
too little information about non-academic jobs, and that they
wished there would be a reduction of snobbery about such
jobs."
For those who are seeking jobs in academe, about the only
good news in the latest study was that departments that
start searches these days tend to finish them. This may be in
contrast to searches (in many disciplines) that were approved
in the summer or early fall of 2008, before the economy
experienced such a dramatic fall, and that were then called off.
Across all departments that posted job announcements in
2009, 83 percent ended with the jobs filled. As was the case
last year, baccalaureate institutions were the most likely to
bring searches to a successful conclusion. All categories of
institutions, however, were more likely to fill positions in 2009
than they were in 2008.
Percentage of Sociology Job Announcements That Led to a
Hire, 2008 and 2009
Sector 2008 2009
Research 59.9% 76.5%
universities
Doctoral 76.1% 83.6%
universities
Master's 69.6% 86.7%
institutions
3
August 2nd, 2010
Baccalaureate 87.0% 90.7%
institutions
This position will be at the rank of Assistant / Associate
Professor, commencing Fall 2010. Candidates must have an
earned Doctorate from a Western ...
Montclair State is New Jersey's second largest university.
It offers the advantages of a large university - a broad
undergraduate curriculum with a ...
Position Description. Reporting to the department chair, the
assistant professor of sociology will be expected to teach
introduction to sociology, as ...
Hesser College, founded in 1900, is a regionally accredited
post-secondary institution offering career focused Associate
and Baccalaureate degrees to ...
Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, is an inclusive,
dynamic, and innovative Ivy League university and New York's
land-grant institution. ...
Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, is an inclusive,
dynamic, and innovative Ivy League university and New York's
land-grant institution. ...
University Website
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53018
August 2nd, 2010
Randall Munroe, XKCD, July 30, 2010 4:13 p.m. [ Link ] [
Comment ]
Do You REALLY Want to Be a
Professor?
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/summer/summer8
August 2nd, 2010
I am often contacted by faculty members after a catastrophic
professional event has occurred and they realize that
their productivity isn’t going to meet their department’s
expectations for promotion. The most common scenario is
a professor who has received a negative third-year review
because she fell into the typical tenure-track trap: spending all
her time on teaching and service, promising herself she would
write on the semester breaks, and then making little progress
because she’s exhausted from over-functioning in other
aspects of her job. As a result, she uses her breaks to physically
and mentally recover, doesn’t write, and experiences guilt and
stress over her lack of productivity.
These are always difficult conversations, but I typically start
with the basic organizational tips and tricks to get faculty
members writing and re-connected to their research. To
support this intervention, I recommend two weeks of daily
writing with structured support and accountability (either the
Academic Ladder’s Writing Club, or a Daily Nag). At the end of
that time, we assess their progress. Some people get right down
Published by: philosophyandrew
to business, quickly establish a writing plan, and settle into
their daily writing routine. But others are so deeply blocked
that they just can’t do it, so we start to work our way through
the common fears underlying resistance that I’ve discussed in
previous columns. Working through unrealistic expectations,
disempowerment around writing, and a hyperactive inner
critic helps get the vast majority of faculty moving through
their writing funk. However, there’s one qualitatively different
type of energy that blocks writing and that can be the most
difficult to identify and resolve: unclear goals.
Get Real About Your Goals
At the most basic level, unclear goals can be problematic for
academic writers who simply have no overarching research
plan. For example, you may be having difficulty establishing
your own research agenda independent of your dissertation
adviser or post-doctoral mentor. Or it may be the case that
you just keep reactively responding to opportunities that
come to you instead of evaluating whether or not they make
sense for your career. In other words, you react to other
people’s agendas instead of proactively crafting an agenda
that addresses your own substantive interests and research
questions. But at a deeper and far more problematic level,
resistance to writing that is driven by unclear goals is often
rooted in a lack of clarity about your long-term professional
goals. When I have tried everything I know to break through
resistance, I typically end by asking: Do you REALLY want to
be a professor?
I imagine this as a direct and easy question for a tenure-track
faculty member. By that time, an individual has gone through a
decade or so of graduate education and training AND survived
a horrible job market. But this question is often met with
nervous laughter, long pauses, and surprising hesitation. I
believe this is grounded in the way that top students get
steered into the academy: professors meet bright students
and encourage them to consider an academic path. Once
committed to a Ph.D. program, the path to the professoriate
is fairly narrow and the socialization messages (you are
only successful if you get a tenure-track job at a research
intensive university) are both restrictive and insular. Then,
in well-intentioned efforts to help graduate students become
marketable, many are encouraged to apply for programs,
awards, and fellowships that further commit them to the
academic path without corresponding opportunities to reflect
on whether (or not) academe is the right fit.
People often tell me that they became a professor because
they took a course that opened their eyes and inspired them
to change the world! Their professors (naturally) suggested
that they consider graduate school as a way to pursue their
passion. Because people often conflate a person (the inspiring
professor) with their passion (change the world), it seems
reasonable to pursue the same path as their role model. A
decade later, when that formerly inspired student is struggling
to complete the Ph.D., get a job, secure external funding,
publish research, engage ambivalent undergraduates and/or
just manage life on the tenure track, the realization sets in
that the production of knowledge is an incredibly slow way of
making social change!
Wondering whether or not you really want to be a professor is
a natural thought when you’re under the stress and strain of
4
August 2nd, 2010
the tenure track, when you experience moments of seemingly
insurmountable conflict, or when you’re in an intractably toxic
environment. The trick is to determine the difference between
escape fantasies that result from feeling overwhelmed and the
genuine, gut-level resistance that occurs when you REALLY
know you’re on the wrong path. Below I’m going to suggest
a few things you might try as ways to differentiate between
momentary frustration and the need to create an exit strategy.
Write Your Story
Try taking 15-30 minutes to write about how and why you
became a professor. I know this suggestion elicits eye-rolling
and dismissal among busy and serious academics; however,
the results never cease to amaze. Retelling your story in writing
unearths the core elements that drew you to the ivory tower.
The writing may reconnect you to your passion or reveal
alternative paths.
Reconnect With What You LOVE About Your Work
I’m trained as a sociologist and it’s not uncommon to meet
other sociologists who were drawn to the discipline by their
passion for social justice and social change. That said, it’s easy
in the hustle and bustle of daily work to become disconnected
from the very communities that we belong to and/or our
work seeks to represent. For individuals in this scenario,
reconnecting with project participants, sharing work with the
community, meeting with people on the ground to discuss
research collaborations, ideas, and connections, can remind
you why it’s so important for you to complete your writing
projects and publish your work.
Get Some of What’s Missing Into Your Life ASAP
Escape fantasies are frequently fueled by frustration over
the seemingly non-stop rejections that are a natural part of
academic life. Maybe the grant proposal you poured your heart
and soul into was rejected, or the article you were excited about
when you wrote it two years ago has been rejected from yet
another journal after being under review for nine months. All
of these are normal parts of academic life, but they can make
you feel like you’re stuck on a very slow-moving ship when the
rest of the world’s information and innovation is zipping by at
the speed of light. If this is the case, then ask yourself what’s
missing and how you can get a piece of it immediately. For
example, if you want to share your work more quickly, start
a blog, write an article for a mainstream magazine, or join an
organization that links researchers to the media as resources
(such as the Council on Contemporary Families).
