The New Campus Dissidents

Posted on January 19, 2007 by | Comments Off on The New Campus Dissidents

The Wall Street Journal: The New Campus Dissidents

Conservatives try to add classics to the curriculum.

BY KATHERINE MANGU-WARD
Friday, January 19, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

“Higher education has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today’s students,” declared Allan Bloom in “The Closing of the American Mind,” a book that chastised a generation of academics and students with its biting, furious analysis about the decline of American liberal education. Twenty years ago, at the time of the book’s publication, things looked bleak for those who shared Bloom’s qualms about the effects of relativism on the academy.

Recently, Bloom’s heirs have been hammering on the closed door, trying to reopen the American mind a bit. Their latest door-opening move has been an effort to create scholarly centers on campuses around the country: These centers would be devoted to the great books of Western civilization and the study of the American Founding, and they would be conducted in a rigorous, pre-1960s classroom style. Is there a chance of success?

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Posted in Academics

Charles Murray: “Too many Americans going to college”

Posted on January 17, 2007 by | Comments Off on Charles Murray: “Too many Americans going to college”

Wall Street Journal: What’s Wrong With Vocational School?

The topic yesterday was education and children in the lower half of the intelligence distribution. Today I turn to the upper half, people with IQs of 100 or higher. Today’s simple truth is that far too many of them are going to four-year colleges.

Begin with those barely into the top half, those with average intelligence. To have an IQ of 100 means that a tough high-school course pushes you about as far as your academic talents will take you. If you are average in math ability, you may struggle with algebra and probably fail a calculus course. If you are average in verbal skills, you often misinterpret complex text and make errors in logic.

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Posted in Commentary

Nevada university chancellor rescinds resignation, agrees to stay

Posted on January 17, 2007 by | Comments Off on Nevada university chancellor rescinds resignation, agrees to stay

Las Vegas Sun: Nevada university chancellor rescinds resignation, agrees to stay

evada Chancellor Jim Rogers has rescinded his resignation, agreeing to remain as head of the state’s higher education system.

“I hereby withdraw my resignation,” Rogers wrote in a Monday night memorandum to University and Community College System of Nevada regents.

Rogers sent the letter after a restaurant meeting with James Dean Leavitt, one of two regents who called for Rogers’ resignation on Friday.

Rogers responded Sunday with a terse two-word note reading, “I quit.”

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Posted in Administration

Baghdad bombs kill 100, U.N. says 34,000 died in ’06

Posted on January 17, 2007 by | Comments Off on Baghdad bombs kill 100, U.N. says 34,000 died in ’06

Reuters: Baghdad bombs kill 100, U.N. says 34,000 died in ’06
Tue Jan 16, 2007 1:38pm ET140

Bombers killed 65 people, many of them young women students, at a Baghdad university on Tuesday on one of the city’s bloodiest days in weeks.

In all, at least 100 were killed in bombings and a shooting in the capital on a day when the United Nations said more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians died in violence last year. Four U.S. soldiers were also killed in a bomb attack in northern Iraq.

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Posted in International

All 230,000 U of California employees required to take ethics course

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San Francisco Chronicle: All 230,000 UC employees required to take ethics course

In the wake of last year’s executive compensation scandal, the University of California is requiring every employee — from President Robert Dynes down to the guy who empties his trash basket — to complete an online course about ethics.

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Posted in Ethics

Southern Illinois U. Professor Demands Apology for ‘Academic Terrorist’ Label

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Daily Egyptian: Southern Illinois U. Professor Demands Apology for ‘Academic Terrorist’ Label

Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump weren’t the only public figures feuding in recent weeks.

At the monthly SIU Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, Linguistics Professor Joan Friedenberg blasted back at SIU President Glenn Poshard after he allegedly said the professor was among a group of “academic terrorists” who “lay in the weeds and throw bombs at everybody” during a Nov. 30 SIUC Graduate Council meeting.

Poshard was purportedly referring to the actions of an anonymous committee known as Alumni and Faculty Against Corruption at SIU (AFAC) that reported claims of alleged plagiarism among faculty and administrators throughout the SIU system to the Chronicle of Higher Education and other media outlets.

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Posted in Administration

Report blames Gallaudet U. students, officials, and police for confrontation last fall

Posted on January 17, 2007 by | Comments Off on Report blames Gallaudet U. students, officials, and police for confrontation last fall

AP: Report blames Gallaudet U. students, officials, and police for confrontation last fall

An independent investigation into last October’s confrontations between deaf students and campus police at Gallaudet University says the actions of school officials, campus police and students contributed to the problems.

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Posted in Administration, Protests, Students

U. of Colorado at Boulder Is Criticized for Its Diversity Expenditures

Posted on January 17, 2007 by | Comments Off on U. of Colorado at Boulder Is Criticized for Its Diversity Expenditures

The Chronicle: U. of Colorado at Boulder Is Criticized for Its Diversity Expenditures

A Colorado think tank critical of affirmative action has issued a report alleging that the University of Colorado at Boulder has little idea how much money it spends on various diversity efforts and poorly manages such expenditures.

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Posted in Diversity

New Mexico Highlands U. Awards Tenure to Professor Who Sued It

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The Chronicle: New Mexico Highlands U. Awards Tenure to Professor Who Sued It

After being fired in 2005, a New Mexico Highlands professor will be returning to the university next fall, this time with tenure. The professor had been denied tenure after speaking out against the university’s president at the time.

