By Rosemarie Emanuele. I usually teach the “binomial probability distribution” in my Statistics classes. This is a distribution that describes the probability of the outcome of an experiment when there are only two possible results, as when one flips a coin to see whether it comes up “heads” or “tails.” I found myself thinking of this recently as my daughter has been assigning people to the “nice” list or the “naughty” list as Christmas approaches. Read more...
By Rosemarie Emanuele. One does not have to be a labor economist to know that finding a job that speaks to the very depth of one’s soul is something to be treasured. I found myself thinking of this recently as Ursuline College celebrated the legacy of four church women who were martyred 35 years ago this past week. Read more...
By Rosemarie Emanuele. Labor economics studies how people choose the field of work they pursue. I thought of this recently as I reflected on the title that I go by.
“Is your mother a professor?” a friend of my daughter recently asked her. Read more...
By Barbara Fister. Like a lot of people, I’m scratching my head over Americans’ apparent capacity to believe six or more impossible things before breakfast. Read more...
By Barbara Fister. Such strange things can happen when you starve systems that were once considered worth funding because they benefit all.
One of the most surprising lessons of #Ferguson was that cash-strapped municipalities were making up shortages in their budget by collecting excessive fines from citizens. Read more...
By Barbara Fister. The reason academic librarians care so much about what we call information literacy is that we think it’s important for students to be in the habit of asking questions, prepared to seek information as they make their minds up, and to be critical about sources of information. Read more...
By Tracy Mitrano. I have three challenges for the social networking company that runs the Yik Yak site/app. First, attest that never in the history of your app have its founders or employees ever posted racist material, and likewise, never asked or encouraged anyone they knew to do it. Second, establish a policy for your company that its founders and employees will not be allowed to post material, and are also prohibited from asking anyone else to post on their behalf, or even encouraging any form of content to be posted on the site. Third, use some of your well-funded monies to do something positive in higher education, for example to establish a chair in law, history or public policy for the study of racism in the United States; or a scholarship to students of color; or to fund speakers to address issues of racism on our college and university campuses. Read more...
By Tracy Mitrano. In 1964 the historian and political observer Richard Hofstadter published an essay entitled “The Paranoid Style of American Politics.” Worked into a book of the same title, it emerged in the aftermath of the McCarthy era and in the middle of the Goldwater presidential campaign. Read more...
By Tracy Mitrano. Over the years I have shared a number of personal matters in this blog. In recognition of International Day of People with Disabilities on Dec. 3, I will share yet another personal matter. My brother, Peter, four years older than me, is profoundly developmentally disabled. Read more...
By Tracy Mitrano. Some one should write a book tracking the ebb and flow of the relative power of the three branches of government over the course of American history and how that tide shaped, and was shaped, by the circumstances. For example, Congress dominated most of the post-Republic, antebellum period (exception for Jackson), until the Civil War when Lincoln loomed large over the landscape. Andrew Johnson and Ulysses Grant made a hash of the executive while the Supreme Court defined the practical meaning of the Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th) more often for the worse. Read more...
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