The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Being A Star Student In Iran Brings Misery

In most places, being a star means ranking top of the class, but in Iran it means your name appears on a list of students considered a threat by the intelligence ministry. It also means a partial or complete ban from education. The term comes from the fact that some students have learned of their status by seeing stars printed next to their names on test results.Students with one star could return to school after signing a consent to give up political activism. Two-star students faced semester suspensions and interrogation sessions, and three-star students were banned from education for life. Read more at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126222013953111071.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us

Those Tuition Dollars Are Paying For Adjuncts

If you’ve written a few five-figure tuition checks or taken on 10 years’ of debt, you probably think you’re paying to be taught by full-time professors. But it’s entirely possible that most of your teachers are freelancers. In 1960, 75 percent of college instructors were full-time tenured or tenure-track professors; today only 27 percent are. While many adjuncts are talented teachers with the same degrees as tenured professors, they’re treated as second-class citizens on most campuses, and that affects students. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/edlife/03strategy-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Learning Technology Is One More Hurdle For Older Students

From looking at the online syllabus to e-mailing an assignment. Cranford faced basic classroom tasks that required computer skills. It was daunting for someone who had never sent an electronic messageThose "mature" students are returning to a classroom where the keyboard has replaced the No. 2 pencil. But instructors say they try to be understanding about older students. Many allow a struggling student to do things such as take a test on paper instead of online, write a paper on hard copy rather than type it into a computer or give a traditional presentation rather than a multimedia one. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-mature-students-south-zone-2dec23,0,4514232.story

Worrying About Jobs And Digital Texts At MLA

David Parry, Keith Goldsmith, and Sylvia Ruiz-Tresgallo were pondering the future, each in his or her own way, at the 125th annual meeting of the Modern Language Association this week in Philadelphia. That future is bringing a change from paperbound authorship to online maintenance of a scholar's writing and the discussion that surrounds it. Publishing is increasingly digital. As for the present, it's about praying to the academic gods for employment. About 7,400 people signed up to share scholarly thoughts or search for jobs at this gathering of the world's largest association of scholars and professors in language and literature. Read more at:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/80251797.html

College Life Takes A Toll On Students

Stress from the economic downturn, trouble coping with the transition to college, and general depression and anxiety appear to be hitting college students at rates never seen before on campuses in Texas and across the country. College counseling centers are also seeing many more students with complex mental-health diseases, such as clinical depression and bipolar disorder. Over the past 10 years, more than 90 percent of directors reported seeing such students, with 93.4 percent this year. Read more at:
http://www.star-telegram.com/189/story/1854809.html?storylink=omni_popular

Budget Cuts Might Mean The End For Yiddish

It survived Hitler, Stalin, the decision to make Hebrew the official language of the State of Israel and the adoption of English by immigrants to the United States. Now Yiddish, for 1,000 years the everyday language of European Jews, is facing another threat: budget cuts. At the University of Maryland, which has stood alongside Harvard and Columbia as one of the nation's few schools to consistently offer instruction in the Germanic tongue, the recent announcement that the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies would be dropping it in the fall shocked area enthusiasts. Read more at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/faith/bal-md.fa.yiddish28dec28,0,7349465.story

Students Protest Faculty Plan To Ban Firearms On Campus

After a gun-wielding student killed 32 at Virginia Tech, faculty at Colorado State University in Fort Collins found, to their alarm, that theirs was one of the few public schools in the country with no policy banning firearms. Anyone with a concealed weapons permit could legally carry on campus.
Students, however, were alarmed when the faculty moved to change that.  At Colorado State's main campus, where the student government voted to oppose any restrictions on concealed weapons, student leaders circulated a petition urging a permissive policy. Read more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-guns-campus28-2009dec28,0,44959.story

IHEs Help Students Go Green With Sustainability Majors

Colleges are rapidly adding new majors and minors in green studies, and students are filling them fast. Nationwide, more than 100 majors, minors or certificates were created this year in energy and sustainability-focused programs at colleges big and small. Two factors are driving the surge: Students want the courses, and employers want the trained students. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2009-12-27-green-colleges_N.htm

No Wonder It Was So Popular With International Students

The owner and operator of California Union University – a purported university in Fullerton whose Web page is literally just one page – is due in court today to face federal charges that his school is actually a front for a visa fraud scheme. Samuel Chai Cho Oh, 65, surrendered to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Tuesday morning, after a 10-month investigation into the school, which purported to offer courses in four areas: Biblical studies, English as a second language, Oriental medicine, and martial arts. Immigration officials allege that Oh collected $40,000 to $50,000 a month from "students" that received visa application forms in exchange. Students rarely if ever attended class and there were no teachers seen. Oh even staged graduation ceremonies and handed out phony diplomas. Read more at:
http://www.ocregister.com/news/school-225585-officials-immigration.html

Silent Time Away From Their Devices Helps Students

Dianne Lynch wanted to give the students of Stephens College a break from the constant digital communication that pervades their generation. So she asked them to put their phones and computers away and revive the 176-year-old school's dormant tradition of vespers services. Lynch fears all that time spent in the 21st century's town square leaves few opportunities for clutter-free thought. She wants the students to also pursue the more elusive state of mind that comes with silence. Several other schools encouraging technology-free introspection. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/25/technology/AP-US-TEC-College-Unplugged.html?em