Category Archives: Academics

“Researches Rate RateMyProfessors, and Find It Useful if Not Chili-Pepper Hot”

This is behind the paypal at The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Researches Rate RateMyProfessors, and Find It Useful if Not Chili-Pepper Hot.” Basically, it is about a study which suggests that the ratings on RateMyProfessors for teachers that have at least 10 entries are just as accurate as other student evaluation measures.

Of course, that is part of the problem:  the evaluations that students fill out at the end of classes are only “kinda useful,” at least in my experience.  In my evaluations, I see a major correlation between the level of the class and the average grades students earn:  that is, my evaluations for freshmen-level classes where lots of students are getting Cs are worse than they are for senior-level classes where lots of students are getting Bs and As.

Plus RateMyProfessors has lots of “outliers” since relatively few students post there, and often enough, the comments that are posted are wildly inaccurate. Just yesterday, I was talking with a colleague of mine about RateMyProfessors and what to do about a comment that was posted about him that was demonstrably not accurate.  I told him I’ve complained before to RateMyProfessors about some of those kinds of comments and they’ve been removed, but really, there isn’t much you can do.

And yes, every faculty person I know looks at RateMyProfessors once in a while.

EMU makes “Military Friendly” Schools list

Sure, this is a PR story that was sent to me by Geoff “Geoff” Larcom, but as Veteran’s day approaches, it seems a story worth sharing.  According to GI Jobs magazine EMU is ranked as a “military friendly” university.  Here’s a quote from the press release:

Eastern Michigan University has been named one of the country’s top “military friendly” schools by GI Jobs magazine for 2012. The magazine’s list recognizes the 15 percent of universities and colleges that best serve veterans nationwide. The full list is at http://www.militaryfriendlyschools.com/mfsList.aspx

“Our student veterans have earned our thanks and gratitude for serving our country,” said Bernice Lindke, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management at EMU.  ”I am glad that Eastern Michigan University is able to recognize their service by providing them with a welcoming and supportive environment.”

Criteria for making the list included efforts to recruit and retain military and veteran students, financial commitment to veterans and academic accreditation.

For what it’s worth, I have some colleagues in my field– both ex-military and both teaching at military academies now– who put together a special issue of a journal called Kairos about “Rhetoric, Technology, and the Military.”  Some folks here might be interested in checking that out.

Here’s a sure-fire way for a professor to get fired

As reported in The Washington Post, ”GWU medical school professor resigns; students say she didn’t teach class, gave everyone As.”  The opening paragraphs:

A George Washington University medical school professor has resigned after students complained that she never taught a required class and assigned all her students an “A’’ grade.

Venetia Orcutt resigned last month an assistant professor in George Washington’s department of physician assistant studies. She also served as chair of the department.

This is all kind of hard to believe– I am assuming there is a story behind this somewhere….

Meet and greet with provost candidate David Dauwalder

Today’s provost candidate is David Dauwalder.  I was going to ask how he would make the transition from a small institution like the University of New Haven, but it turns out that Dauwalder has been some kind of provost or dean at a bunch of different instituions since the late 1980s.  And he might be a kind of interesting fit at EMU since his background seems to be in business teacher education.

I guess the one question I’d have for him is what would he suggest we do about this mess?

Meet and greet with provost candidate Cameron Hackney

EMU Faculty Senate President Matt Evett sent around an email to faculty urging them to attend the sessions for Provosts candidates visiting this week.  The timing is pretty bad for me because of teaching schedules and the like, but today’s candidate is Cameron Hackney from the University of West Virginia.

I do have two questions for Dr. Hackney (and the search committee, for that matter), and maybe someone can ask it on my behalf.  Hackney has an impressive scholarly and administrative record, there’s no doubt about that, but it is also a record that is exclusively at “Research 1″ and “extension” sorts of institutions– not land grant per se, but with that general theme– and he’s a food science/agriculture sort of guy.  So:

  • Can Hackney adjust to leading a faculty where the emphasis is much more squarely on teaching rather than research, and where our programs are not as connected to food, agriculture, or even “outreach” in general in the same way?
  • If Hackney were to come here and then when he either steps down or is forced out as Provost, what department would he go to?  Dietetics?  Is that really a fit?

And I say when he steps down or is forced out and not if because that has clearly been the pattern at EMU since the late Ron Collins.  I don’t mean to be cynical, bu these are the facts on the ground.  There are ample examples of provosts being in that position for short times, and I can’t think of any situations since I’ve been here where the provost left EMU to go on to a better job someplace else.

Anyway, if someone could ask my questions, that’d be great.  And if anyone has any others they want to share here in the comments, feel free.

Provost candidates on campus next week

Communications VP Walter Kraft sent around an email about the candidates for the Provost job coming to town next week.  The whole thing is after the continued part, and there’s also a web site about the search here.

When I was an undergraduate, my reaction to news about a Provost search would have been “what’s a Provost?”  Well, if you are/were anything like me and need an answer:  a Provost is typically the “chief academic officer” at the university.  While the President is completely in charge, someone like Martin also has to worry about raising money, other non-academic units (sports, facilities, etc.), and general PR for the institution.  The Provost is supposed to be the person who makes stuff works for deans, department heads, and other academic administrators.

Of course, supposed to be is the operative term here:  if the Board of Regents and/or the president want to control everything, the Provost can be in a pretty tough spot, which is at least one theory as to why we’re searching for a Provost in the first place.

