Twitter and the Many Facets of Vileness

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH An ever-lengthening list of faculty have come under fire for tweets and other social-media posts that they have made. But anyone who actually looks regularly at Twitter feeds must know three things: first, the medium itself stokes extremes of expression;  second, almost nothing that a faculty member has ever tweeted comes…

Assessing Dual Enrollment

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In an article for University Business magazine, Jodi Helmer addresses the question “Is early college working?” She provides the following broad statistics: In 2002, 1.2 million students were earning college credits while still in high school. A decade later, the number of those participating in dual enrollment courses had almost doubled,…

More on the Emphasis on STEM

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The following excerpts are from Ben Tarnoff’s article, “Tech’s Push to Teach Coding Isn’t about Kid’s Success—It’s about Cutting Wages,” which has been published in The Guardian in September: Computer science courses for children have proliferated rapidly in the past few years. A 2016 Gallup report found that 40% of American…

It’s Not Just Words

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH What follows is taken from an article written by Lynh Bui for the Washington Post: A white University of Maryland student accused of fatally stabbing a black student who was visiting the campus has been charged with a hate crime after authorities reviewed his phone and social media activity, prosecutors said.…

Why Full-Time Faculty Don’t Teach More Low-Level Courses: Amy Thompson’s Testimony

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Opponent Testimony for H.B. 66 Submitted By Dr. Amy Thompson, Professor of Public Health Chairman Duffy, Vice Chairman Antani, Ranking Member Sweeney, Members of the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, my name is Dr. Amy Thompson. For identification purposes, I am a tenured Professor of Public Health and the…

Self-Exposure, Academic-Style

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH If you receive any entertainment newsletters in your daily e-mail, you have probably seen those articles that ask you which character in a particular film franchise or television series you most resemble. Education Dive has come up with a weird variation on that sort of article—a quiz that allows you to…

Why Full-Time Faculty Don’t Teach More Low-Level Courses: Steve Mockabee’s Testimony

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Testimony of Stephen Mockabee, Ph.D. Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors House Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee Representative Mike Duffey, Chair October 11, 2017 Chairman Duffey, Ranking Member Sweeney, and members of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee: My name is Steve Mockabee, and I am…

Weinstein about to Lose Honorary Degree

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In what clearly seems a much bigger deal for Harvey Weinstein’s alma mater than it likely is for Weinstein himself, the University of Buffalo is seeking to have his honorary degree revoked. Writing for NBC News, Dan Corey has reported the following: Officials at the University at Buffalo, which is part…