Earlier this year, I posted a review of Saving Higher Education: The Integrated, Competency-Based Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree Program. The book describes an alternative to the two most common “three-year” baccalaureate programs: the Accelerated model and the Prior Learning model. In the Accelerated Model, students essentially take overloads and full summer loads in order to complete four years of work in three years. In the Prior Learning Model, students receive credit not just for transfer credits but also for work and other experience, allowing them, in effect, to start the baccalaureate program with something close to the equivalent of a year’s credits “earned.” In contrast, in the Integrated, Competency-Based Model, developed by the authors who are faculty members at Southern New Hampshire, great pains are taken to eliminate “redundancies” in the curriculum: that is, students are expected to demonstrate a set of competencies or skill sets that are among the learning outcomes of a given program, but class time is not given over to repeated work on those competencies when they recur across courses within a program. Continue reading
Category Archives: students
MOOCs: Are They about Access or Money?
This is a re-post from the On the Issues blog maintained by the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org/].
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If you read the news, listen to legislators, or watch TED talks, you might think MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are just about providing free access to high-quality courses for anyone who wants to take them.
Moody’s Investment Services clearly has a different idea. Its September 12, 2012 report, titled “Shifting Ground: Technology Begins to Alter Centuries-Old Business Model for Universities,” should be mandatory reading for everyone who thinks MOOCs and online education are really about student access and educational equity.
In the clearest of terms, the Moody’s report makes it clear that MOOCs are about money; and the biggest winners in MOOCs are not students, but elite universities: Continue reading
Who Says College Can’t Be Free?
This is a re-post from the On the Issues blog maintained by the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org/].
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After a brief experiment in charging tuition, Germany—the strongest economy in Europe and one of the strongest in the world–is abolishing fees at its colleges and universities.
Why?
As quoted in a recent article in Inside Higher Ed, supporters of the move argue that “’higher education is a human right’” and should be “’equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education.’” Continue reading
Good Reads—Higher Education: No. 1
A cluster of recent articles has addressed the growing issue of access to higher education for students from poor and working-class backgrounds.
Published in The Atlantic, Jordan Weissmann’s “How Colleges Are Selling Out the Poor to Court the Rich” opens with an assertion that is absolutely true but will come as a major surprise to most Americans: “Neat fact: If the federal government were to take all of the money it pours into various forms of financial aid each year, it could go ahead and make tuition free, or close to it, for every student at every public college in the country.” Weissmann then references an earlier article in which he addressed the exploitation of federal student grant and loan programs by for-profit colleges and universities whose revenue derives largely, if not almost entirely, from those programs. Here, he shifts his attention to the ways in which federal grants and loans to less economically well-off students are being used by a growing number of private and public colleges and universities to offset tuition reductions for students from affluent backgrounds. The private institutions are typically those with small enrollments and limited endowments. Most of the public institutions are in eight states in which the model of “high tuition/high aid” provided by elite private institutions has been implemented, largely unsuccessfully, to offset steep declines in state subsidies. In the mid-1990s, private institutions provided almost twice the amount of need-based as merit-based direct aid to students. Academically gifted but less economically well-off students often received enough aid directly from these institutions to cover most of the costs beyond the grants and loans provided through federal programs. Today, they are receiving less direct aid from the institutions, and those funds are being spread out to cover more modest financial aid offers that might entice more affluent students to enroll. In a recent study of almost 300 institutions at which 25% or more of the students receive Pell grants, Stephen Burd of the New America Foundation demonstrates the dramatic shift from need-based to merit-based aid in this way: the out-of-pocket cost to students receiving Pell grants is now almost exactly the same as the direct institutional aid provided to more affluent students in the “merit” category. Nationally, private institutions now provide more merit-based than need-based direct aid to students, and that trend is being replicated at an increasing number of public institutions. Continue reading
Interview with Seth Rosenfeld
Investigative reporter Seth Rosenfeld’s 2012 book Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power draws on thirty years of research and three hundred thousand pages of documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to tell the story of the FBI’s covert operations in Berkeley during the 1960s.
Focusing on four central figures—FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, University of California president Clark Kerr, free-speech activist Mario Savio, and actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan—Subversives uncovers new evidence about the FBI’s often unlawful activities on campus and the role the bureau played in Reagan’s political career. A review of the book appears in the May–June 2013 issue of Academe.
Michael Ferguson interviewed Rosenfeld by e-mail for Academe Blog.
My Favorite Commencement Address, Ever
Although this year’s commencement addresses by President and Mrs. Obama have been inspiring, engaging, and often humorous—as was Jon Lovett’s, my favorite commencement address, hands down, is one written by Robert Reich to last year’s graduates–but never meant to be delivered in person. It has been reproduced on a fairly large number of progressive blogs, most notably Huffington Post and Nation of Change.
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The Commencement Address That Won’t Be Given
Members of the Class of 2012,
As a former secretary of labor and current professor, I feel I owe it to you to tell you the truth about the pieces of parchment you’re picking up today.
You’re f*cked.
Well, not exactly. But you won’t have it easy.
