For those of interested in open education and alternative publishing methods for faculty, please see the January newsletter for Writing Commons (below). Extending the argument I made in Open Textbook Publishing, this note reports our total count for online readers: 1,277,591 users! users for 2013. Also, please vote for the Aaron Swartz Award for Best Webtext for…
Many of us, and for many years, have been raising our voices against the growth of two-tiered systems in the United States. The sense of security felt by those at the top, unfortunately, keeps them from listening–and this is just as true in academia as it is elsewhere. Let me be blunt: Instead of seeing…
This week Richard Vedder, an Ohio State economist who runs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, and his student, Christopher Denhart, ran a provocative piece in the Wall Street Journal on “How the College Bubble Will Pop.” They argued “the benefits of a degree are declining while costs rise.” Looking at earning potential, Professor…
My grandfather, a businessman, never understood why two of his daughters, both musicians, married college professors. They’d never make any money, he said, and that would surely lead to unhappiness. A bit more than a decade ago, I began to make the transition from businessman to college professor. Though I loved my store and cafe,…
In recent blogs and a brief article in Academe, Open Textbook Publishing, I argued that faculty are wise to embrace their power as authors in the digital age, that they no longer need to rely on publishers: Thanks to inexpensive or free publishing tools and the ubiquitous nature of the web, the faculty can assume…
I am intrigued by the Chicago State University claim that the hedges trimmed to spell out the institutional initials are protected as part of its trademark because they are a distinctive landmark on the campus. Let’s consider some of the elements of this assertion. First, there is a difference between simple initials and a logo.…
Chicago State University (CSU) administrators have sent another letter attempting to shut down or censor the CSU Faculty Voice blog. In November, AAUP VP Hank Reichman called CSU’s earlier letter to the blog “a thuggish effort to bully and frighten, with no legal or moral justification.” This new letter is even worse, and clear evidence…
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,…
No one is entirely sure if it began as a joke, but someone tweeted ahead of the New Year about how “cool” it was that the United States would be celebrating its 2014th birthday. Huffington Post published a very brief post that included the tweet with no editorial comment. A slew of people then posted…
Yesterday, I ventured out of the house—just barely beyond the front doorway—just enough to confirm that I preferred to remain inside. I do not have a baseline for what is “too cold,” but when I become cognizant of the individual hairs inside my nostrils, it is too cold for me. “Polar Vortex” is a wonderful…