Athletes have trouble graduating

Larry Graham wrote this interesting story, as a tie in with Black History Month. He reminds of us the awful graduation percentage of college athletes, emphasizing the dismal rates of black athletes.

Unfortunately, he ends the article on a quite flippant note--that black athletes have had success in the pros.

It is clear, however, that most athletes who do not graduate are not going on to the pros. Even for college that number is probably 1 in 1000. Most simply use up their eligibility and then the athletic department offers them no more support.

The article also contains the particularly disgusting comment from the athletic director at UW-LaCross who says lots of students don't graduate--why do people focus on athletes. As if the university doesn't play a special role in the live of athletes, even at division III schools. They promise them playing time, all sorts of additional academic help, and spend large amounts of money feeding them, clothing them and taking them to exotic locations. Then, they don't graduate. What is going on there?

Perhaps Mr. Graham will do a follow-up on this story and discuss the particular situation at UW-Oshkosh. We have a terrible graduation rate among regular students (about 46% in 6 years, if I remember correctly). One would expect the athletics rate to be higher.


Oshkosh Northwestern - A disturbing trend

Affirmative action for men?

Salon.com has an interesting story this morning about the sex ratios in U.S. universities and what they are doing about them. It seems as though under the heading of diversity, some places are keeping out more highly qualified white women to admit white men. They don't want to have their ratios too far from 50/50.

The article raises the questions of university admissions policies and the "shortage" of men in college.

It is a thought-provoking piece, though you do have to watch an ad before you can see the whole story.


Salon.com Life | The campus crusade for guys

Zimmerman in the NY Times

I had not seen this article when I suggested that Dean Zimmerman be added to the horowitz hit-list.

With a little national attention, maybe he can become 102.

In all seriousness, congrats to Michael for bringing attention to the fact that not every Christian in America agrees with the Christianist anti-intellectual BS.


At Churches Nationwide, Good Words for Evolution - New York Times

101 most dangerous professors

This story hit the airwaves recently. David Horowitz published a book denouncing 101 professors for disagreeing with him.

Here is a list of all the names. Nobody from Oshkosh made the list. I'm disappointed.

I propose Dean Zimmerman. After all, he has had the gall to lead a campaign to convince people that evolution and Christianity are not mutually exclusive.

This has been a great service to the university and to the public sphere, which has been dominated by extreme Christianist voices trying to destroy science in this country.

Exactly the kind of thing David Horowitz sees as traitorous behavior!


Peter N. Kirstein » Blog Archive » David Horowitz Includes Professor Kirstein as one of 101 Most Dangerous Professors.

Big Raises for Administrators in the works

In another act of deaf-ear politics, the regents have approved a big increase in the pay-scale for administrators.

This will play well in the next budget cycle--with all the belt-tightening in other places in the system, lets fork over extra thousands to non-teaching types.

The chancellor of Madison may get a pay raise as big as my yearly salary! Why can't we hire a few more professors with that money?

[UPDATE] An astute reader has pointed out that the Journal-Sentinal misreported the information on the Madison's chancellor's salary increase: he will only receive $1700 more). The vice chancellor of academic affairs will get over $37,000 though.

Here is the story from the Wisconsin State Journal.

and the original report at the Journal-Sentinal:

JS Online:Regents back big UW raises

Panel Explores Standardized Tests for Colleges

Can you imagine the farce this might become!?

The Commission on the Future of Higher Education is discussing whether college students need to take standardized exams as part of their graduation requirements. The Bush appointees who lead the commission imagine a system of testing that would look like No Child Left Behind.

Lets completely change the nature of a university into a test-prep institution and give up on the liberal arts all together, why don't we?

As I reflect on this story, I think about my own postings about the slipping quality of higher education. We are all caught in the vice of access and graduation rates. Do we simply fail out the unqualified student or do we pass them on through? If we don't admit them and pass them our state appropriations dry up. Would standardized testing improve this? I don't think so.

This is not a dilemma standardized testing really addresses. If someone decides to demand this kind of testing out of the universities, we will be forced to spend our time training mediocre students to pass standardized tests.

This is not what college should be about. How can we concentrate on the larger issues that are key to our student's lives as citizens and human beings if we are spending time asking them to memorize test questions? Will you have time to read some obscure work of literature that won't be on the test if the administration is breathing down your neck to keep improving pass-the-test rates? Can you veer off on to a tangent that your class is so interested in if it is not testable material?

If you are doing new innovative research, don't talk about that--it won't be on the test for another decade.

This doesn't even get into the problems of trying to decide what a test might look like. Will all colleges be forced to have the same curriculum to keep their federal funding? All majors at all schools will have to include the same basket of courses?

I could go on and on . . .

Panel Explores Standard Tests for Colleges - New York Times

Palmeri is warned about campaigning

I have to cross-blog this message Tony Palmeri posted. Provost Earns sent Tony the state policy on running for office.

Do they think that he is not aware of such regulations?

Are they suggesting that they will insist on a reduced-time appointment if he decides to run?

It doesn't sound very supportive to me. Has the administration decided that Tony's politics are bad publicity for UWO and is distancing itself from him?

Tony, himself, asks if they have sent the same letter to Gordon Hintz. Also, what about City Council Members?

This reminds me of last year when notes went out from administration officials to dampen discussion on our list-serv. They claimed then and they will surely claim now that they are only reposting the policy without any other implications. Who believes that story?

Talk To Tony: Somebody's Watching Me

Mike Lizotte writes great response to 'naive economic losers'

Mike Lizotte, Director of the New Aquatic Research Center(this may not be quite the right title), posted this great response to the COLS list. It is so nicely done that I wanted to repost it here:

A great example of how little some people value or understand human curiosity and creativity, or a desire to help others.

He *assumes* the only reason to get an education is to make money. As a parody, this is a good template for economic arguments against marrying for love, having children, traveling for experience, giving to charities, and all sorts of other behaviors that might run counter to economic self-interest.

I had 5 mentors between college and here, and none of them misled me about the tough job market. But they were very convincing that the perks (intellectual challenges, travel, lifelong colleagues, low-budget survival skills) were substantial and sometimes unique. I got paid (a little) to go to Antarctica seven times as a grad student/postdoc -- market value for a tourist would be well over $100,000. I met my wife there. I had adventures in exotic places: Chile (experienced the Pinochet regime and its fall over 3 years), New Zealand, Australia, Los Angeles. According to Mr. North, I was a sucker for not taking that job running the sewage treatment plant back in Massachusetts!