First, you’re going to have a hell of a hard time finding a job. The job market you’re heading into is still bad. . . . Continue reading
The Simple Logic of Self-Defense
Guns on Campus, Discouraging News, Addendum 1
The cable news networks, like the newspapers long before them, have turned “tabloid” coverage of crimes and trials into a staple element of their programming. It may have started with the murder trial of O. J. Simpson, but, if the recent ratings for the coverage of the Jodi Arias case is any indication, the public appetite for such stories is either insatiable or very easily whetted.
On the horizon is the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin. The issues in this case have become muddied in the broader, vitriolic debates about gun rights, and although the introduction of those issues into this case is unfortunate in terms of its litigation, the case does present an opportunity to define some basic aspects of gun rights. Continue reading
Transcript of Jon Lovett’s Commencement Address at Pitzer College
Jon Lovett, a speechwriter for President Obama, addressed the graduates of Pitzer College on “fighting the culture of bullshit.”
What follows is a brief selection from a fuller partial transcript of his commencement address provided through The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/05/life-lessons-in-fightingthe-culture-of-bullshit/276030/.
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One of the greatest threats we face is, simply put, bullshit. We are drowning it. We are drowning in partisan rhetoric that is just true enough not to be a lie; in industry-sponsored research; in social media’s imitation of human connection; in legalese and corporate double-speak. It infects every facet of public life, corrupting our discourse, wrecking our trust in major institutions, lowering our standards for the truth, making it harder to achieve anything. Continue reading
Transcript: President Obama’s Commencement Speech at Morehouse College
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Hello, Morehouse! (Applause.) Thank you, everybody. Please be seated.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you!
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I love you back. (Laughter.) That is why I am here.
I have to say that it is one of the great honors of my life to be able to address this gathering here today. I want to thank Dr. Wilson for his outstanding leadership, and the Board of Trustees. We have Congressman Cedric Richmond and Sanford Bishop — both proud alumni of this school, as well as Congressman Hank Johnson. And one of my dear friends and a great inspiration to us all — the great John Lewis is here. (Applause.) We have your outstanding Mayor, Mr. Kasim Reed, in the house. (Applause.)
To all the members of the Morehouse family. And most of all, congratulations to this distinguished group of Morehouse Men — the Class of 2013. (Applause.)
I have to say that it’s a little hard to follow — not Dr. Wilson, but a skinny guy with a funny name. (Laughter.) Betsegaw Tadele — he’s going to be doing something.
I also have to say that you all are going to get wet. (Laughter.) And I’d be out there with you if I could. (Laughter.) But Secret Service gets nervous. (Laughter.) So I’m going to have to stay here, dry. (Laughter.) But know that I’m there with you in spirit. (Laughter.)
Some of you are graduating summa cum laude. (Applause.) Some of you are graduating magna cum laude. (Applause.) I know some of you are just graduating, “thank you, Lordy.” (Laughter and applause.) That’s appropriate because it’s a Sunday. (Laughter.)
I see some moms and grandmas here, aunts, in their Sunday best — although they are upset about their hair getting messed up. (Laughter.) Michelle would not be sitting in the rain. (Laughter.) She has taught me about hair. (Laughter.)
I want to congratulate all of you — the parents, the grandparents, the brothers and sisters, the family and friends who supported these young men in so many ways. This is your day, as well. Just think about it — your sons, your brothers, your nephews — they spent the last four years far from home and close to Spelman, and yet they are still here today. (Applause.) So you’ve done something right. Graduates, give a big round of applause to your family for everything that they’ve done for you. (Applause.)
I know that some of you had to wait in long lines to get into today’s ceremony. And I would apologize, but it did not have anything to do with security. Those graduates just wanted you to know what it’s like to register for classes here. (Laughter and applause.) And this time of year brings a different kind of stress — every senior stopping by Gloster Hall over the past week making sure your name was actually on the list of students who met all the graduation requirements. (Applause.) If it wasn’t on the list, you had to figure out why. Was it that library book you lent to that trifling roommate who didn’t return it? (Laughter.) Was it Dr. Johnson’s policy class? (Applause.) Did you get enough Crown Forum credits? (Applause.)
On that last point, I’m going to exercise my power as President to declare this speech sufficient Crown Forum credits for any otherwise eligible student to graduate. That is my graduation gift to you. (Applause.) You have a special dispensation. Continue reading
Michelle Obama’s Commencement Address at Bowie State University
Well, thank you. (Applause.) Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much. (Applause.) Oh, my goodness. It is such a — you all, rest yourselves. You’ve got a long day ahead. It is beyond a pleasure and an honor for me to be here with all of you today.
Of course, I want to start by thanking President Bernim for that very kind introduction, for this wonderful degree, and for his outstanding leadership here at Bowie State University. I also want to recognize Chancellor Kirwan, Provost Jackson, Executive Vice President and General Counsel Karen Johnson Shaheed, Vice Chair Barry Gossett. And of course, I want to thank the BSU Madrigal Singers — they did a great job — the university choir, and DeMarcus Franklin for their wonderful performances here today. You all are amazing. I just wish I could sing. Can’t sing a lick.
I also want to recognize today’s Presidential Medal of Excellence recipient, Professor Freeman Hrabowski, who’s a for-real brother as well. (Applause.) And I want to thank him for his tremendous work as the Chair of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. He has done some magnificent work, but we have so much more work to do. Continue reading