If what’s missing is a sense of comfort and home (because
your constant work has left your living space bland and
anonymous), then buy a bucket of paint, hang something on
the walls, or take an evening to cook a special dinner that will
fill your home with comforting smells. Or, if there’s a piece
of you that has died as a result of your singular professional
focus, resuscitate it by showing some of your paintings in a
local gallery, taking a salsa dancing class, writing a Fulbright
application to take your family out of the country, or training
for a marathon. Each of these examples are drawn from faculty
I know who have decided that while they are committed to the
academic path, they are going to create some detours along the
way.
Published by: philosophyandrew
Explore Other Options
I used to teach a leadership course, and one of the most
powerful exercises in the class was identifying five role models
(people who are doing exactly what you think you want to
do) and interviewing them. This has a way of taking dreams
from the abstract into reality. Sometimes students would
find that the job they thought was ideal wasn’t what they
imagined. Others quickly realize that every occupation comes
with moments of fulfillment and lots of daily frustration.
And sometimes, the interviews confirmed their deepest desire
and they ended up making important connections, developing
relationships with future mentors, and consciously moving in
a different direction.
Create an Exit Strategy
It’s OK if you decide to leave a tenure-track job (if for no other
reason than there are thousands of people who would love to
take your place). It’s even OK if you decide to leave a tenured
position to pursue other work. Everyone will tell you you’re
crazy, but a lifetime guarantee of employment doesn’t feel like
a privilege when you’re miserable and you really want to do
something else.
These exercises are aimed at helping you to discern whether
the kind of resistance to writing that you’re experiencing is
fueled by unclear goals. And if so, is it a momentary paralysis
in response to the stressors of your environment or is it your
true self begging you to use your tremendous gifts and talents
in another professional capacity? I find that people who leave
the academy because they are pushed by toxicity, frustration,
institutional politics, or daily aggression quickly discover that
such dynamics occur in all workplaces. But those who leave
because they are pulled toward something are often delighted
by their choice and wonder why they stayed for so long.
Weekly Challenge
This week I challenge you to:
• Write every day for 30-60 minutes.
• If you are unable to write, ask yourself: Why?
• If your resistance is fueled by unclear goals, start by
reviewing (or identifying) your research agenda and
asking whether the projects you’re currently engaged
in are aligned with that agenda or not. If they’re
not, consider gracefully removing yourself from energy-
sucking projects that are not moving you in a clear
direction of your choosing.
• If the mere question “Do you REALLY want to be
an academic?” resonates with you, spend some time
reflecting on the answer.
• Depending on why it resonates with you, try writing
your academic story, reconnecting with your passion,
identifying what’s missing and pulling a piece of it back
into your life, interviewing role models, or creating an
exit strategy.
I hope that asking whether you really want to be a professor
clarifies your own purpose by either helping to confirm your
commitment OR redirect your amazing talent and energy.
Either way, just putting conscious thought towards answering
5
August 2nd, 2010
this question will energize you and get you reconnected to your
writing.
Peace and Productivity,
Kerry Ann Rockquemore
The College of Liberal Arts includes the departments of
Art, English and Mass Communication, Modern Foreign
Languages, Music, History, Theatre, and an ...
Position Summary: The University Center for Human Values
invites applications from all disciplines for the Laurance S.
Rockefeller Visiting Faculty ...
The Core Division at Champlain College is charged with
delivering a four-year fully integrated curriculum to all
traditional undergraduate students. ...
The Core Division at Champlain College is charged with
delivering a four-year fully integrated curriculum to all
traditional undergraduate students. ...
Volunteer State Community CollegeDean of HumanitiesThe
Dean is the chief administrative officer of the division. Duties
include divisional planning; ...
A Guide to No-SQL
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53017
August 2nd, 2010
If alternative data storage systems geeks you out, you'll enjoy
this discussion of non-SQL databases. "Brian Aker lists the
features found in No-SQL, as well as the method of organizing
and creating data within it. He also describes the general use of
schemas and correlational systems in everyday language. His
critical analysis of SQL as a whole encompasses several faults,
too, including limitations on efficiency, organization, and the
encoding language; it quite possibly has an element of satire
to it. In this lecture, there is also a glimpse into data collection
as a whole." Brian Aker, IT Conversations, July 30, 2010 4:11
p.m. [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Anatomy of an Alumnus
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/claremont
August 2nd, 2010
A college looking to expand its donor base might not naturally
look to Laura Wong.
“I’m terrible at helping raise money,” concedes Wong, a 2010
graduate of Claremont McKenna College. “It’s not one of my
strengths, but I am very good at listening to people.”
As it turns out, however, listening is all Claremont McKenna
development officers want Wong to do. Wong is part of a
cadre of current students and recent graduates who have
been tapped to engage in an unprecedented alumni outreach
for the college, which is using students to conduct hundreds
of interviews with alumni young and old. The goal of the
“Alumni Interview” project is to get feedback from graduates
and potential donors on a variety of topics, including how they
Published by: philosophyandrew
might prefer to be contacted – snail mail? E-mail? Facebook?
The interviewers also want to know whether alumni are
yearning for more interaction from Claremont McKenna or
already feel overwhelmed by what they perceive as a barrage
of calls and mailings.
After hour-long phone conversations, alumni interviewers like
Wong hope to be able to tell the college something about
what makes graduates tick. They’ll have a pretty good idea of
what alumni's interests are, how they feel about the college
and what might potentially motivate them to contribute. What
the interviewers won’t ask for is a check. Indeed, student
interviewers are explicitly told to let alumni know up front that
the call isn’t a solicitation of funds – it’s an effort to better get
to know graduates who may not have heard from the college
in decades.
“I really liked sitting down and trying to figure out their
psyche through the information I received,” said Wong, who
now works as a strategist and trend spotter for a New York
packaging and graphic design firm.
While the college hopes to learn about individual alumni,
a broader goal of the interview project is to find recurring
themes and trends among alumni who share certain
characteristics. The college has commissioned a faculty
member with statistical expertise to use the responses for
the creation of a database, dividing interview subjects into
43 individual strata based on majors, professions and other
factors. The hope would be that Claremont McKenna would
have an idea of what interests and appeals to particular alumni
– say female sociology majors who graduated in the 1990s.
“I think it will go down as one of the more significant
things that’s happened in the development higher ed field for
quite some time,” said Patrick Roche, Claremont McKenna’s
director of annual giving.
While the college’s approach may prove significant, there’s
no magic bullet, according to Donald Summers, who consults
colleges about development strategies. While unfamiliar with
the details of Claremont McKenna’s project, Summers said he
would be leery of any strategy that tried to “automate” fund-
raising through predictive formulas. Nothing replaces one-on-
one human interaction, he said.
“Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the old-fashioned tools, the
ones that have been around for a hundred years, are still the
best,” said Summers, director of Altruist Partners LLC.
Engaging Young Alumni
The alumni interviews at Claremont McKenna are but a piece
of a larger alumni engagement strategy that is unfolding at the
college at the behest of Pamela Brooks Gann, who has been
president since 1999. The college has been at pains to stay
in contact with younger alumni, who move around a lot and
would rather connect with friends on Facebook than return to
campus for a reunion.
“These people are seemingly dropping off the face of the Earth,
and that’s not good,” said Roche, echoing concerns many
development officers have about recent graduates.
Claremont McKenna is increasing its focus on young alumni,
and Roche says the strategy already appears to have borne
some fruit. The 10-year average giving rate, which is used to
6
August 2nd, 2010
capture young alumni, was 45 percent in 2010, compared to
38 percent in 2009 and 39 percent in 2008.
