Outsourcing the experts
November 17, 2009 12:57 am by Erica R. Hendry
Just months away from budget approval season, with rising costs and increased enrollment in mind, institutions have started to hire consultants to help college and university administrators identify where they can cut back — for some, where they can save hundreds of millions of dollars.
One of those consultants, Bain & Company, recently made recommendations to the University of Carolina’s chancellor that could save the system upward of $150 million dollars, according to an article in yesterday’s New York Times.
Some of those recommendations included consolidating the university’s management (more than half of its managers have three or fewer people reporting directly to them, according to the article), as well as streamlining the more than 100 university institutes and centers, many of which have their own HR, IT and finance departments.
The cost for the analysis is $3 million dollars — a small price in the face of more than $150 in savings.
Some critics told the Times that hiring consultants to deal with university finances was too (dangerously) close to treating institutions like corporations instead of institutes of higher education.
Tanya Smith, president of Local 1 of University Professional and Technical Employees, which represents about 900 Berkeley employees. “What we’re seeing is centralization and treatment of the university as if it were a corporation. And I’m just not sure education and efficiency are on the same page.”
On paper, the idea of a consultant may not be bad — and it looks like UNC saved serious money that way. But you have to wonder how well a firm that deals with dozens of institutions each year can understand what’s important to the campus and what’s not, independent of finances. Cutting a department that isn’t efficient but is a central part of the campus culture could do more harm than good.
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Tech Tuesday: Goodbyes, Twitter 101
November 3, 2009 11:56 am by Erica R. Hendry
UWereGoodWhileULasted: College news aggregator UWire has officially terminated its service, which makes College Ave a very sad camper.
The site was founded in founded in 1994, and since then has reposted content from more than 850 college media oulets, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Student editors were paid to search these oulets for news, and post them under categories that ranged from politics, to arts, to College Ave’s favorite: Science/Tech. Did it aggregate the best, most-hard hitting journalism? No. But it gave insight into what was going on at close to 1,000 higher ed institutions across the country, which never could have been done by a single editor or publication alone. UWire hasn’t given a reason for its sudden disappearance.
Goodbye, UWire. You were good to CollegeAve.
I wonder who’s going to jump on this void in the market ..
When you should take your money and run: Australia’s Griffith University has added a mandatory course on Twitter in it’s journalism curriculum. An entire course. (Let that settle). Personally I’ve never thought the social networking site was all that complex, but that puts me at odds with Griffith U. Professor Jacqui Ewart, who says “some students’ tweets are not as in depth as you might like.”
I have a secret for Ewart: Neither are the tweets from more than half of all twitter users. There will always be people who tweet that they had broccoli for dinner. It’s good to know how to use Twitter, but does that take 15 weeks? Abosolutely not Doubt it.
When I researched this story more, I found there was actually a point to the course: for students to tweet ongoing assesments of their own work. As the 340 first-year journalism students write and file news stories, according to an article in news.com.au, they are supposed to Tweet any struggles or problems they had with the assignment. It’s a good way to get the conversation going — but wouldn’t that be more productive in person?
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(Music)-Tech Tuesday
October 27, 2009 11:48 pm by Erica R. Hendry
ObjectsMusicians may be smaller larger than they appear: Music schools whose budget cuts has affected their ability to bring in performers for concerts and master classes may now be able to hold the same classes online with EchoDamp, a free software developed by the University of Southern California that promises to preserve sound quality over a high-speed internet connection. According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the software, developed by Brian K. Shepard, an assistant professor of composition at Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, maintains ” a sonic environment online that is musically effective.” One of the problems musicians tend to have with video conferencing or web streaming, Shepard told the Chronicle , is because there is often a delay or echo as a result of the music having to travel hundreds, or thousands, of miles. Shepard said EchoDamp expands the spectrum of sound a laptop can capture, along with digitally removing that echo.
It seems schools may also be able to use this to record the master classes, which would be great for music students who happen to miss the performance or a class. But somehow, I don’t think this will bring Yo-Yo Ma to my living room. I can dream.
