Unlearning literature

The Boston Globe: Unlearning literature

By Elizabeth Kantor | November 30, 2006
IT’S OFFICIAL: You spend tens of thousands of dollars to send your children to college. In return, the colleges turn out graduates who are more ignorant than when they enrolled.

According to a recent survey by the University of Connecticut and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute of more than 14,000 randomly selected college freshman and seniors at 50 colleges across the country, seniors actually know less about American history and government than entering freshmen.

CHEA Reports On Degree Mills In The U.S.: Where Do We Go From Here?

Ed News.org: CHEA Reports On Degree Mills In The U.S.: Where Do We Go From Here?

he Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) has recently released a summary of the July 2006 meeting which covered proposed steps to counter the presence of degree mills in the U.S. The summary can be obtained at CHEA’s Internet site: www.chea.org.

From this meeting, CHEA has identified three future steps that need to be taken to combat
diploma mills:

Establish a public awareness campaign to educate the public as to what diploma mills are, the damage they cause and how to identify a potential diploma mill;

Advocate federal legislative efforts to identify and control the negative consequences of degree mills. This includes support of the Diploma Integrity Protection Act, introduced by Representative Betty McCollum (D-MN), which will take steps to establish penalties for degree mill operators and establish a definition of a degree mill;

Development of a statement of effective practice (to be used both in the U.S. and internationally) that will include attention to the responsibilities of the various individuals and entities who are involved in combating diploma mills.

Intelligence agencies invest in college education

USA Today: Intelligence agencies invest in college education

The U.S. intelligence community pours millions into higher education, paying for hundreds of scholarships, intelligence-related courses and fellowships at nearly a dozen universities, public documents and interviews with officials show.

SUNY EYEING 4% TUITION HIKE

New York Post: SUNY EYEING 4% TUITION HIKE

Tuition would increase by about 4 percent at most SUNY campuses next fall under a budget proposal released yesterday.

Oxford dons humiliate vice-chancellor and reject his reform plans

The Independent: Oxford dons humiliate vice-chancellor and reject his reform plans

Oxford dons inflicted a humiliating defeat on their vice-chancellor last night when they rejected his plans to overturn 900 years of tradition and hand control of the university to outsiders from the worlds of business and politics.

Oxford dons reject plan to hand over power

Guardian: Oxford dons reject plan to hand over power

Oxford dons rejected controversial plans yesterday that would have brought academic self-rule to an end and handed decision-making at the university to outside business leaders.

China’s education watchdog orders financial probe in colleges after scandal

Chongqing News: China’s education watchdog orders financial probe in colleges after scandal

China’s Ministry of Education has asked all colleges and universities to thoroughly account for their use and management of capital after a scandal involving a former president of one of China’s major universities was disclosed last week.

Panel would unite NE Ohio schools

Akron Beacon-Journal: Panel would unite schools

A state legislator introduced a bill Tuesday that could require Northeast Ohio’s state universities to collaborate more.

A proposal by Rep. James Trakas, R-Independence, would create a study commission to spur cooperation among Kent State, the University of Akron, Youngstown State, Cleveland State and the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

TSU board picks ‘rigid’ leader as interim president

Houston Chronicle: TSU board picks ‘rigid’ leader as interim president
He says his Air Force skills will help him direct university

The governing board of Texas Southern University, still reeling from a spending scandal and layoffs, appointed a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general as interim president Monday

Appointment Roils a Law School

Inside Higher Ed: Appointment Roils a Law School

For the last several years, Robert Delahunty has quietly toiled away as an associate professor of law at the University of St. Thomas. But now controversy surrounding his background as an architect of the Bush administration’s policy on torture of war prisoners is resurfacing — not at St. Thomas, but five miles away at the University of Minnesota, which has sought to hire Delahunty to teach on class next semester.

Branches in Different Time Zones

Inside Higher Ed: Branches in Different Time Zones

The narrative of higher education in Arizona is dominated by rapid growth in both the public and for-profit sectors (see Arizona State University and the University of Phoenix.) The state has no private nonprofit colleges, but that might soon change.

Duel on Governance at Hamilton

Inside Higher Ed:

Given Alexander Hamilton’s role in American history defining the authority of the federal government, it may be fitting that a governance debate has killed off an effort to create a center to honor him at his namesake college.

A short statement from Hamilton College late Monday announced that the center is “not going forward” despite the belief of college leaders that the center had “significant potential to enhance the educational experience of Hamilton students.”