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Posted in Tenure & Promotion

Supreme Court Hears Union Fees Lawsuit

Posted on January 16, 2007 by | Comments Off on Supreme Court Hears Union Fees Lawsuit

The Guardian: Supreme Court Hears Union Fees Lawsuit

WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court justices indicated Wednesday they are inclined to uphold a Washington state law restricting unions from using workers’ fees for political activities.

The case involves a few thousand teachers and other education employees who are in the bargaining unit and thus represented by the more than 70,000-member Washington Education Association – but who have chosen not to join the union.

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Posted in Unions

California Court Rejects Faculty Challenge to Hiring of Former Chancellor as Professor

Posted on January 15, 2007 by | Comments Off on California Court Rejects Faculty Challenge to Hiring of Former Chancellor as Professor

The Chronicle: California Court Rejects Faculty Challenge to Hiring of Former Chancellor as Professor

A state court rejected last week a complaint filed by the faculty union of California State University over the appointment of Barry Munitz, a former system chancellor who was rehired as a professor last April.

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Posted in Administration, Legal issues

Call for Reform in India

Posted on January 15, 2007 by | Comments Off on Call for Reform in India

Inside Higher Ed:

A government panel is calling for major changes in higher education in India. The Times of India reported that the panel wants to see a dramatic increase in the number of universities in the country. In addition, the panel is urging a broadening of current affirmative action policies, which focus on caste and social groups, to also consider income, gender, and geography. The Times reported that a “deprivation index” be used to factor in such characteristics, along with exam scores.

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Posted in International

Berkeley: Oak-tree activists’ encampment cleared away by UC campus police

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San Francisco Chronicle: Oak-tree activists’ encampment cleared away by UC campus police

Using front-loaders and a flatbed truck, UC Berkeley police staged a predawn raid Friday to clear an encampment next to Memorial Stadium pitched by oak tree activists.

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Posted in Protests

Rogers quits as chancellor of Nevada System of Higher Education

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“Las Vegas Sun: Rogers quits as chancellor of Nevada System of Higher Education

Jim Rogers, chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, resigned on Sunday after a battle for control of the system’s Board of Regents.

Rogers resigned in a two-word letter to the board, according to chair Bret Whipple.

“He sent the full board a letter. Two words: ‘I quit,'” Whipple said. “I’m extraordinarily saddened by this.”

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Posted in Administration

Strategies on Academic Freedom

Posted on January 15, 2007 by | Comments Off on Strategies on Academic Freedom

Inside Higher Ed: Strategies on Academic Freedom

Post-9/11, many of the most intense debates about academic freedom have involved Middle Eastern studies. There have been numerous cases in which candidates for jobs or tenure have been opposed at least in part because of their views on the Middle East, with recent flare-ups at Barnard College and Wayne State University. At least 15 of the professors named by David Horowitz in his book last year on “the 101 most dangerous academics” study the Middle East — a proportion that is notable when considering that Middle Eastern studies programs are relatively small, and most students never take a course in the subject.

In this environment, the Task Force on Middle Eastern Anthropology has issued a new handbook, “Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibility After 9/11.” Most of the handbook would apply well beyond anthropology and the project was endorsed by leading scholars of the Middle East from a range of disciplines — many of them professors whose work has been criticized by pro-Israel and conservative groups.

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Posted in Academic freedom

For-profit colleges make bigger gains in graduating students

Posted on January 15, 2007 by | Comments Off on For-profit colleges make bigger gains in graduating students

The Tennessean: For-profit colleges make bigger gains in graduating students

For-profit colleges continue to get bigger and bigger pieces of the college student pie, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Education.

According to the report, for-profit, or “commercial,” colleges handed out 5.8 percent of the total degrees awarded by four-year institutions in the U.S. for 2004-05. Small potatoes, perhaps, but the number represents nearly a 1 percentage point jump from the total they awarded in the previous year.

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Posted in Corporate University

Saudi Students held at US Airports

Posted on January 12, 2007 by | Comments Off on Saudi Students held at US Airports

The Saudi Gazette: Saudi Students held at US Airports

TWO separate groups of Saudi students were detained at Philadelphia and New York airports by US Immigration Authorities for violating copyright laws, reported the Arabic language daily newspaper Okaz Thursday.
The students were found to be carrying pirated software in their laptops. The Saudi students, who arrived in the US, said some of their colleagues were detained at New York airport for 48 hours. They said the US immigration authorities scanned all the contents and programs stored in the laptops by incoming Saudi students.

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Posted in Students

California: College students vow to fight tuition raises

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Contra Costa Times: College students vow to fight tuition raises

California university students learned Wednesday that their brief respite from fee increases may be over.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who last year prevented tuition increases after four straight years of them, proposed a budget that calls for a 10 percent increase for California State University students and a 7 percent increase for most in the University of California system. Students immediately vowed to lobby lawmakers to repeat last year’s reprieve.

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Posted in Students

Venom has aftereffects for Duke

Posted on January 12, 2007 by | Comments Off on Venom has aftereffects for Duke

The News & Observer: Venom has aftereffects for Duke

The two top administrators at Duke University met with faculty behind closed doors Thursday to discuss free speech and the boundaries of civility in what has become a poisonous climate of blogs, hateful letters and racist e-mail.

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Posted in Diversity

Defeat for For-Profit Model

Posted on January 12, 2007 by | Comments Off on Defeat for For-Profit Model

Inside Higher Ed: Defeat for For-Profit Model

The University of Illinois has been pushing for months to create a new campus dramatically different from the existing ones at Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield. The new campus would be entirely online, and staffed almost entirely by adjuncts who would not report to regular academic departments. The new entity — the University of Illinois Global Campus — would also be a private, for-profit business and would focus on high-demand fields.

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Posted in Corporate University