Monthly Archives: April 2008

For those of you looking for blogging instructions

Posted on April 21, 2008 by | 1 Comment

I am already thinking of some of my classes for spring 2008, both of which require students to create Blogger blogs.  Since that might be something on some folks’ minds here lately, I thought I would go ahead and simply include those instructions as part of this site.  So, for the curious and/or folks who want a forum where they can say and do whatever they want (and I will happily link to it), read “How to set up a blogger blog.”  I’d be happy to answer any questions, too.

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Posted in EMUtalk.org News

EMU forensics team send two students to NFA finals

Posted on April 21, 2008 by | Leave a comment

By Angela (a proud supporter of the team)

On Friday, the National Forensic Association’s 2008 national tournament began, with 20 students from EMU among the hundreds of competitors from around the country.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were dominated by the preliminary rounds. Students participate in literary interpretation, public address and limited preparation public speaking events. And Sunday evening the first quarter-final results were posted. To make it into a quarter final, a student has to be one of the top 24 competitors in events that have 100-200 entrants.

As of Sunday evening, EMU has two proud quarter finalists: senior Marisa Dluge quarter finaled her informative speech, and senior Richard Brophy quarter finaled his rhetorical criticism.

Updates will continue to be posted Monday on our website (well, temporary one; apparently there were technical difficulties with the official site so one of the students set up this ultra simple site), leading up to the awards ceremony that evening.

On a personal note, I was a competitor on EMU’s team for four years, and consider myself to still be part of the team as a coach this year. It has SUCKED to not be with them at nationals this year, but as someone who’s finally out of school and has a “real job,” going with them wasn’t an option this year. However, the forensics team is one of the real gems we have on campus, a team that doesn’t get nearly enough recognition for the consistently high level of talent they have, and the work that they put in year round in order to earn their way to the National tournament in April. If you see any of the forensics team members around campus in the next week (you’ll recognize them by how exhausted they are, and their sudden reappearance after a week and a half’s absence in your classes!) be sure to congratulate them, not just on the results of this tournament for a year’s (or more!) worth of hard work.

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Posted in Academics, Student Life

Gimmie some candy….

Posted on April 20, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Students who take a survey through/about campus life can get a free candy bar, apparently. Check this out.

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Posted in Student Life

Taking hold of Frankenstein: Some changes at EMUTalk.org beginning a little early

Posted on April 18, 2008 by | 27 Comments

I just changed the settings on EMUTalk.org so that all comments have to be approved and so that I am the only one who is allowed to make original posts. Part of the reason for this is the latest news on the presidential search and an effort to head off a “food fight” (or worse!) on the site before it happens; but most of my reasons have been brewing for a long time, both personal and philosophical, and discussed a bit more after the “read more part” of things.

If you want to post a comment on a post, go ahead– it will show up once I approve it (or it won’t show up, which means I didn’t approve it). If you want to write an original post under your own name, under a pseudonym, or just something you want me to post under my own name: write it up, email it to me (either at sitedad at emutalk dot org or at stevendkrause at gmail dot com), and I’ll post it (or not, if I don’t think it’d be a good idea).

If you don’t like this, I think you should start your own blog. And to be perfectly honest, that’s what I hope happens. What I really hope is we move away from this single space (known by far too many simply as “the blog) to a community of different blogs and voices that discuss EMU and everything else.

So, why am I doing this?
Continue reading →

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Posted in EMUtalk.org News

More News on the Presidential Search

Posted on April 18, 2008 by | Leave a comment

The Ann Arbor News has a reaction piece on the announcement of the finalists: “EMU candidates’ local ties noted Many look forward to meeting presidential hopefuls.” The Echo also has an article: “The REAL final four.”

In addition, there is a rather ominous account of one of the candidates, Detroit Schools CEO Kenneth Burnley, in a Detroit News article: “Burnley on list for EMU presidency“:

 Among the most controversial of the finalists is Burnley, who led Michigan’s largest school district for five years beginning in 2000. After his departure, an independent report blamed Burnley and staff for Detroit schools’ financial crisis in 2006 that left the district a $200 million deficit. Burnley countered that the financial mess was due to student losses, higher benefit costs and less state aid. Burnley was hired in Detroit when Freman Hendrix, now EMU’s chief government relations officer, chaired the Detroit school board. Neither could be reached for comment. 

Seems like that particular candidate may be bringing further controversy into the position rather than dispelling such controversy and representing a fresh start from the undue amount scandal that we have had of late in that office. 

I am still waiting to know more about these candidates before making any firm opinions about them one way or another.  Hopefully, all of the vitae and letters of application will be made available to the campus community soon so that we can make more informed judgments about their experience and qualifications, as well as their motives for applying for the position.   

Based on the little that I know so far, and it is indeed very, very little, Martin and Shelton seem to be the ones with the most higher education experience and thus the most potential to succeed as president of EMU.

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Posted in EMU President, EMU President Search

Presidential Finalists Announced

Posted on April 17, 2008 by | 72 Comments

UPDATE: The Ann Arbor News has detailed information on each candidate: “Eastern Michigan University reveals 4 finalists for president.”  Also see the Detroit Free Press article:”:”EMU presidential search is narrowed to 4 candidates“: “Eastern Michigan University is a step closer to getting a new president, as the university today named the state’s top educator, a former Detroit Public Schools CEO, a University of Michigan administrator and a Washtenaw County judge as the finalists.” The main university page sums up the finalists as follows:

 • Kenneth Burnley, senior resident fellow and director of the Education Leadership Center of the School of Education at the University of Michigan. Burnley served as chief executive officer for Detroit Public Schools from 2000-2005 and was superintendent of schools for Colorado Springs School Districts from 1987-2000. He has a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Michigan.