Rae Goldsmith, vice president of advancement resources at
the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, said
tracking down elusive "millennials" is a shared problem across
higher education. Land lines and long-term home addresses
are increasingly uncommon for this cohort, and that causes
headaches for fund-raisers.
"The big issue is to really find and connect with people who
live in a cell phone generation," she said.
Moreover, colleges are trying to respond to the fact that young
alumni are more likely to support causes that are global in
scope, Goldsmith said.
"Part of what we're hearing is educational institutions trying
to shift their message to make clear higher education is a
global cause," she said. "But we are hearing anecdotally that
institutions are concerned about young alumni giving. It's
an important concern to have, because giving when you're a
young alumnus is more likely to lead to greater giving when
you're an older alumnus."
To engage these young alumni, Claremont McKenna is
launching a new program dubbed the Forum for the Future.
The college will select about 10 percent of students from each
of the most five recent graduating classes, appointing them as
both ambassadors and consultants.
The college is seeking a diverse pool of students, hoping that
the group of approximately 30 alumni in each graduating class
will collectively have some friendship or social connection
to each member of a class of about 300. To help ensure
connections across alumni with varied interests and social
circles, Claremont McKenna is assembling something akin to
The Breakfast Club – a band of students that might include
jocks, politicos and artists.
“It’s a great way to identify a group of movers and shakers
and keep them involved and engaged,” said John Faranda, vice
president for alumni and parent relations.
The college will solicit the students’ advice through social
networking, online forums and online meetings. Additionally,
Claremont McKenna will bring the students together
at an annual meeting on campus, where they'll meet
with administrators, faculty and development officers. The
project’s $20,000 annual budget will help cover travel
expenses for the forum members, and the college is also hiring
a recent alumnus to organize the forum.
Roche calls the forum the “ultimate peer networking” tool. The
goal is to reach beyond the traditional leaders who might have
been involved in student government, finding a representative
group that can become “standard bearers” of the college and
help maintain connections to a diverse graduating class. While
the endgame is to keep alumni connected to the college for
future fund-raising or service, Claremont McKenna also hopes
to groom young alumni for more prominent positions in the
future.
“You might not think about whether someone is a good
candidate for a trustee two years out of college,” he said. “We
might have to start thinking along those lines now.”
Published by: philosophyandrew
There’s also a desire to keep alumni attuned to the
developments at the college, in part so they won’t be wedded
to the idea that the Claremont McKenna they remember is the
way the college should stay forever.
“Alumni think their experience should be sort of fixed in amber
and cherished,” Faranda said. “And one of our goals in alumni
relations is to [show them] evolution is good for a college; it’s
not really bad.”
Montclair State is New Jersey's second largest university.
It offers the advantages of a large university - a broad
undergraduate curriculum with a ...
Montclair State is New Jersey's second largest university.
It offers the advantages of a large university - a broad
undergraduate curriculum with a ...
Barnard College, Columbia University, is seeking an Associate
Director responsible for managing all aspects of The Barnard
Fund campaign for a segment ...
Metaweb, the web of entities
bringing us closer to Web3.0
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53016
August 2nd, 2010
Nice video explanation of Metaweb. "If you are interested,
you can join the freebase community that is part of Metaweb.
Through Freebase users can add content to the open database,
creating entities. Although I signed up as a member, the
registering process had a glitch in Firefox at first, I could access
it through Internet Explorer. When I tried a bit later, Firefox
was working ok as well for accessing Freebase.
" Inge de Waard, Ignatia, July 30, 2010 4:09 p.m. [ Link ] [
Comment ]
Higher Ed and the Schools
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/08/02/greenberg
August 2nd, 2010
American colleges and universities hold dear their
independence, not only from government but from each other.
Each college and university, irrespective of its sources of
support, perceives of itself as self-contained, free to define
its mission and to control its own operations. Competition
rather than cooperation among them is expected in the intense
search for students, dollars and prestige. While common
understandings on mutual obligations do exist, none rise to
the level of a sense of shared national purpose.
There does exist an overriding purpose that all should openly
share -- the care, feeding and reform of elementary and
secondary education in America. A growing consensus among
scholars and practitioners is that the most important element
in student success is the teacher and the most important
element in school success is the principal. Who prepares the
teachers? Who prepares the principals?
7
August 2nd, 2010
Many, if not most, academics may plead innocence for
the inadequacy of the public school system on the ground
that their teaching and research obligations do not involve
elementary and secondary school issues. But how many have
lamented the inadequacy of their students’ academic skills
and blamed the performance of elementary and secondary
education for their deleterious impact upon higher education?
Who or what is responsible for the disappointing portrait
of America’s system of public elementary and secondary
education? Multiple answers are typically offered: Uncaring
parents, uninspired teachers, unqualified principals, selfish
teachers unions, corrupt politicians, partisan school boards,
politically harassed superintendents and disgraceful school
buildings. Social ills such as poverty, racism and drugs are
in the mix as are the debilitating impact of television and
twittering. We blame the lack of money but that collides with
data showing that many poor performing schools and school
districts spend more per student than good schools.
What is missing from this litany of the obvious? The free pass
being given to higher education.
How did we get to this perverted assignment of blame to those
at the end of the educational chain who are totally dependent
upon the existence and products of the top of the chain?
Who is preparing the teachers, principals, superintendents
and most school board members who form the key ingredients
for educating our children?
What you have heard, when we address it at all, is widespread
condemnation of schools of education, treating them as weak
spots while all the other departments and disciplines in
the university, teaching the same students, share none of
the blame. Incompetent or unsuitable teachers? Well that’s
the fault of schools of education, right? Students in other
programs or professional schools are considered products
of the whole university’s efforts but, apparently, education
students emerge as a tabula rasa who reflect no benefit from
their relationship to the rest of the university.
You don’t have to dig too deeply into the literature on
schools of education to find a pattern of criticism, much of it
related to the perception that such schools emphasize teaching
methodology instead of subject matter competence. Who is
supposed to teach how to teach children to read, write or
do arithmetic? And who is to teach what to teach if not the
scholarly disciplines? How many liberal arts departments offer
courses sensitive to what an elementary or secondary teacher
would find useful? Instead, even introductory courses are
usually geared to the production of majors with little if any idea
about what is actually taught to children. A faculty member
who espoused that his or her department make that part of
its agenda would be viewed as a pariah, out of step with the
department’s academic discipline.
Another favorite of critics is that education programs attract
and accept students with lower qualifications than other
liberal arts programs. This allegation is questionable and
irrelevant, since the prospective teacher must pass all
requirements of the academic disciplines to earn a degree.
Debate rages about whether teachers need unique educational
credentials to teach or, instead, if we should open the
profession to people with other training who desire to enter
Published by: philosophyandrew
the teaching profession. Still, it is expected that such people
will take some traditional educational methods courses.
The history of the training of school teachers in this country
is instructive. The early colleges and universities stressed
classical education for the learned professions (clergy, law,
medicine), but teacher education was not considered part of
the mission. Public elementary education was sporadic and
geared to the needs of an agrarian society.
Teachers were unlicensed and poorly compensated. Not until
the late 1830s were public “normal schools” established
to provide post-eighth grade education to prepare primary
school teachers and to establish “norms” for schools. By
the beginning of the 20th century, school systems grew and
stabilized, secondary education expanded and many normal
schools extended their curricula to agricultural and vocational
training with some liberal studies. Only after World War II
and the enormous population boom did the United States
approach the idea of universal secondary school education, an
idea that is not yet realized in graduation data.
