The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Please Keep Your Politically Incorrect Indian Mascot

Sometime soon, the Fighting Sioux of the University of North Dakota were to be no more, another collegiate nickname dropped after being deemed hostile and abusive to American Indians. Except that some members of the Spirit Lake Tribe, one of two groups of Sioux in the state, say they consider the nickname an honor and worry that abandoning it would send them one step closer to obscurity. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09nickname.html

Unique Town-Gown Relationship

Call for police in this tiny Middlesex County borough today and you’ll get someone at police headquarters. Make that same call next month, and it will be answered six miles away, at the Rutgers University police dispatch center in New Brunswick. At a time when cities and towns across New Jersey are struggling to pay their bills and facing a temporary cutoff in state aid, Dunellen has entered into a novel cost-savings arrangement with the university, which will dispatch all police, fire and rescue squad calls for the borough. The agreement is a first for Rutgers, and university police Chief Rhonda Harris said she knew of no other school that provides dispatch services to municipal departments. Read more at:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/rutgers_university_to_handle_d.html

CUNY To Rebuild At Ground Zero

Officials broke ground Tuesday on a replacement for a college building that sat empty for years after a World Trade Center tower collapsed into it on Sept. 11, leaving it damaged beyond repair. Fiterman Hall, a City University of New York classroom building, was finally torn down for good just before Thanksgiving, a year after its demolition and cleanup of toxic waste began. The new 14-story building will go up at the same site north of ground zero, with 96 classrooms plus office space, an art gallery and meeting rooms. Read more at:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsMWFqclEuOiOzudD9z5ci6OLugwD9CAQBJO1

UC Irvine Embraces Video Games

UC Irvine has long sought to be known for preeminence in fields such as engineering, medicine and business. But now the university is embracing a new discipline: video games. Once ridiculed within university halls as merely a nerdy pastime, computer games are being promoted to a full-fledged academic program at the Irvine campus, a medium as ripe for study as the formats before it: film, radio and television.
This fall UC Irvine established the Center for Computer Games & Virtual Worlds, and construction is underway on a 4,000-square-foot, 20-room "Cyber-Interaction Observatory" for faculty research. Read more at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uci-video-games30-2009nov30,0,7687377.story

Plan To Merge Three HBCUs Meets Opposition

Gov. Haley Barbour's proposal to merge Mississippi's three public historically black universities is sparking debate over its racial undertones and raising questions over the state's funding of those colleges. Barbour has proposed combining the smaller Mississippi Valley State and Alcorn State universities into Jackson State University. The campuses would continue to exist, he said. Many legislators, including leaders of the Legislative Black Caucus, have vowed to block any merger that involves the historically black colleges. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-11-30-black-colleges_N.htm

IHEs Contribute To Local Economies

Higher education institutions in Chicago's Loop generate more than $4 billion in regional economic output annually, including at least $60 million in student purchases directly from retailers, according to a report released Monday by the Chicago Loop Alliance. The Loop is home to 24 higher education institutions. The researchers estimate that the academic institutions themselves account for $2.1 billion in economic output in the Chicago area. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-biz-study-economic-output,0,5162903.story

CUNY Starts To See Results From Science Initiative

Four years ago, CUNY declared the “Decade of Science,” a neat rubric that encapsulated an ambitious plan to attract nationally recognized scientists in emerging disciplines and erect a half-dozen new science buildings on several campuses. Across CUNY’s 11 senior colleges, the science initiative has already started bearing fruit. Construction and renovation projects are under way or in the planning stages at Brooklyn, Lehman, Hunter and City Colleges. Nearly 100 full-time faculty members in science, technology, engineering and math have been recruited. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/education/16cuny.html?_r=1

More Silver Scholars Showing Up On Campus

Senior auditors don't take tests, and they aren't allowed to speak up in class unless they're invited. They just get to sit back and enjoy being educated for education's sake. These "silver scholars" are part of a growing movement. An estimated 60 percent of American colleges are offering some kind of auditing opportunities for those typically no longer on the sunny side of 60, and according to the National Association of Continuing University Education, it's rising in popularity. Read more at:
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/69737137.html

As More Veterans Enroll Services For Them Are Increased

The number of on-campus veterans clubs and veterans-services offices is growing nationwide, especially since a new GI bill was enacted in August. Since it was founded last year, Student Veterans of America - a national coalition of campus organizations - has attracted more than 200 groups, including those at five Philadelphia-area schools.In West Philadelphia, Drexel University yesterday dedicated a veterans office. The school hopes to organize a student group for current and former servicemen and women by spring. Read more at:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/education/20091111_Resources__services_increase_for_vets_on_campus.html

Students Protest Layoff Of Diversity Officer

Several hundred students marched Thursday to the administration building at the University of Maryland to protest the firing of a popular diversity officer in one of the largest demonstrations at the College Park campus since the Vietnam War era.  Protesters rallied in support of Cordell Black, associate provost for equity and diversity at Maryland's flagship state university. Black will lose his job at the end of the academic year to help the university cut costs. The mood during the demonstration suggested that many students fear that the school is quietly retreating from its commitment to racial and cultural diversity. Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/05/AR2009110502997.html