I read somewhere that PhD (scientists?) have an unemployment rate of only about 1% (I will dig if someone is interested -- it's probably from NSF).

Cheers to Big Brains, Empty Pockets, AND Full Lives

Mike Lizotte

Students write to complain about cuts to loan programs

Both yesterday and today, the northwestern ran letters from students who are angry at the cuts from student loan programs.

As has been made clear so many times before, there is an amazing disconnect between the rhetoric of the current administration and its actions. Many were heartened to hear the president call for more science and technology research--however he turns around and signs a bill making it harder for students to graduate, let alone become competent researchers.




Here are the links:

Oshkosh Northwestern - Second letter down: UW-Oshkosh students will remember Petri's vote

and Second letter down: Congress makes it harder on college students

Professors are 'naive economic losers'

The New York Times ran a link to this story on Sunday. If all you care about is money, you shouldn't become a professor, says Gary North. Big surprise there. . . .

Its from a libertarian/right wing website. Doesn't this explain some of the ideological disparities in the profession? Why would someone who doesn't place any value on anything but money want to be in academia??

The Ph.D. Glut Revisited by Gary North

Oshkosh Northwestern Covers Harrassment

It is nice to see this story appearing again in the paper. As I mentioned before, this is a good reminder that that all of the right-wing blather about professors harrassing conservative students pales in comparison to sexist attitudes and behavior.

Not much new in this story, except the Northwestern added an interview with Liz Cannon and a couple of students to give it some local flavor.

After being chastised again for being anonymous, I was wondering why the reporters got no credit in the byline.



Oshkosh Northwestern - Report: Two-thirds of students report sexual harrassment

Is There Hope for the Future?

The just released survey of incoming freshmen shows a marked turn toward social activism, increased political participation, dislike of military spending, and less drinking.

Can it all be true? The authors of the survey speculate that the tsunami and Katrina have influenced high school seniors' understanding of suffering in the world.

It seems to bode well for the next round of Freshmen that will shortly be appearing on our campus--hopefully we can use this idealism to increase our student engagement, both in the classroom and beyond!

The report is a 4 page pdf, if you want to see the whole thing.

Improving UWO's neighborhood

As Frank Church noted, the recent imbroglio over unpaid taxes in Oshkosh brought out an interesting quote from one of tax-delinquent local student slumlord (he hasn't paid his property taxes on his $645,000 home): "A landlord . . . said he's run into hard times in filling University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh-area rental properties." Here is the story link.

It raises a long-standing complaint in my mind: that of the condition of the neighborhoods surrounding the university. It is painful to walk around east of campus and look at all the formerly beautiful victorians that have been sliced up into 4 apartments for students.

I know that there was some discussion in the past about having the university help transform these areas, but obviously nothing ever came of it.

It seems like a program to rejuvenate some of the property should be a bigger part of our campus plans.

Perhaps all the new apartment buildings across Wisconsin has shifted student demand and leaves an opening for university-driven redevelopment. I do not have an exact plan, but we should be thinking about how this could be done.

I would have bought a home closer to campus, even in need of renovation, if one had been in a neighborhood of professionals and faculty. Instead, the neighborhood is filled with run-down houses, piles of beer cans, and rowdy undergraduates.

Take some initiative and create a nice, livable community off campus to the east!

Good news -- no more budget cuts next year!

Tom Sonnleitner just announced that we won't have to make any more cuts for the 2006-2007 school year. Always good to hear! I wonder if we will be able to do any more searches.

Here is the text of his announcement:

We are now mid-way through fiscal year 2005-2006, and at this time we release our annual budget planning for fiscal year 2006-07. I am pleased to report that we do not anticipate a need this year for further budget reductions. Barring unforeseen catastrophic financial events, our budget planning for 2005-06 has provided adequate reserves to meet any minor budget lapses during 2006-07. Thanks to the good planning and excellent cooperation of the campus, we have been spared a mid-biennium budget correction.

Michael Berube on academic freedom

Check out this very detailed and interesting talk that a lit. professor at Penn State gave about the recent attacks on academic freedom in higher education.

Michael Bérubé Online

How To Fight RateMyProfessors.com

I mentioned rate my students a few weeks ago, and so here is a continuation of the discussion with an article calling for more public information about teaching evaluations.

I think that this is a good idea. I don't understand why some faculty members here are afraid of written comments.

As you remember, last year, the faculty senate voted to remove comments from our evaluation forms in the wake of a request from a mother of a student to see the results. Outside of obscene and degrading comments (which is what ratemyprofessors.com has become), it would be better if all the info were available to students.

I see comments as an important source of improving my teaching, without them, our evaluation system is a completely irrellevent exercise.

This is what the article argues, though I would disagree with his premise that students should be seen as consumers. It is a resonant analogy, but incorrect in terms of the relationship between teachers and students.


Inside Higher Ed :: How To Fight RateMyProfessors.com

Welcome Back Oshkosh!

Today is the first day of classes! What lies ahead in the next few months?

All I can say is that it was nice to see a little snow on the ground this morning. Has this been the most terrible winter or what?? We started strong in December and have now been stuck with days of muck and grime. All this new snow will probably be slush within a few days, too.

Welcome to the world of global warming! 2005 was the warmest year on record and January 2006 was the warmest as well. I wonder if we will even have snow in a decade. You can read the latest dire forecast from the British government at the BBC

Econ Department to move to Clow Faculty

The latest news to circulate is that arrangements have been made to move the Econ department from Swart to Clow Faculty. They will be swapping with the Social Work department.

From what I know, those Swart accomodations are much nicer than those across the street in Clow, so I imagine social work will be happy with their upgraded facilties.

I suppose that if they are working on new offices, the official announcement approving the news should not be long in coming.

Lots of sexual harassment at U.S. colleges

In more good news about the quality of higher education in the U.S., the AAUW reports a study that says that 62% of college students have faced some sort of sexual harassment and 32% say they were victims of physical harrassment.

It's always nice to see another story about the healthy lives of undergraduates!

CNN.com - Study: Sexual harassment at U.S. colleges - Jan 24, 2006

No more money to tape professors

The latest update of the saga of taping professors. The organization that started this has withdrawn its cash offer for tapes and notes.