No bassoonist? No problem: As students increasingly use technology to compose and record songs, professors and professionals are finding ways to help them use digital performers, too. A great article in the Christian Science Monitor, titled “Symphonies gingerly embrace digital performers,” explores how professional conductors and composers are allowing digital performers and conducting programs into the opera houses, and how professors are trying to let them into the classroom. Interestingly enough, Shepard (from the news item above) is in this article too, explaining which subtleties students can replace with computers — and which they cannot. The article in it’s entirety is well-written and complex for me to try to simplify/recreate here, but a few revealing quotes:
“Paul Henry Smith, a composer and developer of the Fauxharmonic Orchestra, says the development of cheap disc space and affordable processors has allowed sampling libraries to grow more refined, both in the number of instruments allowed and the shades of tonal quality available. Although Mr. Smith says hearing an acoustic orchestra “is still the best thing you can do” to hear symphonic music at its highest level, he says his device is a “viable, expressive instrument.”
Mr. Shepard says digital orchestration is best used not to replace acoustic instruments but to add new sounds that composers living centuries ago had never imagined. “I love the orchestral instruments, but I also love the sounds that are created electronically. I don’t see it as an either/or situation,” he says. “I certainly hope [digital media] will expand our [aural] color palette.”
And lastly, something I don’t consider music: J-school students at Columbia University rapping about ethics. Amusing, but I’m glad this guy is pursuing journalism.
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Hear Women Roar.
October 25, 2009 7:41 pm by Erica R. Hendry
I’m no crazy feminist, but I’m happy to take a moment to revel in some woman glory.
Postsecondary Education Opportunity, which examines public policy on education, reported at a College Board forum this week that there are only 77 American men for every 100 American women enrolled in college. And for every 100 of those women who graduate with a bachelor’s degree, only 73 men do the same.
After my celebratory dance was over (after all, Affirmative Action was created to help women get equal access to colleges and universities along with African-Americans and other minorities), I became suspicious.
What?
More recently than many think, men were enrolling in colleges and universities at a much higher rate than women — and in certain fields, like engineering and science, they still do.
So what happened?
Experts at the forum, according to a blogpost on The New York Times blog “The Choice,” said there are several reasons for the gap: schools aren’t in touch with the hands-on learning style characteristic of boys; young male students, especially at-risk youth, don’t have positive male role models in or outside of school to encourage a college education, and the image of smart young men perpetuated by the media is one of socially awkward teens who go alone to the prom.
Another problem is the disappearance of jobs in industries like manufacturing, experts said, which leaves many young men without any guidance about where else to look for a career.
It’s an interesting issue — but I can only imagine the chaos that would ensue from a college announcing they were making an effort to admit more male students …
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Sunday Roundup: O Canada, Scary Suitemates
October 25, 2009 7:12 pm by Erica R. Hendry
It might be time to take a cue from Canada: Hate on the country all you want, but it looks like they’re doing something right. Enrollment figures collected by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada show that the number of full-time undergraduate students increased by more than 4 percent, with full-time graduate enrollment up more than 7 percent. The combined total increase was 4.6 percent — the highest the country has seen in six years.
Meanwhile … An article in The New York Times reported that tuition at American four-year colleges and universities continues to rise. According to a report issued by The College Board this week, four-year public colleges increased tuition and fees by an average of about 6.5 percent in the past year, and the same costs at private colleges rose by almost 4.5 percent. Those increases brought the average price for tuition, fees, room and board to $15,213, the Times reported. At private nonprofit colleges, which the Times says enrolls one in five college students, the average annual cost is now $35,636.
Next time, just do the dishes: Something must have gone awry in a suite at California State University at Sacramento this week, where police responded to a student allegedly beating his suitemate with a bat. The student died, and his attacker is in the hospital recovering from gunshot wounds inflicted by police when they responded to the suite.
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Today’s Genius: “I know … let’s cut from education!”
October 22, 2009 11:42 pm by Erica R. Hendry
An exciting page in New York state’s budget saga: A proposal by Gov. David Paterson to cut aid to higher (and secondary) education.
(Again!).
