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By sitedad, on March 12th, 2010 I thought I’d go ahead and group three sports oriented bits ‘o news together in one post:
- EMU Men’s Basketball goes down, but it was close and after double-overtime, 97-98 to Akron. So Ramsey will coach another year, but let’s see if we can’t kick it up a notch next year, huh?
- EMU Women’s Basketball gets shellacked, 72-46. And again to Akron, which just goes to show you that there’s not much value in the name of your mascot– the Zips definitely beat the more war-like eagles. By the way, I’m linking to the official EMU sports page for these two, and it’s kind of interesting to me that you don’t really find out how badly the EMU women’s team was beaten until literally the last sentence of the article. Talk about burying the lead.
- An alert EMUTalk.org reader and football fan sent me this,”Ex-Lions assistant Phil Snow joins EMU.” I don’t know enough one way or the other to know if that’s a good or a bad thing, though the Lions did manage a better season, so who knows?
By sitedad, on March 10th, 2010 More sad news this morning, I’m afraid: Donna Selman, a regular EMUTalk.org reader, sent me an email and a link to this article at Freep.com, “Cop died doing what he loved, dad says,” which is an article about Jackson City Police Officer James Bonneau, who was killed while on duty. Dr. Selman asked me to share her contact information here for anyone who would like to join her at the services for Bonneau; her email address is dcritcrim at gmail dot com
By sitedad, on March 10th, 2010
By sitedad, on March 9th, 2010 Just wanted to give a shout-out to long time friend of the site, “Aging Hippie,” who I ran into today for the first time in what seems like months. He reached into his pocket and handed me $20 toward the EMUTalk.org effort and I had it in my hand before I could even really say “that isn’t necessary.”
But hey, I decided a long time ago that if people want to give me money without me asking, who am I to say no?
In any event, thanks again for the support– I appreciate it, and I’m sure that all the folks reading this now appreciate it too. And if anyone else wants to simply hand me money in support of EMUTalk.org, feel free!
By sitedad, on March 9th, 2010 Once again, the so-called “March Madness” is upon us and it’s time for basketball fans and non-fans alike to put together their picks for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (aka, “the final four.”) Last year, we had a small but enthusiastic group participate in the picks here at EMUTalk.org, and the victory went to Honolulu “Rob” Blue. Maybe it will be you this year?
The rules are simple:
- Visit the EMUTalk.org Tourney Pool page, which is a Yahoo! sponsored/maintained site for the Men’s NCAA Basketball tournament. By the way, I couldn’t find a similar bracket set-up for the Women’s NCAA tourney yet– when I do find it, I’ll set up a bracket/page for that too.
- Make your picks. I believe the brackets will come into shape on Sunday evening, and I believe you’ll have until next Tuesday night to finalize your choices.
- Sit back and watch. I’ll post updates here as they come available.
There’s no real wager here– just the pride of victory and the (possible) joy of having your name, real or pseudonym, mentioned on the site.
By the way, while it is unlikely that the EMU men’s team will have to worry about the tournament. Despite the promotion during winter break about it being “championship week” and how the basketball teams were playing for the title in their half of the MAC, both teams are pretty much in the middle of the pack. The men’s team is 17-14– respectable and a definite improvement over last year (and I suspect it secured Ramsey’s contract for another year), but the only way they’re going to the “big dance” is if they luck out and win the tournament.
The women’s team is a much better 22-7, but I have to assume that they too will have to win the conference tournament to go. With the MAC, I’m assuming the chances of getting an at-large bid are slim. Though I don’t know– I haven’t been following the women’s team as closely. Maybe someone who knows better can comment.
By sitedad, on March 8th, 2010 According to an article on the Inside Higher Ed site, “Salaries Fell for 32.6% of Faculty.” Here are the opening paragraphs:
The median salary change for faculty members in 2009-10 was 0 percent — and for many professors, no change would have been better than the decreases they experienced.
The figures on faculty salaries come from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, which is today releasing its annual report on faculty salaries. The CUPA-HR report focuses on overall trends and disciplinary averages. The American Association of University Professors, which is due to issue its report next month, also releases institution-by-institution information.
The only consolation that the CUPA-HR report offers faculty members is that, because inflation was negative for the year, those whose salaries didn’t change at all came out slightly ahead in spending power (at least in theory).