Instead, they solicit anonymous denunciations without compensation!

UCLA Profs.com - Exposing UCLA's Radical Professors - Articles Index

Discussion on taping professors

In order to save myself the work of complaining about the idea of taping lectures to "out" liberal professors, I post these links.


Babblemur shakes his head (I assume negatively) here.

Tony Palmeri notes that it has all been done before at his blog.


Finally, a graduate student in english comments here on the real financial problems facing higher ed and wonders why these critics don't worry about them.

Inside Higher Ed :: An Idea Too Dangerous to Ignore

New Approach to Professor Abuse

You may have seen this story already, but I have to add a link. An organization at UCLA is asking students to tape their professors to "expose" their liberal bias.


Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

College students lack literacy for complex tasks

I mentioned some of this data a few weeks ago on the blog, but it has it the national media this week. It ran on the front page of the Northwestern yesterday and made CNN this weekend as well.

It is an quite a problem for higher education to see statistics like this, but it is well known that our standards as teachers have been dropping for years. Any comparison of the amount of work we asked out of students a decade ago or more would show a drastic reduction. On the other hand, a greater number of students are less prepared than they would have been then.



CNN.com - Study: College students lack literacy for complex tasks - Jan 20, 2006

Doyle Proposes Wisconsin Covenant

In his state of the state address last night, Doyle proposed a program affecting higher ed, which promised to cover the college tuition for students who keep a B average from 8th-12th grade. The proposal seems a bit vague at this point, but at least this should generate some discussion about how to help kids pay the skyrocketing tuition bills.

Here is a quote from his press release:

Making Wisconsin More Affordable for Working Families – College

The Governor also unveiled a bold new proposal called the Wisconsin Covenant, designed to encourage college enrollment and raise achievement in elementary and secondary education.

“Anyone who knows me will tell you my first priority as Governor has been education,” Governor Doyle said. “And that is why, as part of my Affordability Agenda, I’m proposing an historic new commitment to make college more affordable for hardworking Wisconsin families and give our students added incentive to succeed in the classroom.”

The Wisconsin Covenant will be open to any eighth-grade student that has some level of financial need. Students must sign an agreement to maintain a B average in high school, complete a specified core curriculum, and apply for state and federal financial aid. Students who meet these requirements will receive a financial aid package that meets their full financial need for tuition to any University of Wisconsin system school that they are accepted into.

Similar programs have been implemented in Indiana, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. The Governor challenged the business community and private foundations to help fund this initiative. North Carolina has had considerable success in partnering with private businesses, non-profits, and individuals to fund its version of the Wisconsin Covenant.

“I am asking the University system, the business community, the Legislature, and the people of Wisconsin to join me in this effort,” Governor Doyle said. “When it comes to our children’s future, let’s think big. Let’s make sure that in Wisconsin, every child who works for it can get a world class education.”

Wisconsin Rates High in Return on University Spending

A new report came out yesterday from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. They tried to rate how well university systems were using their resources. The UW system ranked in the top five. The overall rating was lower because we received a much lower ranking for the community college system.

Wisconsin was among the best for numbers of PhDs and BAs produced per dollar spent.

Pages 28-30 of the report compare Georgia and Wisconsin. The states spend similar amounts, but Wisconsin's results are much better.

The report proposes that fewer minorities, fewer part-time students, and more spending on student services might provide some reasons for the difference. The report adds that there is a direct correlation between income levels and high school preparation, both places where WI beats GA.

All of this data seems to suggest that we are not squandering resources on administration or in other ways that the anti-system legislators like to claim.

It also reinforces the idea that investing in Wisconsin higher education is a sound, both in the short term and the longer term.

Maybe Doyle will take time out of his state of the state address to call for re-funding the universities, so that we can improve on what is already a solid public education system.


Here is the link to the study (a pdf file)

Here is the link to the Inside Higher Ed story that pointed me to it

How about this? Professors anonymously berate their students.

Another anonymous faculty member somewhere decided that he was fed up with ratemyprofessor.com and struck back.

Read their ranting at the link below. . .

Rate Your Students

Clips from working paper on RA's

A reader sent a copy of the working paper about RAs for the UW system. I'll just excerpt the concluding principles here:

Principles
I. RAs are expected to work with student residents to create an open, inclusive, and
supportive residential community.
II. RAs are expected to encourage student engagement in campus activities and
organizations, and to promote opportunities for student residents to explore their values
and beliefs.
III. Because the University encourages student engagement in campus activities and
organizations as an essential component of students’ educational experience, and
because individuals holding RA positions are students, RAs are encouraged to
participate in campus activities and organizations.
IV. The University, as employer, has the right to establish reasonable restrictions on RA
activities as a condition of employment, due to the unique requirements of the RA
position.
V. RAs should not use their position to inappropriately influence, pressure, or coerce
student residents.

These principles seem to be good ones and should lead to the exclusion of bible study in RAs dorms. We'll see if the Christianist legislators will accept it, or howl that they are being discriminated against.

Public invited to comment on role of resident assistants in UW System - Jan 11, 2006

System is asking for public comment on role of RAs. Write in and tell them that RA should not be organizing religious or political meetings in their dorm rooms. Take it outside their workplace!

Here is the comment link.

And here is the press release:

Public invited to comment on role of resident assistants in UW System - Jan 11, 2006

Economics only waits for Provost

The Advance-Titan reports on the Economics move. Here we learn that COBA has approved the move and everyone waits for the final negotiations and a signature from Lane Earns.

Although I am clearly in the minority on this, I don't really see any good coming from this for the college. Zimmerman and the nasty, bitter economists will be happy, but it doesn't serve the mission of the university well.

I propose that we remove economics electives from the general education requirement. We should accept the economists self-definition as preparatory for a business degree, and not one of the liberal arts. There are no other courses from other colleges in the general education requirements. Why should economics get a special status when they leave COLS? They can take all the business classes they want as electives, but we shouldn't be encouraging students to leave our college for core courses.

Salaries In COBA

As new rumors about the econ department have been swirling lately, I wondered what the salary differential was like. Besides the hatred for Dean Zimmerman that oozes from that department, perhaps they are thinking that they will get a big salary boost so that they will be financial equals of their new colleagues.

Here are the figures for all ranks of professors:

COBA: 85,700
Economics: 65,200
English: 52,400

The economists are already doing quite well relative to the English department, but perhaps they are hoping for another $20,000 to balance with business. I'd vote to change colleges if they offered me 20 grand!