With those developments, normal schools developed into the
four-year “teacher colleges,” the earlier format of the “state
normal colleges” which evolved into the “state colleges” and,
during the 1950s and 1960s, to the numerous regional state
universities, typically named according to location in the state
-- “eastern, western, northern, southern and central.”
At each step of this astonishing growth of higher education in
America, teacher training slipped in status as a lesser-regarded
area of study. Though prospective teacher enrollments
remained high, they served as the proverbial “cash cows”
with lesser qualifications for entering the teacher education
programs and education faculty salaries lower than for other
growing disciplines.
It happens that I was twice part of the morphing of the normal
school, teacher college, and state college into a regional state
university, with a diminished role for teacher education within
the growing university. I can recall the overall atmospherics
of a community rooted in the training of school teachers.
Whatever subject matter you taught, you knew that most
of the students in your class were prospective teachers.
Many departments were involved in curricular discussions
with teacher education units to coordinate substantive
subject matter with teaching methodology and to advise
students on suitable courses to meet state and school district
requirements.
Subsequently I became the dean of a newly established
college of arts and sciences at a former teacher’s college
and there experienced the unraveling of longstanding faculty
and curricular arrangements as general education programs
overtook the focus usually allotted to the preparation of
teachers. At both universities, the gradual separation of
teacher education from the central mission of the institution
reflected new directions for higher education in America.
There are now so many alternative routes to become a
teacher without teacher education certification that the
teacher education units are further diminished. For example,
avenues are available for teaching positions in private schools,
charter schools, through national programs such as Teach
8
August 2nd, 2010
for America, and special accelerated courses for persons
holding any undergraduate or professional degree who would
like to try teaching. Elementary and secondary teaching was
viewed largely as “women’s work” until opportunities for
women opened in all realms of professional and business life,
suggesting that more academically talented women populated
schools of education than do so now.
What would it take to mobilize higher education to assume
more responsibility for the preparation of teachers? Here are
three suggestions:
• First, all major college and university associations should
declare in concert with their membership that, in the
national interest, the preparation of teachers will receive
the priority treatment usually accorded to showcase
programs or schools. This could mean, for example,
that all would agree to raise the requirements for
admission to education programs along the lines used
for special undergraduate honors or other selective
programs and at the graduate level to law, medicine or
business. Such unprecedented action would be contrary
to higher education’s penchant for institutional and
programmatic independence, making it all the more
dramatic and establish the preparation of elementary
and secondary teachers and principals as a core value of
higher education.
• Second, all academic departments should work in
concert with education faculty to maximize the marriage
of subject matter with methodology for teaching
elementary and secondary students. Many universities
have participated in both academic and social programs
to assist local schools. Such programs are usually
remedial in character, limited in scope and disconnected
from higher education’s overall relationship to the
plight of the schools. To connect would require
acknowledgment that in the case of children and
adolescents, subject matter competence of teachers
is not sufficient. What counts is some standard for
what should be taught and recognition that teaching
methodology can and should be taught. Such alliances
are beginning to make some headway in numerous
colleges and universities, and their activities should
be studied and publicized. Especially hopeful is the
release in June 2010 of a set of national standards for
elementary and secondary education by the National
Governors Association and the Council of Chief State
School Officers to prepare students for college. Many
college officials say that they will train teachers to meet
the standards.
• Third, in order to maximize the use of limited resources,
a return to the concept of the teacher colleges with their
combined dedication of subject matter and methodology
should be explored. Colleges and universities with
small education programs could use existing consortium
arrangements, or establish new alliances, to share a free-
standing teachers college that joins their education and
special subject matter faculty and to which they will
send undergraduate and graduate students preparing for
teaching and administrative posts. Properly executed,
with serious attention to recruiting high quality students,
Published by: philosophyandrew
faculty, and research scholars, the diminished prestige
of teacher education programs could be raised to
the essential place that they should have among the
learned professions. It is likely that such experiments
would be attractive to major private foundations, with
eventual benefit to colleges and universities, and to local
business groups eager to repair perceived weaknesses of
elementary and secondary schools in their communities.
Henry Wyman Holmes, the inaugural dean of the Harvard
Graduate School of Education, 1920-1940, stated some 80
years ago that "the training of teachers is a highly significant
part of the making of the nation." He called for "a more
serious conception of the place of the teacher in the life of
the nation,” urging educational and political leaders to join
him in "changing the systems that support poorly trained,
paid and esteemed teachers." He found few supporters.
To realize Holmes’s efforts to raise teacher education to
higher professional levels, leaders in teacher education formed
the Holmes Group, renamed the Holmes Partnership, to
encourage linkages among education professionals and with
liberal arts departments, still seeking the same goals.
Others, notably in the political world, are putting pressure
on schools at all levels. Congress enacted the “No Child
Left Behind” program emphasizing testing and assessment
of learning. The U.S. Department of Education has put
more rigorous requirements on teacher education accrediting
bodies and is using “Race to the Top” funds to encourage both
program and personnel changes for failing school systems.
Another notable development is the aggressive initiative
of private foundations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation and the Lumina Foundation for Education, to
promote improvements in the teaching profession. Increased
action by political and private power centers should be
expected.
To avoid further loss of treasured higher education
independence, remediation of teacher education should begin
with higher education’s role in the decline of the schools.
This calls for shoring up their teacher education programs
and awakening the traditional academic departments to their
responsibilities for the education of teachers.
American colleges and universities are the envy of the world
for their excellence in so many endeavors. As the population
grows and diversifies and technology poses enormous
challenges, we need to concentrate on the ingredient that
makes continuing achievements possible -- the education of
children. This is one obligation we should openly share that
can provide that sense of shared national purpose so lacking
in higher education.
Desired Qualifications Juris Doctor degree. Knowledge of
career opportunities in the legal community, including
substantive areas of practice and ...
The Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education
of Princeton University seeks applications for the William R.
Kenan, Jr. Visiting ...
The Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education
at Princeton University seeks applications for the James Wei
Visiting Professorship in ...
9
August 2nd, 2010
Job Description The Student Assistance Center Advisor works
at the Advising Desk assisting new and returning students with
the enrollment process. ...
Montclair State is New Jersey's second largest university.
It offers the advantages of a large university - a broad
undergraduate curriculum with a ...
Montclair State is New Jersey's second largest university.
It offers the advantages of a large university - a broad
undergraduate curriculum with a ...
Are UT Southwestern Medical
Faculty Failing to Oversee
Residents?
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/qt/
are_ut_southwestern_medical_faculty_failing_to_oversee_residents
August 2nd, 2010
Some University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
faculty members have been letting medical residents operate
at a public hospital with less supervision and training
than is standard and generally seen as necessary, The
Dallas Morning News reported. While UT officials denied
wrongdoing, the article cited the resignation of one faculty
members in protest, and concerns expressed by other faculty
members and various warnings in consultants' reports. The
faculty member who quit said that the hospital had become
"clinical fodder."
No Doctoral Rankings in
August, but Timetable Is
Likely
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/qt/
no_doctoral_rankings_in_august_but_timetable_is_likely
August 2nd, 2010
The long-awaited rankings of doctoral programs by the
National Research Council -- years behind schedule and with
an evolving methodology -- aren't coming this month, but
are apparently due soon. NRC officials have been declining to
give public indications of when the rankings will be released,
but the Web site for the project posted a notice last week
that indicated some campus officials were asking about the
timing of August vacations in light of the potential release of
the project. According to the notice, the rankings won't come
out in August, but universities should find out in August when
they will receive the data and when the public will receive the
data -- at a later point also not in August.
