17 novembre 2015

By Paul B. Sturtevant. At a town hall campaign stop in South Carolina, Jeb Bush recently singled out an interesting group for attack: psychology, philosophy and liberal arts majors. He said:

“When a student shows up, they [their college or university] ought to say, ‘Hey, that psych major deal, that philosophy major thing, that's great, it's important to have liberal arts … but realize, you're going to be working a Chick-fil-A.’”

In the week since, Bush has drawn some well-deserved ire for his remarks. But those of us in the humanities would be deluding ourselves if we didn’t admit that we have a serious image problem. Read more...

By Cathy N. Davidson. This past Friday morning on Facebook, an English professor at the University of Missouri and former doctoral student of mine, John Evelev, made what he says will be his last post about the protests against racism at the University of Missouri. Read more...

By Fabio Rojas. Last week, students and administrators at Yale University fought over a series of racial incidents. A fraternity at the university was accused of excluding nonwhite women from a party. Read more...

By Serena Klempin. Higher education is increasingly looking to technology as a means of tackling persistent equity challenges and improving student outcomes. Yet technology in and of itself is not a solution -- unless people use technology to create new systems, behaviors and student experiences. Read more...

By Anonymous. My first adjunct job interview was at a local technical college. When the dean told me that he and his assistant would evaluate my interview and teaching demo, I found it unusual, since neither had a background that qualified them to assess my ability to teach in my subject area. Read more...

By Scott McLemee. The impending collapse of civilization should, as Samuel Johnson said about being hanged in a fortnight, wonderfully concentrate the mind. For most of the interview subjects whose responses Matthew Schneider-Mayerson analyzes in Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture (University of Chicago Press), that collapse is inevitable, if not already underway. Read more...

By John Thelin. “Endowments ’R’ Us!” Now that’s a fitting motto for American higher education.
College and university presidents like large endowments for both their real and symbolic benefits. Read more...

By Carol Barash. It has been clear for some time that the American college admissions system is fundamentally flawed. Between the Common App’s monopoly over the admissions process and U.S. News & World Report's rankings -- which give institutions points for selectivity and higher test scores -- it has been nearly impossible for individual colleges to change the way they recruit and admit students who are a good fit for their specific programs. Read more...

By Paul Fain. A public university group is backing adaptive learning, with grants to encourage universities to use the personalized digital courseware across multiple introductory courses. Read more...

By Scott Jaschik. The Association of American Colleges & Universities has over the years embraced numerous practices as key to promoting student learning, student engagement and student completion. The practices and their goals are all linked since students who are more engaged tend to learn more and are more likely to graduate. Read more...