Post-Gazette: Eschewing obfuscation: Business schools, firms target bad writing
Like a dark and stormy night, bad writing has long shadowed the business world — from bureaucratese to mangled memos to the cliche-thick murk of “corporatespeak.”
But in an era of nonstop e-mail and instant and text messaging, written communication skills within companies may be getting even worse as quality is compromised by the perceived need for speed.
Comments Off on Eschewing obfuscation: Business schools, firms target bad writing
Posted in Academics
Washington Post: Incoming President Draws Praise
Steven Knapp comes to the presidency of George Washington University by way of Yale, Cornell, UC-Berkeley and Johns Hopkins, where he has been provost for the past 10 years and helped land a $50 million gift, just announced. He continued teaching English literature even as he handled major crises at Hopkins, testified before Congress and led the school when the president was out of town.
Comments Off on GWU: Incoming President Draws Praise
Posted in Administration
Detroit Free Press: EMU turmoil prompts 3 regents to step down
Three of Eastern Michigan University’s eight regents have resigned, saying they think it’s time for another set of regents to try to fix the university’s festering problems.
Comments Off on Michigan: EMU turmoil prompts 3 regents to step down
Posted in Administration
Chicago Tribune: Professor charged with assault on colleague
A Northern Illinois University professor has been charged with assault after police said he hit a fellow professor on the head with a metal bar.
Associate professor Radha Balamuralikrishna, 44, of Aurora attacked a colleague in the school’s technology department around 11 a.m. Monday outside Balamuralikrishna’s office in Still Hall, where the department is housed, NIU police Lt. Matt Kiederlen said.
Comments Off on Watch Out!: Professor charged with assault on colleague
Posted in Faculty
Inside Higher Ed:
The New York State Board of Regents on Tuesday adopted tougher oversight rules for for-profit colleges operating in the state. The rules set up new probationary periods for licensure of for-profit institutions and more scrutiny before new owners can take over an existing college.
Comments Off on NY Toughens For-Profit Oversight
Posted in Corporate University
Inside Higher Ed: Proxies for race
When voters abolish affirmative action programs, universities seeking to preserve diverse student bodies frequently look for criteria that are race neutral, but that may help a disproportionate number of minority applicants. That’s how Texas ended up with the 10 percent plan that guarantees admission to those at the top of their high school class.
With last month’s vote in Michigan to abolish affirmative action in public higher education, that state’s universities are looking for new approaches to admissions. One of the first concrete plans — by the law school at Wayne State University — is already setting off controversy. The faculty there will vote on a plan that would replace its current admissions policy with a race-neutral one. However, preferences would be added for students who are Native Americans, have overcome discrimination or prejudice, or live in Detroit.
Comments Off on Proxies for race in Michigan
Posted in Diversity
The Boston Globe: Harvard civil rights group headed to LA
The Civil Rights Project at Harvard is moving to the University of California at Los Angeles, along with its director, Gary Orfield, depriving the university of a prominent voice in the national debate about racial justice.
Comments Off on Harvard civil rights group headed to LA
Posted in Equity
The governor ordered an investigation of one of her top aides following sexual harassment complaints in his role as head of Southern University’s governing body.
The Governor’s Office hired an independent attorney, Mark Falcon, to look into the complaints from unidentified Southern University System employees against Johnny Anderson.
Comments Off on Louisiana Governor’s Aide Investigated for Alleged Sex Harassment at Southern U.
Posted in Uncategorized
Washington Post: Treasury Undersecretary’s Dual Roles Raise Questions
Robert K. Steel is a Washington oddity. He holds two high-powered jobs, one inside and the other outside government.
As the new undersecretary of the Treasury in charge of domestic finance, Steel supervises thousands of federal employees and helps oversee the nation’s multi-trillion-dollar financial markets. At the same time, he moonlights as the unpaid chairman of the Board of Trustees of Duke University, a major recipient of federal funds and one of the country’s most richly endowed colleges.
