The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Ivy League Invites Retired Military Officers To Teach

In the last year, Harvard, Yale and Columbia have invited R.O.T.C. back to campus after banning the program during Vietnam, citing the end of the military’s ban on openly gay troops as the reason. The hiring of retired military officers as teachers in the Ivy League is part of the same evolution. In the last year, Harvard, Yale and Columbia have invited R.O.T.C. back to campus after banning the program during Vietnam, citing the end of the military’s ban on openly gay troops as the reason. The hiring of retired military officers as teachers in the Ivy League is part of the same evolution. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/us/retired-military-officers-teaching-at-ivy-league-schools.html?_r=1&ref=education

Savvy B-School Students Start A Black Market For Their Own Graduation Tickets

Graduating business majors at Indiana University are seeing a real-life demonstration this week of the laws of supply and demand, scarcity and consumerism gone a bit wild. The hot product: tickets to the IU Kelley Friday graduation recognition ceremony, being hawked on a student-run black market. The prices: $150 to $995. The ticket-scalping brought a sternly worded email message this week from Kelley School Dean Daniel C. Smith, who pleaded with students who have extra tickets to turn them back in. The dean isn't amused with the entrepreneurial spirit he is witnessing in students perhaps overeager to start applying their four years of book learning. Read more at:
http://www.indystar.com/article/20120503/LOCAL/205030360/1013/NEWS04

College Newspapers Are Struggling In Challenging Economic Times

Most of the conditions causing hard times for newspapers in the private sector — declining print advertising revenue and difficulties making the Web a moneymaker — are also affecting student newspapers at colleges and universities throughout the country. Add to the mix the budget-cutting realities that colleges and universities now face, and many journalism schools have entered adapt-or-die mode. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/story/2012-04-22/college-newspapers/54630566/1 

 

Real Estate Investors Targeting College Towns

Looking to be a landlord? Buying property in college towns typically translates into stable rental returns, no matter how the economy is faring. Not only do colleges provide a steady source of jobs for the local economy, but enrollments have swelled as the unemployed go back to school seeking new job skills. Read more at:
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/real_estate/1203/gallery.college-towns/?iid=GM

More Colleges Establishing Smoke-Free Campuses

From banning tobacco companies from advertising to kicking cigarettes off school grounds altogether, colleges are making it harder or even impossible to smoke on campus. The American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation estimates there are about 700 smoke-free campuses around the country. One of the pioneers in Alabama, Troy University, will go 100 percent smoke-free -- that means no smoking anywhere, indoors or out. Others are taking steps, if not quite going that far. Read more at:
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/04/alabama_colleges_take_more_ste.html

Sex Week Spreads To Other Campuses And Brings Tension With It

It was Sex Week at Harvard, a student-run program of lectures, panel discussions and blush-inducing conversations about all things sexual. The event was Harvard’s first, though the tradition started at Yale in 2002 and has since spread to colleges around the country: Brown, Northeastern, the University of Kentucky, Indiana University and Washington University have all held some version of Sex Week in recent years. As Sex Week has spread to more campuses, it has maintained a balancing act between matters of sexual health and pleasure. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/science/college-students-opening-up-conversations-about-sex.html?src=recg

Latest NYT Education Life Supplement Now Online

The latest edition of the New York Times Education Life Supplement is now available online. Lead stories include changes in the pre-med curriculum, the mormon student's approach to study abroad, when hazing goes wrong, the decline of German language studies, and the emergence of food study programs. Other articles cover campus farms, net college prices, why grad students rarely fail, and other offbeat looks at higher education. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/education/edlife/index.html

To Prevent Huge Marijuana Event The Campus Will Be Closed To The Public

CU announced last week that the grassy area of Norlin Quad -- which in past years has drawn more than 10,000 people for the unsanctioned 4/20 marijuana smoke-out -- will be closed entirely, and the school will apply a fish-based fertilizer to the lawn. The entire CU-Boulder campus will be closed to the public, except for visitors who have gained permission ahead of time. Shutting down the University of Colorado's campus to visitors Friday thwarts the public's right to protest government policy, Mark Silverstein, legal director of the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Read more at:
http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_20408280

Community Colleges Are The Path To Four-Year Degrees At Elite Schools

It’s partly the economic collapse. The Community College of Philadelphia costs $4,400 a year for city residents; the most expensive private colleges are $60,000. Getting an associate degree first can save $100,000. “These students are choosing community colleges with the intention that this is their path to selective institutions,” Mr. Risley said. For elite schools, community colleges offer racial and economic diversity; the college here is 55 percent black.  Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/education/community-colleges-offer-path-to-four-year-degrees.html?ref=education

Science Cafes Allow Faculty To Explain Their Research To The Community

The small lecture-style lesson on the neuroscience and drug research behind efforts to fight the disease marked Brandeis University’s inaugural Cafe Science event. The series of three lectures, slated for the first Monday of each month at the Main Street restaurant, is part of a national trend that has specialists in physics, biology, and other scientific fields explaining complicated topics in a straightforward way for mainstream audiences. According to the university, the grass-roots phenomenon has given rise to more than 250 science cafes across the United States, most associated with colleges and universities. Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2012/04/05/brandeis_offers_science_for_the_average_person_at_cafe_science_in_waltham/