Week in Review: Swine Flu
September 8, 2009 12:25 am by Erica R. Hendry
I hate hearing about the Swine flu as much as someone who avoids medicine the next person — but I can’t ignore it anymore.
Our story starts at Duke, where this summer a number of students attending Duke University’s Summer Camps had the virus. In August, the university confirmed that 99 of it’s football players had the flu– some of them since the start of training camp Aug 5.
From there (based on coverage by the Chronicle of Higher Education):
- Sororities at The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge
- More than 80 students at Wake Forest University
- More than 50 students at Emory University, which led to a voluntary quarantine
- And the zinger: More than 2,000 students at Washington State University
That’s just a taste. As recently as Friday, Cornell University (in College Ave’s hometown of Ithaca, NY) reported one student hospitalized with swine flu and another 140 with symptoms.
I’m not breaking out the surgical mask yet — but it will be interesting to see if we can provide a sufficient amount of H1N1 vaccines.
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Labor Day Delivery: The Freaky
September 8, 2009 12:11 am by Erica R. Hendry
Like the postal service, my delivery was delayed this week because of Labor Day.
But this one-wheeled tale is worth it.
Calling Ambitious, Unemployed, Cowboy Ridin’ graduate students: Why take Labor Day off when you can ride a unicycle? According to The Daily Revielle, Louisiana State University’s student newspaper, a graduate student spent one day this past weekend riding a unicycle from Baton Rouge to New Orleans — a 117 mile journey that took about 15 hours.
The student’s top speed was 15.6 miles per hour, according to the article — which he hit at mile 100.
From the article: “Just before riding off, Huber saluted the city of Baton Rouge, reset his odometer and yelled “yeehaw.” Then, the Louisiana State University geology graduate student peddled away – his blinking red taillight fading in the distance down River Road.”
Huh? “Yeehaw” is right.
But apparently this is nothing unusual for the student, who regularly rides the unicycle to classes.
It sounds rough: “Riding around on game day, having a bunch of people chant ‘Unicycle, Unicycle!’ and falling in front of them is on the embarrassing side,” he said. “Nobody beats me up, but they laugh at me.”
Don’t believe me? Here’s a video. Next stop: Ringling Brothers.
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(Double) Tech Tuesday
September 1, 2009 11:33 pm by Erica R. Hendry
First let me apologize for my absence — even College Ave can run into back-end tech issues. We should be good to go from here.
To compensate (and so I don’t have to change the name of this feature to Twitter Tuesdays), here’s a mini Tech Tuesday roundup.
Take this, Twitter haters: Tweeting may actually be helping students develop prose, according to a Chronicle of Higher Ed article about the Stanford Study of Writing, run out of Stanford University. Early results of the study, which collected academic and extracurricular writing of 189 students over the course of five years, showed “students took pains to cultivate tone and voice, and to address a particular audience.” There are critics of the theory — as the Chronicle points out — who say Twitter hasn’t made a significant impact on things like test results. I guess we’ll have to wait for the final results, but so far, I haven’t seen any sonnets pouring through my feed.
“Wait, does this thing have GPS?”: A student at Carnegie Mellon University helped police catch actors who robbed him at midnight last Friday — thanks to his iPhone. The senior cognitive science and human-computer interaction double major was approached by the suspects, who took his iPhone and debit card as well as his pin number, while walking down a street alone, according to an article in The Tartan, the university’s student newspaper. After the suspects left, the student returned to his apartment, downloaded Skype and called his friend. Together, the two contacted police and tracked the suspects’ movements through a combination of MobileMe, an Apple app that syncs and iPhone and displays it’s exact location using GPS, and GoogleMaps, watching as they spent hundreds of dollars around the city. Finally, when they stopped for dinner, police arrived and took them into custody. Guess those iPhones are better for something than just looking like a hipster important.
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Tech Tuesdays: To Tweet Or Not To Tweet
August 25, 2009 11:55 pm by Erica R. Hendry
That was the question in a survey by Faculty Focus in July that asked faculty at colleges and universities about their familiarity with Twitter, and whether they expected their use of the service to increase or decrease in the future.
The survey found that 30.7 percent — almost a third of the 1,958 higher ed professionals who responded — use Twitter in some capacity, most of them working in either marketing,admissions or alumni relations. But more than half — 56.4 percent — said they’ve never used Twitter. The 12.9 percent of professionals who remained said they’ve used Twitter before, but have stopped using it because it “took too much time” or did not think it was valuable.
Other findings of interest include:
- Twenty-one percent of those who use Twitter say they use the service to collaborate with colleagues “frequently. Another 15.6 percent use it “occasionally.”
- About 7.2 percent of professionals are using it as a tool in the classroom “frequently”; 9.4 percent do so “occasionally.”
- Of those who currently tweet, 71.8 percent plan to increase their useage this year.
Based on my own interpretation, it’s safe to say a) The majority of higher ed professionals don’t use Twitter b) Only a small group within those that use Twitter use it to communicate with colleagues or as a tool in the classroom C) BUT, more people might plan to use it this year.
Along with this Chronicle of Higher Ed article , which details two studies that say those under 25 “don’t tweet”, I just want to know who actually DOES use Twitter.
If you have an answer, I’d like to know.
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Three Cheers for Tech Tuesdays (and The Return of CollegeAve).
August 25, 2009 9:00 pm by Erica R. Hendry
Well, I’m back.
Usually the first post of the year introduces you all to the blog. We’ve been there, and done that.
Instead, I’m going to tell you what’s new (and what parts of College Ave are coming back)
- The return of Sunday Roundups. Think of it as a chance for me (and you) to catch things during the week I might have missed — or things you should keep an eye on in the week to come.