U.S. Balks at Proposed Sale of
California Guarantor
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/qt/
u_s_balks_at_proposed_sale_of_california_guarantor
August 2nd, 2010
The U.S. Education Department has told state officials in
California that the federal government will terminate its
Published by: philosophyandrew
agreement with EdFund, the state agency that guarantees
federal student, and replace it with another entity, the
Sacramento Bee reported . The department's decision could
threaten Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to sell the
troubled agency, which has been in turmoil for years.
New Questions on Test Bias
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/testing
August 2nd, 2010
For many years, critics of the SAT have cited a verbal question
involving the word "regatta" as an example of how the test
may favor wealthier test-takers, who also are more likely to be
white. It's been a long time since the regatta question was used
-- and the College Board now has in place a detailed process
for testing all questions and potential questions, designed to
weed out questions that may favor one group of students over
another.
But a major new research project -- led by a scholar who
favors standardized testing -- has just concluded that the
methods used by the College Board (and just about every other
testing entity for either admissions or employment testing) are
seriously flawed. While the new research doesn't conclude that
the tests are biased, it says that they could be -- and that the
existing methods of detection wouldn't reveal that.
"I'm not saying that they are being dishonest or hiding
something, but if there is bias today, you are not going to detect
it," said Herman Aguinis, professor of organizational behavior
and human resources at the Kelley School of Business of
Indiana University at Bloomington. The research -- co-written
with Steven A. Culpepper of the University of Colorado at
Denver and Charles A. Pierce of the University of Memphis --
has just been published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
Aguinis said that the question of bias remains crucial to the
fairness of admissions tests. Since, on average, white and
Asian students earn higher scores than do black or Latino
students, colleges can be justified in using standardized tests
only if they are certain that the score gaps are not related to
bias.
The College Board, ACT and just about every other major
testing outfit (not to mention colleges) typically say that score
gaps are caused by the inequities in American society, in which
many black and Latino students are less likely to benefit from
the educational and economic advantages of other students.
And the testing services all say that they use sophisticated
testing techniques -- plus much more sensitivity than was the
case in the regatta question era -- to prevent biased questions
from ever being used.
In the common approach, individual questions are analyzed.
What the new paper suggests is another way to look for
bias. The scholars created a database with literally trillions
of questions and scores on a range of tests, including all
the major standardized tests used in college admissions. And
this database featured trillions of questions that had been
determined to have bias. But when samples were pulled out for
analysis of a given question on a given test, the results came
back negative for bias.
10
August 2nd, 2010
The conclusion, Aguinis said, is that question-by-question
analysis doesn't detect bias.
"Given our research, the conclusion that tests are unbiased
should be revisited," he said. "We need a much bigger
question."
He also noted that much of the research that has been
done to show no bias in tests has been supported by the
testing industry. Aguinis noted that the research he and his
colleagues conducted did not receive any outside support. And
he stressed that he would like to see a new discussion so that
bias could be detected and eliminated, not so testing should be
stopped.
"I think our research does not negate the importance of
testing," he said. "Our research does not say that testing is
not useful. On the contrary, I believe that merit-based testing
and testing that truly identified the people with the greatest
potential is needed, What we need to do is strive to develop
fair and valid tests."
The new study on bias techniques is the second major research
effort this summer to question whether the SAT is detecting
and preventing racial bias in questions. The other study, which
found some bias against black students in some kinds of
questions, was published in the Harvard Educational Review
and has been criticized by the College Board.
A spokeswoman for the College Board said that officials there
did not have time to study and respond to the new research on
Friday.
Robert Schaeffer, public education director of the National
Center for Fair and Open Testing, said that the new findings
"challenge a fundamental paradigm" of the testing industry.
"Given the increasingly high-stakes attached to standardized
exams, failure to follow the recommendation for additional
investigation into potential bias would be irresponsible," he
said.
Principle responsibilities: Identify and implement ways to
strengthen reality and perception of AUD as an institution
committed to teaching ...
The School of Pharmacy at Husson University is seeking a
dynamic, highly motivated individual to direct our efforts in
admissions and student ...
Job Summary: The Admission & Transfer Coordinator serves
as liaison to graduate and undergraduate admission units.
assures admission units' compliance ...
Graduate Admissions Counselor Baltimore, MD; Professional
– Jul 30, '10 About College of Notre Dame of Maryland:
College of Notre Dame ...
Protesters Question Berkeley
Links to BP
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/qt/
protesters_question_berkeley_links_to_bp
August 2nd, 2010
The environment disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has revived
concerns at the University of California at Berkeley over the
institution's ties to BP. The oil company gave the university
Published by: philosophyandrew
$500 million for an energy research in 2007 -- and many
faculty members questioned the deal at the time. On Friday,
a rally at Berkeley drew attention to the deal in light of recent
events, with those at the rally saying it was time to revisit the
university's ties to BP, the Associated Press reported. But
Berkeley officials said that now isn't the time to walk away
from the research. "The horrible events in the Gulf should
only strengthen our commitment to find alternatives to fossil
fuels," Graham Fleming, vice chancellor of research, told the
AP. "Why would anyone's interest be served by stopping this
research?"
FBI Admits It Tracked Howard
Zinn
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/qt/
fbi_admits_it_tracked_howard_zinn
August 2nd, 2010
The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday admitted that it
tracked Howard Zinn, the noted historian and political activist
who died in January, from 1949 to 1974, and the bureau
released 423 pages of records from the monitoring of Zinn.
Salon noted that this monitoring took place "despite having
apparently no evidence that he ever committed a crime." And
TPM noted that the records indicate that a senior official at
Boston University, where Zinn taught, tried to have him fired
in 1970. (If you are wondering if that official might have been
John Silber, the long-time BU president with whom Zinn had
many disagreements, it wasn't, as Silber hadn't been hired at
the time.)
A Bit More on 'Gainful
Employment'
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/kvaal
August 2nd, 2010
WASHINGTON –The U.S. Department of Education’s
proposed rules defining “gainful employment” by examining
students’ ability to repay their loans have spurred more
questions than they’ve answered. But on Friday, James Kvaal,
the new deputy under secretary of education, answered
some of the most salient nuts-and-bolts questions that have
emerged since the department released its notice of proposed
rule making and regulatory impact analysis on July 23.
And, for the first time since starting work at the Education
Department earlier this summer, Kvaal explained why he
believes for-profit colleges -- the primary target of the rule
making process – need greater regulation. “In the landscape
of higher ed today, you see a lot of thriving for-profit colleges
and that’s a good thing.” Even so, he said, “we should recognize
that for-profit institutions do have a legal incentive or even
an obligation to try and maximize their profitability for
shareholders.”
Kvaal’s remarks came at a forum on the gainful employment
proposal hosted by the New America Foundation.
While some programs “appear to be very good, there are
also troubling signs that some for-profit programs are not
delivering great value and you can see in the data that
11
August 2nd, 2010
some programs have very low repayment rates, very high
debt loads, high default rates,” he said. Those are the
programs that the department is attempting to rein in with
its gainful employment regulations (and an additional package
of proposed regulations also related to the integrity of the
Title IV federal financial aid program), which would use two
debt service-to-income ratios and the loan repayment rate to
determine a program’s eligibility to accept federal financial aid
dollars from students.
