Seattle Times: Tacoma college to settle claims on transfer credits
Crown College of Tacoma will pay more than $87,000 to settle claims by six students who said the school misled them about whether their credits would transfer to other colleges.
The settlement involves the third lawsuit against the school on similar grounds.
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Posted in Equity
Inside Higher Ed: So Much for Good Intentions
If all had gone according to plan, Bowdoin College students and their Brunswick, Me., neighbors would have received free wireless Internet access in town coffee shops and restaurants this fall. Instead, only students will be able to access the network covering the downtown area.
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Posted in Government
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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Posted in Uncategorized
Associated Press: Authorities looking for 11 Egyptian students in U.S
Eleven Egyptian students who arrived in the United States last month are being sought by authorities after failing to turn up for an exchange program at Montana State University.
The Egyptian men were among a group of 17 students who arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York from Cairo on July 29 with valid visas, according to U.S. authorities and university officials.
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Posted in Government, Students
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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Posted in Uncategorized
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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Posted in Uncategorized
The Chronicle: Dozens of Iranians Who Tried to Attend University Reunion in U.S. Were Denied Entry
Dozens of Iranian professors and alumni en route to a university reunion in California had their visas revoked after they landed in the United States last week, and then were sent back home, according to news reports and a participant who attended the weekend gathering.
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Posted in Government, International
The Chronicle: U. of Colorado Report Recommends 40 Changes in Tenure, Not a Sweeping Overhaul
A University of Colorado committee in charge of a large-scale review of the tenure process at the system’s four campuses has released a final report that calls for 40 changes in the tenure system.
The report, which recommends such measures as an outside audit of tenure cases every five years and a speedier process for firing incompetent professors, has been well received by faculty members so far. But already some local politicians worry that the report did little more than reaffirm a tenure system that was in need of a major overhaul.
Officials at Colorado assert that the 431-page report, which says the university’s tenure processes are “sound and in general meet the benchmark of major research universities nationwide,” is ambitious in scope and will strengthen the system of tenure, which the report calls “fundamental to academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas.”
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Posted in Tenure & Promotion
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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Posted in Uncategorized
The Capital Times: UW rules for firing criticized
Proposed rules meant to speed up the firing of University of Wisconsin System professors charged with serious crimes were developed without the mandatory approval of faculty groups, faculty leaders complained Wednesday.
The lack of faculty approval opens the rules to legal challenge from any professor fired under them and sends a message that faculty input is not valued, Madison lawyer Steven Underwood warned the UW System Board of Regents.
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Posted in Employment rights
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: UA must pay fees from lawsuit brought by Oklahoma preacher
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville will have to pay an Oklahoma preacher more than $ 33, 000 in attorneys’ fees for failing to allow him enough time to preach on campus, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U. S. District Court Judge Jimm Larry Hendren awarded Gary Bowman $ 33, 120. 21 in attorneys’ fees almost four months after the 8 th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals partially overturned the lower court’s ruling against him.
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Posted in Free speech
WASHINGTON ñ The Justice Department today announced a settlement agreement under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with Colorado College under which the college will make its campus and services more accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Todayís out-of-court settlement resolves a compliance review during which the Department found violations of the ADA Standards for Accessible Design in newly constructed buildings, as well as barriers to existing facilities and elements such as doors, restrooms, signage, entrances, seating and assistive listening devices in assembly spaces, and exterior circulation routes. The college, located in Colorado Springs, Colo., has agreed to involve the college community in preparing a plan under which it will make alterations to its facilities within six years and relocate certain types of services and programs to accessible facilities with prior notice. The agreement addresses a wide variety of services and facilities, including classroom and administrative buildings, housing, libraries, access between facilities, athletic and performance areas, directional signage, and emergency preparedness.
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Posted in Working conditions
Inside Higher Ed: Bolstering Tenure by Reforming It
Mend it — don’t end it.