Bible Bullying appropriate at UWO, says e-pluribus unum

I was browsing the local blogosphere, when I came upon this response to the on-going discussion about religion in the dorms.

James Fitzhenry complains that I have an anti-Christian bias because I am against RAs holding bible studies in their room.

He picked up on the term that I have been using of late to describe the right-wing Christian movement in this country "Christianist." I did not invent this term. (Check out this language blog about it). I think that it is a great way to describe those radicals on the right who believe that we should live in a society that is oppressively dominated by their particular view of Christianity. It is an analog to describing the Taliban as Islamists, in order to separate them from mainstream Islam.

The stories tend to repeat themselves. From complaining that Christmas is being repressed, to arguing that Christians should have the right to proselytize with state money, their vision of society is deeply opposed to mine. America should stand for tolerance and openness, not religious repression. Minority views need to be respected, and not treated as unpatriotic or offensive. Moderate Christians need to stand up to the outlandish rhetoric from the Christianists.

As I have said before, bible studies on campus are fine. RAs should keep them out of their workplace, just as professors should. I hope that no professors are spending their class time telling students that they should come to their office and learn more about their personal interpretations of the bible either.

As I think about it, I have always been a separation activist. When I was in high school, I wrote letters to the school paper complaining about my geometry teacher who kept telling us about his personal commitment to Christ and inviting us to join the fellowship of Christian Athletes. Just as I was then, I don't believe that your personal belief in any faith is appropriate in spaces where it is not the topic.

If that is irrational (as Mr. Fitzhenry suggests), so be it.


Here is the link to the Northwestern sponsored blog, called e-pluribus unum

Wisconsin pathetic on higher education spending.

The annual survey of state spending on higher education came to my attention tdoay. (called Grapevine)

It demonstrates how bad the situation for higher education is here in Wisconsin. I had always assumed (even after the last few years) that this was a state that cared about producing an educated and skilled population. Apparently I was dead wrong.

Wisconsin is 30th in per capita spending on higher education, and rates in the bottom 12 in every category of spending changes over the past 10 years.

Here is a table of data of midwestern states, drawn from all the data at the site above. You can see Wisconsin is second from the bottom among midwestern states for the past ten years:

STATES	1-yr Change	2-yr Change	5-yr Change	10-yr Change
Illinois	-2.6%	-3.2%	-3.8%	31.4%
Indiana	0.9%	5.2%	11.5%	46.4%
Iowa	4.9%	5.7%	-8.4%	15.7%
Michigan	3.3%	1.7%	-9.2%	20.3%
Minnesota	7.2%	6.1%	1.2%	28.0%
Ohio	0.5%	2.0%	-3.2%	26.7%
Wisconsin	2.5%	1.5%	-3.3%	16.5%
Totals	5.3%	9.7%	9.9%	50.1%

The American Historical Association votes to criticize 'Academic Bill of Rights'

Historians voted at their annual meeting to condemn Horowitz's attack on academic independence.

Apparently, there was a debate about whether this should extend to all forms of speech codes on campus. The council decided not to extend their condemnation, arguing that the current threat was the "academic bill of rights," not speech codes, which have been blocked by courts in the past.

I am sympathetic to intellectual freedoms of all types, so I can understand the argument that this kind of condemnation should include all codes that want to restrict independent discussion on campus. However, we know that is not what the Horowitzers of the world want.



Inside Higher Ed :: More Criticism of 'Academic Bill of Rights'

Northwestern story on bible study

The Northwestern reported this morning on the UW committee that is trying to devise a system-wide policy about whether RAs can proselytize on the job.

Their report mentions UWOs lack of policy, while quoting everyone's favorite Christianist and UW hater Ron Kreibich weighs in at the end, quoted as saying that he doesn't care as long as it is "safe, legal and voluntary." Too bad he doesn't feel that way about any policies or practices he disagrees with.

Oshkosh Northwestern - UW committee considers behavior of dorm workers

Blogs: has their time finally come -- or gone? -- McIntosh 1 (3): 385 -- Global Media and Communication

This link contains a short article discussing the future of blogs and their relationship to the MSM.

It raises the issue of how one knows whether a blog has an impact. The author suggests that incoming links is a useful tool.

Hopefully, this link will work for you. It shows me as a subscriber through the UW network, so I don't know if it will work if you are outside.

Web Review: Blogs: has their time finally come -- or gone? -- McIntosh 1 (3): 385 -- Global Media and Communication

Am I contradictory?

In a response to the NY Times article below, janine asked me if there was a contradiction between Horowitz attempt to restrict speech on campus and my opinion that RA's should not be holding bible study in their work-space. I started to comment directly to her, but decided to move it since my reply kept growing:

First, teaching at a university and being an RA in a dormitory are very different occupations with different expectations. My job is not to provide support for dorm residents as they adjust to college life.

Second, I don't think classrooms are appropriate spaces for political discussions, outside of classes on political science. Students are there to learn a certain content and to learn ways of interpreting the content which is placed before them.

As part of that process, the comfortable notions which students often bring to their classes are challenged. That is what a college education is about. Occasionally, students who are not open to listening to diverse opinions are offended.

Usually, the views with which the offended students are presented come from a part of the spectrum which is foreign to current American political discourse--the left. The David Horowitzs of the world think that it is a bad thing to be forced to confront ideas with which you might not agree. The John Ashcrofts of the world claim it aids terrorism to question the administration. It is not surprising that students don't like to hear about alternative world-views.

In my own teaching, I am sure I come across like some radical leftist. I continually emphasize the power and appeal of left-wing ideas, because it is clearly so foreign to my students. Many simply can not conceive how anyone would ever believe anything different than they do.

The Horowitz crowd, and his Christianist legislator supporters, don't seem to believe in critical thinking and being exposed to a diversity of opinions. They see it as a threat that students might have to confront ideas that disagree with their own. Bible study fits this mold--the RAs are not looking to critically analyze the diversity of interpretations of the bible, but are trying to convince their charges that their own view is the right own.

A historian named Bill Cronon who gave a presentation on campus a few months ago described history as the stories we tell about our past. I want my students to think about the reasons that some stories are dominant and others are lost. This is what education is about, not having your own stories recited back to you without any analysis.

