The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

How Will Data Misrepresentation Scandal Hurt Emory

Emory University's reputation as one of the nation's most respected institutions has been jeopardized after its disclosure that the school misrepresented information used for college rankings, education specialists say. The scent of scandal has descended on an institution that is known for its integrity and is often mentioned alongside Atlanta pillars such as Coca-Cola. But that distinction may be damaged after President James Wagner disclosed last week that Emory had for more than a decade intentionally misrepresented test data and other information about its students to publications that rank colleges. Read more at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/will-data-deception-damage-1502140.html

UNC Report Calls For Review Of Athletics In Wake Of Academic Fraud Scandal

A report by a special faculty committee looking into the academic fraud scandal at UNC-Chapel Hill found an athletics program divorced from the faculty, academic counselors for athletes improperly helping them enroll in classes and poor oversight of faculty administrators who have wide latitude in running their departments. The three professors who wrote the report called for an independent commission of outside experts in higher education to review athletics and academics at the university. The report comes after a university probe found 54 courses within the Department of African and Afro-American Studies that had little or no instruction, and dozens of independent study classes that had little evidence of academic rigor. The classes were largely filled with athletes. Read more at:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/07/26/2223477/unc-chapel-hill-faculty-calls.html 

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Students See Cheating As The Path To Success

Cheating was, is and probably always will be a fact of life. Recently, technology has provided new ways to cheat, but advanced electronics can't be blamed for our increasing willingness to tolerate it. Compounding the problem is the fact that many students aren't fully aware of what constitutes cheating. While teaching at a university a few years ago, I was surprised when a student I had accused of plagiarizing by cutting and pasting text from a website denied having cheated. He indignantly argued that he would never cut and paste — he had retyped the entire thing. Read more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-dorff-cheating-20120717,0,6524981.story

Investigation Questions If Dartmouth's Trustees Enriched Themselves

New Hampshire's attorney general is looking into claims of conflicts of interest against members of the board of trustees and the investment committee of Dartmouth College in regard to their management of the college's $3.4 billion endowment. A group of Dartmouth faculty members, university employees and alumni — none of whom has come forward publicly — sent the letter earlier this year, but its contents only recently became public when it was posted on an unofficial university blog. The letter accuses the money managers of “enriching themselves” through private equity, venture capital and hedge fund investments made by the endowment. Read more at:
http://www.pionline.com/article/20120528/PRINTSUB/305289979/dartmouth-board-members-are-accused-of-enriching-own-firms

Despite Policies The Evidence Points To Excess College Trustee Conflicts Of Interest

A new report finds that 70 percent of Massachusetts’ wealthiest private colleges did business in fiscal 2009 and 2010 with companies affiliated with trustees on the schools’ boards, a number strikingly higher than the national average of 25 percent. Such arrangements are widely considered to be conflicts of interest. Many of the schools said they have policies designed to keep conflicts of interest from adversely affecting university decisions. But none of themdenied that some of their trustees do have conflicts. Read more at:
http://articles.boston.com/2012-05-01/news/31521845_1_private-colleges-college-trustees-universities

Adjunct Faculty Member's Thank You For Whistle-Blowing Is Getting Fired

Justin Schwartz, a lecturer at Cal State East Bay in 2009, told his bosses that a colleague in the recreation department was spending thousands of dollars of university money to buy himself a $4,000 bicycle, passes at a climbing gym, sailing equipment and paragliding lessons while claiming they were for classes he taught.  A campus investigation confirmed that the man had billed the school for personal expenses and that much of the equipment he had bought had mysteriously disappeared, and it found that department officials had never asked questions. Rather than thank the whistle-blower, Cal State East Bay fired him. The colleague who appeared to have bilked the school still teaches there. Read more at:
 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/31/MNLS1NO615.DTL#ixzz1qzZumozz

SAT Will Tighten Rules To Prevent Potential Cheating

Stung by a cheating scandal involving dozens of Long Island high school students, the SAT and ACT college entrance exams will now require students to provide a photograph when they sign up for the exams, and officials will check those images against the identification the students present when they take the test. The new rules were part of a broad set of changes announced on Tuesday in the aftermath of the cheating cases, in which high-scoring students used fake IDs to take the SAT or ACT for other students. The revelations had proved embarrassing for the testing services. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/education/after-cheating-scandal-sat-and-act-will-tighten-security.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=education

Welcome To Repression University

Campus spies. Pepper spray. SWAT teams. Twitter trackers. Biometrics. Student security consultants. Professors of homeland security studies. Welcome to Repress U, class of 2012. Since 9/11, the homeland security state has come to campus just as it has come to America’s towns and cities. Today, from the City University of New York to the University of California, students increasingly find themselves on the frontlines, not of a war on terror, but of a war on “radicalism” and “extremism.” Just about everyone from college administrators and educators to law enforcement personnel and corporate executives seems to have enlisted in this war effort.  Increasingly, American students are in their sights. Read more at:
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/22/big_brother_on_campus/singleton/

Two Boards May Be Too Many For University President

University of Miami President Donna Shalala may be in charge of her own university, but at the end of the day she still has to answer to a boss — the university’s board of trustees. The exception to that rule: the days Shalala shows up to meetings as a corporate board member for two local powerhouse companies. The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges advises college presidents to avoid serving on company boards with a connection to trustees.  Shalala says she’s not overwhelmed by her duties, and notes she also teaches 300 students a year. Read more at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/13/2635483/um-president-shalalas-role-on.html

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Firing Of Undocumented Workers Forces College To Question Its Values

The dining hall workers had been at Pomona College for years, some even decades. For a few, it was the only job they had held since moving to the United States. Then late last year, administrators at the college delivered letters to dozens of the longtime employees asking them to show proof of legal residency, saying that an internal review had turned up problems in their files. Seventeen workers could not produce documents showing that they were legally able to work in the United States. So on Dec. 2, they lost their jobs. Now, the campus is deep into a consuming debate over what it means to be a college with liberal ideals. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/us/after-workers-are-fired-an-immigration-debate-roils-california-campus.html?_r=1