The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Scandals Present Great Risk To A College's Reputation

When a college's reputation is damaged, it can adversely affect student recruitment, alumni donations and even federal funding, experts say. Awareness of educational institution reputational risks has been rekindled as Penn State faces unlimited legal liability in civil litigation. While reputational risks have been a major concern for school risk managers for several years, “I think the awareness of reputation risk is certainly heightened” since the Penn State scandal, said Ellen Shew Holland, director of risk management at the University of Denver in Denver. Read more at:
http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20120101/NEWS06/301019983?tags=|338|75|302 

 

 

New Laws Are Designed To Keep College Students From Voting

Next fall, thousands of students on college campuses will attempt to register to vote and be turned away. Sorry, they will hear, you have an out-of-state driver’s license. Sorry, your college ID is not valid here. Sorry, we found out that you paid out-of-state tuition, so even though you do have a state driver’s license, you still can’t vote. Political leaders should be encouraging young adults to participate in civic life, but many Republican state lawmakers are doing everything they can instead to prevent students from voting in the 2012 presidential election. Some have openly acknowledged doing so because students tend to be liberal. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/opinion/keeping-college-students-from-the-polls.html?src=me&ref=general

Higher Ed Should Not Be Responsible For Students' Acts Of Digital Piracy

Congress is considering an Internet piracy bill that would hold colleges, including the University of Colorado, culpable if students use school networks to illegally download music and movies. U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, proposed an amendment to the Stop Online Piracy Act that would have made sure legal responsibility fell only on the individuals who violate copyright laws, but it failed 9-23 in the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Polis said cash-strapped universities shouldn't be required to police the Internet. The Polis amendment would have exempted colleges and universities from the cost of complying with the new restrictions and ensured that the individual who violates copyright law is held responsible. Read more at:
http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_19558599

Will 2012 Bring An End To Race-Based Admissions

But eight years later, race-based admissions show no sign of moving toward “a logical end point.’’ If anything they are more entrenched than ever. Far from using skin color as a last resort, many universities make it an explicit condition - as Abigail Fisher, a white high school senior, discovered when she applied to the University of Texas in 2008. Roughly one-fifth of the freshman class is selected according to a formula that takes race into account; when Fisher was rejected she sued the university on the grounds that its racial preferences violate the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Relying on Grutter, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the university’s policy. Now Fisher is appealing to the Supreme Court . Read more at:
http://articles.boston.com/2011-12-18/bostonglobe/30531645_1_racial-preferences-race-conscious-admissions-grutter

Legislator Proposes Open Access Textbook System For California

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced Tuesday that he will push for legislation to create an online, open-source library to reduce the cost of course materials for college students across the state.  Under his proposal, materials for 50 common lower division courses would be developed and posted online for free student access. Ordering a paper copy would cost $20, compared to the $200-plus price tag that some books carry.Steinberg plans to seek $25 million to create his proposed Open Education Resources system, with some funding going towards soliciting course material contributions from academics, nonprofits, Silicon Valley developers and the book publishing industry to be shared freely within the system. Read more at:
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/14/4121224/darrell-steinberg-pushes-open.html#ixzz1gbx8azYq

If Their Parents Are Not Legal Residents Florida Students Must Pay Out-Of-State Tuition

Beginning last year, the state’s higher education authorities have been treating American citizens born in the United States, including graduates of Florida high schools who have spent their entire lives in the state, as non-residents for tuition purposes if they can’t demonstrate that their parents are in the country legally.The lawsuit filed last month in Federal District Court in Miami by the Southern Poverty Law Center asks the court to do the obvious: to rule that Florida’s “policy and practice of classifying dependent United States citizen students who reside in Florida as ‘non-residents’ based on their parents’ federal immigration status denies these United States citizens equal protection of the laws in violation of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Read more at:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/sins-of-the-parents/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1

Professor's Lawsuit Claims Firing Was Tied To Rigorous Instruction Style

Business scholar Steven Maranville left a tenured appointment with the University of Houston to teach at Utah Valley University two years ago, but officials fired him after a one-year probationary period when they concluded his teaching did not suit their students. According to a lawsuit filed Oct. 14 in U.S. District Court, Maranville’s lawyers allege UVU administrators justified the dismissal based on student complaints that his “capstone” course in business strategies was too rigorous and his Socratic style intimidated them.Read more at:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52732204-78/maranville-students-student-business.html.csp

University Battles The Media Over Student Privacy Issue

It was bad enough for the University of Illinois when The Chicago Tribune’s 2009 series “Clout Goes to College” exposed the existence of a “clout list” that over five years gave hundreds of well-connected students an edge in admissions. But two years later, the university is still mired in litigation before the federal appeals court in Chicago, fighting the release of more documents the newspaper has asked for, including the names and addresses of the parents on the clout list. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/education/21privacy.html?_r=1

Supreme Court Decision Will Impact The Future Of Higher Education Diversity

Diversity is the last man standing, the sole remaining legal justification for racial preferences in deciding who can study at public universities. Should the Supreme Court disavow it, the student body at the University of Texas and many other public colleges and universities would almost instantly become whiter and more Asian, and less black and Hispanic. A judicial retreat from diversity would be deeply symbolic, too. The term — a gauzy, unobjectionable way to talk about the combustible topic of race — has had a remarkable run. If the diversity rationale falls apart in university admissions, it could start to test the societal commitment to it in other arenas, notably private hiring and promotion. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/sunday-review/college-diversity-nears-its-last-stand.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Duke And Others Will Challenge The Copyright Status Quo On Orphan Works

Duke University is about to expand access to free electronic books to include thousands of titles that are not yet available from the world's most ambitious e-book project: the gargantuan online library compiled by Google Books. This fall Duke will be among the nation's first institutions to offer free online access to books that are still protected by copyright and not in the public domain. Those books, published between 1923 and 1963, will be offered to the public because the owners of the copyrights can't be contacted - either the publishers went out of business or the authors are deceased."If we're legally wrong - if the publishing firm that bought the rights or the granddaughter of the author comes forward - we will suspend access until the issue is resolved," Smith said. Read more at: 
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/29/1439382/duke-to-expand-e-books.html#ixzz1WikzCms9