Category Archives: News

Recent News

From Professor Hainline:

This editorial—The Trouble With Online CollegeNYT—stimulated the responses below:

On popular view of HE in the US:
Americans Are Proud of U.S. Colleges but Not of Their Direction, The Chronicle

On the problems of HE and need for change:
From Dean Kirschner: Innovations in Higher Education? Hah!, The Chronicle
Responses to the Kirschner article on change in HE:
The Rut We’re In, The Chronicle

On the future of Higher Ed by a popular writer on HE:
Higher Education’s Future: Discuss!, NYT

On cheating scandal at Harvard:
Harvard Forced Dozens to Leave in Cheating Scandal, NYT

Who gets to go to college/diversity issues:
Poor Students Struggle as Class Plays a Greater Role in Success, NYT

Two on the academic freedom issue at BC:
Academic Freedom Vindicated in Brooklyn, NYT
Academic Freedom in Brooklyn: Part Two, NYT

Administration of HE:

On MOOCs and technology in HE:

Today’s Times is full of HE articles, some about CUNY

From Professor Hainline:

I will eventually learn how to put these on the WordPress Blog, but much action in today’s Times and related posts on issues in higher education relevant to our discussions:

1.      Article about the pro-Palestinian speakers on the BC campus: Q: why is academic freedom a value on college campuses? Whose is entitled to it? Faculty? Students? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/nyregion/appearance-by-bds-at-brooklyn-college-spurs-protest.html?emc=eta1

2.      Article about resignation of the President of Medgar Evers, embattled pretty much since he came to the school, and the role of the faculty in no-confidence votes (the President of NYU has just had one about various faculty matters, including the desire to build a huge building complex in Greenwich Village and his financial support of various International campuses of NYU – but no link for that today): http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/nyregion/medgar-evers-college-president-resigns.html?emc=eta1

3.      An article about declining values of university and college endowments (Harvard’s is $30 billion), which points to the relationship between the resources for higher education and the larger financial markets in which institutions of HE invest:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/education/study-confirms-drop-in-college-endowment-returns.html?emc=eta1

4.      An op-ed piece about a person who got a college degree for less than $10K  (question is why people seem to think an N of 1 is any sort of argument; maybe the 10K degree missed something, but this is actually pretty common as a reasoning tool in arguments): http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/opinion/my-valuable-cheap-college-degree.html?emc=eta1

5.      Some eposts (not from today) on an article on need blind admissions and a letter form the President of Vassar about the impact of need blind admissions and the impacts of admissions policies on shifting financial aid from need to merit (which came up in our discussion of the other day): http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/education/elite-smaller-colleges-struggle-to-cover-financial-aid.htmland http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/opinion/need-blind-admissions.html?emc=eta1

6.      A post (also not from today, but relevant to the question of mission differentiation at different institutions we will be covering soon) from a former librarian at Yale about how the need for faculty to do research and scholarship affects UG tuition:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/opinion/why-college-costs-so-much.html?emc=eta1