Monthly Archives: March 2009

Revolt Against Outsourced Courses

Posted on March 31, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Think of this one as a sort of companion piece to the CHE article I posted about earlier today: from Inside Higher Ed, “Revolt Against Outsourced Courses.”
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Posted in Academics, Faculty Life, In the media..., Student Life

“What Colleges Should Learn From Newspapers’ Decline” (PS: Support WEMU!)

Posted on March 31, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Mark Higbee sent me a couple links to an article in the current Chronicle of Higher Education, “What Colleges Should Learn From Newspapers’ Decline” by Kevin Carey. It’s an interesting article. On the one hand, I think that Carey is right that if institutions don’t evolve/change and/or if academics just assume that universities will live on as they are forever and ever, then the future is not bright. On the other hand, I think universities are actually evolving/changing faster than Carey implies– at least I think places like EMU are changing.

There are a couple of other differences too. First, Carey suggests in the opening of his article that the danger higher ed faces is that it is in the same business as newspapers: communicating information. I don’t think this is accurate because “communicating information” and “educating students” are not the same thing. If they were the same thing, colleges and universities would have begun a slow and steady decline in the 15th century with the beginning of printing, mass media, widespread literacy, etc.

Second, EMU and most universities are “not-for-profit” entities. In fact, universities/colleges that are “for profit” are generally seen as “not really universities” at best (e.g., the University of Phoenix, Kaplan University) or swindlers and crooks (e.g., diploma mills, various “bartending colleges,” etc.). Sure, we need to “make money” to keep the doors open, but we don’t need to satisfy investors/stockholders, and our goal is not to make money. Newspapers, on the other hand, especially newspapers owned by huge corporations (which includes the Ann Arbor News and just about every other paper you can think of) need to benefit the bottom-line. Breaking even is not good enough.

Which makes me wonder: if newspapers had switched to a “not for profit” model, would they be in decline? If the Ann Arbor News had done all the things it needed to do to be like public radio/public TV, if they had twice a year fund-raisers and sought money from various endowments and grants and such, would they be going out of business?

Speaking of which: It’s fund raising time right now at WEMU. It’s a fantastic station that I think is even more important as a source for local news. Send in your pledges, people!

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Posted in EMU Fund Raising, In the media...

Wanted: VP of Communications and Public Affairs

Posted on March 30, 2009 by | 5 Comments

This just in from “Office of the President” Susan Martin:

The new Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs position has been created and a search is underway. I would like to thank Art Timko, Director of WEMU, for accepting the appointment as Interim Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs. He will serve in this capacity until the new Vice President takes office. Molly Motherwell, will serve as Acting Director/General Manager of WEMU until Art Timko returns.

The new Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs position is being funded by combining the two positions of Vice President for Student Affairs and Vice President for Enrollment Management. As previously announced, these positions were combined into one position titled Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. That search is in its final stages.

Sue Martin
President

By the way, I won’t be applying for that job….

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Posted in Administrator Life, EMU President

“We need a new kind of financial aid”

Posted on March 30, 2009 by | Leave a comment

It’s a bit on the “education wonk” side of writing, but if you can get past that, I’d recommend reading “We Need a new Kind of Financial Aid” by Charles B. Reed and F. King Alexander in Inside Higher Ed. Here’s a quote:

If we are going to change the way colleges and universities approach economically disadvantaged students, we need to provide actual federal funding for these “cost of education allowances.” Currently, there are no fiscal incentives for colleges and universities to attract and graduate lower-income students. In fact, current federal direct student aid programs in their totality encourage colleges and universities to pursue more free market agendas by providing incentives for tuition-based financial strategies. This essentially means that higher cost institutions, both public and private, have disproportionately benefited from federal student aid funding due to the cost sensitivity embedded in the system. Additionally, by supporting tuition and fee-based strategies, the federal government has allowed state legislatures to more readily opt out of their funding responsibilities, resulting in continuous reductions in state tax support of public higher education. An indirect result of this existing system is that there are no incentives for lower cost institutions that serve the masses or states that strive to keep higher education affordable. One important, but unanticipated, outcome has been that as states increasingly withdraw their public support of public institutions, many universities have found other alternatives to educating more costly lower-income students, such as increasing out-of-state enrollments in exchange for less wealthy in-state students.

