Category Archives: Uncategorized

Newsday: Stony Brook U. Cited for Hospital Deaths

he state Department of Health has cited Stony Brook University Hospital for violations associated with the deaths of three children between May and July.

The hospital also was fined the maximum amount of $38,000, or $2,000 for each of the 19 violations.

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USA Today: Costly textbooks get a closer look

Concerns over spiraling college textbook prices have prompted state legislators to introduce more than 40 bills and resolutions in 15 states this year.

And other states have looked into making textbooks more affordable, the National Association of College Stores says.

In June, Congress asked a federal advisory panel to ìshed light on this issue.î Hearings begin next month; a report is due in May.

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The Chronicle: U. of North Carolina Could Face Lawsuit Over Tuition Increases, Report Warns

A report released on Tuesday by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research warns that the University of North Carolina system could face a lawsuit over its near-annual tuition increases and faults the way the system’s governing board is selected as too politicized.

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BBC: University ‘not the only option’

Would-be accountants could be almost £60,000 better off by not going to university, it is claimed.
The Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) compared those doing a college course after school with those doing a three-year degree.

By working in accountancy as trainees, it said, college students could make almost £45,000 and still get higher qualifications as quickly as graduates.

The undergraduates, however, would run up about £15,000 of debt, it said.

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Tallahassee Democrat: College campuses go green

Going green to shape a world where energy sources, homes and most material goods would be earth friendly is spreading through colleges like kudzu vine.

It’s called sustainability.

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Inside Higher Ed: N.Y. Plans a College Database

New York State’s Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities and the State University of New York announced a partnership on Tuesday to create an online portal intended to give businesses access to information about academic research and enable college students to search for internships and jobs in New York State.

Project developers said they hope the portal stimulates the state economy by fostering partnerships between businesses, nonprofit organizations and private and public institutions. Companies would be able to search the site for research on a particular topic and find a professor who specializes in that field. Institutions that are members of CICU or that are part of SUNY — about 175 between the two — would be asked to provide relevant resources.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer: Survey grades colleges on public service.

Nobody would argue that Bryn Mawr College and Pennsylvania State University are both highly regarded schools with strong academic traditions. But better than Harvard, than Penn, than Swarthmore?

Apparently so, if the oft-asked question “What are the nation’s best colleges?” is tweaked into “What colleges are best for the nation?”

At least that’s the conclusion of the editors of Washington Monthly, who this week released their second annual guide to the nation’s higher-education institutions, ranking them not on academic excellence but on their contributions to research, public service and social mobility.

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The Kansas City Star: Missouri pursuing criminal background checks for professors

Newly hired professors at the University of Missouri’s four campuses may soon join the ranks of janitors, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and others who must undergo criminal background checks before joining the payroll.

The developing policy isn’t a response to a particular case but instead a recognition that faculty members should be treated the same as other university employees, said Frank Schmidt, a biochemistry professor helping to develop the new standards.

“Most of our vetting of faculty has to do with their academic qualifications,” he said. “We’re just starting the conversation about what (a new policy) would cover.”

Schmidt acknowledged that the mere discussion of such a policy is likely to raise hackles about threats to academic freedom as well as personal privacy.

In 2004, the American Association of University Professors released a statement opposed to broad background checks, citing the “moral cost of adopting a general policy … in order to identify the rare special case.”

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The York Dispatch: Teachers union authorizes strike vote

he York City School District’s teachers union is a step closer to calling a strike.
A council made up of representatives from each of the city’s schools voted this morning to proceed with a job action or strike because of a disagreement over when teachers will receive their last paychecks for the 2005-2006 school year.

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Washington Monthly: The Washington Monthly College Rankings

A year ago, we decided we’d had enough of laying into U.S. News & World Report for shortcomings in its college guide. If we were so smart, maybe we should produce a college guide of our own. So we did. (We’re that smart.) We’ve produced a second guide this year–our rankings for national universities and liberal arts colleges–and it’s fair to ask: Is our guide better than that of U.S. News?

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The State: Cheating College of Charleston students get new grade

Students caught cheating at the College of Charleston will now be graded for their efforts ó they will received a mark of “XF” which means they failed the course because of academic dishonesty.

Students who cheat or plagiarize will receive the grade if their actions involve deception or are premeditated, said Jeri Cabot, the dean of students at the college of about 12,000 students.

The XF grade will remain on a student’s transcript at least two years. After two years, if there are no additional violations, the student can petition to have the grade removed.

“It’s our position that as long as you have a clear record, the X will come off,” Cabot said, “but the F stays.”

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The Chronicle Newsblog: Report Calls for New Assessment Tools, but Not Tests, to Foster Accountability

As a federal commission begins wrapping up its work this week on a report on the future of higher education, college officials worry that its recommendations could lead to the imposition of strict, new accountability standards on colleges and universities—standards that could be met only through a battery of high-stakes tests.

