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Showing posts from November, 2021

Florida Career College to Close

Florida Career College to Close Doug Lederman Fri, 01/26/2024 - 03:00 AM Byline(s) Doug Lederman from Inside Higher Ed https://ift.tt/avZRfLi

Our Academic Libraries and ‘The Library: A Fragile History’

Blog:  Learning Innovation The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwe Published in November of 2021. The Library: A Fragile History is ambitious in its scope and detail-oriented in its execution. The book traces the entire history of libraries, inclusive of private, state, public, and academic libraries. The Library can be read in several ways. The book is a history of the idea of the library, but also as a chronicle of how the physical form of the library has evolved. The Library helps us understand the place of libraries throughout history in nations, communities, and institutions (such as colleges and universities), as well as what the evolution of the library says about the places and cultures in which they are embedded. The Library can also be read as a history of the book. From manuscripts (most often created by skilled monastic scribes) to the 15th-century invention by Gutenberg of movable type printing to the current digital e-book

Higher Education’s Brave New World

Blog:  Higher Ed Gamma In the first session of my first class in graduate school, the professor warned my classmates and I about the worst sin that a graduate student could commit:  Trying to demonstrate how smart we were by savaging the books we were assigned to read. He called this “the steam roller technique” and said pointedly that if those books were as flawed and defective as we thought, then we obviously didn’t understand or appreciate the authors’ arguments and contributions. Worse yet, if the profession’s luminaries wrote such flawed works, how could we hope to do better? Good advice, I still think, nearly half a century later.  Whenever I feel tempted to criticize a book or article paragraph by paragraph, I remind myself that I have almost certainly misunderstood the author’s claims and contentions. I recently read Arthur Levine’s latest book,  The Great Upheaval: Higher Education's Past, Present, and Uncertain Future , co-authored with Scott Van Pelt, and

Syracuse Adds New Safety Measures

Syracuse University on Monday announced new measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus. "Over the holiday, news spread of a newly identified COVID variant, the impact of which is currently being studied across the globe. Syracuse University continues to closely monitor campus and local public health conditions, including issues and concerns related to this new variant," said a letter from the university to all students and employees. "Prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, despite the university’s very low level of COVID transmission and infection within our campus community, the Public Health Team considered several scenarios to support a safe return to campus. With that scenario planning in mind, today the university implemented several proactive actions to identify and respond to any changes in COVID transmission levels on campus attributable to the holiday break." Among the action taken by Syracuse: Conducting enhanced wastewater testing of on-cam

Nevada lawmakers invest in first-generation students

Image:  A new initiative to fund efforts to support prospective first-generation college students in Nevada is modeled on an existing program designed to provide sixth-grade students a future path to college. The Dean’s Future Scholars program was launched by the University of Nevada at Reno more than two decades ago with just 50 middle school students who would presumably become the first in their families to go to college. More than 1,400 students have since participated. The program was so successful that it caught the attention of State Senator Heidi Seevers Gansert, a first-generation college graduate, ​who advocated for using federal COVID-19 relief dollars to fund a new statewide effort. The effort was part of a recovery bill passed by the Nevada Legislature in May, which allocates $4 million to the University of Nevada at Reno over three years to establish the Nevada First-Gen Network, a group of education institutions and organizations that are currently supporting

Low-income people pay more into lottery-funded scholarships

Image:  As the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots grow, so do the lines of people looking to buy a ticket. That’s good news for state coffers and the public education programs they fund. In many states, a significant share of lottery revenue helps finance public higher education. During the 2020 fiscal year, nontax state support for higher education—primarily from lottery revenues—grew by 9.1 percent nationwide to a total of nearly $4.4 billion, according to the latest State Higher Education Finance report from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. When Georgia introduced its lottery in 1993, the state also created the HOPE scholarship program, which provides partial tuition scholarships to all Georgia students who meet a series of academic requirements. Big jackpots mean big payouts for the state; when the Mega Millions jackpot reached a record $1.5 billion in October 2018 , Georgia raked in $34.7 million for its HOPE scholarship, pre-K and early chi

Butler County, Lewis and Clark Community Colleges hacked

Image:  Two community colleges were victims of ransomware attacks in the last week, the latest in a string of costly cyberintrusions at American higher education institutions. The latest institutions to be targeted—Butler County Community College in Pennsylvania and Lewis and Clark Community College in Illinois—remain closed as officials grapple with the aftermath of the attacks. Posts on a Lewis and Clark Facebook page make clear the scale of the attack as students vented about being shut out of their email, Blackboard, laptops and all other platforms requiring a college log-in. The incidents are part of a rising wave of ransomware attacks targeting American colleges and universities. According to Brett Callow , a threat analyst with the cybersecurity solutions company Emsisoft , 26 of 80 total ransomware incidents in the U.S. education sector so far this year targeted colleges or universities. There were 26 total incidents in 2020, up from just 18 in 2019. Many but not al

Gay men earn degrees at highest rate in the U.S.