Part of the governor’s plan to reduce the state’s $3 million deficit, he announced Wednesday, is to reduce spending — apparently, by cutting $686 million in education aid by the end of the fiscal year on March, 31, 2010. The reduction would be on top of other proposed cuts of $287 million to Medicaid, and $184 million to other health care programs and mental hygiene, according to the Syracuse Post Standard.
Under the proposal, about $62 million will be cut from higher education, according to the University of Buffalo’s Spectrum, which said the governor’s proposal also includes a $26 million cut from the Tuition Assistance Program, which will affect awards for students currently enrolled in the program.
TAP is run by The New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC), and helps students pay for tuition at approved colleges in New York state.
Cutting this much from the budget midway through the year has struck a sour chord with many lawmakers in Albany — especially cuts like those proposed for the TAP, which would negatively affect students currently benefiting from the program and could even prevent them from continuing their degrees.
“We’re going to try to adjust the cuts to reflect the ability [of school districts] to sustain the cuts,” Mr. Paterson said at an Albany press conference. “Most of the schools have reserves that can absorb this, and if they see fit, they should certainly use them.”
Paterson has said the move would bring Albany back to “fiscal responsibility.” But part of fiscal responsibility is setting a budget and operating within it. Setting a “reach” budget and scrambling later to cover a deficit isn’t responsible, or fiscally sound, at all.
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Tech Tuesday:Espressos and Changing Grades
September 22, 2009 11:35 pm by Erica R. Hendry
As if TV On Demand wasn’t enough: Harvard University is the most recent institution to start using the Espresso Book Machine, which prints any out-of-copyright book the university has digitized in about four minutes — about the time it takes to make an espresso.
The “ATM of books,” made by the New York-based firm On Demand Books, is already in use at about 15 libraries or book stores throughout the U.S., UK and Canada, and the firm plans to ship out 10 more machines by next spring. But the machine at Harvard’s Bookstore will be the first to benefit from a deal between the firm and Google last week, which will give users access to 2 million public-domain texts (printed before 1923) digitized by Google in addition to the 1.6 million offered by On Demand Books, according to an article in the Harvard Crimson,
The machine, which will be available to Harvard students Sept. 29, can print a 300-page paperback book in about four minutes, according to the article. Students can request a book be printed online or in the store, and can either pick up the book “within minutes” or have it delivered by bicycle.
This is great for all of those 18th century lit scholars out there, but somehow I’m not sure my class on health care reform will benefit from texts published before 1923 …
Next time, just show Mom the bad grades: A former Florida A+M student was given an 84 month (7 year) sentence for his involvement in a grade changing scandal last year.
According to an article in Famuan Online, the university’s student newspaper, Marcus Barrington was the last of three students to be sentenced for the scandal, which raised concerns about academic dishonesty on the
Barrington, along with two other students from the university, were charged and indicted for tampering with computers to change grades for a total of 650 students, and to change residencies from out-of-state to in-state for another 90 students.
The three students allegedly installed a keystroke logger on computers in the university’s registrar office , which transmitted user names and passwords to a private e-mail account they created. With this information, they accessed student records and changed them.
Barrington’s co-conspirators each got a 22-month sentence, which they began in April and May, respectively.
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Sunday Roundup: Yo Money
September 20, 2009 9:59 pm by Erica R. Hendry
Happy Sunday!
This is going to be a quick roundup. College Ave is on the road and heading back home to Ithaca tomorrow at 5:30 a.m. (College Ave needs some beauty sleep).
Basically, it’ll be a recap without my fun, witty, quirky interpretations. Tragic, I know. But I’ll probably come back and touch on these later in the week.
For some reason, this week has been all about money for me. Most of the stories that caught my eye revolve around it … loans, bills, costs. Enjoy (or, cry.):
Take that, big bad banks: House Passes Bill to End Bank-Based Lending, which will “end subsidies to student-loan companies and use the projected $87-billion in savings to expand aid to students and colleges.” (The Chronicle).
