By Matt Reed. Last year we started a self-paced version of developmental math, in hopes of allowing students who can move faster than the standard developmental class to progress as quickly as their talent and drive will take them. The self-paced option is proving fairly popular, though it’s far too early to render any judgment on its relative success at this point. Read more...
By Matt Reed. Sometimes, ideas come from unlikely corners. Today I saw pieces in the National Review (!) and the Detroit News that bounced off each other in productive ways. Hey, it happens. Andrew Kelly argues in the National Review that we’ll never get college costs under control as long as colleges aren’t meaningfully accountable for the unpayable debt of their graduates. Read more...
By Matt Reed. The Gates Foundation has paid for a report suggesting that colleges could save millions by collapsing “extra” sections, and increasing enrollments in the sections that remain.
What, exactly, do they think we’ve been doing?
On the ground, I can attest that managing section enrollments is a conscious task every single semester. Read more...
The University of Chicago's Brian Leiter has announced that, after 2014-15, he is giving up the editorship of The Philosophical Gourmet Report, a rankings system he created for philosophy departments. Leiter has come under fire for his exchanges with some philosophers (which he has defended as frank, but which critics say have crossed a line to rude and demeaning). Many philosophers have pledged not to participate in the ratings if Leiter continues to run them. Read more...
Patrick Modiano, a French author, was this morning named winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature “for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation." A biography released by the Swedish Academy said of his work. Read more...
U.S. News and World Report has announced that it will release its first global ranking of universities on Oct. 28. U.S. News plans to publish a global ranking of the top 500 universities across 49 countries, as well as four regional, 11 country-level, and 21 subject area-specific rankings. Read more...
The Public Sociology Association, made up of graduate students at George Mason University, has published what adjunct advocates are calling the most comprehensive study of one institution’s adjunct faculty working conditions ever. Their report, called “Indispensable but Invisible,” is based on an online survey completed by 241 adjuncts at George Mason. Read more...
The University of California at San Francisco -- a leading medical institution -- is about to start a massive open online course about abortion. The MOOC is believed to be the first to focus on the topic. Read more...
By Aimee LaPointe Terosky. In my 10 years of interviewing and/or observing approximately 100 faculty members at various types of institutions, I have learned a great deal about how to shape and manage academic work in ways that promote meaningful, balanced, and satisfying careers. Read more...
By Joseph Barber. Words and phrases are powerful. If someone mentions the phrase “tenure-track” to you and you are in the middle of faculty job search that you feel isn’t going so well, then you’ll likely have a negative emotional response to this word. Someone mentions “networking,” and you may immediately feel awkward and fearful, followed by a mild sense of guilt because you think you are not doing enough of it. Read more...
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