Labour strike is an economic weapon, not a political protest

Vancouver Sun: Labour strike is an economic weapon, not a political protest

Kevin Evans, Special to the Sun
Published: Monday, November 27, 2006

The British Columbia Supreme Court is expected to rule next month whether political strikes launched by the Health Employees’ Union and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation should be protected by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

At issue are the unions’ illegal walkouts in 2002 and 2003 (the so-called “Days of Protest”) and an order from the Labour Relations Board that union members return to work.

The unions claim they were engaged, not in a strike, but in a political protest that should be protected by the Charter as freedom of expression.

The effect of a court decision favouring the unions could well embolden other unionized employees to walk off the job to protest any number of political causes.

From Mexico: Police and death squads on a rampage, urgent call for solidarity

Santa Cruz IMC: From Mexico: Police and death squads on a rampage, urgent call for solidarity

What follows is a joint declaration of the LTS-CC and the Mexican
Socialist Unity League, condemning yesterday’s savage attacks by the
government against the people of Oaxaca.

Stop the massacre and savage repression by the federal government, the PAN, and the PRI in Oaxaca

For a nationwide strike and mobilization in solidarity

Yesterday, after a massive megamarch condemning Ulises Ruiz [Ortiz, or URO, the governor of Oaxaca state in Mexico], thousands of federal
police (PFP) agents, supported by interior department agents and PRI
death squads, cruelly attacked the brave comrades of the APPO, in what was the most violent day in the last six months of this struggle. Our comrades in Oaxaca, besieged by the PFP, were attacked with shots fired from rifles, tear gas, rocks, and tanks, and the encampment of Santo Domingo was burned down. A paramilitary group attacked from two pickup trucks, firing more than one hundred shots and assassinating three comrades (taking away the bodies of two of them). Furthermore, as we write this there are more than one hundred arrested and dozens of disappeared. Throughout the night the police tanks fired at anything that moved in the streets, arresting people left and right while URO’s assassins ran through the streets with their sub-machine guns. The PFP gangs broke into the hospitals to take away the wounded comrades, but were prevented from doing so by the valiant defense actions of the health care workers. According to the government and the PFP, their objective is to “restore order” by carrying out all the arrest warrants on members of the APPO, which has become a veritable witch-hunt characteristic of the methods used by the old PRI governments of the 1960’s and 70’s. Nevertheless, our comrades are trying to regroup and resist the brutal attack.

Bok turns down salary from Harvard

The Boston Globe: Leader forgoes campus salary

Derek Bok agreed to give up a year of his retirement to step in as interim president of Harvard University, and to heal the wounds left by the abrupt departure of Lawrence H. Summers.

U of Vermont cites safety concerns in canceling Oaxaca study program

Times Argus: UVM cites safety concerns in canceling Mexican study program

The University of Vermont has called off plans for a semester-long study program in Oaxaca, Mexico, citing safety concerns associated with civil unrest there, authorities said.

Balancing Views on Campus

The Boston Globe: Chipping and putting have joined law and economics as required courses at China’s Xiamen University, sparking outrage in a country where golf is still frowned upon as a pastime of the rich.

DIVERSITY in higher education was a major topic of discussion at a recent conference in Cambridge . The focus, however, was not on the familiar concept of diversity as a desirable mix of races, genders, and ethnic groups. Rather, participants deplored the lack of intellectual and political diversity on college campuses.

China: A university has made learning the sport, which has an elitist image, a requirement.

Los Angeles Times: Golf course draws criticism in China

Chipping and putting have joined law and economics as required courses at China’s Xiamen University, sparking outrage in a country where golf is still frowned upon as a pastime of the rich.

Community college is less engaging for part-timers

USA Today: Community college is less engaging for part-timers
There is a “significant difference” in the experiences of part-time and full-time students at community colleges, a new report finds. And a key reason, it suggests, is that part-time students — who represent about two-thirds of those at all community colleges — are more likely to be taught by part-time faculty.

3 Colleges May Set Up Shop in Phoenix Suburb, at Its Invitation

Arizona Republic: Colleges to put campuses in Goodyear
Bringing higher education to Goodyear seems to be no longer a matter of if, but when.

Two private liberal arts colleges and a university, all from out of state, have solidified commitments to expanding in Goodyear after spending three days at a recent higher education conference hosted by the city.

Representatives from Franklin Pierce College, Notre Dame College and the University of the Incarnate Word said they want to open in Goodyear quickly.