Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

The New York Times: A Threat So Big, Academics Try Collaboration

It is a basic tenet of university research: Economists conduct joint studies, chemists join forces in the laboratory, political scientists share ideas about other cultures — but rarely do the researchers cross disciplinary lines.

The political landscape of academia, combined with the fight for grant money, has always fostered competition far more than collaboration.

But the threat of global warming may just change all that.

San Francisco Chronicle: Notoriously selective Stanford considers accepting more students

Stanford University is considering increasing, for the first time in decades, the number of students it enrolls each year.

The idea comes after Stanford, one of the most selective schools in the country, admitted just 10 percent of applicants this year, the smallest percentage ever.

Houston Chronicle: Creationist school offers a degree of controversy

Science teachers are not allowed to teach creationism alongside evolution in Texas public schools, the courts have ruled. But that’s exactly what the Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research wants them to do.

The institute is seeking state approval to grant an online master’s degree in science education to prepare teachers to “understand the universe within the integrating framework of Biblical creationism,” according to the school’s mission statement.

The New York Times: Report to Urge Sweeping Change for SUNY System

Warning that New York has “slipped in stature” and that its once-powerful position in national research has “faded,” a commission set up by Gov. Eliot Spitzer is recommending that the state free its public colleges and universities to raise tuition without the Legislature’s approval and to charge different prices from campus to campus.

Houston Chronicle: Accrediting group puts Texas Tech on probation

LUBBOCK — Texas Tech University has been placed on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a regional accrediting organization, officials said on Wednesday.

Texas Tech was put on probation for failing to show that its curriculum met college-level competencies, according to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which issued the probation during an annual meeting in New Orleans on Tuesday.

Tallahassee Democrat: Ammons: FAMU ready to rebound from probation

One day after suffering a setback in New Orleans, Florida A&M University President James Ammons told students, staffers and faculty what’s next for the institution.

Tuesday, the organization that accredits FAMU extended the institution’s probation for six more months. Probation is the most severe sanction doled out by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. But on Wednesday, Ammons didn’t want the group of about 100 to be disappointed by the outcome.