Except for that last part about attracting more out-of-state students, I think this kind of sums up the situation at institutions like EMU fairly accurately.

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Posted in Academics, In the media..., Student Life

It’s good to be a Mac person….

Posted on March 29, 2009 by | Leave a comment

From the AANews, “This April Fool’s Day virus may be no joke for your computer.” It’s about a computer virus/malware software called Conficker C. Here’s the local angle on it:

Lynn Dorendorf, director of IT security at Eastern Michigan University, sent community members an informational e-mail Friday, including a link to the removal tool.

The University of Michigan sent a similar advisory Thursday to the university’s IT security personnel and professionals, said Paul Howell, chief information security officer.

“We feel it’s better to err on the side of being safe rather than sorry,” he said.

But with my Apple computer….

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Posted in EMU Technology, In the media..., Security and Safety

Forget iTunes U; what about YouTube/edu ?

Posted on March 27, 2009 by | 5 Comments

I just came across this on a mailing list I’m on: YouTube/edu is a site for “videos and channels from our university and college partners.” Of course, many institutions are represented here, but EMU is not on it. Yet.

Perhaps someone “official” who reads EMUTalk.org can get the place signed up?

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Posted in Academics, Blogosphere, EMU Technology

Note to self: go to Sidetrack Tuesday and/or Wednesday

Posted on March 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

At least according to this tip from Mark Maynard: star sightings possible.

Of course, that might cut into my chances of getting a fine burger….

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Posted in Blogosphere, College Fun, Ypsilanti

Just in case you were thinking about applying to be the Provost

Posted on March 26, 2009 by | 2 Comments

There is a search underway for a new Provost and there’s a web site for it right here.

Two observations for now:

First, the time frame for this search seems to me to be compressed to say the least: it was announced in February or so, began in early March, and will wrap up in early May. Maybe this timeline is more common for these kinds of suited positions, but it takes us about 3 times as long to begin, conduct, and finish a search for a faculty member.

Second, a lot of folks who might be reading this– particularly students, parents, just folks in the community– might not be aware of what exactly the provost does. I never had a clear sense of the position until I started down the tenure-track myself, frankly. There’s a link on the provost search web site that gives organizational chart of EMU, but basically, the provost is the “second in command” of the university, and generally the one who does the heavy-lifting. The president’s job is to be the face of the institution and to raise money; the provost’s job is the one who really makes stuff run.

So it’s an important gig.

Hopefully the committee will see fit to schedule the finalists interviews at an accessible time….

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Posted in Academics, Administrator Life, EMU President

EMU student government elections today and tomorrow!

Posted on March 25, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Obviously, I’m not going to endorse one group or the other for today and tomorrow’s EMU student government elections. But I will offer up a couple of potentially useful links:

I wish the local/county/state/federal governments would have online elections. In any event, good luck and get online and vote!

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Posted in College Fun, Student Life

WCC not going to buy WCC

Posted on March 25, 2009 by | 2 Comments

That is, Washtenaw Community College is not going to buy the Washtenaw Country Club, as reported on the YpsiNews.com. The opening paragraphs of that story:

In a unanimous vote by the Board of Trustees of the Washtenaw Community College, the board has decided to reject the offer to purchase the Washtenaw Country Club.

While several of the board members wanted to purchase the property saying that it was a good deal, they said the perception was it was a bailout of the country club.

Vice-president Pamela Horiszny, who in the past was a vocal supporter for the purchase said, “In these tough economic times, this purchase does not fit with the mission of the college.”

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Posted in Blogosphere, In the media..., Washtenaw Community College, Ypsilanti