The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Hopkins President Says The University Must Help The City

Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels told the Baltimore Development Corp. board Thursday that the academic powerhouse has a moral obligation to "share our bounty" with the city. Daniels said that he sees Hopkins students, faculty and staff as privileged and that each has a responsibility to help revitalize Baltimore by addressing homelessness, preparing children for good jobs, ending violence and reversing significant health problems. Read more at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-ci-development-corp-20120223,0,4616349.story

Moving Books To Robotic Storage Is Cause For Cheers And Jeers

San Francisco State University has been renovating and expanding its library since 2008, and now the overhauled building is finally finished and partly open to students. But some who enter its newly pristine doors may notice something lacking: books. In a move that has thrilled some university employees and horrified others, only 25 percent of the collection of more than a million books and other materials will be available for browsing. San Francisco State is not alone; experts say there is a national trend toward digitizing university libraries. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/us/at-san-francisco-state-a-split-over-its-high-tech-library.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss 

 

More Adults Than Ever Have A Bachelor's Degree

More than 30 percent of American adults hold bachelor’s degrees, a first in the nation’s history, and women are on the brink of surpassing men in educational attainment, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday. The figures reflect an increase in the share of the population going to college that began in the mid-1990s, after a relatively stagnant period that began in the 1970s. They show significant gains in all demographic groups, but blacks and Latinos not only continue to trail far behind whites, the gap has also widened in the last decade. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/education/census-finds-bachelors-degrees-at-record-level.html?_r=2&ref=education

Community Colleges In The National Spotlight For Helping The Economic Recovery

Community colleges, long the under-loved stepchildren of American higher education, still don't get the dollars of their four-year counterparts, but they're standing very much in the spotlight these days. Why all the attention? One reason is that so-called "middle skill" jobs at places like Fitzpatrick - requiring more than high school but less than a full college degree- look like the most promising source of fuel for quickly revving up an economic recovery. Federal data show they account for roughly half of all jobs. Read more at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/21/2653028/speed-puts-community-colleges.html

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/21/2653028/speed-puts-community-colleges.html#storylink=cpy

 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/21/2653028/speed-puts-community-colleges.html#storylink=cpy

Pennsylvania's State-Related IHEs Tell Legislators Budget Cuts Are Pushing Them To Private Status

Leaders of Penn State, Pitt and Temple warned the state House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday not to go along with Gov. Tom Corbett's second straight proposal for deep cuts in state aid to the universities, suggesting that the in-state students who could least afford it would be hurt the most. The heads of the "state-related" universities are renewing the campaign they mounted last year to defend the value of their institutions to improving Pennsylvania's quality of life, economic fabric and the availability of higher education to lower-income students. The schools are being pushed toward becoming private universities where tuition is much higher, in-state students get no discount, most students are from out-of-state and community outreach is substantially diminished, Nordenberg said. Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2012/02/22/universities_ask_pa_house_to_reject_more_aid_cuts/

 

Many Campus Sustainability Initiatives Come From The Students

Semester-long bike rentals, reducing paper towel use in bathrooms and using golf carts instead of gas-guzzling trucks to transport food around the campus are just a few student-generated ideas receiving funding from the University of Colorado's Environmental Center. On Friday, CU students interested in being among a cadre of green leaders on the campus gathered to brainstorm ideas to make the school an even more sustainable place.The CU Environmental Center's Energy Outreach Team hosted the school's first carbon neutrality forum, bringing about 50 students together with university employees who have varying sustainability roles. Many of the university's green initiatives have begun with students. Read more at:
http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_19992430

This Is Why IHEs Were Buying Up XXX Domains

The University of Hawaii is demanding the operator of a pornographic web site stop using the school's name or face legal action. The web site, called universityofhawaii.xxx, claims to feature what it describes as "hot nude Hawaiian college girls."  It is full of graphic pictures of men and women having sex on beaches and at other tropical locations. It's a very different look from the University of Hawaii's legitimate web site. If the site doesn't pull the UH references, the university may go after its webmaster using a number of state and federal laws and also will try to recover its legal costs. Read more at:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/16690588/exclusive-uh-threatens-porn-website-with-legal-action-for-using-its-name

Math Professor Refuses To Publish In Elsevier Journals And Asks Others To Join Him

For many years, I, like several other mathematicians, have been careful not to submit papers to journals published by the huge publishing conglomerate Reed Elsevier. Our reasons will be familiar to many readers of Times Higher Education. Journals take time to build up reputations, and we rely on those reputations for making quick evaluations of other mathematicians. That is why the current journal system, despite repeated predictions of its imminent demise, has changed remarkably little in the past 20 years. Recently, I thought that I could add to the pressure for change by making public my refusal to publish with Elsevier, which seems to be the publisher people dislike the most. Read more at:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=419018#.T0Upg0DcQzV.twitter

CSU Will Advertise Publisher's Textbooks To Faculty In Exchange For Lower Student Prices

In exchange for putting the name "Cengage" in front of textbook consumers at the nation's largest university system, the company will rent its electronic textbooks for 60 percent off the hard-copy price - about a 10 percent drop from what students are now charged for temporary access to e-books. The university and the company see the deal as benefiting them both: publishers can expand their growing e-book market. Professors like the features of e-books that make their lives easier, and students get a price break. The odd new role for CSU administrators - promoting a company's products over the next three years - turns out to be the university's perhaps innovative way of addressing one of higher education's most vexing dilemmas: sky-high textbook prices. Read more at: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/21/BA4H1N8C6J.DTL#ixzz1n8kNWJsf

Training RAs As First Responders For Student Mental Health Crises

As a growing number of college students suffer from anxiety and depression, universities increasingly are training resident advisers in "mental health first aid." The university was among about three dozen nationally that participated in a study showing the effects of mental health training among RAs, who can be first responders in student crises. The study, "Mental Health First Aid: Outcomes Evaluation Strategies," found that RAs who were trained reported increased confidence in recognizing and responding to developing mental health problems and crisis situations. Read more at:
http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_19995896