Inside Higher Ed reports on an impressively bad idea from the upper midwest: “If we can’t lure them here, let’s tether them here,” said Mark O’Connell, executive director of the Wisconsin Counties Association, a lobbying organization, and a member of the Commission on Enhancing the Mission of the Wisconsin Colleges, a group created to advise… Continue reading What’s the Matter with Wisconsin?
Category: Academia
Bring On the Paperless Office
Classes start tomorrow, so I spent some time last week filing papers and cleaning off my desk. I’ve been here just long enough to fill up the file drawers in my desk, so I went through and pulled out a few old papers: That stack is a collection of graded exams and lab reports from… Continue reading Bring On the Paperless Office
Let the Bickering Begin!
A few weeks ago, the Modern Language Association released a report calling for changes in the tenure process for language and literature faculty. The report was a stirring call to action, and the members of the MLA quickly sprang into action, doing what faculty do best: arguing about stuff. [A]lthough no one is challenging the… Continue reading Let the Bickering Begin!
CSI: Durham– The Unravelling
Having spent a couple of posts on the infamous Duke lacrosse case back in the early part of the year, I should make a note of the fact that the case against the lacrosse players has pretty much disintegrated. There’s a piece in Inside Higher Ed today giving an overview of the situation, albeit with… Continue reading CSI: Durham– The Unravelling
A Modest Proposal
Over at Inside Higher Ed, Edward Palm gets all Swiftian: The Department of Defense finds itself desperately short of troops with which to sustain what promises to be a long and increasingly unpopular, inconclusive war in Iraq. The Department of Education finds itself suddenly alarmed by the relatively low percentage of Americans pursuing postsecondary education… Continue reading A Modest Proposal
Grading Season
Colleges and universities working on a semester calaendar are just finishing up classes now, which means that most academics (unlike those of us in Trimester Land, who have been out of session for a few weeks) are currently buried in grading. This leads to some fun blog posts: Grading as a text adventure (via Making… Continue reading Grading Season
The Budget Mess
The Democrats have decided to punt on the budget, which the outgoing Republican Congress left unfinished in a childish fit of pique. Instead of completing the usual budget process, the incoming Congress plans to pass a “continuing resolution,” to fund 2007 operations of Federal agencies at the same level as 2006. See, people, this is… Continue reading The Budget Mess
Reducing the Application Pile
It’s job-hunting season in academia, so we’re not the only ones sifting through huge piles of applications looking for the One True Job Candidate. Clifford Johnson has his own pile of mail, and some suggestions for how to fix the process: Of the order of a decade ago I suggested (to nobody in particular, just… Continue reading Reducing the Application Pile
The Academic Scene
A few weeks ago, Ethan Zuckerman got wistful about collaboration: Dave Winer’s got a poignant thought over at Scripting News today: “Where is the Bronx Science for adults?” He explains that, as a kid, the best thing about attending the famous high school “was being in daily contact with really smart and creative people my… Continue reading The Academic Scene
Katrina Cleanup, One Year Later
One of the weird features of the trimester calendar that Union runs on is that we get a six-week break between the Fall and Winter terms– classes end before Thanksgiving, and resume after New Year’s. This is neither as restful nor as useful as you might naively expect, but that’s not the point of this… Continue reading Katrina Cleanup, One Year Later