Stanley Fish’s offering “Higher Education’s Future: Discuss!” in today’s New York Times doesn’t provide anything new–but that’s not his fault. He writes about a panel discussion among four college presidents, ending: Not that I have anything more scintillating to offer. I’ll just wait for the next panel discussion and hope to hear the good news. He…
In “Who Will Hold Colleges Accountable?”, Kevin Carey of the New America Foundation writes in The New York Times: I suspect those courses that will be most valued will be those where students actually learn. Of course. Most of us who teach don’t just suspect that–we know it (as does Carey, I am sure… he’s deliberately understating the obvious).…
I’ve been re-reading parts of Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, a book I love even where I disagree–looking yesterday at the chapter “The Fate of the Reformer.” What Hofstadter presents is an interesting contrast to the “reform” movements in education today, particularly when he is dealing with civil-service reform in the 1880s. The government reformers…
[This comes from Barbara Bowen of the Professional Staff Congress, the faculty union of the City University of New York and Terrence Martell of the CUNY Faculty Senate.] Dear Colleague: Please click here to sign a petition calling for a moratorium on the implementation of an austerity curriculum at CUNY. And please forward this message widely to…
One of the things that those of us who teach in public institutions, particularly those granting two-year degrees, have long known is that students get a better value from us than from the for-profit institutions that have been pushing so hard to compete with us. Now, with growing online opportunities from state institutions, the difference…
The following email was sent to members of the Queensborough Community College English Department late this morning: Colleagues— It is my decision to accept the recommendation forwarded by the English Department for Dr. David Humphries to serve as its Chairperson, effective November 14, 2012. In a lengthy meeting with Dr. Humphries yesterday, he expressed his…
Below is a letter responding to the actions of Diane Call, President of Queensborough Community College (QCC) of the City University of New York (CUNY). We have posted two earlier letters (here and here) dealing with this same situation: Dear Colleagues, Many of you have heard that administrative intimidation of the English Department continues at…
Yesterday, I posted on the ‘digital badges’ that some think may point the way toward an alternative form of educational certification. I don’t think that’s a good idea, but I didn’t really explain why (saying I would later get to why that’s not the same as a college degree). This morning, I saw a link…
In the course of research for my current book, I’ve been reading an essay, a screed really, first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1916 by Randolph Bourne. Something he wrote struck me, not for my work, but in light of all the discussions this week concerning the election and expectations about who would vote–about…