“‘Dying is easy, comedy is hard.’ I believe it was Shia LaBeouf who said that,” quipped Jim Carrey at the Golden Globes the other day. Someone always said it before. Maybe not exactly the same, but they said it. Question is, when is it influence, when imitation, and when outright plagiarism? In the Introduction to…
Bethany Brookshire (perhaps better known in the blogosphere as SciCurious) has posted moving personal musings on her experience “failing” as an academic scientist and of being failed by the system that trained her to be one. She notes that grant-writing was the canary in the career coal mine for her. While she loved doing research,…
There are many signs that the slow economic recovery may finally be picking up some steam. Economists are forecasting 4% growth for 2014. Both the official and the actual unemployment numbers have been declining, albeit very incrementally, month after month and are finally approaching levels that could be impacted meaningfully by targeted jobs programs—if, of…
Yesterday John K. Wilson wrote about the Kansas Board of Regents new policy mandating institutional oversight of the blog posts, tweets, and other public digital communications of faculty and staff at Kansas colleges and universities. Because it is not restricted to communications made with institutional resources, this policy goes well beyond violating of academic freedom,…
An “On the Issues” Post from the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org] _______________ As happens too often in higher education these days, the recent push to increase college completion rates shows how laudable goals can become problematic when pursued in narrow, rigid ways. Who wouldn’t want to increase the numbers of college…
Recently, the New Statesman ran a short piece on a study that tracked the majors of millionaires by the baccalaureate and graduate degrees that they have completed [http://www.newstatesman.com/business/2013/10/top-ten-university-degrees-taken-millionaires]. The ten most popular degrees among this select group were reported as follows: 1. Engineering 2. MBA 3. Economics 4. Law 5. Business Administration
An “On the Issues” Post from the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org] _______________ Many colleges and universities around the country are cutting programs (or have already done so) that just a few years ago were considered at the core of any college or university. The case of one campus highlights the price…
In late July, the New Jersey Department of Health provided a detailed news release on Meningitis B and the outbreak of cases at Princeton University. The news release included this summary of the first five cases, which had been reported between March 13 and July 24, 2013: “As of July 24, there have been a…