The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

This Is The Last Post

After nearly 8 years, 5,000 posts and 500,000 page views, this is the last post at Kept-Up Academic Librarian. It has been a good run but the need for this blog is diminished and even though the time it takes to compose it each day is not great, it is time I could use for other activities. Now with so many others sharing higher education news on social networks, along with other sources such as University Business' daily update, Academic Impressions and daily news items in the Chronicle and IHE, it's clear there is less need - and that is supported by the stagnant usage data. 

I'll leave the site up for a few more months, but if your library has a link to KUAL, you will probably want to remove it.

I appreciate all the visits to this blog, and I hope it has been useful over the years. I always tried to find stories that were not reported elsewhere or could be of more interest to academic librarians. I hope you'll continue to follow me at Designing Better Libraries or you can follow me on Twitter - blendedlib (I'm also now on Branch - where I hope to continue some writing on current events  in higher education).

Thanks again - and I hope you'll continue to stay" Kept-Up" with the world of higher education. If you have a recommendation for another source or individual to follow for keeping up with higher education, please feel free to add it as a comment.

Best,

Steven

Before They Can Teach Foreign Graduate Students Must Improve Their English

For hundreds of grown men and women here, work can mean sticking fingers into models of the human mouth, or trying to talk while peering at their tongues in mirrors or while hopping up and down stairs. They are foreign graduate students at Ohio University who are spending up to two hours a day learning how to speak so that their American colleagues and students will understand them. Many of them spend more than a year in the program, and they are not allowed to teach until their English instructors say they are ready. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/education/college-helps-foreign-students-get-through-to-american-ears.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

College Student Debt Will Eventually Lower The Birth Rate And Hurt The Economy

Exponentially growing student loans are driving up tuition and creating a demographic time bomb as well as a higher-education bubble that could explode in taxpayers' faces.As college costs and student loan debt soar (partly due to opulent university spending) and unemployment rises, young college graduates, crushed by student loan debt, are deciding not to have kids, resulting in demographic decline among the educated in America.  In recent years, student loan debt has skyrocketed from $100 billion to nearly $1 trillion, creating a potential debt bomb for the American economy. France and England now have higher birth rates than America. Read more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2012/08/another_college_cost_lower_bir.html

Transfer Students Are Higher Education's Hot New Commodity

But there are two storm clouds on the horizon. The first is the shift of demographics that has many students seeking postsecondary education by moving with their feet to two-year colleges and for profit institutions In this mix, the transfer student has become the new hot commodity. Transfers provide an attractive option for upper level colleges and universities seeking to complete a class. Read more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-brian-c-mitchell/college-transfer-students-_b_1835709.html?utm_hp_ref=college

Student Housing Crunch Means Getting Really Close With Your Dormmates

Standing inside her dorm room at Cornerstone University Wednesday, Abbigail Stefanek watched as her father brainstormed ways to pull off what seemed like a tricky task: fitting five beds into a room normally used for two. “It seems a bit crazy because I didn’t expect to be living with four other people,” said Stefanek. The housing crunch was prompted by trends the university is happy to see unfolding: growing enrollment and more students – even upperclassmen – opting to live on campus. Read more at:
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/08/living_in_close_quarters_campu.html

International Branch Campus Seen As Way To Build A Global Brand

Newcastle University is one of the latest entrants into the thriving world of international branch campuses, or IBCs. Universities across the globe have now established well over 200 foreign campuses, up from 82 in 2006. Branch campuses give schools a shot at building a global brand and attracting untapped talent, but they may also threaten the schools’ reputation — as Yale discovered when its plans to expand in Singapore drew fire from alumni and students alike. Read more at:
http://world.time.com/2012/08/27/universities-look-east-fueling-branch-campus-boom/#ixzz24rpxGnuV

Penn State Plans Its Strategy For Rebounding From A Scandal

After months of reacting to one devastating development after another in the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal, university trustees Sunday charted a proactive strategy to rebuild faith in the campus. The approach, outlined on the final day of the board's annual retreat, includes implementing several recommendations offered last month in an internal report on the university's handling of the crisis, as well as launching a media campaign to emphasize Penn State's achievements. Read more at:
http://articles.philly.com/2012-08-28/news/33426040_1_centre-county-court-jury-jerry-sandusky-child-graham-b-spanier

Parents Have Unrealist Expectations For College Costs And Career Potential

Parents saving for their children’s college expenses may be in need of a reality check. While Massachusetts families expect to pay most of their children’s college costs, the typical family comes up well short of they money they need by the time college rolls around. To make matters worse, most parents also have wildly unrealistic ideas of what their graduates will earn after college, especially those who nudge their children toward a particular major in hopes of a big paycheck that can help work off school debts. Read more at:
http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/08/28/massachusetts-parents-saving-for-college-behind-pace-study-says/9OzaxpAQuB7Y98OOxawWdO/story.html

Professor Admits He's A Liberal And Wants His Reward

Campus Reform, a conservative organization, has been inviting students to submit videos of liberal professors promising $100 if the videos lead to an article for the group. Kieran Healy, a sociologist at Duke University, decided he could make money off the offer, turning himself in as a liberal, with a YouTube video offering evidence of the potentially dangerous books a liberal professor might read. See the post at: http://crookedtimber.org/2012/08/23/bottom-feeders/

Returning Students Find Big Crowds And Fewer Classes

It was the first day of the fall term at most of California's 112 community colleges, and statewide budget cuts meant students were returning from summer break to face higher fees, fewer course offerings and crowded classrooms. An information booth on the Culver City campus overflowed with students hoping to add high-demand classes such as English. Read more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-college-classes-20120828,0,6461667.story