Today, it has been announced that Arne Duncan, who has “rescued public education” by promoting the expansion of corporate-operated charter schools and corporate-provided standardized testing, is leaving his post as Secretary of Education. That would be cause for a deep sigh of relief, if not a loud cheer—except that his replacement will be John B.…
At the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Neel Ahuja is teaching a course on the literature related to the 9-11 terrorist attacks. In response to concerns raised by both the Young Republicans group on the campus and by the Pope Center, the Faculty Council has issued a resolution unanimously affirming the academic integrity of…
Over the past few decades, multicultural studies, diaspora studies, and cross-cultural and transnational studies have all provoked considerable scholarly interest and have become distinct disciplines, reflecting the dramatic increase in the mobility of the global population. In the midst of these broader movements of people, corporations have placed considerable value on international studies, foreign-language studies,…
DiPaola, Jerry. “Stipend to Offset College Athletes’ Costs Could Unbalance Playing Field.” Pittsburgh Tribune Review [PA] 27 Sep. 2015. For decades, the scholarship model in college athletics remained unchanged: room and board, tuition and books, miscellaneous fees. . . . This year, those items will be supplemented for the first time at 65 of the…
It is, of course, one of the great linguistic ironies that education in general and higher education in particular are among the most jargon-ridden of the disciplines. Indeed, it may be that our penchant for almost endlessly creating and re-creating jargon has made us especially susceptible to the jargon invented by the “educational reformers,” the…
First, the Chronicle of Higher Education has provided this update on former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannion’s suit to receive some of the revenue generated from the sale of products bearing his image: “A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday upheld the main thrust of a judge’s landmark…
In June 2010, Jack Stripling wrote a piece for Inside Higher Ed reporting on faculty responses to a survey about the performance of University of Toledo president Lloyd Jacobs. Here are the first few paragraphs of that piece, titled “Toledo Chief Raked over Coals”: “In a scathing review of his controversial presidency at the University…
An opinion piece, titled “Missed Opportunity; A Canceled Speaker Deserved to Be Heard at Pitt,” was recently published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [September 26, 2015: A, 6]. After indicating that Finkelstein had been invited to participate in the university of Pittsburgh’s inaugural National Security Symposium, the op-ed writer offers this pithy summary of the very dubious…
Beer, Julie Crothers. “Educators Worry Dual-Credit Degree Requirement Asks Too Much of Teachers.” Goshen News [IN] 26 Sep. 2015. . . . Dual credit courses offer students the opportunity to earn college credit for coursework through a postsecondary institution that they complete while enrolled in high school. Locally, secondary schools partner with Indiana University,…