Northwestern calls new buildings "gentrification"

In the editorial today, entitled Agenda 2006, the local paper describes the new buildings on campus as gentrification.

I am not sure what they are trying to get at, but it seems to be a poor choice of words. Is having modern classroom space the same as driving out the poor, so that richer people can move in? Is having a new athletic facility pricing lower income students out of UWO?

UWO is not at fault for the gentrification here or of the UW system. Instead, it is the legislators in Madison who cut our budget and force us to raise tuition to cover the costs of running a world-class educational institution.

The Northwestern should be editorializing for increasing state aid and providing more access to education, instead of suggesting that new buildings are part of a plot to change the nature of our institution.

Here is the link

Attacks on professors in Pennsylvania

I was reading the Sunday NY Times this weekend and noticed a letter to the editor that referenced an earlier article about the legislators in Pennsylvania. It also describes the broader national propaganda attacking "left-wing" professors, led by David Horowitz. Luckily, as the article explains, so far nothing has come of it except a lot of noise.

The letter was great--an MBA writing about her right-wing classmates and teachers--asking why no one was investigating their open bias and attacks on her.

The Times may sue me for copyright violation, but here is the article:

Professors' Politics Draw Lawmakers Into the Fray
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY (NYT) 1155 words
Published: December 25, 2005

While attending a Pennsylvania Republican Party picnic, Jennie Mae Brown bumped into her state representative and started venting.

''How could this happen?'' Ms. Brown asked Representative Gibson C. Armstrong two summers ago, complaining about a physics professor at the York campus of Pennsylvania State University who she said routinely used class time to belittle President Bush and the war in Iraq. As an Air Force veteran, Ms. Brown said she felt the teacher's comments were inappropriate for the classroom.

The encounter has blossomed into an official legislative inquiry, putting Pennsylvania in the middle of a national debate spurred by conservatives over whether public universities are promoting largely liberal positions and discriminating against students who disagree with them.

A committee held two hearings last month in Pittsburgh and has scheduled another for Jan. 9 in Philadelphia. A final report with any recommendations for legislative remedy is due in June.

The investigation comes at a time when David Horowitz, a conservative commentator and president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, has been lobbying more than a dozen state legislatures to pass an ''Academic Bill of Rights'' that he says would encourage free debate and protect students against discrimination for expressing their political beliefs.

While Mr. Horowitz insists his campaign for intellectual diversity is nonpartisan, it is fueled, in large measure, by studies that show the number of Democratic professors is generally much larger than the number of Republicans. A survey in 2003 by researchers at Santa Clara University found the ratio of Democrats to Republicans on college faculties ranged from 3 to 1 in economics to 30 to 1 in anthropology.

Mr. Horowitz said he was pushing for legislation only because schools across the country were ignoring their own academic freedom regulations and a founding principle of the American Association of University Professors, which says schools are better equipped to regulate themselves without government intervention.

''It became apparent to me that universities have a problem,'' he said in an interview. ''And nothing was being done about it.''

Mr. Horowitz and his allies are meeting forceful resistance wherever they go, by university officials and the professors association, which argues that conservatives are overstating the problem and, by seeking government action, are forcing their ideology into the classroom.

''Mechanisms exist to address these glitches and to fix them,'' said Joan Wallach Scott, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and former chairwoman of the professors association committee on academic freedom, in testimony at the Pennsylvania Legislature's first hearing. ''There is no need for interference from outside legislative or judicial agencies.''

In a debate with Mr. Horowitz last summer, Russell Jacoby, a history professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, portrayed Mr. Horowitz's approach as heavy-handed. ''It calls for committees or prosecutors to monitor the lectures and assignments of teachers,'' he said. ''This is a sure-fire way to kill free inquiry and whatever abuses come with it.''

So far, the campaign has produced more debate than action. Colorado and Ohio agreed to suspend legislative efforts to impose an academic bill of rights in favor of pledges by their state schools to uphold standards already in place. Georgia passed a resolution discouraging ''political or ideological indoctrination'' by teachers, encouraging them to create ''an environment conducive to the civil exchange of ideas.''

While comparable efforts failed in three other states, measures are pending in 11 others. In Congress, House and Senate committees passed a general resolution this year encouraging American colleges to promote ''a free and open exchange of ideas'' in their classrooms and to treat students ''equally and fairly.'' It awaits floor action next year.

Mr. Horowitz's center has spawned a national group called Students for Academic Freedom that uses its Web site to collect stories from students who say they have been affected by political bias in the classroom. The group says it has chapters on more than 150 campuses.

The student group has fielded concerns from people like Nathaniel Nelson, a former student at the University of Rhode Island and a conservative, who said a philosophy teacher he had during his junior year referred often to his own homosexuality and made clear his dislike for Mr. Bush.

Mr. Nelson, now a graduate student at the University of Connecticut, said in an interview that the teacher frequently called on him to defend his conservative values while making it clear he did not care for Republicans.

''On the first day of class, he said, 'If you don't like me, get out of my class,' '' Mr. Nelson said. ''But it was the only time that fall the course was being offered, and I wanted to take it.''

Marissa Freimanis said she encountered a similar situation in her freshman English class at California State University, Long Beach, last year. Ms. Freimanis said the professor's liberal bias was clear in the class syllabus, which suggested topics for members of the class to write about. One was, ''Should Justice Sandra Day O'Connor be impeached for her partisan political actions in the Bush v. Gore case?''

''Of course, I felt very uncomfortable,'' Ms. Freimanis, who is a Republican, said in an interview.

In Pennsylvania, lawmakers are examining whether the political climate at 18 state-run schools requires legislation to ban bias. Mr. Armstrong said he discussed the issue in several conversations with Mr. Horowitz ''as an expert in the field'' before calling for the creation of a committee.

''But I don't know if his Academic Bill of Rights is necessary in Pennsylvania,'' Mr. Armstrong said in an interview. ''Before we have legislation to change a problem, we first have to determine whether the problem exists. If it does exist, the next question is, 'Is it significant enough to require legislation?' ''

''So the question I'm asking,'' he added, ''is, 'Do we have a problem in Pennsylvania?' ''

For now, the answer is unclear. While Mr. Armstrong said he had received complaints from ''about 50 students'' who said they were intimidated by professors expressing strong political views, Democratic members of the committee have called the endeavor a waste of time, and the Republican chairman, Representative Thomas L. Stevenson, seemed to agree.