 

• Michael Flanagan, superintendent of public instruction for the state of Michigan since 2005. Flanagan has been an adjunct professor at Michigan State University and Wayne State University for the past 29 years. He was previously an education adviser to Governor Granholm and served as executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators from 2001-2005. He received his master’s degree in educational leadership from Eastern Michigan University in 1974.

 

• Susan Martin, provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs for the University of Michigan –Dearborn. Before joining U-M in 2006, Martin was the Executive Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs at Grand Valley State University. She served in several positions in her 17 years at GVSU. Martin received her Ph.D. in accounting from Michigan State University.

 

• Donald E. Shelton, 22nd Circuit Court judge for Washtenaw County Trial Court. Shelton has spent the past 18 years as a circuit court judge. Before joining the bench in 1990, he was a partner at the law firm of Bishop and Shelton, P.C. for 12 years. Shelton has served as an adjunct faculty member at EMU, Oakland University, Washtenaw Community College and the University of Maryland. He received his master’s degree in criminology and criminal justice from EMU in 2007. He has a juris doctor degree from the University of Michigan School of Law.   

 

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Posted in EMU President, EMU President Search, Uncategorized

“A large melee” at EMU

Posted on April 17, 2008 by | 3 Comments

According to the News, there was a large fight at a basketball game the yesterday.  I wonder if all three agencies were really needed, or if the large police presence was just to be cautious: 

 ”A basketball game between two Eastern Michigan University fraternities erupted into a large fight that was broken up by police from three agencies late Wednesday. EMU Police Chief Greg O’Dell said this morning that officers were called to the intramural building just before midnight to break up a crowd of several hundred people that refused to disperse.”  

In other News news, the paper received a number of awards based on its coverage of the Dickinson murder: “News wins 5 reporting awards in Michigan Associated Press contest”

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Posted in College Fun, EMU Events, Security and Safety

In the spirit of techno-hobby horses: What if EMU was a laptop campus?

Posted on April 16, 2008 by | 19 Comments

I’m at a conference right now in Jacksonville, Florida that is about teaching and technology (sort of), and one of the presentations I went to this morning once again brought up this particular idea I share with others that I am certain will go no where, which is why I’m posting it here:

I think EMU ought to get out of the computer lab business almost entirely and put its resources (money, time, energy, etc.) into a robust laptop campus project. Basically, such a project would a) require all students to have a laptop computer that meets minimal standards (more or less a “current” machine and one that is likely to stay current for the next couple years; b) build in the costs of such a laptop computer into the cost of attendance; and c) would potentially free up a lot of the resources tied into the hundreds (thousands?) of computers tied down in labs all over campus.

Obviously, there are big problems with this idea; I thought there were (at least) three:
Continue reading →

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Posted in Academics, EMU Technology

Ousted VP Janice Stroh spent $30,000 to refurbish her office, ECHO reports

Posted on April 16, 2008 by | 13 Comments

The lead story in today’s EASTERN ECHO reports that the recently fired Vice President Janice Stroh spent $30,084 to “refurnish and reupholser furniture” in her Welch Hall office.  Wow – she did that even as EMU cut spending on academics and student services.  That thirty grand could have meant something real for EMU students. 

I was in that office several times – once very early in Stroh’s tenure and several times with her predecessor, Steve Holda. It was, in my view, a very nice appointed office, in no need of expensive changes; when I was there to chat with VP Stroh about College Place, it seemed unchanged since Holda had left it, aside from some nice wall decorations.  Little did I know that Stroh had plans….unfortunately, none of them benefited the university.   (Isn’t there supposed to be some way of checking the appropriateness of purchases made by upper administration? Wasn’t that promised to Lansing in the aftermath of the University House fiasco?  Granted, $30K isn’t $6 million, but it’s still money misspent.)

Many of Stroh’s office purchases were made in June 2007, the ECHO reports, which was the same month she orchestrated, with the help of the College of Arts and Sciences Interim Dean and associate deans, the elimination of funding for the History graduate assistantships.  That sum of money was about equal to what she spent on her office.

Gosh, didn’t she get the memo?  “Education First.”  Maybe she was still operating on the standard instructions of the Welch Hall gang — “Us First, Education be Damned!” 

The mystery remains why it took nearly a year after her expensive make over of her office to fire her.   What’s most brazen is that she’d whack the academic programs with cuts while engaging in egotistical purchases with public funds. 

Janice M. Stroh – what shameful conduct. 

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Posted in Academics, Budgets, EMU Branding, EMU President

Lynn Rivers on the Dickinson Murder– case right now!

Posted on April 14, 2008 by | 21 Comments

Speaking of WEMU: this morning (April 14, 2008), Lynn Rivers is doing a show on the Dickinson murder and subsequent Orange Taylor conviction. For what it’s worth; I’m not a big Lynn Rivers fan, personally.

Slight update:
More than anything else, Rivers seems to be talking about how things work and/or have changed on campus with the residence halls after the Dickinson murder.  Frankly, I got turned off (and then pretty much turned off the show) when Rivers and her first guess, Bernice Lindke, completely blew past the fact that “foul play” was indeed suspected by the investigators on the scene, and that this information was systematically and deliberately covered up.

In other words, beyond the presence of security guards, educational meetings, programs to reduce “tailgating” in the dorms, and other related programs, it seems to me that one thing that EMU can do to improve security and head of problems in the future is to make sure to not blatantly lie and to follow the federal law on reporting crimes on campus.

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Posted in Dickinson Murder, In the media...