The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

IHEs Lax In Reporting Research Conflicts

Few universities make required reports to the government about the financial conflicts of their researchers, and even when such conflicts are reported, university administrators rarely require those researchers to eliminate or reduce these conflicts, government investigators found. And half of universities do not ask their faculty members to disclose the amount of money or stock they make from drug and device makers, so the potential for extensive conflicts with their government-financed research is often known only to the researchers themselves. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/health/policy/19nih.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Higher Education Is Increasingly Class Stratified

Our higher education system is becoming increasingly stratified along social class lines, with a growing share of low-income high school graduates choosing two-year community colleges over four-year universities, a recent report shows.  Thomas Mortenson, a higher education policy analyst who runs an organization called Postsecondary Education Opportunity, recently documented the trend by looking at where high school graduates receiving Pell Grants choose to attend college. Federal Pell Grants are awarded to students from lower-income families on the basis of economic need. The trend, writes Mortenson in a report released last month, is the result not only of recession but also of states shifting more of the burden for higher education to student tuition, and of financial aid for needy students failing to kept pace with tuition increases. Read more at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2009/10/college_enrollments_reflect_cl.html

Republicans Poised To Jump All Over Stimulus Grant For Sex Research

An economic stimulus grant for sex research at Syracuse University has won the attention of Republican critics in Washington. The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $219,000 stimulus grant for psychology professor Michael Carey to study the "hookups" of 500 freshmen women. The research will measure the prevalence of hookups in the first year of college and explore the mental and physical health consequences of it. The grant was reported by the New York Post Monday in a story that played with the wording of "stimulus" funding for sex research. Read more at:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/stimulus_funding_for_syracuse.html

Canadian Faculty And Librarians Believe Students Are Less Prepared

University professors feel their first-year students are less mature, rely too much on Wikipedia and "expect success without the requisite effort," says a province-wide survey to be released today. And guess what? In this case, many students agree with their profs. More than 55 per cent of Ontario's faculty and librarians surveyed believe students are less prepared for university than even three years ago."I think it's a fair assessment," said first-year Ryerson journalism student Annie Webber. "I'm addicted to Wikipedia."Read more at:
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/614219

More Reason To Help Prevent Student Binge Drinking

College students who are problem drinkers using alcohol to cope with personal problems and boost self-confidence are more likely to continue excessive drinking into adulthood, a recent study suggests. If the subset of students most likely to continue problem drinking in adulthood can be identified during college, they might benefit from counseling or programming that specifically aims to lower long-term high-risk drinking, the researchers say. And the junior year might be the best time to introduce the intervention. Read more at:
http://sciencemode.com/2009/03/25/study-helps-identify-college-drinkers-who-might-continue-excessive-drinking-as-adults/

Internet May Actually Cause A Narrowing Effect On Scholarship

For scholars the Internet has been a godsend. It allows instant communication with colleagues around the globe, and makes tracking down published research a matter of seconds. But perhaps the greatest boon is the sheer quantity of readily accessible knowledge. Millions of journal articles are available online, enabling scholars to find material they never would have encountered at their university libraries. A recent study, however, suggests that despite this cornucopia, the boom in online research may actually have a "narrowing" effect on scholarship. The Internet's influence is to tighten consensus, posing the risk that good ideas may be ignored and lost - the opposite of the Internet's promise. Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/11/23/group_think/

College Education For Prison Inmates Reduces Recidivism Rates

Citing research that shows inmates who take college courses are less likely to return to prison upon release, advocates said Thursday they hope the Paterson and Obama administrations will restart the state and federal programs. Federal funding for prison higher education, in the form of Pell Grants, was cut in 1993. Studies show that education of prison inmates, particularly higher education, reduces recidivism rates. Read more at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-lieduc1412174231nov14,0,3777034.story

Research Project Aimed At Preventing College Student Suicide

Suicidal thinking and behavior among college students can result from a wide variety of problems including drug and alcohol abuse, mood disorders, problems in social relationships and physical health problems. Researchers at the University of Nevada Reno will test an intervention called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ( ACT ), which is based on the notion that acceptance and awareness of difficult emotions can help students reduce avoidance behavior and improve their psychological flexibility, which may reduce the frequency of problems that often precede suicide attempts. About 720 college freshmen will be randomized to receive either ACT or a brief educational course on adjusting to the challenges of college life. Read more at: http://media-newswire.com/release_1078140.html

Conflicted By Research Grants That Compromise Academic Freedom

Caught between the demands of academic freedom and national security in a post-Sept. 11 world, the Bay Area's two major research universities are walking away from lucrative research contracts rather than consenting to intrusive restrictions on their work. A new major study of 20 top schools found 180 instances of "troublesome clauses" attached by the federal government to research contracts - up from 138 in 2004. The survey concluded that the vast majority of disputes involve the U.S. Department of Defense or defense contractors. Sometimes they want the right to review, edit or prevent publication of research discoveries. In other instances, they seek to prevent foreign students from conducting research. Read more at:
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10039559?nclick_check=1

Higher Education Can Make You Live Longer

The difference in death rates between highly educated and poorly educated people in the United States is very wide and growing wider, according to new research. For Americans with less than a high school education, the risk of dying prematurely is on the increase -- rising most quickly for white women in that category. In contrast, the risk of premature death among college graduates is falling -- fastest of all for black men. "Socioeconomic disparity in mortality is pervasive, and it continues to increase," said Ahmedin Jemal, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society who lead the study. Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/13/AR2008051302599.html