''If our report were issued today,'' Mr. Stevenson said, ''I'd say our institutions of higher education are doing a fine job.''

Vacation break

I'll be out blogosphere for the next several weeks, so have a nice, relaxing break! After the new year, it will be time to get back to work.

Oshkosh Northwestern - Bill would allow faculty, staff unions at UW campuses

Chancellor Wells told the Northwestern editorial board yesterday that he was in favor of allowing faculties to vote on whether to unionize.

This seems to be an increase in support from the article that ran in the A-T on Wednesday.

It is interesting to me that three sponsors of the bill are Republicans. Mike Ellis, however, is clearly not part of the Christianist group down in Madison.

Palmeri predicts that most campuses would unionize. I would imagine he is right, especially in these troubling budgetary times.

Faculty of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!?

Oshkosh Northwestern - Bill would allow faculty, staff unions at UW campuses

UWO's bible thumper policy

Give credit to the A-T again for writing a story about UWO's position on RAs leading bible studies in their rooms

Our student administration announces that they will only declare a policy if someone comes forward claiming to be pressured.

They are carefully remaining ignorant, hoping not to offend the Christianists locally.


Advance Titan Online

Econ attacks make the A-T

The angry e-mails by Kevin McGee made the A-T this week.

The A-T reporter interviewed the attacker and the attackee, so there are a few more juicy details about this little spat.

Advance Titan Online

Literacy: The real crisis of higher education?

As I finish up grading, I felt as though these could have been my words. How is it that students did so poorly on their final exams?

Have I done such a bad job conveying the key information in my courses? What would happen if I gave them the grades that I really would like?

Where have my standards gone???

Inside Higher Ed :: The Lowering of Higher Education

Teach, Don't Preach, the Bible - New York Times

I like this editorial in the NY Times today (registration required). The author argues that the bible deserves a place in academia, in its historical and literary context.

The article is in reference to yesterday's ruling that ID is simply religion, but it fits in quite nicely as well with the discussion that has grown on this blog about religion in the dormitory. It makes a clear distinction between taking a careful, balanced look at one of the most important documents of Western Civilization and forcing one interpretation upon it.

Teach, Don't Preach, the Bible - New York Times

Collective Organizing for Faculty

Although I am overburdened with grading at the moment, I wanted to post something today. Tony Palmeri has been keeping up on legislation in the Wisconsin Assembly that would give us the right to organize a union.

This is something that is unfortunately necessary, I think, because of the current state of affairs in Wisconsin. We need a strong voice in funding decisions that are being made in Madison. Currently, there is no real advocate for higher education in the state. Besides protecting our own interest, a union would be able to create a loud collective voice to remind our legislators and citizens that the university system here needs to be supported. We have become the whipping boy of the Christianists in Wisconsin and need to figure out a way to organize a defense. A union would help greatly.

I have worked in both unionized and ununionized faculty positions, and the difference was pretty amazing. A faculty union gives us a real voice in governance, not just a forum for complaining and then being ignored (remember our spring petition!)

Note: Please contact me (Palmeri @uwosh.edu) or TAUWP/AFT Staff Representative Kevin Kniffin (kniffin @aft-wisconsin.org or 800-362-7390 x223) for more information about any of these items.

1. United Council of UW Students endorses SB 452
2. Frequently Asked Questions re Coll. Barg. Rights
3. TAUWP/AFT sees shift in UW System Administration

1. United Council of UW Students endorses SB 452

The United Council of UW Students (the statewide assembly of UW student governments) took unanimous action on December 3rd to support collective bargaining rights for UW faculty and academic staff and to endorse Senate Bill 452. United Council's discussions prior to voting included TAUWP officers Bill Biglow (UW-Oshkosh chapter) and Patricia Goldstein (UW-Milwaukee chapter).

A copy of the United Council resolution is included here (and interested individuals can visit United Council online at their website: < www.unitedcouncil.net>):

"Approved December 3, 2005
UNITED COUNCIL OF UW STUDENTS RESOLUTION

“Support of Collective-Bargaining Rights for UW Faculty and Academic Staff”
Whereas, students support the extension of collective-bargaining rights to faculty and academic staff employed throughout the University of Wisconsin (UW) System; and

Whereas, Senate Bill (SB) 452 extends the “right-to-decide” collective bargaining to UW faculty and academic staff; and

Whereas, all four neighboring states­and 29 states across the nation­extend collective bargaining rights to faculty and academic staff employed at two-year and four-year public higher education institutions; and

Whereas, during a one-year period from March 2001 and March 2002, Faculty Senates at 14 of the 15 UW institutions approved resolutions requesting that the Legislature extend collective bargaining rights to UW faculty and academic staff; and

Therefore be it resolved, the United Council of UW Students, representing 140,000 students on 24 UW campuses, supports the passage of SB 452.

Beau Stafford
President
United Council of UW Students

Brian Tanner
Legislative Affairs Director
United Council of UW Students"

+++++++++++++++
2. Frequently Asked Questions re Coll. Barg. Rights

QUESTION: Does Governor Jim Doyle support bargaining rights for UW faculty and academic staff?

ANSWER: Yes. As he promised as a candidate, Governor Doyle remains committed to making the needed changes so that faculty and academic staff are no longer denied the basic right to decide in favor or against collective bargaining. His main designee -- Director of Office of State Employment Relations Karen Timberlake -- has taken proactive steps in recent months to help advance SB 452.

+ + + + +

QUESTION: Do other states allow bargaining rights for faculty and academic staff on a campus-by-campus basis?

ANSWER: Yes. Even in Wisconsin's neighboring states, each of which permit faculty and professional staff to vote in favor or against collective bargaining, there are many examples. In the University of Illinois system, not only do the faculties at Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield have independent rights, but the law school faculty have a right-to-decide that is independent of others at UIUC.

+++++++++++++++
3. TAUWP/AFT sees shift in UW System Administration

UW System President Kevin Reilly recently acknowledged in a public radio interview that "there are a good number of states now where faculty and [academic] staff are in Unions and they sit beside, in those states, in the universities, the shared governance functions that those states have." Reilly's statement is a significantly positive--and appropriate--shift away from past UW System Administrations that actively undermined and opposed bills like SB 452.

