The Warning Signs That a College Is in Financial Trouble

In an article published in Money [http://time.com/money/3145086/corinthian-colleges-university-bankrupt-financial-trouble/], Matt Krupnick, who writes for the Hechinger Report, highlights “Five Signs Your College Is in Serious Financial Trouble.” Krupnick has clearly written the article in response to the well-publicized issues facing Corinthian College and the City College of San Francisco, though neither of those institutions’ problems are really…

National (In-)Security: Fifty Notable American Espionage Novels: 40-42.

Proffitt, Nicholas. The Embassy House. New York: Bantam, 1986. For more than a decade, Nicholas Proffitt served as a correspondent and a bureau chief for Newsweek in many locations around the globe, including “hot spots” such as Saigon and Beirut. He has won awards for his reporting on the Arab-Israeli conflict and on the…

Asking Administrators to Do the Right Thing in the Midst of a Fiscal Crisis

The University of Alaska (UA) faces a $26M budget deficit. Jobs have been cut, departments are being downsized, and departing faculty are being replaced by adjuncts who earn poverty wages and receive no benefits. Student services have been slashed while student fees have increased. Public Radio programming has been axed, as has the University of…

Mitch Daniels, "Re-Inventor" of American Higher Education

On August 10, the Chicago Tribune has published an editorial titled “How Purdue Is Re-Inventing the American University.” No author is identified. The article title is both misleading and hyperbolic. It is misleading because it focuses entirely on Mitch Daniels and not on any broader initiatives within the university. It is hyperbolic because it does not…

The Koch Brothers’ Gifts to Higher Ed Come with Many Strings Attached

The New York Post recently ran a story by Carl Campanile under this headline: “College Liberals Spurn $10M Gift from the Koch Brothers.” Mitchell Langbert, a faculty member in the Business School at Brooklyn College, had been in extended discussions with the Koch Brothers Foundation about establishing a “financial center” within the Business School. When…

Robin Williams Supported Union Members

Since his death, it has become clear that, in contrast to his very extroverted stage persona, Robin Williams very quietly did an uncountable number of good things throughout his life. Among the many good causes that he supported, he literally stood up for collective bargaining rights. The following photos show him walking the picket line…

The College Affordability Crisis: Real Solutions or Lip Service

An “On the Issues” Post from the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org] _______________ The staggering level of college loan debt in our country finally seems to be getting some long-overdue national attention. Among the proposals for how to deal with this issue is one called “Pay It Forward,” a program that would substitute…

National (In-)Security: Fifty Notable American Espionage Novels: 37-39.

Phillips, David Atlee. The Carlos Contract. New York: Macmillan, 1978. David Atlee Phillips served with the C.I.A. for a quarter of a century, from 1950 to 1975. From 1973 to 1975, he was head of the agency’s Western Hemisphere Division. In 1977, his memoir, The Night Watch: Twenty-Five Years of Peculiar Service, was published. Meant…

WTF, or Let Me Know When This Post Becomes So Politically Inflammatory That I Can Be Fired for It

I receive the daily newsletter from the Jerusalem Post, and several days ago, I also received this e-mail: At first, I thought that the e-mail must be a hoax, a parody, but as far as I am able to tell, it seems to be a legitimate advertisement. Before going any further, I’d like to…

Local News Reporting on Administrative Bloat—from Oklahoma!

The focus on the disparity between the administrative and instructional staffing and compensation is becoming more local. These are the opening paragraphs of the third article in a four-article series in the Norman Transcript comparing the credentials and the compensation of administrators and faculty at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma: “In today’s competitive workforce, the…

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