Before getting into the details of the gainful employment
proposal, Kvaal offered a legal disclaimer. “There are strict
rules about what department officials can say about the rule in
this period -- they’re designed to create a transparent process,
to make sure everyone has an equal voice,” he said. “I just want
to be clear that I can’t go beyond the content of the rule in what
I say.”
Nonetheless, where the rule and the analysis accompanying
its release appeared to need clarification, Kvaal did his best to
clarify.
One point of confusion coming from the Education
Department’s rollout of the proposal was precisely how
many programs would fall into the three broad categories
of “eligible,” “restricted” and “ineligible” programs. Based on
department data, Kvaal said, 40 percent of programs would
be fully eligible to receive federal financial aid and 48 percent
would be eligible but required to make additional disclosures
to students about debt levels. Another 7 percent would be
able to receive federal financial aid but would have their
enrollments restricted to the average of the previous three
years. And 5 percent would be ineligible.
One way for programs to pass the gainful employment test
and be eligible for Title IV federal financial aid will be by
demonstrating a loan repayment rate above 45 percent. There
had been some confusion about exactly how that number
would be calculated, but Kvaal explained it. If a student
entered repayment with a $10,000 loan, even $1 toward
repayment of that principal over the course of a year would
count as $10,000 in both the numerator and the denominator
of a program’s overall repayment rate calculation.
Some observers believe that the department would need
to get Congressional approval to be able to collect income
data from another federal agency – likely the Social Security
Administration -- to use in its calculations. Kvaal said that
the department’s “lawyers have looked at it… we think there’s
authority for us to get program-level data.” But, he added, the
department was open to public comments questioning that
authority.
The Student Affairs Office (SAO) provides services to students
at the Cummings School in the areas of records, financial aid,
housing, and other areas ...
The successful candidate will possess a Bachelor’s Degree.
A strong commitment to high quality customer service and
excellent communications skills ...
Job Description The Student Assistance Center Advisor works
at the Advising Desk assisting new and returning students with
the enrollment process. ...
Published by: philosophyandrew
Montclair State is New Jersey's second largest university.
It offers the advantages of a large university - a broad
undergraduate curriculum with a ...
Keiser University is a regionally accredited, private, career
university that provides educational programs at the
undergraduate and graduate levels ...
SEC Questions Source of
Funds for $10M Gift to U. of
Michigan
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/qt/
sec_questions_source_of_funds_for_10m_gift_to_u_of_michigan
August 2nd, 2010
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has brought
civil charges against Samuel Wyly and Charles Wyly, two
brothers, for securities fraud. While the SEC is accusing them
of hundreds of millions of dollars in gains through insider
trading, one charge relates to the University of Michigan.
AnnArbor.com reported that Samuel Wyly's $10 million
gift in 1997 came from cash he gained through securities
fraud. A lawyer for the brothers has denied wrongdoing. A
spokeswoman for the university said: "Mr. Wyly has been a
long-time friend and supporter of the university. We're sorry
to hear he is facing these difficult circumstances."
Textbook Alternatives
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/
confessions_of_a_community_college_dean/textbook_alternatives
August 2nd, 2010
By Dean Dad August 1, 2010 9:41 pm
My psychic powers tell me that in the next few weeks, as the
back-to-school rush hits, we’ll be inundated with complaints
about textbook costs. This is about as risky a prediction as
guessing that the sun will rise in the East.
Textbook costs are remarkably high and climbing quickly;
in the context of a community college, they frequently
equal or exceed the actual tuition for the class. Textbook
publishers have been remarkably brazen about tamping down
competition from the used-book market, whether relying
on online codes, frequently updated editions, or ‘bundling’
of textbooks with ‘free’ extras that don’t come with used
editions. The idea has been to push students into buying
new editions, since that’s where the publisher’s profit is.
(Bookstores themselves, I’m told, often make more profit on
used books, which creates some interesting internal tensions.)
Financial aid often covers textbook costs, but that’s less
transparent than it seems. Financial aid usually consists, at
least in part, of loans that must be paid back. In some cases,
financial aid includes vouchers for textbooks, but the vouchers
are only good at the college bookstore. (As far as I know, the
new law requiring disclosure of ISBN numbers for textbooks
doesn’t address that, though I could be wrong on that.) And
then there’s the uncomfortable fact that many colleges get a cut
of textbook revenues, whether directly (when the bookstore
is owned by the college) or indirectly (when a bookstore
leases space and preferred access). In the latter case, the more
12
August 2nd, 2010
profitable the bookstore, the more rent it’s willing to pay, so
the incentives wind up pretty similar.
I’ve been hearing predictions of catastrophic, technology-
driven change in the textbook market for years now, but
haven’t seen it yet on the ground. Among the game-changers,
I’m told, are the ipad, the kindle, free/open websites, and
textbook rental programs.
Based on my own experience with the kindle, I’m skeptical
there, at least so far. Yes, they’re cheaper than they once were,
but they’re hard to use for quick thumbing-through. Note-
taking is inelegant at best, and you can’t share (or sell back)
downloaded copies when you’re done with them. The same
seems to apply with the ipad, which is also (in my limited
observation) kinda heavy for a reader.
Free/open websites are platform-independent, which is nice,
and the price is right. But they require screen and internet
access, they often require printing, and if they vanish, they
vanish.
Textbook rentals sound promising to me, though I’m not
entirely sure how highlighting or marginal note-taking works
with that model. In my student days, I sometimes made some
less-than-civil comments in the margins as a way of making
even the driest text “interactive.” If you have to treat the book
like your aunt’s sofa with the plastic still on it, I suspect that
many students will take the path of least immediate resistance
and simply not bother with it at all.
The new Higher Ed Authorization Act requires making public
the titles and ISBN’s of assigned textbooks as early as
practicable, with the goal of introducing some competition --
or at least the prospect of competition -- into the textbook
market as a way to control costs. (The idea is that an
enterprising student could crib the list and get the same books
on Amazon for less.) In some limited contexts, that may help,
but I’d be surprised if it made much of a dent overall. Too many
professors wait until the last minute to pick books anyway, too
many students wait until the last minute (or later) to buy them,
and too many financial aid packages include nontransferable
book vouchers. But at least it’s something.
Since my campus has been relatively slow to move on this,
I’m eager to hear from those of my wise and worldly readers
who’ve seen some or all of these tried. If you’ve taught (or
studied) on a campus that used open source, or kindle, or
rental solutions, how well did they work? What didn’t work?
What do you wish you had known first? I’m hoping to find
some practical way to help students avoid getting shocked on
cost without sacrificing usefulness.
Essays that Lie
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/provost_prose/
essays_that_lie
August 2nd, 2010
By Herman Berliner August 1, 2010 9:38 pm
I was very pleased to read the recent news article in Inside
Higher Ed describing the new essay service that has been
made available by Turnitin.com to uncover plagiarism in
admissions essays. The article presented some compelling
statistics for utilizing this service including that “36 percent
Published by: philosophyandrew
[of the 450,000 admissions essays scrutinized] had enough
in the way of ‘significant matching text’ to make it reasonable
to suspect plagiarism or the use of purchased essays.” I am
clearly pleased that we will have a new tool in the fight
against plagiarism. Academic dishonesty should always result
in serious consequences and imposing consequences can only
happen if there is knowledge of what transpired.