By sitedad, on March 3rd, 2010 In flightless bird news: this item, sent to me from a colleague and loyal EMUTalk.org reader, and from something called The Awl: “Emu Dies in Suspicious Circumstances.” Allow me to quote the brief piece in its entirety:
A “mad emu” was on the loose in El Paso yesterday, “snarling rush-hour traffic near Interstate 10 and attacking deputies trying to restrain it.” The emu was eventually restrained, but died en route to an animal shelter. Authorities say that the bird’s cause of death is unknown, but I think we all pretty much understand what happens when you’re taken in custody after you’ve assaulted a cop. I’m sure the bird just “tripped” or something.
By sitedad, on March 3rd, 2010 Not that I want to give the Board of Regents any ideas, but remember that whole bit about how tenured faculty can’t get fired unless the institution is about to go broke? Well, Inside Higher Ed’s “Layoffs Without ‘Financial Exigency’” suggests not so much. Here’s a long opening quote from the article:
One of the ultimate protections of being a tenured faculty member, historically, has been being immune from layoff in all but the most extraordinary circumstances. Under policies issued by the American Association of University Professors and largely accepted by higher education leaders, only institutions that declare “financial exigency” — a state so dire that it “threatens the survival of the institution as a whole” — can eliminate the jobs of tenured faculty members.
Given the strict criteria on when an institution can declare exigency, and the obviously unwelcome scrutiny such a declaration would bring about, institutions have hesitated to invoke that status. As a result, while institutions eliminate adjunct positions all the time, the tenured faculty member has been protected.
But maybe not so much anymore. In a series of recent actions, colleges appear to be ignoring the exigency requirement either when eliminating tenured jobs or considering the possibility of doing so. Administrators defend their moves as necessary to manage institutions in tight financial times, but faculty leaders see an erosion of a key right.
It’s also evidence to me that while financial things here at EMU aren’t great, they aren’t near as bad as they are at a lot of other universities around the country.
By sitedad, on March 2nd, 2010 An alert EMUTalk.org reader emailed me today about an article in the New York Times, “Digital Billboards, Diversions Drivers Can’t Escape,” which, as the headline suggests, is about these new digital billboards and if they are (or aren’t) dangerous. But by coincidence (I presume), this article features prominently an EMU “Explore Eastern” ad on an electronic billboard on I-75:
Go figure. It’s news in Michigan because the state legislature is considering a moratorium on the building of new digital billboards in the state.
Frankly, I think the “dangers” of these billboards are over-stated, certainly compared to texting while driving, but that’s perhaps another discussion….
By sitedad, on March 1st, 2010 I was not planning on posting much or at all over the break here, but when I came across this article via Geoff Larcom’s Facebook profile, well, how could I not pass it along here? “Shrinking Newsrooms Put Colleges in the Content Business” from this week’s CHE is about what’s happening with fading media coverage of higher ed. Larcom and EMU feature in it, notably because of, well, Larcom. Here’s a link to a version of the story for those of you with EMU accounts so you can read it off campus.
Here’s a long quote from the opening paragraphs:
As a higher-education reporter for The Ann Arbor News, Geoff S. Larcom used to hang out on the campus of Eastern Michigan University, poking his head into professors’ and administrators’ offices to trawl for stories.
But when the 174-year-old newspaper folded, in July, the university had to come up with new ways to connect with the public. It hired Mr. Larcom to help.
At a time when newspapers are slashing their staffs and squeezing out education coverage, it is more difficult for colleges to communicate their relevance and messages to the public. Many are tapping the expertise of out-of-work journalists as they navigate a media landscape that is increasingly moving online.
But the void those reporters leave in shrinking newsrooms has raised questions about whether colleges are being held accountable, and whether too many college news releases show up, almost verbatim, on newspapers’ Web sites.
It’s a pretty interesting piece, though I guess I have two quibbles/points of contention:
- No offense to Geoff, but it wasn’t as if the Ann Arbor News always had great and “fair and balanced” coverage of all things EMU– there are plenty of angry comments here on EMUTalk.org about all that. And the old News did run EMU or U of M press releases pretty much verbatim sometimes, though I will admit that annarbor.com has taken that form of “journalism” to a new low/high.
- I’ve kind of come to believe that this is actually a more interesting and exciting time for reporting on local news, what with blogs like this one, Mark Maynard’s, with local start-ups like the Ann Arbor Chronicle or the Ypsilanti Citizen. None of these (including this very site) are great/comprehensive sources for news about EMU or much of anything else. Then again, I’m not sure the AAN was that informative about EMU in its final days either.
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