This is just a quick note inspired by a conversation that was, in turn, inspired by the February 19th broadcast of Science Friday on NPR. It was an interesting show on communicating/teaching about science in this era in which newspapers are increasingly under threat.
Category Archives: Higher Education
My Most Popular Tweets of this Week
I have not been active in social media much this week, having spent most of my time updating my web 1.0 personal site now that I am no longer with NITLE. I thought I had finished, but I’ve discovered a few things I still want to fix: Typos, a misplaced section divider, and other things of that nature. If you have a chance, look at it and send your comments. I welcome them all, whether it’s about a typo or the whole design.
Still, I did tweet a bit. The most popular ones this week were, most to least popular:
Continue reading
One Faculty Serving All Students
Here’s an interesting article on a new statement issued by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce dealing with the working conditions of faculty at institutions of higher education.
A coalition of academic associations is today issuing a joint statement calling on colleges to recognize that they have “one faculty” and to treat those off the tenure track as professionals, with pay, benefits, professional development and participation in governance.
The joint statement, “One Faculty Serving All Students,” (pdf) calls for colleges to adopt a series of policies that would significantly improve the treatment of adjunct faculty members at many institutions. The statement was organized by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce, and has been signed by 14 disciplinary associations as well as by the American Federation of Teachers. The disciplines involved represent such major fields as anthropology, art, composition, English, foreign languages, philosophy and religion.
In scientific terms, Caverta is the generic version of the very popular treatment for erectile dysfunction, generic levitra online , from Pfizer. Caverta works best in overall boosting cialis in india price the male capability to deal with erectile problems. Nurture levitra 20mg online refers to the environment we are raised in. First of all, way of life affects the potency. tadalafil lowest price
Among members of the coalition, one notable non-signatory was the American Association of University Professors, where some viewed the statement as not sufficiently focused on the tenure track. But at least some adjunct leaders applauded the statement for exactly that reason.
The statement deals with some important questions, but does it provide the correct answers? Did the AAUP make the right decision to hold out?
Academic Freedom Media Review
January 30 – February 5, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Terror and academic freedom
Rizwaan Sabir, The Guardian, 2/5
China snubs U of C over Dalai Lama, Accreditation lost after honour for spiritual leader
Gwendolyn Richards, Calgary Herald, 2/4
Quebec physicians urge Charest to call for end to silence on asbestos
Rhéal Séguin, The Globe and Mail, 2/4
My Career in International Education, v 4.0
Globes in Chicago, by John LeGear
is based upon the assumption that we live in an interdependent but unequal world and that higher education can help prepare students not only to thrive in such a world, but to remedy its inequities.
Higher education not only can prepare students to do those things, but it must, for their benefit, for the good of our nation, and because remedying inequalities is the right thing to do. Hence, as the statement continues, the academy
has a vital role of expanding knowledge about the world’s peoples and problems and developing individuals who will advance equity and justice both at home and abroad.
These are fine and noble ideals, but they are also solidly rooted in reality. The United States finds itself involved in two wars at the moment, and neither is with a neighbor or even a nation in this hemisphere. The largest share of our foreign debt is owned by China. America is a nation addicted to television, yet only Zenith makes television sets in the US, maintaining one factory so that it is able to claim it is an American producer. Problems like global warming can only be tackled on an international scale, and when the mortgage crisis hit the banks in the United States, many of the world’s banks also felt the impact. The engine of globalization is, of course, technology, which makes it almost as easy to conduct business between Boston and Hong Kong (8,000 miles) as it is between Boston and Cambridge (next to one another).
Continue reading
Academic Freedom Media Review
Academic Freedom Media Review
January 23 – 29, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Censorship Charges at Los Angeles City College
Inside Higher Ed, 1/28
Guns on Campus (for Professors Only)
Inside Higher Ed, 1/27
Israeli Students Protest Exam That Equates Homosexuality With a ‘Defect’
The Chronicle for Higher Education, 1/27
New Online Journal From AAUP Will Focus on Academic Freedom
Jennifer Howard, The Chronicle for Higher Education, 1/26
Side Effects Though lowest prices on viagra bring numerous benefits to the genital passage in men and can help them in achieving longer and stronger with additional testosterone. You need to consume one Mast Mood capsule plays a vital role levitra 60 mg in gaining fuller and harder erection. Phyllanthus Emblica is one of the richest herbs that can be found cheapest viagra tablets in cheap in the medical pharmacies. Tragically, there are various fake or unsavory online drug stores that may offer you prescriptions unlawfully, don’t take after lawful strategies, and slovak-republic.org generic cialis 100mg you could put your individual data at risk.So before you click that “purchase” catch and request a medicine, here is the thing that you have to be able to stand out in front of all them to get the role.
Continue reading
Resources for Teaching about the Earthquake in Haiti
Here are a few teaching resources that may be useful for faculty and staff when teaching about the earthquake in Haiti. It’s just a few things I happen to have come across, so feel free to suggest others.
This page from IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) contains a number of resources for helping students understand what happened geologically. There are downloadable PowerPoint presentations, videos and animations such as this one explaining why the quake didn’t produce a tsunami.
Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review
Academic Freedom Media Review
January 16 – 22, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Controversial Visa Bans Lifted
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 1/21
Free speech within reason
Constantine Sandis, The Times Higher Eductaion, 1/21
Scheme aims to help rebuild Iraqi academy through UK partnerships
John Morgan, The Times Higher Education, 1/21
Continue reading
Study Abroad as a Collective Priority and Technology
There’s an article in Peer Review, a publication of the AAC&U that caught my attention recently. In “Transforming the Study Abroad Experience into a Collective Priority” Ross Lewin, Director of Study Abroad at the University of Connecticut advocates for a more holistic approach to the study abroad experience. In recent years there has been a growing emphasis on including some sort of experience abroad in undergraduate education, in response to the challenges of the global age, but Lewis raises concerns that the way these experiences are too often conducted does little to equip students to better compete of function as responsible citizens in the global age. Indeed, too often study abroad is little more than a vacation in some friendly European capital or seaside town. The solution, he argues, is to make the study abroad experience a collective priority.
US Lifts Bans on Two Controversial Scholars
Tariq Ramadan
There’s been a major development in a story I’ve commented on many times in this blog and its predecessor, the refusal of entry to Tariq Ramadan, one of Europe’s leading scholars on Islam, and particularly it’s evolution due to the influence of Muslims in the West.
Six years after using the Patriot Act to revoke the visa of a prominent Muslim academic, the United States State Department reversed itself and said Wednesday that it would no longer bar the scholar from entering the United States.
The decision came in the form of an order signed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. —January 20, 2010, The New York Times