The Case for the Public Intellectual as Gadfly

Andrew Bacevich, political-science professor at Boston University, has posted a new essay, “Rationalizing Lunacy: The Intellectual as Servant of the State.” It’s a look back at the role of the public intellectual within the U.S. federal government since the time of the New Deal, focusing particularly on their impact on foreign policy, the Vietnam War in specific…

The High Cost of MOOCs: Calculating How High Is Too High and the Extra-financial Implications of That Cost

I subscribe to a number of newsletters related to online education. They very seldom include articles that question increased institutional investments in digital technology. So this one caught my attention. Writing for eCampus, Meris Stansbury surveys studies that have addressed the question of “How to Calculate the Real Cost of MOOCs.” It turns out that…

Legislative and Media Response to Ohio Chancellor’s Testimony on Ohio Higher Ed Appropriations

The following are two brief excerpts from Gongwer’s coverage of the Chancellor’s testimony and the legislators’ response to it. Gongwer is a subscription news service on Ohio government; so I cannot provide a link to the entire article. _________________________ “Chancellor Defends Governor’s Plan To Cut College Costs “A House subcommittee budget probed the higher education…

Media Response to Ohio Conference Report and Testimony on Ohio Higher Ed Appropriations

John McNay’s testimony was listed first in University Business’s daily overview of the most notable higher-ed news stories of the previous day The UB Daily item links to an article by Karen Farkus in the C leveland Plain Dealer. Here are the opening paragraphs in that article: “COLUMBUS, Ohio – College professors are taking a…

Ohio Conference of AAUP Produces Higher Ed Report

The Ohio Conference AAUP has produced an “Ohio Higher Education Report” entitled The Real Problems Deserve Real Solutions. The purpose of the report is to influence public policy around higher education issues, especially in light of HB 64, the state budget bill, as well as Gov. Kasich’s Task Force on Affordability and Efficiency. It is also a response…

Ohio Conference President Provides Senate Testimony on the Decline in State Support, Administrate Bloat, the Cost of Intercollegiate Athletics, and Faculty Workload

Testimony of John T. McNay, Ph.D., President Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors, Before the Ohio Senate Finance Committee, Senator Scott Oelslager, Chair, March 3, 2015   Chairman Oelslager, Ranking Member Skindell, and distinguished members of the Finance Committee: my name is John McNay and I am President of the Ohio Conference…