- Tech Tuesdays. Per last posts’ disclosure, I interned at the Chronicle of Higher Ed this summer and spent a lot of time contributing to their Wired Campus blog. Now I’ve been bitten by the Tech bug and can’t go back. There is a lot of cool stuff out there, and all of you techie readers (and the beloved IT departments) should look to read it here.
- Freaky Fridays There are some stories in higher ed that are just straight up crazy. (If you don’t know what I mean, check out my piece on mannequins.) Try as I may, I can’t ignore them all. And what better way to start off the weekend?
I’m also hoping to get in some Q+As. Those don’t have a day yet. In part because I haven’t lined them up … and in part because I can’t think of something clever to call them.
Here’s to a great year. And without further ado, Tech Tuesdays …
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Apologies, disclosure, shameless self-promotion.
May 27, 2009 9:48 am by Erica R. Hendry
Graduation and covering all of IC’s enrollment issues threw me off the College Ave trail … I haven’t blogged in at least a month. Embarrassing.
But good news for me (and you) I’ll be updating more regularly now that I also work at The Chronicle. (Here’s where the disclosure comes in). The Chronicle has always been one of my biggest sources, but now that I’m interning here for the summer, it will be hard not to unconsciously blog about more of its stories. Though, as always, balance is a priority.
And finally, the shameless self-promotion: My first chronicle blog post , on The Chronicle’s wired blog. I won’t do much more of the self-promotion.
Happy Summer — and Happy Higher Ed-ing.
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How the recession could help higher ed
April 6, 2009 10:19 pm by Erica R. Hendry
However crazy it might sound,that was a serious point of conversation at a national conference last week hosted by the Network for Academic Renewal , a group of “people, programs and institutions working for educational reform.”
In the face of 663,000 more jobs lost across the country in March, scholars say this could be a time for colleges and universities to return to their core values and mission — things many say institutions have sacrificed as they’ve pursued status, over-ambitious building projects and reputations.
Several scholars also spoke of a need to renew faculty reputation as one of a profession, which they say would also require a renewed definition of what the professionalism would actually require.
Other points of interest included:
- “Colleges should work to retain faculty members by offering them more balance between work and family life.”
- Negative reactions to an increasing use of adjuncts.
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Add another one to that list.
March 10, 2009 3:21 pm by Erica R. Hendry
From the Syracuse-Post Standard:
“Nancy Cantor wants to cut her salary by 10 percent and impose the lowest percentage increase in tuition in 43 years.Internal Revenue Service records show Cantor was paid $550,000 in 2008.
The proposals are part of the $978 million budget Cantor will present today for the 2009-2010 year.
Under the plan, Syracuse is proposing a 4.5 percent increase for tuition and room and board. The total cost for a year at SU will reach $50,792.”
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March Madness
March 2, 2009 10:44 pm by Erica R. Hendry
I wish I were talking about the NCAA tournament.
But this month, colleges and universities will be taking “mad” measures to meet budget cuts approved earlier this month.
Here are just a few:
- Layoffs — err — Involuntary termination: New projections predict about 300 faculty positions will be eliminated this semester. Good news, for some, as the original projection was somewhere between 500 and 600, according to an article in the Yale Daily News. The typical annual attrition/turnover cycle won’t be enough to meet the 7.5 percent personnel cut handed to each department. Neither will leaving open positions vacant. In a letter to Yale managers Friday, Michael Peel, Yale’s vice president for human resources and administration, said the university will double severance benefits for those cut from one week of pay per year of service to two. All employees who are cut will also be guaranteed at least four weeks of pay, but no employee will get more than 52 weeks of pay, Peel said
- Thanks for “volunteering” … now get out: Trying a different approach than its Ivy counterpart, Cornell University is trying to encourage staff to take early retirement packages to relieve financial strain on the University while trying to avoid any involuntary action. The Cornell Daily Sun reported the university was offering two different packages for long-time staff members 55 years of age or older. The first,the “Staff Retirement Incentive program,” is a one-time only offer for staff who have worked for more than 10 years and agree to retire on or before June 30. The program will add to staff members‘ retirement account and also give them a lump-sum based on base salary. The second, Staff Phased Retirement Program is a more gradual retirement spread across the next three years. Beginning this week, staff will give up their positions and instead accept appointments of up to 20 hours a week for the remaining time they are enrolled in the program. It too adds to staff retirement plans. Tenured and tenure-track professors, as well as those with more than 25 percent sponsored funds, are not eligible, the article said.
- Leading by example: The presidents of several Iowa colleges and universities have turned down raises or bonuses they expected in 2009. University of Iowa President Sally Mason’s salary will remain at $450,000 for the 2009-10 year, and she will not receive the $80,000 bonus promised to her. Leaders at Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, and the schools for the deaf and blind will take similar action.
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Look, Kristof gets it!
February 20, 2009 1:34 pm by Erica R. Hendry
I meant to post this Nic Kristof column as soon as it ran last Sunday.
It’s one of those rare times a journalist who doesn’t report exclusively on education actually recognizes the industry’s importance.
Kristof’s column was inspired by the $100 billion President Barack Obama allocated for education in the new fiscal stimulus package passed last week. In it, he says he used to think our “greatest national shame” was health care — but now, he said , he believes it’s education.
(Wow.)
Kristof focuses a bit more on secondary education in his column, but much of what he said addresses or applies to higher education as well:
” … America’s educational edge created prosperity and equality alike — but that this edge was eclipsed in about the 1970s, and since then one country after another has surpassed us in education. Perhaps we should have fought the “war on poverty” with schools” — Nic Kristof
Now we can only hope the Kristof following gets it, too.
Feed for College Ave.