But does this go far enough? A number of years ago, a
friend was talking to me about his son. The son was in the
process of applying to the top five national graduate programs/
schools in his subject area. This friend talked about his son’s
GPA, and his score on the standardized test and both were
very impressive. The dad also talked about his son’s essay
which he felt was also very compelling. The essay outlined a
series of activities undertaken by the son to help economically
disadvantaged youth. I commented to the dad that I was
enormously impressed by both the quality and quantity of
the son’s community engagement. The dad’s response, which
surprised me, was that he wasn’t sure that his son had done
all that was claimed but that the essay was nevertheless very
compelling. I very quickly responded that I have zero respect
for someone who takes credit for important work that the
person never actually did. And the friend responded just as
quickly that his son had done all the work claimed.
Did he actually do the work? I accepted what the friend said
but I’m not sure I believe it. And the reality is that we often
have no basis to conclude whether an admissions bio or an
admissions essay is true or is not true. But we would be very
safe in assuming that both alternatives are well represented in
the typical pool of admissions essays. Therefore, even if we can
spot plagiarism, we may not have made the overall progress
we need to make if major league lying is not detected. What
should we do? Rethink the admissions essay and be careful
that what we ask can help limit puffery. But if a potential
student talks about service or accomplishments and if this
service or these accomplishments can make a difference in
terms of the admissions decision, the student should be asked
to include a reference from a person familiar with this aspect of
the student’s accomplishments. We should give credit where
credit is due for a student’s accomplishments. And we should
do all we can to make sure that credit is not given and a penalty
is imposed, if the reality is that there is no reality in what the
student is claiming.
Summer’s Labours Lost
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university_of_venus/
summer_s_labours_lost
August 2nd, 2010
My sons and I hold a recurrent discussion about the reason
school lets out in early June and resumes on the cusp of
September. They adhere to the notion that a summer vacation
came to them as a birthright. I point out the critical difference
between the break they receive and the vacation they claim.
“Do you know why you don’t have school? Because when
schools first started, children had to help their parents work
in the fields during the summer.” The lecture continues: “Do
you know that because kids could only go to school in the
13
August 2nd, 2010
winter, their parents had to give firewood to the teacher?
The teacher would even go around to their houses with a
wagon to pick it up.” A few more details about one-room
schoolhouses, in which the older kids taught the younger ones
(they know about their great-grandma’s), and the complaints
about nightly reading die down.
Many undergraduates hang on to the vestiges of my boys’
sense that summer is supposed to mean getting to do exactly
what you want to do precisely when you want to do it. For
undergraduates, the desire for change frequently manifests
in the desire to make money by whatever means and in the
highest amount possible. Nirvana equates to a Goldman Sachs
internship, which will miraculously produce the six-figure job
offer and maximize this goal in the present and the future.
Other internships result in less cash up front, but promise
golden tickets to elite and lucrative legal or medical careers
down the road. Then there are the camp counselors, shop
clerks, and burger flippers. They earn a little and learn a little
while the sun shines. Another set expends more parental cash
to buy extra courses or “voluntourism” packages anticipated
to ‘pay off’ in the future with graduate admissions and global
influence to make newly-impoverished parents proud.
Any of these options may broaden a students’ minds
and give them the ‘experiential learning’ opportunity
of which academic administrators speak ad nauseam.
However, the student has to conceptualize the
opportunity as more than money/career-making in order
for it to work. William Deresiewicz’s reflection on
Ivy Leaguers’ inability to converse with convenience
store clerks (http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-
disadvantages-of-an-elite-education) could be quickly
overcome with a summer working in a convenience store,
but only if the student forgoes the snobbery of assuming
they have nothing to share with their colleagues. If the
student comes from a snotty suburb, a job in a low income
urban neighborhood offers far more potential for cross-class
understanding than one at home. As George H.W. Bush and
Barak Obama each learned the hard way, every citizen should
know the price of milk (NOT arugula) and its percentage in a
minimum-wage worker’s budget. Once you know it, you can
talk about it with anyone whether at Harvard or in Harlem.
Summer should be about pushing boundaries, and the
best opportunities need not be expensive. That hypothetical
convenience store might stand next to a community center.
A student could volunteer to work with those in need while
earning a little to contribute towards the family bills. The
choice between teaching country-club kids tennis for profit or
offering underclass children a new definition of fun for free
need not be so stark. Time abroad means little if a student
leaves feeling like a self-satisfied saviour or never sets forth
from the safety of a study-abroad ghetto.
I spent the summer following my freshman year on the
Navajo reservation. My parents paid my tuition for the
Published by: philosophyandrew
ethnographic field school, but money had no influence as my
blond ponytail circulated a Gallup, New Mexico stadium in a
sea of shining, coal-black hair during the Intertribal Games.
I knew in that moment what it meant to be different. I spent
the evening with Native Americans from across the country
commenting on having ‘seen’ me, the only melanin-deprived
person among the throngs on the field. They had not seen me,
of course. They each noted the ponytail bleached to extreme
by the southwestern sun. That visceral sense of having my
appearance draw everyone’s attention to my outsider status
never left me. I made no money, but my summer’s labor was
not lost.
Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe is Associate Director of the
Office of Fellowships and teaches History and American
Studies at Northwestern University, from which she
earned her BA (1992). She earned MLitt (1994) and
MPhil (1995) degrees in European History as a Marshall
Scholar at Cambridge University before completing her
PhD at Princeton University (2000). In her so-called
spare time, she fights household entropy, gardens, bakes
boozy bundts, enjoys breakfast in Bollywood, and writes
scholarly papers about funky monks. For more, visit http://
elizabethlewispardoe.wordpress.com or find Elizabeth on
Twitter@ejlp and LinkedIn.
Some Questions for Scitable
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/
some_questions_for_scitable
August 2nd, 2010
By Joshua Kim August 1, 2010 6:28 pm
Have you checked out Scitable, a free online teaching/
learning portal combining peer reviewed articles and teaching
materials with social networking features? Scitable has an
interesting funding model, relying on an NPR approach of
underwriting as opposed to advertising or subscriptions to pay
for the service. Scitable's mission is to spread science literacy,
and increase the number of people who choose science as
a career, by making high quality science learning resources
available online through a robust and flexible platform.
High quality science content (including articles, illustrations,
and videos) that can be easily integrated into a learning
management system (LMS), or utilized as a standalone
website.
Scitable does not seem to be a substitute for traditional
textbooks. Rather, Scitable can be utilized as a supplement,
easily allowing instructors to add peer-reviewed Web based
materials to the course curriculum.
I was hoping you would take a minute to go register for Scitable
(it's free and fast), and explore the site a little bit so that we
could discuss the following questions:
1. Multimedia: In going through the topics I came across some
great short animations. I could easily see wanting to utilize
these animations if I were teaching a class related to genetics.
What I could not figure out is a way to embed or link the
animations as separate learning chunks. Nor could I easily
find the animations in one place. It seems that the design
of Scitable requires that the student go through the entire
learning path to get to the animations. If the goal of Scitable is
14
August 2nd, 2010
purely educational, wouldn't it make sense to desegregate the
animations (and graphics), and allow instructors and students
to use them in the way they would like?
2. Terms of Use: Scitable gives extensive Terms of Use. What
I'm trying to figure out is why Scitable does not place all its
materials under a Creative Commons license? It seems like
one of the CC licenses would be appropriate for the non-
commercial restrictions that Scitable would legitimately what
to enforce.
3. Distribution: I'm wondering why Scitable does not
disaggregate its content and place it all up on existing learning
platforms, with robust branding and CC copyright restrictions
etc. Media could go up on YouTube/EDU and iTunesU.