Comments Off on Treasury Undersecretary’s Dual Roles Raise Questions
Posted in Government
The Chronicle News Blog: Faculty Vote of No Confidence Hits President of 2-Year College in California
Full-time faculty members at MiraCosta College, a two-year institution in California, have overwhelmingly voted no confidence in the leadership of the college’s president, Victoria Muñoz Richart.
Comments Off on Faculty Vote of No Confidence Hits President of 2-Year College in California
Posted in Administration
The Boston Globe: Internet saint overlooks BC data center
The Internet has a patron saint – St. Isidore of Seville – and on sunny days, a stained-glass window of his likeness now radiates its multi-colored glow onto Boston College’s newly renovated data information systems.
Comments Off on Internet saint overlooks BC data center
Posted in Technology
Tallahassee Democrat: Search still on at FAMU
A first look at the top candidates who could become Florida A&M University’s next president will emerge this week after a search process that has taken more than a year.
Comments Off on Search still on at FAMU
Posted in Administration
The New York Times: Cheating on an Ethics Test? It’s ‘Topic A’ at Columbia
Cheating is not unheard of on university campuses. But cheating on an open-book, take-home exam in a pass-fail course seems odd, and all the more so in a course about ethics.
Yet Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism is looking into whether students may have cheated on the final exam in just such a course, “Critical Issues in Journalism.” According to the school’s Web site, the course “explores the social role of journalism and the journalist from legal, historical, ethical, and economic perspectives,” with a focus on ethics.
Comments Off on Cheating on an Ethics Test? It’s ‘Topic A’ at Columbia
Posted in Academics
Guardian: Christian unions warned against legal action
Court battles would not resolve underlying issues of religious identity on university campuses and would only create division, a report from an independent thinktank has warned.
The report from the Christian thinktank Ekklesia said “antagonistic legal action could lead to widening an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality on campuses”. It continued: “This does not help with friendly dialogue between the diverse cultures and views that can be found within the UK’s educational institutions.”
Comments Off on UK: Christian unions warned against legal action
Posted in International
Contra Costa Times: Threat risk shutters Cal programs abroad
School’s lawyers advise student programs in dangerous regions leave university vulnerable to lawsuits
Comments Off on Threat risk shutters Cal programs abroad
Posted in Uncategorized
BBC: Blair’s farewell to education?
Yet, 10 years after saying his three priorities were “education, education and education”, Tony Blair still does not see his education reforms as complete.
Comments Off on UK: Blair’s farewell to education?
Posted in International
Baltimore Sun: Race debate shifts to free speech at Hopkins
A campus debate over race relations is evolving into one on free speech as a group of Johns Hopkins University students protested yesterday what they believe is the school’s excessive punishment of a student for posting a “Halloween in the Hood” party invitation online.
Comments Off on Race debate shifts to free speech at Hopkins
Posted in Free speech
National Conference of State Legislatures:
NCSL commission releases recommendations for state legislatures in new report
DENVER — More Americans must finish college if our country is to prosper in the global society, and it’s up to state legislators to make that happen. Those are recommendations from the final report of the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education, released today.
Comments Off on American Higher Education In Urgent Need of Reform, State Legislators Say
Posted in Administration
The Boston Globe: Dartmouth rallies for minority students
More than 500 Dartmouth College students, faculty and administrators rallied in support of the college’s American Indian community Wednesday, a day after The Dartmouth Review published a picture of an Indian warrior brandishing a scalp with the headline, “The Natives are Getting Restless!” on Page One.
Comments Off on Dartmouth rallies for minority students
Posted in Students
Black, white and Brown
Los Angeles Times: Black, white and Brown
FIFTY-TWO YEARS after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” the court still can’t agree on what that landmark decision really meant. That was painfully clear Monday when the Brown ruling was cited by justices on both sides of a debate over the constitutionality of programs that try to maintain a racial balance in public schools.
Comments Off on Black, white and Brown
Posted in Commentary