This morning, a team of my students presented on the value of comedy in society. It was a fine presentation: They even cited a number of studies concluding that laughter is good for one’s health–but included the caveat that the studies were way too small to be considered conclusive. As this is a First Year…
One of the advantages, I suppose, of living now is that we can access “academic” items immediately and participate in a “discourse” about these items, supposedly. I am not saying I want us to go back to the times when monks illuminated manuscripts to let future generations know exactly how they felt about many things…
Thomas E. Perez, Secretary of Labor: “Home care workers do heroic work, providing high-quality, compassionate care that allows seniors and people with disabilities to live at home with independence and dignity. “By organizing together, these workers have improved both their own working conditions and the quality of services they provide. The demand for skilled home…
Okay, I admit it, I am a huge fan of Words with Friends. If Ann Coulter can reveal to an entire nation that hating soccer is America’s favorite pastime, I figure I can let the cat out of the bag to a few hundred people about this 15 by 15 virtual playing field. I have…
If you have not been following the cases before the Supreme Court in this session, or if you have been but have simply lost track of this important labor case in the midst of the other cases that have attracted much more intense media coverage, the following is the lead to an article disseminated by…
Colleagues and I who are more deskbound than individuals who teach P.E. have joked about, I mean entertained the thought of, teaching walk jog run classes. We should be able to do it, even if our advanced degrees are in accounting, biology, or English. A fact that many faculty do not know is that in…
Writing for the New York Times (June 24, 2014), in a column titled “The Reality of Student Debt Is Different than the Cliches,” David Leonhardt reviews a recent study released by the Brookings Institute. These are the main assertions: (1) Student debt, on average, has actually not increased significantly. (2) Because the earnings of college…
The answer is no, but please read on in spite or because of this two-letter word. I am certain I am not the only individual in the world to have made it through or done very well in excellent programs of study in college, both graduate and undergraduate, without ever having seen a rubric in…
The following media release was issued today by the Faculty Association for the California Community Colleges (FACCC). With members at all 112 California community colleges, FACC describes itself as “a statewide professional membership association that advocates solely for all California Community College faculty. Since 1953, FACCC has provided focused representation for the community college faculty…
As the one-year anniversary of the decision by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) to revoke the accreditation of City College of San Francisco (CCSF) approaches, the Commission is coming under increasing criticism. Today the California Bureau of State Audits (BSA) released its report on the ACCJC’s treatment of community colleges. The…