Author: jasonbeda

Donald Trump on Higher Education

I know we haven’t really discussed any of the current presidential candidates’ higher education opinions too much, but I recently came across an article in which a staff member of the Trump campaign gave a brief outline of what they would do about higher education. First, they would significantly alter how student loans are handled. He said that Trump plans to eliminate Federal government loans to students, make colleges have a stake in the risk of student loans and (here’s where the Trump-ness kicks in) make it harder for liberal arts majors to get student loans.

First of all, I believe removing the the federal government from student loans is a terrible idea. In the personal finance course I’m taking this semester I learned that federal student loans are actually more advantageous for students than loans from private institutions. Federal loans have fixed interest rates while private interests rates could potentially increase, casing the student to incur more debt. Also, federal loans tend to be cheaper overall. Second of all, how could the Trump campaign think of cutting loans to liberal arts students?! They claim they plan to do this because liberal arts majors have a smaller chance of getting a decently paid job after graduation. Clearly, they don’t know what we know about the liberal arts. As we discussed, such an education gives you many of the skills that employers are actually looking for (problem solving ability, critical thinking etc.). If anything it can increase ones chances of getting a good job! Although, to be fair I do think he means well here. He doesn’t want to let students incur large amounts of debt without the chance to pay it back. Still, he might mean well, but he appears to be a bit ignorant of the true circumstances of the situation.

Another point spoken about in the article is Trump’s views on free speech. The Trump campaign representative mentioned how the they believe free speech is being restricted on colleges campuses. He mentioned how the campaign has noticed that people seem to get outraged when a student writes something like “Trump 2016” somewhere near or on campus. The representative then went on to say that colleges need to ensure that all students are given the right to express their opinion even if most people strongly disagree with them. In my opinion, the Trump campaign made (an almost) good point here. As we discussed in class, free speech is absolutely crucial to receiving a good education. Hearing other people’s thoughts and opinions can really give a student a chance to better develop their own opinions as well as give them the ability to appreciate and respect an other’s opinion that don’t actually share. So in that regard the Trump campaign made a good point. However, based on the Republican debates and many news clips I think it’s clear that Trump takes this idea too far. It’s one thing to expect people to respect opinions they do not agree it, but it’s another to expect people to be okay with you hurling a barrage insults at them. The latter case is not constructive to higher education and would probably even lead to polarization between groups of students.

I tried to keep this post about my assessment of the Trump campaign’s stance on higher education so I do apologize if I turned this into a bit of a rant. Anyway, feel free to comment and share your thoughts about the article. If anyone happens to disagree with me on these issues I’d actually really like to hear what you think (after all, hearing an opposing opinion could be eye opening)

Academic Fraud in the NCAA

A recent Inside higher ed article explained how one Division I basketball coach instructed his staff to complete some of his players’ and potential recruits’ academic assignments. The article even describes one case where a student, who was “as far away from graduating as any kid [the coach] ever had,” managed to earn a GPA of 3.75 in three online courses (which needed to be passed for this student to attend the college). I know many of the articles we read about college sports had to do with the issue of paying student athletes, but I think this issue is just as important. Why should these college athletes get a free academic ride when most of us work tirelessly to achieve satisfactory grades? Why should they get the privilege of training in high line athletic facilities and receiving special treatment while not having to do any actual school work? Being more athletically gifted doesn’t make them any better than their fellow students!

However, I do recognize that not all these athletes receive this help by choice. I imagine many student-athletes (who weren’t able to receive a decent education in the past) would love to expand their in minds in college. Unfortunately for them, their coaches want to ensure they don’t fail off the team and therefore may come to give some extra “assistance” even if the student athlete doesn’t agree to it. An attitude like this is very selfish. Since most student athletes don’t make it to the professional leagues they’ll need to get a good education in order to land a decent job after graduation. Coaches are robbing some of their athletes from such an opportunity and it’s despicable. I had never been such a big fan of college sports so I therefore wasn’t aware of how bad the NCAA can be, but our seminar has opened my eyes to some of th ebig issues.One thing is for sure, some major change is definitely needed in college sports.