I’d really like to know the answer to this one: Why College Costs Rise, Even in a Recession. Look for my favorite line, “Is this where we are supposed to stand up and cheer?”, in response to a report from the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities that said the average tuition increase is the lowest in years, which at 4.3 is still higher than inflation.(New York Times)
Oops Moment: The Daily Iowan, U. Iowa’s student newspaper, said it’s university was hypocritical when it accepted a donation from ExxonMobil (The Daily Iowan).
See you Tech Tuesday!
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Tech Tuesday: Tracking Swine Flu
September 15, 2009 11:37 pm by Erica R. Hendry
As if helping you catch the guy that stole your phone wasn’t enough, now the iPhone can actually help you track cases of swine flu (and other infectious diseases).
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and the MIT Media Lab released the “Outbreaks Near Me” application Sept.1, combining the phone’s GPS with Healthmap.org, a web crawler that “mines official and unofficial Internet data sources for information on outbreaks of emerging, infectious diseases,” according to an article in The Harvard Crimson. It is available for free in the iTunes store.
“If people know what’s happening around them, they might be more likely to take basic precautions,” such as washing their hands and getting vaccinated, Healthmap co-founder John S. Brownstein told The Crimson.
And another local swine flu update – Swine Flu’s First Death occurred in College Ave.’s hometown of Ithaca New York. A junior at Cornell University died last Friday because of complications related to the H1N1 virus. See campus reaction and who is not talking.
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Sunday Roundup: Israeli boycott, round 2?
September 13, 2009 10:52 pm by Erica R. Hendry
Followers of College Ave might remember what I like to call the most recent “Israeli boycott mess” in May 2007, when the University and College Union (UCU), a 116,000-member organization of British academics, agreed to circulate a Palestinian call for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions for “information and discussion.” The motion to discuss passed by a vote of 158 to 99.
The number of members who agreed to hear out the call to boycott worried many across the world, and the fear that a boycott would actually happen caused somewhat of an international panic.
President of the U.S.’ Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, waged a counter-UCU campaign a few months later, which, which culminated in an August 8 full page New York Times ad co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, signed by more than 300 U.S. college and university presidents, which as College Ave alumni Aaron Munzer wrote “essentially said, So you’re gonna boycott Israelis? Well then, boycott us too! All of us. You big jerks.” That Munzer has a way with words.
Ultimately, the boycott never passed, but last month it seems another call was made — this time, for the country as a whole, and by a professor who teaches at a prominent Israeli University.
Neve Gordon, an Israeli citizen and chairman of the department of politics and government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, published an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, “An Israeli Professor Tests the Limits of Academic Freedom,” arguing that Israeli is an “apartheid state,” and called for a boycott of his country (and his university).
Almost immediately, the president of that university responded with an angry letter that also appeared in the L.A. Times, raising the issue of academic freedom and saying that Mr. Gordon had stepped beyond that.
“At the same time, by calling on other entities, including academic institutions, to boycott Israel — and effectively, to boycott his own university — Gordon has forfeited his ability to work effectively within the academic setting, with his colleagues in Israel and around the world. After his very public, personal soul-searching in his Op-Ed article, leading to his extreme description of Israel as an “apartheid” state, how can he, in good faith, create the collaborative atmosphere necessary for true academic research and teaching?”
In a Chronicle of Higher Education article this week, Gordon said he was not surprised by the large number of people who disagree with his position, but said the president’s comments in that letter were “a form of harassment and intimidation.”
The president told The Chronicle “There is an inherent contradiction between calling for academic boycotts and fulfilling the responsibilities of leading an academic department in research collaboration, publications, and international conferences.”
She also said the essay had “branded Ben-Guiron as a radical, left-wing university and was endangering potential donations, crucial for future development.” She also said major donors are threatening to stop their support of the university unless it takes action against him.
This round of boycott talk is not only digging up the “Israeli Boycott” discussion — it’s now reaching into the academic freedom debate, too.
According to The Chronicle, almost 200 Israeli faculty members with tenure signed a petition supporting the professor’s right to express himself. It’s not clear how many people share Ms. Cami’s view — or if the university will actually do anything to remove him.
Whatever happens will likely set a precedent for academics define academic freedom in Israel, and likely in the U.S., too.
Feed for College Ave.