The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

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

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/

PhDs Hunt For Work At Conferences They Can't Afford

Why is my friend, a smart woman with no money, spending nearly $2000 to attend a conference she cannot afford? She is looking for a way out. In America, academic hiring is rigid and seasonal. Each discipline has a conference, usually held in the fall, where interviews take place. These interviews can be announced days or even hours in advance, so most people book beforehand, often to receive no interviews at all. The American Anthropological Association meeting is held annually to showcase research from around the world, and like thousands of other anthropologists, I am paying to play: $650 for airfare, $400 for three nights in a "student" hotel, $70 for membership, and $94 for admission. The latter two fees are student rates. If I were an unemployed or underemployed scholar, the rates would double. Read more at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/2012820102749246453.html

Faculty Raises Creates A Controversy

Gov. Chris Gregoire and other political leaders say recently negotiated pay raises for Western Washington University professors send the wrong message in tough economic times. In a harshly worded letter to Western President Bruce Shepard, the governor criticized the university's decision to raise salaries 5.25 percent this school year and 4.25 percent each of the following two years. At Western, in Bellingham, professors have historically been paid less than their counterparts around the state and country, said university spokesman Steve Swan. Addressing that was necessary to "preserve the core of the excellence of Western," he said. Read more at:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018593079_western04m.html

Tenure: Is It Helping Or Hurting Higher Education

At some point, discussions about the quality of higher education in the U.S. come around to the subject of tenure. And the disagreement could hardly be more stark. Critics of tenure for college professors say it is ruining the education of millions of students. Proponents of tenure say it's the only way to preserve the quality of higher education in this country. Naomi Schaefer Riley, a writer and the author of "The Faculty Lounges and Other Reasons Why You Won't Get the College Education You Paid For," argues that tenure for college professors should be abolished. Cary Nelson, a professor of English at the University of Illinois and president of the American Association of University Professors, counters that tenure should be retained. Read more at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303610504577418293114042070.html

Budget Cuts Have Florida's Faculty Heading Elsewhere For Better Pay

The head of Florida State University told Gov. Rick Scott's higher education reform panel Monday that budget cuts are making his faculty a "farm team" for out-of-state schools. Florida State President Eric Barron advocated letting his university and the University of Florida, the state's top two research schools, raise tuition beyond the current legal limit to overcome the budget cuts. Florida State cannot prevent its best faculty members from leaving for higher paying jobs.  Of 58 arts and sciences faculty members who received outside offers, Florida State was able to retain only eight.

To Increase Retention Public Universities Borrow From Private College Experience

Faculty members from San Francisco State University and City College of San Francisco have found a way to mimic the private university experience at public campuses for little extra cost to the schools, and it appears to be working. Metro, offered at San Francisco State and City College, is supposed to patch the leaks by carefully orchestrating students' freshman and sophomore years to give them a firm foundation for the rest of college. Read more at:
http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Public-campuses-mimic-private-university-3659575.php 

Incentives Failed To Lure U Of California Faculty To Go Online

When the University of California dangled a $30,000 incentive to thousands of professors in 2010 inviting them to create UC-worthy online courses, just 70 responded, and only a few classes materialized. It turns out that California professors' wariness of online education is shared by faculty across the country, according to a survey released Thursday by Inside Higher Ed, an online publication widely read by academics. Read more at:
http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Online-education-has-teachers-conflicted-3654171.php

Students Will Continue Professor's Project After His Untimely Death

Daniel Strickland often told his students, "If something needs to be done, you stay as long as you need to get it done." The 27-year-old associate professor at Santa Clara University died in a car accident last fall, but a group of his engineering students is honoring the advice. They graduated Saturday, but will stay at school to finish a project that builds on Strickland's work and promises to improve the way power is delivered in the developing world. Read more at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/16/BU971P2NNH.DTL#ixzz1yA0VjIaf

Professor Asked To Return Pay For A Teaching A Course Inappropriately

The University of North Carolina wants a professor at the center of an academic fraud probe to repay thousands of dollars for teaching a course inappropriately. UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp told trustees Friday that Julius Nyang'oro was asked to repay $12,000 for teaching a 2011 summer course as an independent study rather than a lecture. Read more at:
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/06/unc-asks-professor-repay-12k-course