Among the reasons why Reilly's shift is appropriate:

1. TAUWP/AFT members have been working across the State over the past three years to meet with members of the 17-person, Doyle-appointed Board of Regents to introduce them to the subject of collective bargaining rights for faculty and academic staff. Among the points that we have emphasized in these meetings is the fact that collective bargaining rights are available to faculty and academic staff employed on four-year campuses in 29 states and more than 1,100 campuses across the country and each of Wisconsin's four neighboring states
2. Between March 2001 and March 2002, faculty senates at 14 of the 15 UW institutions approved resolutions requesting that the legislature extend the basic right to decide in favor or against collective bargaining. UW-Madison, as the exception in 2001-02, approved a resolution in May 2005 that endorsed the inclusion of several principles that are each accommodated in SB 452.

Reilly made the statement as part of an interview on December 14th on Joy Cardin's Wisconsin Public Radio program.

More information about the UW Oshkosh TAUWP chapter can be found here: http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/TAUWP/

Literacy Falls for Graduates From College, Testing Finds

Here is a depressing study reported in the NY Times (registration required). Students are less literate today after graduating from College than they were a decade ago.

Only 40% were judged proficient and 31% were rated to have high-level skills.


The latest grads read less and spend more time watching TV.

Literacy Falls for Graduates From College, Testing Finds - New York Times

Two more articles about Reilly's pander

The journal-sentinal ran a longer story yesterday on this topic. You can read Reilly's comments, along with a few republican legislators, to whom he was pandering.


JS Online: UW president speaks up on Bible study controversy

The Capital Times ran an editorial against pushing religion on the UW campus:

Edward G. Young: University employees shouldn't push religion

Chancellor Reilly says RAs should be able to lead bible studies

Reilly, in an apparent suck-up to Christianist legislators, says that he personally thinks RA led bible study in the dorm is ok by RAs.

No need to be welcoming or inclusive if you are supervising dorm activities--go right ahead and prostyletize!! "Need help? Why don't you join the bible study, then I'll be interested. . ." says the Reilly's new kind of RA for Wisconsin.

The written policy is yet to come, and Reilly claims it will be difficult to translate his sentiment. I imagine that this policy will be saner, but Reilly is hoping to gain some Christmas goodwill from the radical right.



JS Online: DayWatch

Regents discuss problem of high tuition

At a regents meeting yesterday, they discussed the problems of increading tuition. No action was taken.

The Northwestern reported this story on the front page, but I couldn't quite figure out why until I read this longer story from the UWMadison paper.



The Badger Herald - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Student letter in the Northwestern

I also should make note of a letter written by 3 college students that appeared in the A-T on Wednesday and the Northwestern yesterday. They were writing to complain about the 14 billion dollar cut in aid to college students made by congress. I heartily agree with their position. I hope that we will see some sort of political shift away from attacking higher education on all fronts.

Congressional cuts endanger UWO students

As many students can confirm, tuition is going up and so is the standard of living. In the 1989-90 academic school year at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, total tuition was $1,689. In the 2005-06 academic school year, the tuition jumped to $4,981. This doesn't include room or board. On Nov. 18, the U.S. Congress again slammed the door on college students. By a vote of 217-215 Congress passed the largest cut to student loans in the history of federal programs, cutting $14.3 billion. According to United States Student Association Vice President Jennifer Pae, "Many students can barely manage their current loan debt and increasing the typical student's loan debt by an added $5,800 will only make the students suffer."

As citizens of Oshkosh, we can say that the job market in our community isn't vast. Employers are looking for college degrees or a master's degree and experience. This requirement of major companies is very understandable; however, why then the lack of support for our students? As is, we are hardly able to work a job to cover the standard of living and attend all our classes.

We're not here to complain or gripe about being a student, nor asking you to take action. However, we want to point out the fact that poverty is on the rise, so are the responsibilities of being a student. Society has an expectation that we need to have a degree in order to hold a well-paying job and maintain a decent living without going below the poverty line. Please take a look at our community and think about what is going to happen if the 11,059 current UWO students continue to fall below that line.

Dan Scoville, Katie Seibel, and Teresa Gedko Oshkosh

State schools turn to part-time professors

I have provided a link from another newspaper, but the Northwestern decided to run this AP story today.

This is one of the key issues in higher-education today--universities are becoming institutions where courses are taught by part-timers with absolutely no job security.

It is corrosive to the atmosphere, both educational and intellectual, for academia across the country.

My sense is that Oshkosh has not gone down this path too far, but has increasingly turned to full-time, contract teachers instead of replacing tenure-track lines. While this is a step up from the part-time world, it still is very troubling.

State schools turn to part-time professors

Responses to posts begin to fill the list

A few excerpts:

"This is the most egregious and unprofessional series of ad hominem attacks I have ever observed."

"my take on this suggestion is to "get on with it" and and use other more appropriate channels to air such concerns."

"Your most recent posts give the appearance that you are determined to conduct a public pissing match with the Dean, and that you are using your mentee as a means to that end. "

"Michael has dealt with bizarre assaults in the past, and I trust he'll have no problem putting this one in perspective. But I do worry about a mentee who is looking more and more like a pawn in a senior faculty member's game (or like the poster child for attacking an administrator)."

The attacks from an Econ professor continue!

It just gets better! As if the first post wasn't enough: the vicious attack on Zimmerman continues. He claims vendetta because Zimmerman insists that the faculty member publish new research. He offers inuendo about how "we all know" that Zimmerman deceitfully influences decisions around COLS.

One can debate the merits of Zimmerman's recent enforcement of publication for research release, but that is the most civil part of the note. It goes off the deep end by proclaiming rumors as the truth about Zimmermans reign of evil (my own words, though close to the ones used in the letter).

Has this person gone off their meds? What sort of response does he expect from anyone? Does he expect some sort of uprising? Why is he making such claims on the public listserv? Has this agreved party consented to this line of "defense?" Has our "mistreated" colleague filed a grievance according to established procedures?

One has to imagine that he wants to test the limits of the rules governing free speech by faculty members. How nasty and bitter can you publicly be without being chastised (or worse) by the administration? When does mudslinging end and slander begin? Can we increase the speed of transfer and send these people over to the college of business before they start frothing at the mouth?

My earlier email statement of the story was based upon what I was told by my mentee. Had it been the only example of his being singled out by the Dean, I might not have believed it either. But it was not.