Image:  Gay men earn undergraduate degrees at the highest rate of any group in the U.S., according to a new study on sexual orientation and academic achievement. Roughly 52 percent of gay men in the U.S. have a bachelor’s degree, compared to 36 percent of all adults and about 35 percent of straight men, the study found. “Across data sets and across the different educational outcomes that I looked at, gay men outpaced straight men by substantial margins,” said Joel Mittleman, the study’s author and an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame. “And on most measures, not just straight men, but also straight women.” Additionally, 6 percent of gay men in the U.S. have an advanced degree, including a J.D., M.D. or Ph.D., which is about 50 percent higher than for straight men, he found. Mittleman said that gay men of every racial and ethnic group outperformed their straight male counterparts. “I think it’s especially striking within the Asian American pop

Easter Island Myths

What happened on Easter Island? In today's Academic Minute, Binghamton University's Robert DiNapoli says reality may be different from what we've long thought. DiNapoli is a postdoctoral research associate in the environmental studies program at Binghamton, part of the State University of New York. A transcript of this podcast can be found here . Section:  Academic Minute File:  11-30-21 Binghamton - Easter Island Myths.mp3 Event's date:  Monday, November 29, 2021 - 4:45pm Insider only:  from Inside Higher Ed https://ift.tt/3o2Apc2

Why Can’t We Buy a Fountain From Sam’s Club?

Blog:  Just Explain It to Me! Scene: Mathematics department faculty meeting at a public institution. Agenda item, “New Fountain,” listed under old business, is about to be discussed.* Slope (Department Chair): ( Cordially ) At the last faculty meeting, many of you brought up concerns about the plans for a new fountain to be installed in front of our building. I’ve taken your response to the fountain seriously and have invited the associate vice president of capital projects here to answer your questions. Welcome, Mr. Steel. Thank you for joining us. Steel: ( Congenially ) Good afternoon. Happy to be here and talk to you about— Power (tenured faculty): ( Aggressively interrupting ) Why are we installing a new fountain in front of the mathematics building? The current one looks perfectly fine. Steel: Yes, well, it appears OK, but … Power: So, are you telling me we’re replacing something that’s perfectly functional? Once again, this institution is wasting money that sh

The problems of not showing enough love for academic work (opinion)

Lara McKenzie explores the problematic consequences, especially for early-career academics, of not showing love for one’s scholarship and teaching. Job Tags:  FACULTY JOBS Ad keywords:  faculty Editorial Tags:  Career Advice Show on Jobs site:  Image Source:  Tommy/digitalvision vectors/getty images Image Size:  Thumbnail-horizontal Is this diversity newsletter?:  Is this Career Advice newsletter?:  Disable left side advertisement?:  Trending:  Live Updates:  liveupdates0 Most Popular:  3 Ad slot:  6 In-Article related stories:  9 from Inside Higher Ed https://ift.tt/3pb9utS

Cal State Adopts Plan to Re-Enroll Students

The California State University system is embarking on a systemwide campaign to re-enroll students ahead of the spring semester, EdSource reported. Chancellor Joseph Castro announced that the system would renew efforts to re-engage and re-enroll students by replicating across all its campuses a pilot program launched at San Francisco State University. The university emailed about 300 students who stopped out after fall 2019 to encourage them to re-enroll. Financial aid advisers also contacted the students who had outstanding balances about possible waivers or payment plans. About 60 students decided to return through the program. The systemwide push is part of a four-year initiative to improve the Cal State system’s graduation rates. “We have a moral imperative to do better for our students,” Castro said. “Let’s reach out, find creative ways to reconnect and welcome them back to the CSU, and provide them with the support they need to get back on track.” Enrollment across the 23

Temple Mourns 2 Students Killed in Past Week

Temple University is mourning the violent deaths of two students in the span of a week. Samuel Collington, 21, a senior at Temple, was shot twice in Philadelphia on Sunday in an apparent robbery attempt, according to local TV station 6ABC . Collington was shot outside his apartment, blocks away from campus, and pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital. “We mourn the loss of a bright and thriving political science student, and share in the wrenching grief of his family and friends,” Charlie Leone, Temple's executive director of public safety, said in a  statement  statement on Sunday. “Samuel was set to graduate this spring from the College of Liberal Arts, and already was succeeding in his field, interning as a Democracy Fellow with the city.” No arrests have yet been made related to Collington’s death, 6ABC reported. Katherine Kelemen, 22, a junior at Temple, died Nov. 22 after being beaten with a baseball bat in her family home in Voorhees Township, N.J., NJ.com repo

USC Apologizes for ‘Offensive Chant’ During Football Game

The University of Southern California’s athletic department issued a public apology to Brigham Young University on Sunday for an “offensive chant” that came from USC’s student section during a Saturday night football game between the two universities, the Salt Lake Tribune reported . According to the Tribune , USC students chanted “F--- the Mormons” during the game against BYU, which is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “The offensive chant from our student section directed towards BYU during the football game last night does not align with our Trojan values,” the department wrote in a statement on Twitter. “It was distasteful and we apologize to the BYU program.” BYU beat USC 35 to 31 at Saturday’s game. USC defensive line coach Vic So’oto issued his own statement on Twitter and tagged BYU football coach Kalani Sitake and athletic director Tom Holmoe. “I did not hear the chant but I know it does not reflect the Trojan family that I’ve come to know a