The president of Pace University, David A. Caputo, thinks assessment is a good principle, but standardized tests a lousy means toward that goal. In a new report, “A Blueprint for Campus Accountability: Lessons From the Pace University Experience,” he argues that Pace’s own record of self-assessment is a far-more-effective means of demonstrating accomplishment by both students and faculty members.

The 32-page report highlights several new evaluative tools, such as the National Survey of Student Engagement, that can be used to assess a wide range of different types of colleges, and can help prospective students make informed decisions about where to enroll.

The report also highlights Pace’s use of nonquantitative methods of assessment, including professors’ creation of “portfolios” of their teaching materials. “The best lesson from our self-assessment efforts,” Mr. Caputo writes, “has been that self-assessment is not a vehicle for keeping score, but for getting better.”

Pace said on Tuesday that copies of the report were being sent to members of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, who are scheduled to meet on Thursday for what is likely to be the last time before the panel issues a report laying out its findings and recommendations (The Chronicle, August 4).

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Largest Holocaust Survivors Organization Invites Mel Gibson to Meet With Members

The “1939 Club,” one of the largest
Holocaust Survivor Organizations in the world, today said that if Mel
Gibson would like to learn about the Holocaust, its members would be
pleased to meet with and educate him about what it is like to be a Jew both
in an anti-Semitic and free society.

William Elperin, president of the “1939 Club” said, “Mr. Gibson said he
‘is asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help
me on my journey through recovery.’ Our members are offering that help, by
assisting Mr. Gibson in understanding the extremes of anti-Semitism and
what they and their families — many of whom were slaughtered by the Nazis
— endured.”

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Boston Globe: Colleges warn about networking sites

Incoming college students are hearing the usual warnings this summer about the dangers of everything from alcohol to credit card debt. But many are also getting lectured on a new topic — the risks of Internet postings, particularly on popular social networking sites such as Facebook.

From large public schools such as Western Kentucky to smaller private ones like Birmingham-Southern and Smith, colleges around the country have revamped their orientation talks to students and parents to include online behavior. Others, Susquehanna University and Washington University in St. Louis among them, have new role-playing skits on the topic that students will watch and then break into smaller groups to discuss.

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Inside Higher Ed: Where the Jobs Are

Data show long-term growth of part-time faculty slots, administrative jobs outpacing instructor posts, and boom in for-profit sector.

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Journal News: Former Ohio State coach awarded $2.2 million for wrongful firing

Ohio State must pay former basketball coach Jim O’Brien about $2.2 million plus interest for wrongly firing him for giving a recruit $6,000, a judge ruled Wednesday. The award in the Ohio Court of Claims ends two years of controversy at Ohio State, which was handed NCAA sanctions for the money given to the recruit in addition to losing the lawsuit brought by O’Brien. O’Brien, 56, who coached the Buckeyes for seven years including a trip to the Final Four in 1999, was fired in June 2004 after revealing to then-athletic director Andy Geiger that he had given the money to Serbian prospect Aleksandar Radojevic. He had sought $3.6 million in his lawsuit.

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The Chronicle: University Staffs Grew Faster Than Civilian Labor Force Over Recent Decade, Study Finds

The increase in the total number of staff members working at American institutions of higher education outpaced the growth of the civilian labor force during a recent 10-year period, according to a report released on Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education.

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Inside Higher Ed: Separation of Church and Science

Physicists and cosmologists whose research is too theoretical for federal funding may have a new granting body to turn to, so long as they don’t mind using a little money from a foundation that has historically dedicated itself to promoting scientific work that has spiritual repercussions.

The Foundational Questions Institute, founded with $6.2 million from the $1.1 billion John Templeton Foundation, announced its first round of grants Monday, for projects that have “broad implications for our understanding of the deep or ‘ultimate’ nature of reality,” according to the Institute’s Web site.

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Galveston County Daily News: UTMB doc charged in drive-by shooting

A Dickinson man was recovering Wednesday from two gunshot wounds at a University of Texas Medical Branch hospital, where the man accused of shooting him practiced medicine.

Hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Reynolds-Sanchez said Dr. Wameeth Fadhli would not perform any clinical work while officials investigate the shooting of a 22-year-old bicyclist.

The younger man was riding his bicycle in the 3000 block of Avenue C just outside the city limits about 7:20 p.m. Tuesday when a green sport utility vehicle pulled alongside him, officials said

Witnesses told investigators the man was wearing what appeared to be surgical scrubs and was in the vehicle alone, said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office.

The driver of the vehicle pulled what witnesses described as a pistol and fired “numerous” shots, Tuttoilmondo said. Two of the shots hit the bicyclist, once in the chest and once in the left shoulder.

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Fred on Everything: A Modest Proposal To Abolish Universities

I think it is time to close the universities, and perhaps prosecute the professoriat under the RICO act as a corrupt and racketeering-influenced organization. Universities these days have the moral character of electronic churches, and as little educational value. They are an embarrassment to civilization.

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