Teacher Appreciation

I recently rediscovered a comedy skit that I had seen last summer. It’s basically a parody of ESPN’s SportCenter (that’s a sports news show for anyone who didn’t know). In this video, instead of reporting on pro sports, the comedians talk about “the latest developments in the exciting world of pro teaching.” In this academic utopian world the best teachers can earn annual salaries in the tens of millions of dollars and actually star in commercials for the new BMW 6 Series. I think it’s a video worth watching so I’m not going to ruin any more of it (the link will be posted below).

I decided to advertise for this video because I think it relates to our discussion about money and particularly about professors’ salaries. Someone mentioned in class (I think it was Xavier) that teachers are the ones who are really down in the trenches and doing a significant amount of the work in preparing students for the future, yet they don’t receive the credit they deserve. I think this video, in an exaggerated manner, displays how much we should value quality teachers and professors and the difference they can make.

I don’t want to sound like too much of a kiss-up so I’m going to end my post here. This is the link to video, I encourage all to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkHqPFbxmOU

Transcripts of the Future (or so We Should Hope)

Has anyone ever looked at their transcript and thought, “I know I have excellent grades and impressive classes listed here, but I feel like someone who sees this won’t really understand what skills and abilities I have?” If so, you may be interested in a new initiative the University of Maryland University College (that title seems incredibly redundant) is taking in regards to transcripts. UMUC is experimenting with competency based learning, an idea we discussed in class and read in Selingo’s book, and have therefore decided to pilot an “extended transcript” in the upcoming fall semester.

This transcript differs from the usual one in that it lists more than just the classes you’ve taking and grades you’ve received. It actually “pulls in students’ papers, projects and other assignments and how they count as progress toward clearly defined learning outcomes.” Each learning outcome (or objective) is tailored to fit your major or field of study and contains subcategories of related skills. The transcript even tracks the student’s progress in showing proficiency in these skills. Additionally, the transcript will offer “evidence” (i.e. papers, projects etc.) to show how students have displayed mastery of each particular skill.

This new transcript can be helpful for multiple reasons. First, it gives employers or graduate schools a better idea of how competent an applicant is. This can especially benefit those students who have shown excellent mastery of learning objectives and skills. Second, as the associate vice provost and registrar at UMUC says, it shows students how classes outside their major can affect their learning objectives and potential career paths. With this foresight, students can better gauge exactly what classes will be useful for them. Hopefully, this would aid students in avoiding unnecessary (in regards to their career and general life goals) classes that will increase their tuition bill, a problem everyone should be trying to avoid, and rob them of their precious time. Third, as mentioned earlier, it allows students to customize how they want to represent themselves to potential employers.

There are some issues with this potential new system; most notably, collecting data from all campus archives could be difficult. UMUC, though, is going to remain resilient and push forward. As Thomas Green, the executive director at AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers), puts it: “The concept here is that we don’t think there’s going to be one model that will emerge quickly. We’re just trying to accelerate the beginning of this.” Indeed, such an idea will take time to develop properly, but UMUC and other universities have taken a very important first step in helping students access transcripts that can show who they really are beyond just some classes and grade point averages.

If anyone would like to read the article discussing this matter you can find it at the following link: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/29/u-maryland-university-colleges-extended-transcript-new-type-student-record. I also recommend looking at the picture of the prototype they have shown being that it serves as a good visual aid in understanding the basic layout of the transcript.

Chapter 9 – The Skills of the Future

In Chapter 9 Selingo discusses a very important skill that present day colleges don’t always teach to their students: cognitive abilities. Some examples of this would be problem solving ability or critical thinking skills. In other words, colleges need to do more than just prepare students for tests, they need to prepare them for real life experiences where solutions aren’t always very simple to find. Selingo therefore offers 4 activities that can “help develop the skills necessary to succeed in the workforce…” (149).