A University of Colorado panel — created amid political demands to eliminate tenure — is taking an approach similar to the one President Clinton took when faced with demands to abolish affirmative action. Admit that the system is flawed, but defend its necessity.
The Chronicle News Blog: Panel Calls for 40 Changes in Tenure at U. of Colorado
A University of Colorado committee recommended on Wednesday that the system make 40 changes in its tenure policies, to deal with significant problems that were manifested, critics said, in the ease with which Ward Churchill received tenure.
The recommendations, which appear in a 431-page report by the committee, include conducting tenure reviews every five years, completing dismissal cases within six months, adding criminal-background checks to the hiring process, pushing for consistent approaches to tenuring both within and across departments, collecting better data on tenure, clarifying expectations for faculty members seeking tenure or facing dismissal, and making it clear on an annual basis when faculty members are not meeting expectations.
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Posted in Tenure & Promotion
Boston Globe: Judge orders further review of lab to study deadly germs
A state judge has ordered further environmental review of Boston University Medical Center’s construction of a high-security laboratory, where researchers would study the world’s deadliest germs.
In a decision made public today, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Ralph D. Gants found that earlier environmental assessments of the South End lab failed to adequately consider alternative sites or weigh worst-case scenarios for the release of highly contagious viruses or bacteria. Gants said that when the state Department of Environmental Affairs approved the earlier environmental review of the lab, that decision “lacked the necessary rational basis.”
As a result, Gants ordered a new review.
The decision does not explicitly halt construction of the $178 million building, which began earlier this year on Albany Street.
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Posted in Working conditions
The Chronicle: Female Life Scientists Earn 40 Percent of the Patents That Male Life Scientists Do, Study Finds
Female life scientists in academe secure patents at less than half the rate of their male counterparts, three researchers report in an article published in today’s issue of the journal Science. Although the gender gap in patenting has narrowed over time, the findings show, it remains large.
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Posted in Equity
Inside Higher Ed: A Near-Final Report?
The Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education released the next iteration of its report Thursday, which for those of you scoring at home is the third partial draft and the first truly complete one (it contains not only the preamble and summary that were missing from its second draft but, for the first time, a conclusion, too).
The new draft finds the commission treading largely the same path that it started on with the second draft, in which its members sanded down some of the sharpest-edged criticisms about higher education contained in the staff-written first draft and added praise about the importance of higher education and context about such things as declining state financial support for colleges.
The Chronicle: Federal Panel on Higher Education Releases Third Draft Report in Advance of Final Meeting
The Commission on the Future of Higher Education released a third draft of its highly anticipated report on Thursday, a week before the panel is scheduled to meet in Washington for the last time.
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Posted in Government
Los Angeles Times: Iraqis Can Apply to U.S. Military Academies
The Defense Ministry announced that it would begin accepting applications from Iraqis who wanted to attend U.S. military academies.
Iraqis between the ages 18 and 22 who are fluent in English and in good physical condition can apply to the Military Academy at West Point, the Air Force Academy in Colorado and the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Brig. Gen. Mohammed Askari said. West Point welcomed one cadet, identified only as Jameel, in June.
A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said it was “common practice for the military academies to select foreign students from among our allies.”
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Posted in International, Students
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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Posted in Uncategorized
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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Posted in Uncategorized
The Chronicle: U. of California Is in Talks to Join Google’s Library-Scanning Project
The University of California is negotiating with Google to join the search-engine giant’s book-digitization project. If the company and the university system agree to a deal — which, sources within the university say, could happen soon — Google might have access to as many as 34 million books within the system.
Details about the negotiations and the potential agreement, including who might pay for the digitization project, are scant. The university system’s Board of Regents heard a presentation, “Large-Scale Digitization of UC Library Holdings: An Historic Opportunity,” at a meeting in late July, but the minutes of that meeting are not yet available.
Daniel Greenstein, director of the system’s California Digital Library, would not offer specifics of the negotiations, other than to say, “The deal is not done.”
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Posted in Academics, Corporate University
