I’ve probably gotten a dozen pointers to Gregory Petsko’s open letter in support of the humanities, addressed to the President of SUNY-Albany, over the last couple of weeks (the link is to a reposting of the letter at Inside Higher Ed; it was originally on Petsko’s own blog). I haven’t linked to it or commented… Continue reading The Problem of the Humanities
Category: Economics
Physics Job Market: Same As It Ever Was
The American Institute of Physics has a statistics division that produces lots of interesting analyses of issues relevant to the discipline. A couple of them were released just recently, including one on the job status of new Ph.D.’s (PDF). The key graph from the report is this one: The text of the report talks up… Continue reading Physics Job Market: Same As It Ever Was
Should We Want Students to Go into Finance?
Via Steve Hsu, a GNXP post about the benefits of elite college educations, based largely on a graph of income vs. US News ranking. While the post text shows some of the dangers of taking social-science data too literally (the points on the graph in question are clearly binned, so I would not attribute too… Continue reading Should We Want Students to Go into Finance?
Worst. Evaluation Scheme. EVER.
Speaking of teacher evaluation schemes, as we were, Doug Natelson draws my attention to a new proposal from Texas A&M: [Frank] Ashley, the vice chancellor for academic affairs for the A&M System, has been put in charge of creating such a measure that he says would help administrators and the public better understand who, from… Continue reading Worst. Evaluation Scheme. EVER.
Synchronicity and “Administrative Bloat”
At Inside Higher Ed this morning, they have a news squib about a new report blaming the high cost of college on “administrative bloat.” Coincidentally, the Dean Dad has a post pre-emptively responding to this in the course of arguing with a different group: In terms of administration, what would you cut? Should we stop… Continue reading Synchronicity and “Administrative Bloat”
Distilled Faculty Outrage
Via Inside Higher Ed this YouTube video is pretty much a distillation of faculty reaction nationwide to higher education’s response to the world economic crisis: The IHE link gives a little more context to the video, and some of the reaction to it. The arguments here are not all well-founded– science and engineering will necessarily… Continue reading Distilled Faculty Outrage
Scientific Salary Stratigraphy: Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results
Inside Higher Ed has a news squib about gender disparities in academic science, which points to a Nature story about a survey on job satisfaction (bad IHE, giving a false impression on the story!). The gender portion of the story is limited to a short section at the end of the article, and one graph:… Continue reading Scientific Salary Stratigraphy: Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results
Uncomfortable Question: Worth the Tuition?
Continuing with the uncomfortable questions, H asks a good one: Union is one of the most expensive colleges in the country. What are students getting for their money? How does Union justify the increase in price over other schools with comparable academics and facilities? See, now that’s an uncomfortable question, especially on an institutional level.… Continue reading Uncomfortable Question: Worth the Tuition?
Links for 2010-05-27
Confessions of a Community College Dean: Thoughts on DIY U “Eleemosynary institutions have real and serious flaws, but they exist to empower the weak. They are necessary to empower the weak. If you rend them asunder, you will expose the weak to the predations of the strong. This is so fundamental that I’m surprised it… Continue reading Links for 2010-05-27
Long Author Lists and Books Not Written
Back when I was in grad school, and paper copies of journals were delivered to the lab by a happy mailman riding a brontosaurus, I used to play a little game when the new copy of Physical Review Letters arrived: I would flip through the papers in the high energy and nuclear physics sections, and… Continue reading Long Author Lists and Books Not Written