1) The first activity is to find passionate faculty members. Selingo quotes a couple of statistics that indicate that most students don’t have much of a relationship with a professor outside of class. However, he claims that “getting to know at least one faculty member well…improves the chances that students will get more from their college experience.” (150) Professors are knowledgeable and experienced people who could really offer advice that leads students in the right direction in school and in life. Many Georgetown students even told Selingo that a professor has had an important impact on their choice of a very crucial decision: their major. The potential issue that students may have with this activity is that professors can be more concerned with their own research than the development of one of their students. Therefore, it seems college kids may have to put in a lot of effort to find those professors who will aid them properly in their education.

2) The second activity that students should engage in is a research project. He claims that a proper research project can “[teach the student] a lot about themselves. about what they can do and what they can’t do.” (152) A successful research project shows potential employers that a student can write, reason and be successful. In other words, it gives students skills they will need for the workforce (i.e. critical thinking). Additionally, employers will notice these abilities in a student, leading to a greater chance of landing a decent job. David Lopatto, a psychology professor at Grinnell College, even believes that a research project can give students the feeling that they can better tolerate and overcome obstacles. In summary, a research project is something that can give students the kind of skills they need for the workforce.

3)The third activity Selingo recommends is to go on a “transformative global experience” (152). When students spends time abroad they can gain a better understanding of different cultures. “[They] take things in on a human level rather than the theoretical level of a class” (153). A positive experience abroad, argues Selingo, can even help students better understand global issues. This could make it easier for those students to help solve those issues once they become employed. The biggest obstacle students may face with this activity is a financial one. Study abroad trips can be very costly and not everyone has easy access to some kind of grant like we do at Macaulay. There are universities such as Duke that offer financial aid to students studying abroad, but overall many students from around the nation would struggle to pay for an overseas experience.

4) The fourth and final activity is to be creative, take risks and learn how to fail. An author, Daniel Pink, believes that the economy and society are moving away from the linear, logical attributes of the left brain and are instead moving towards the big-picture capabilities of the right brain. (154) He argues that colleges nowadays are turning students into vending machines for right answers without giving them a real ability to think for themselves or see the big-picture. He further argues that to truly be successful people need to be able to take a step back and recognize what life is throwing at them. This will allow them to be more successful in their careers. If colleges don’t give students these skills they will just be producing good test takers, but not good problem solvers. The way colleges can try to teach these skills would be to provide students with an environment where they can try to be creative and even fail without being penalized. Learning through doing or learning through failure or even learning through having fun is the most effective way students will gain the necessary skills for their careers.
However, it should be noted that present day colleges don’t seem fit to teach their students in this way. For a lot of people success in college is determined by high GPAs. When this is the case students do what it takes to get an A, but won’t necessarily learn any new skills that will be helpful later on in life. If colleges wish to truly benefit their students they’ll need to come up with some innovative measures to break students free from a focus only on GPAs.

The chapter also focused on how students should choose a major, Some of the students interviewed told Selingo that they wanted to pick a major that could lead them into a good job, while others claimed they didn’t really need any specific major since the economy is constantly changing. The latter group argues that all they really need is the ability to think critically, the skills set of a specific profession won’t matter as much. All they really need to do is major in what interests them. Richard Arum, the author of ‘Academically Adrift’, claims that “it doesn’t matter what these students focus on as long as they focus on it in a rigorous way.” (148) Once again Selingo returns to the importance of being able to creative and critical. However, this does prompt the question of how much his idea should apply. Some professions require a vast amount of textbook knowledge (doctors, accountants etc.). Critical thinking still matters to these professions, but to what extent can they forgo the opportunity to learn vital information in order to learn such a skill?

Overall students will be faced with many challenges in the future. However, if they truly want to gain the necessary skills and knowledge that will ne important in their careers they best be prepared to take on the appropriate challenges.