Content could be linked to repositories like MERLOT. Some
people would want to use the full structure, navigation, and
social features of Scitable, but others would want to pick and
choose materials and grab them from various places.
4. Mobile: Is there an iPad version of Scitable's Learning
Paths? The iPad is one of those areas where the aggregated
and complete model of Scitable would seem to work of the
disagregated and loose model that seems appropriate for the
web.
The 4 questions above I think could apply to any educational
publisher. Scitable has a different funding model (the NPR
underwriting model), but what makes sense for Scitable would
also make sense for Pearson or McGraw-Hill. We need to
figure out ways to break out of vertical silos, finding and using
content chunks in creative ways. I want students to be able to
take publisher made animations and create their own mash-
ups and videos. Scitable and the publishers would benefit
from getting their material in as wide a circulation as possible,
broken into small chunks, with rights permissions that allow
learners to create and share with the materials.
What would you ask Scitable?
Reunion Butterflies
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/mama_phd/
reunion_butterflies
August 2nd, 2010
By Susan O'Doherty August 1, 2010 3:10 pm
My 40th (yikes!) high school reunion is coming up, and my
inbox has been clogged with correspondence about it — the
official invitation, and group emails asking help in tracking
down elusive classmates or compiling a representative slide
show. Then there are the messages from friends, discussing
whether or not to go, and why.
Most of the concerns have to do with self-presentation — the
“elevator pitch,” as writers call it. How do you encapsulate 40
years of experience into cocktail-party chatter? How do you
communicate that you looked much better than this before you
got sick/your husband left/your kid went into rehab, when you
don’t necessarily want the cheerleaders and football players
who tormented you and your nerdy friends to know these
things about you? “I’ve gotten so fat,” one friend moans. “I
can’t let the Bitch Squad see me like this.” Another worries
about the lack of spouse and children, traditional markers of
success.
Published by: philosophyandrew
These aren’t my particular concerns. I think I look pretty good
for my age, and I’ve certainly succeeded professionally and
personally far beyond what was predicted for me (which is not
that difficult, as the choices that were repeatedly presented
to me were to work in a factory or go to secretarial school
— both perfectly respectable vocations, but for someone as
dreamy and overthinking and disorganized as I was, they
would have spelled alcoholism and quite possibly suicide).
I have no problem sending in a picture and a cute blurb
highlighting my PhD, my book, and my amazing kid. I just
don’t want to have to go and talk to all those people.
The fact is, my high school experience was torture. I know,
everyone’s was, more or less, because adolescence itself is a
kind of purgatory. And most people grow up, realize this, and
go back to their high school reunions to find that the popular
kids who made their lives miserable were themselves insecure
and unhappy; and everyone has a drink and a good laugh and
a hug, and it’s a transcendently healing experience. At least,
that is what people keep telling me. And it may be true, but I
have no way of knowing, because I’ve only been to one reunion,
to track down a friend with whom I had a falling-out. She
continued to snub me at the party, so I went home. That was
1972, and I never went back.
For me, it wasn’t just a matter of not being popular, or being
a nerd, or whatever. I spent nearly every day of my junior
high and high school career feeling wrong — I was the wrong
religion, lived in the wrong part of town, wore the wrong
clothes, went to the wrong summer camps, you name it. And
the feeling of wrongness was reinforced, not mitigated, at
home.
I used to work with women who were victims of sexual assault.
Many of them kept getting into abusive relationships. Some
came to feel that men in general were evil and abusive. It was
hard to point out to them that they were drawing a certain
type of attention, which was not necessarily representative of
the actions of most men, without sounding like I was blaming
them in some way. I finally hit on the saying, “If you are
bleeding in the water, the sharks will find you.” They could
hear this, and work with me to locate and heal the deep wound.
My high school had more than its share of sharks, and nearly
every one of them found me at one point. There were also
lovely, decent people, but I knew only a few of those. Because
I was bleeding. The day I left for college (the culmination of
a years-long campaign which I still was not certain I had won
until I was actually unpacking in my dorm room) I felt, now
my real life will start. And it did.
One of my lovely, decent classmates, with whom I’ve remained
close friends over the years, has made it sort of a mission
to reintroduce me to other lovely and decent classmates, in
the hope of what we shrinks call a “reparative experience,”
an attempt at healing that wound. I usually resist, sometimes
for years, then, because he’s worn me down, I acquiesce—and
I’m always delighted with my new/old acquaintance. Some
of these have blossomed into deep and lasting friendships on
their own. And none of them remember me as the miserable
outcast I thought I was — I keep hearing, “But you were so
pretty, and there were always people around you, laughing.
And so-and-so had a huge crush on you.” And so my sense of
my past is softened a bit, rethought. But I still balk at the idea
15
August 2nd, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
of chitchatting with a room full of these grownup teenagers, as study and will not provide information at national or system
though we were back at a school dance and I were still shark level like PISA does.
bait. In short, the focus of the AHELO learning outcomes measures
I don’t think my son will have these issues. There simply aren’t will be at the level of institutions and will not allow for
cliques in his high school. There aren’t, from what he tells comparisons at national levels, one of the key elements that
me, any outcasts, either. There are groups of kids who hang can put national governments on edge (depending on how well
out together because of common interests or other areas of their compulsory education systems do in a relative sense).
compatibility, but these tend to cross ethnic, economic, and Our thanks to the Diane Lalancette and Richard Yelland of the
even grade lines. There are kids other kids give a wide berth to OECD's Directorate of Education for permission to post the
because they are physically violent or provocative, but nobody presentation below.
as far as we know seeks them out to pick on them. Some of
these kids have settled down over the years, and now they do <><><><><><>
have friends and companions.
Unprintable Content (Video, Flash, etc.)
This is not some dream private school. It’s a public school
in Manhattan—a charter school, which means it has a special
focus. The focus of this school is cooperation and community
building. It may not be as strong academically as the really
competitive public schools, and he may not be guaranteed a
place at a “good” college as he would be at an elite private
school—but if he never feels like he wants to throw up at the
thought of attending a reunion, that seems like a fine trade-off.

The OECD's AHELO: a PISA for

higher education?
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/globalhighered/
the_oecd_s_ahelo_a_pisa_for_higher_education
August 2nd, 2010

By Kris Olds August 1, 2010 9:42 am

Greetings from Paris, one of the 'calculative centres'
associated with the globalization of higher education. One
of the key institutions associated with this development
process is the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development/Organisation de coopération et
de développement économiques (OECD/OCDE) given its
work on higher education, as well as on related issues such as
innovation, science and technology, and so on.
See below for a recent presentation about the OECD’s
Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes
(AHELO) initiative. This presentation is courtesy of Diane
Lalancette, an Analyst with the AHELO initiative, OECD -
Directorate for Education.
In 'tweeting' about this presentation a few weeks ago, I
detected that a few people sent it on while calling AHELO “a
PISA for higher education”. PISA, for those of you who don't
know, is the OECD's Programme for International Student
Assessment, hence the PISA acronym. As the OECD puts it:
PISA assesses how far students near the end of compulsory
education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills
that are essential for full participation in society. In all cycles,
the domains of reading, mathematical and scientific literacy
are covered not merely in terms of mastery of the school
curriculum, but in terms of important knowledge and skills
needed in adult life.
Yet as Diane Lalancette put it (in a note to me):
While AHELO takes a similar approach to PISA in that it will
assess student knowledge and skills directly, it is a feasibility
16