Category Archives: Student Life

EMUTalk “investigates” up-north hijinks

Posted on March 4, 2012 by | 23 Comments

A loyal EMUTalk.org reader sent me this email:

FYI — an Eastern Michigan University student participating in EMU’s Winter Break program at Shanty Creek Resorts in Gaylord, MI was arrested this week, released from jail, and sent back downstate, possibly expelled.

There were other issues, as well. The local police were called back to the Resort to investigate a complaint filed against an EMU staff member and EMU students weren’t being carded at the Resort Bar.

As a parent and tax payer, I find this very upsetting and troubling.

Please investigate.

Generally, we don’t have the resources at the EMUTalk.org media-plex to do investigative work of events that happened in the (near) past and a couple hundred miles away.  But it’s easy enough for me to ask:  anybody know anything about all this?

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Posted in College Fun, Faculty Life, Student Life

“Duncan, Biden talk affordability”

Posted on February 6, 2012 by | 7 Comments

In the most recent Eastern Echo comes “Duncan, Biden Talk Affordability.”  Basically, it’s a report about some kind of teleconference Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Vice President Joseph Biden building on Obama’s education speech.  Here’s a quote:

“I want to commend the leadership of Eastern Michigan University for keeping costs down and putting students first, and fortunately, I hear stories like that all over the country,” Duncan said referring to EMU’s 0-0-0 initiative and its 2011-12 academic year 3.65 tuition increase.

“If universities are doing creative things [to keep costs down], we want to not just recognize it, but incentivize it.”

For universities such as EMU that try to make college affordable, Biden said they might qualify for the White House’s incentive plan called the “Race to the Top: College Affordability and Completion.” Through this “fair formula” plan, the administration said $1 billion would be allocated to institutions that keep costs low.

You know, one way the Obama administration could have “incentivized” universities doing creative things was to have the president give a high-profile, national speech at such a university.  I mean instead of that school with the good football team.

And while a billion here and a billion there eventually adds up to real money, the fact is $1 billion as an incentive to all of higher education isn’t really much, especially if it is spread about the hundreds of colleges and universities in this country.

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

EMU-Flint to close?

Posted on February 3, 2012 by | 9 Comments

An alert reader emailed me to let me know that EMU-Flint is set to close at the end of this semester.  I don’t know this person’s sources, so maybe someone else can confirm that.  And I frankly didn’t know there was an EMU-Flint, but it apparently operates through continuing education on the campus of Mott Community College.

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Posted in Academics, Budgets, Buildings and Grounds, Student Life

At least we don’t have bedbugs, right?

Posted on February 3, 2012 by | 4 Comments

It’s been an extremely busy couple of weeks for me on this pesky day-job so I haven’t had much a chance to post here.  That and there’s not much going on.  But  in the spirit of sharing, I thought I’d pass along this amusing bit from Inside Higher Ed:  “Bedbug Cover-Up Alleged.”  To quote in total:

It’s the cover-up that always gets you. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln is the latest college to face a bedbug problem in some dormitories — an event that has been treated as a serious annoyance by students elsewhere, but hasn’t led to scandals. As The Lincoln Journal Star reported, however, a resident assistant in one housing unit reported that when she found bedbugs, she was discouraged from telling the students, and was told to tell them that her room was being remodeled, not that it was being scrubbed for bedbugs. The university denies a cover-up, but students aren’t convinced.

Indeed, it is the cover-up that always gets you….

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, College Fun, In the media..., Student Life

“Julea Ward, Christian Counseling Student Expelled For Gay And Lesbian Views, To Argue Discrimination Case In Court”

Posted on January 29, 2012 by | 6 Comments

From HuffPo (of all places!) come “Julea Ward, Christian Counseling Student Expelled For Gay And Lesbian Views, To Argue Discrimination Case In Court.” In typical fashion, HuffPo is really drawing from other media; in this case, “Expelled EMU counseling student wins OK to sue after refusal to advise gays, lesbians” from the Detroit Free Press. To quote the freep:

An Eastern Michigan University student who was expelled from a counseling program because she refused to counsel gays and lesbians about their lifestyles won a key victory today in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

A three-member panel of the court said Julea Ward can argue her religious discrimination suit against the university before a federal court jury in Detroit.

“Ward’s free speech claim deserves to go to a jury,” Judge Jeffrey Sutton said in an opinion joined by Julia Gibbons and John Adams. Adams is a federal district judge from northern Ohio who was sitting by designation on the appeals court.

“Although the university submits it dismissed Ward from the program because her request for a referral violated the ACA (American Counseling Association) code of ethics, a reasonable jury could find otherwise — that the code of ethics contains no such bar and that the university deployed it as a pretext for punishing Ward’s religious views and speech.”

The HuffPo site is worth visiting because it includes a YouTube video from Ward sponsored by her conservative Christian defense team, the Alliance Defense Fund, and in the nutshell, Ward is claiming discrimination because she’s a Christian.

I have to say given the level of discrimination that happens in this country against people who are Jewish, Muslim, atheist, and whatever else but Christian, I personally have a hard time with that argument.  And I have to wonder how far a professional organization is supposed to take an individual professional’s own beliefs into account here.  I mean, suppose Ward had not wanted to counsel a mixed race couple or a Muslim couple because it violated her “Christian” values:  would this have made it into the courts at all?

