Sitedad has returned from a previously undisclosed trip to California– the University of California at Davis to be precise so that I could attend the annual Computers and Writing Conference. A good time was had for one and all. Davis itself is a lovely college town just outside of Sacramento; it reminded me a great deal of Ann Arbor but with good weather and more cheerful, healthy-looking people.
Interestingly, there was an article in the local Davis newspaper last week about how UC Davis (which is sort of the Michigan State of the UC system in that it opened as an “ag school”) was going to have to absorb $65 million in budget cuts for the next fiscal year. Someone I know who is in the know that the way that is hitting faculty and staff is people either are going to have to take an 8% cut to salary or take an 18 day work furlough. Which to me is another example of something I’ve heard from others: money-wise, things at EMU are kind of bad, but they are a lot worse at a lot of other universities around the country. At least for now; next year, when that fed bailout money is not there and the Michigan economy is still in the dumper, we could be in pretty bad shape.
Anyway, I also haven’t posted much because there hasn’t been much news. I did come across this article this morning that might be of interest to folks who have followed some of the recent failings of the academic publishing house giant, Elsevier: “Elsevier won’t pay for good reviews,” from Inside Higher Ed. Here’s a quote:
Elsevier officials said Monday that it was a mistake for the publishing giant’s marketing division to offer $25 Amazon gift cards to anyone who would give a new textbook five stars in a review posted on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. While those popular Web sites’ customer reviews have long been known to be something less than scientific, and prone to manipulation if an author has friends write on behalf of a new work, the idea that a major academic publisher would attempt to pay for good reviews angered some professors who received the e-mail pitch.
Elsevier officials claim the “gift card for good reviews” program was an effort from an overzealous employee, but given some of the other highjinks they’ve been involved with lately (like publishing quasi-fake academic journals), one wonders.