One thing that’s interesting to me about this pool of candidates is they are all from the outside.  I don’t know if that’s an intentional decision– “we need some fresh blood around here”– or simply a result of no sensible internal candidates.  Could be a bit of both.

Anyway, I might be able to attend some of the forums, though to be honest, I’m not completely sure how useful they will be.  And I’m also not sure how much time I have to devote to this in the middle of a busy term.  More after the jump.

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The best and the worst universities using dubious measurements

I came across a couple of interesting “best” and “worst” of universities today.  First, there’s Forbes Magazine’s “The World’s Top Universities 2011.”  As the article acknowledges, their rankings don’t correspond in most ways to the infamous ratings from U.S. News and World Report, but it’s still interesting.  And I like this opening passage:

The debate about primary and secondary education is still raging in the U.S., with statistics backing up the sense that the system is failing too many students. One Department of Education study found that 30 million adults in the U.S. were functionally illiterate. Another Department of Ed report ranks the U.S. at 24 out of 65 countries for math proficiency among 15-year-olds.

But when it comes to higher education, the U.S. does better than any other country, according to the eighth annual ranking of the world’s top universities, put out by Times Higher Education, a London magazine that tracks the higher ed market. The 2011 World University Rankings are dominated by U.S. schools. They hold 75 spots among the top 200, up three schools since last year. Seven U.S. schools are in the top 10. The U.K. comes in a distant second, with 32 schools in the top 200 and three in the top 10.

So maybe higher education in the U.S. isn’t going to hell in a handbasket.  By the way, that liberal arts university in Ann Arbor with the football team finished 18th on the list.

On the flip-side of this is “25 Colleges With the Worst Professors 2011.”  Keep in mind that the definition of “worst” is defined by ratings on Ratemyprofessor.com.  As my wife pointed out when she saw this, it might perhaps be better called “universities in America with the grumpiest students.”  Still, it’s interesting that MAC and/or Michigan rivals Central Michigan, Western Michigan, and University of Toledo are on the list.

 

The WIDE-EMU is a free “unconference” on October 15 in Pray-Harrold Hall

WIDE-EMUThis might fall into the category of shameless self-promotion, but I’ll post it anyway:  The EMU Written Communication program and MSU’s Writing in Digital Environments Research Center are going to be hosting a free ”unconference” on Saturday, October 15 in Pray-Harold Hall.  The theme of the conference is “what evidence do we have that teaching writing– especially in digital environments– works?”

We sent out the call for participation a while ago and it looks like we’re going to have at least 20 (maybe more) different presentations from folks coming to the unconference from all over Michigan and parts of Ohio and Indiana.  We’ll be having a keynote of sorts featuring Danielle DeVoss, Elyse Eidman, and Troy Hicks, authors of Because Digital Writing Matters.  And given the spontaneous nature of the event, we’re also expecting lots of surprises along the way.

It’s an “unconference” in the sense that we see it as a participation-driven event that could change as the day goes on, though we are putting together a schedule based on ideas that presenters proposed.  It’s free because we’re not providing attendees with anything– no coffee in the morning, no luncheon, no reception, not even nametags– and we’re fortunate enough to be holding this in the newly remodeled Pray-Harrold Hall.

It promises to be an interesting event, so I hope a lot of curious EMUTalk readers take a chance to stop by.  And did I mention it’s free?

“Which Core Matters More?” (featuring Mark Higbee)

Friend of the site and fellow faculty member Mark Higbee alerted me to an article in this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education that features both an interview and images of him and some of his students.  It’s called “Which Core Matters More?” and it’s behind the CHE firewall (the link here will prompt EMU-types to login to get the whole thing; if you’re on campus, it’ll just pop up).  Other than the pictures, the part featuring Higbee comes later in the article where he discusses a “Reacting to the Past” approach for teaching history.

The article claims to be about a “new” debate on the direction of general education and/or “core curriculum” in higher education, but actually, the debate is not new at all.  It boils down to the value of curriculums that see the benefits of process and “critical thinking” versus a return to the basics and specific content.  That’s a debate (generally characterized by liberals versus conservatives) that’s been around for a long long time.

My own thinking about general education is shaped by the paradox of being a writing teacher in an English department.

The one (almost) universal component in general education in this country is first year writing (e.g. “comp and rhet”):  even innovative and “cutting edge” general education curriculums (like the one at Portland State which this article discusses in some detail) require all students to satisfy freshmen writing.  The same is true at EMU.  I have complicated thoughts and feelings about this, but I generally think it is better for students to take more courses that involve writing rather than less.

On the other hand, we have a general education program now at EMU where students never have to take any literature course if they don’t want to because they can satisfy that area of the gen ed by taking courses in history, communications, philosophy, and so forth.  I don’t want to take anything away from those other areas of study since they too are obviously important.  Still, it seems reasonable to me that if we’re going to have a general education program at all, we ought to require students to take at least one literature course in order to earn a bachelors degree.

 

Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story

Colleague and friend of the site Marty Shichtman wanted me to alert everyone to an upcoming presentation/talk by Ira Berkow, a New York Times sportswriter and the author of Jews and Baseball.  The event is being sponsored by EMU Athletics, Campus Life, and Academic Affairs– not many events on this campus involve all three!

Here’s a link to the student life announcement.  It’s going to be Tuesday, September 20, at 7 PM in the Student Center Auditorium.  And it is available as a “Learning Beyond the Classroom” event, too.