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

“Dear Student…” (solid advice every grade-hungry student should read)

Posted on January 17, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Via the Facebooks comes “Dear Student:  I don’t Lie Awake At Night Thinking of Ways to Ruin Your Life,” a piece published on Forbes.com.  It’s thoughtful and even-keeled advice for students who think that grades are something more than they are, an evaluation of how well someone does (or doesn’t) do in a class.  For example, there’s this:

I’m here to be a mentor and instructor. This means that our relationship differs from the relationships that you have with your friends and family. Please don’t infer from this that I don’t care about you, because I do. A lot. I want to see you make good choices. I want to see you understand basic economics because I hope it will rock your world as it continues to rock mine and because the human consequences of lousy economic policy are enormous. That said, you should never take grades personally. I don’t think you’re stupid because you tank an exam, an assignment, or even an entire course.Economics is hard. A D or an F on an economics exam does not diminish your value in God’s eyes (or in mine) or indicate that economics just isn’t for you. It probably means you need to work smarter, and I’m here to help you with that.

 

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

“Michigan Democrats developing college grant plan”

Posted on January 13, 2012 by | Leave a comment

In “I’ll believe it when I see it” news, I heard on Michigan Radio this morning this story, “Michigan Democrats developing college grant plan.”  In the nutshell, the proposal would pay for college tuition at a public Michigan university for students who completed their K-12 schooling in Michigan, presumably at public schools.  I think this is obviously a great idea that will never happen.

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

“‘College Tax’ Burdens Students, State”

Posted on January 11, 2012 by | Leave a comment

I actually saw this on Facebook via Geoffrey “Geoff” Larcom but certainly thought it worth a read here:  “‘College Tax’ Burdens Students, State,” via Bridge.  The “college tax” is a little confusing to me.  If I am understanding it correctly, it is the amount more students pay in Michigan to comparable instituions.  I suspect there are a lot of problems with those calculations, but what it boils down to is that the steady decrease in state funding means that Michiganders spend a lot more money on college which amounts to an extra tax, one that is paid by students.

According to the article, “Michigan has slashed about 20 percent of the dollars (adjusted for inflation) for four-year colleges between 2005 and 2010; only Rhode Island and New Mexico cut more.”  With the Snyder administration’s cuts, Michigan is now  in the bottom 10 states for per-capita student funding.  And to simply get “the middle of the pack in per-capita spending on universities, Michigan would need to increase higher education funding by 56 percent.”  But at least the football teams have done better.

Incidentally, the “college tax” at EMU is $9,220 over four years of school.  That means when compared to universities in its peer group (and no, I don’t have any idea how that’s figured out), students at EMU paid just over nine grand more over four years of school compared to other institutions.

 

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

The year that was 2011

Posted on January 1, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Happy New Year, everybody!  I’ve made it back from undisclosed locations and the new year in one piece.  I have a whole series of chores and resolutions to attend to, but I thought I’d start my day looking over the most commented on pieces here at EMUTalk in 2011.  In brief, last year was the year of budget cuts and layoffs.

From February, “Snyder to EMU (and other state supported universities): Drop Dead.”

From April, “Did the Provost quit? Was he fired? What?”

Also from April, “Meanwhile in budget news: think scenarios and not cuts,” which actually turned into a “discussion” about the Bowen parking lot and the expense of sabbaticals and the like.

Then the end of May was pretty busy/popular, with three heavily commented posts right in a row: “Perhaps we can chant “Education First!” at the games…,” Administration asking for unions to give money back during a “fluid” situation,” and “Martin’s budget update, “givebacks,” tuition, and athletics.”

At the end of June there was “Thoughts as the dust settles on lay-offs.” That turned out to be the most commented on post of the year, by the way.

“Glad Ron English is having “fun” with the increased budget,” back in July. It seems to me that the Emus break-even season will save English for another few seasons, though I still don’t think the “fun” he had with the increased budget was worth it.

“EMU planning 9/11 memorial after receiving steel column from World Trade Center” back in early August.

“Pray-Harrold open–sort of,” which wasn’t necessarily the most commented on post of the year but it sure seemed like a big event for me.

“‘Which Core Matters More?’ (featuring Mark Higbee), an October debate on general education.

“Emus beat horses, 14-10″ in November, which kind of turned into a “discussion” about attendance at games.

“Kwame Kilpatrick is coming to EMU, causing controversy already” back in November, though it was pretty much a non-story in the end.

And then sadly (now), there was this post,“Greg O’Dell returns to Eastern Michigan University as executive director of public safety and chief of police.”

Okay, enough with last year and into this year– even though it doesn’t really feel like the new year to me because it’s really just the beginning of the next semester… you get the idea.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Blogosphere, Budgets, EMU Events, EMUtalk.org News, Faculty Life, In the media..., Staff Life, Student Life

Two bits of extra credit reading

Posted on December 16, 2011 by | 1 Comment

I’m not procrastinating from finishing up my fall term– honestly, I’m not!  Well, maybe a little.  In any event, I thought I’d pass along two links to things that I thought would be of interest here.

First, there’s  ”Bowling for Chumps,” by Pete Kotz in The Village Voice.  Alert EMUTalk reader Dick Schwarze posted this in the comments and I thought it deserved a promotion to the main part of the site.  Kind of a long piece, but an extremely detailed account of the highly dubious world of college bowl games.  Makes me glad that the Emus didn’t quite get there this year.

Second, there’s “What is College For?” a column in the “opinionator” part of the New York Times by Gary Gutting.  It simply puts out there an answer to the question at hand that is a useful reminder that college is about more than job training and that both faculty and students have an obligation to remember that.  I found it an inspiring way to get to that pile of grading.

Speaking of which….

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Posted in Academics, Blogosphere, Faculty Life, In the media..., Sports, Student Life