A month or two ago, my mentee submitted a Curriculum Modification Plan for the next three years. In it he listed two articles in refereed journals (J Human Res., Fall 2003; J Applied Econometrics, Winter 2004) that he has published in the three years since he's been here, as well as a Graduate level textbook on which he is a contributing author and for which he wrote a solutions CD that solves all the problems in the book.


Dean Zimmerman only provisionally approved the plan, i.e. for 1 year only, because "you have not published any of the work from your previous modification in a refereed journal." So (a) apparently the two refereed publications don't count, because while they were published in the last two years, the work on them was not entirely done within the past two years, and (b) the contributions to a textbook were "not published ...in a refereed journal."


It's bad enough that the Dean has more than once refused to give him credit for those two publications, inaccurately claiming that they were "already in press when he was hired." True, most of the work on them was done while he was a Graduate student, but where in the Handbook does it say that only research produced after coming here is scholarly achievement? How can the Dean arbitrarily impose this interpretation of scholarship on a third year faculty member, when it clearly makes it virtually impossible to demonstrate scholarly achievement in the first few years? And does the Dean apply this interpretation uniformly to all junior faculty, or only to those in departments he has targeted?


Far worse however is the Dean's disingenuous refusal to count the contributions to a Graduate textbook, on the pretext that it was not published in a refereed journal. Where in the Handbook is scholarship limited to journal publications? When did textbook publications cease to be considered scholarly? Or is this almost certainly a case where the Dean has chosen to impose on an Economics junior faculty member a discriminatory standard that he does not impose elsewhere?


Despite three publications in his first three years here, my mentee has been threatened with an increased teaching load unless he publishes another article in the next 10 months. Is it a surprise that he feels he has a target on his back? Is it a surprise that, when the Dean made disparaging remarks about himself as a "tree killer" and his work as "drivel," he took those remarks seriously?


(Interestingly enough, while the Dean denies making those statements, Maureen Winkler, not know the background or the fact that my mentee has family member who are loggers, thought the statements were in jest. I can assure all of you that, given the way the Dean has treated his scholarship so far, my mentee did not take the Dean's disparagements lightly.)


We all know that this is not an isolated incident. We all know that the Dean routinely oversteps bounds. And we all know that we routinely let him get away with it. For years, he tried to force junior faculty to provide him with all their written student comments, despite the fact that on the Handbook as adopted through faculty governance can specify what needs to go into personnel documents - and most of us let him get away with it.


We all know that he interfered with the Art Departments selection of a chair, despite the fact that our Handbook specifies no role whatsoever for the Dean in that decision - and we let him get away with it. We all know that he refused to allow Philosophy to interview their top job candidate, stepping well beyond his authority in hiring decisions decision - and we let him get away with it.


So let me ask a simple question - when is this BS going to stop? I have no intention of letting the Dean railroad my junior colleague out of here, and I'm putting everyone, the Dean especially, on notice of that fact. But am I really the only one willing to stand up to this nonsense? Is everyone so cowed that they will be the next target of Dean Zimmerman's arbitrary and capricious authority, that you are all willing to accept his vendettas as normal?


Or have we finally reached a point where enough is enough?

Third-Party Description of the Scene

The third party who was witness to the exchange testified on Zimmerman's behalf. It looks like the hotheads in the econ department have publicly demonstrated why Zimmerman would be glad to be rid of them. It makes you wonder why the business school would want these people in their college!

I was sitting here and participating in the conversation you mention between Dean Zimmerman and your mentee. Dean Zimmerman did say something about killing trees; to me, it was clearly a joke. If you could see the stack of paper that has come through this office for Faculty Development you would think the same thing. In fact, it may actually have been me that made the statement.


Dr. Zimmerman did ask about your mentee's research and was surprised to hear that he was moving to the agricultural rather than continuing in the logging research. Your mentee talked about the logging research findings and how the DNR was using the information and Dr. Zimmerman responded with positive and complimentary statements. The conversation ended with Dr. Zimmerman wishing the professor luck with his proposal. Never in the entire conversation did the word DRIVEL appear. I was impressed that Dr. Zimmerman remembered what the mentee's previous research was. To me (and remember I was here also), the conversation was pleasant, upbeat and supportive. Your mentee did not appear to be hurt or upset by this conversation.

Zimmerman Quick Response

Dean Zimmerman asserts that it was all in good spirits and can not understand how the conversation could have been interpreted in the way that it was. This makes much more sense than the accusations flung in the earlier letter, especially since no one has gone on to suggest ANY repercussions from any of these claims that have been made:

Colleagues,


Typically, I'm not excited about engaging in the sort of discussion that . . . has initiated. However, his charges are so outrageous that I feel obligated to respond. Simply put, the conversation he reports below never took place. What did take place was a conversation, with a third party present, about the faculty member's research. We talked for a bit about his past research, which I praised. I learned how that research was being used by the DNR to help create better policy in the state. We talked for a bit about the fact that the current submission to the Faculty Development Board was on a slightly different topic, more on agricultural issues than on forestry. I wished the faculty member luck with his submission. The only comment on tree killing was a reference to the fact that the counter upon which the faculty member placed his submission was already stacked with hundreds of pages from other submissions, all submitted in hard copy.


I said absolutely nothing derogatory about the faculty member's research. I have checked my recollection of the very pleasant exchange with the third party who was present and my views have been fully confirmed.


The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh has procedures in place to raise issues of discrimination. If anyone feels that I have acted in a discriminatory fashion, I urge her/him to follow those procedures. Attempting character assassination on the the COLS Bulletin Board does not seem a productive way to proceed.


. . . . ends his missive by writing, "I'm sick and tired of Dean Zimmerman using his authority as Dean to push his own narrow policy agenda, to reward his pets, and to punish anyone that fails to kowtow to him. It's time for it to stop." Frankly, I have no idea how he has come to such a conclusion. All I can do is to repeat what I said above: If people feel that they've been treated unfairly, they should pursue a solution as outlined in our Faculty and Staff Handbook.

Economist Outraged at Dean Zimmerman!

I just have to post this message which came across the COLS list a few minutes ago. An outraged economist is shocked to find out that environmentalist Dean Zimmerman is against logging. Even worse, he had the gall to mention his feelings to the economist who studies the topic! We all know Dean's are not allowed to have opinions, and if they are, they should never mention them. It might damage someone's self-esteem. . .

Perhaps the next letter will explain how this comment has led to punishment. How many grants has the person been refused? How many times has he not been given merit raises? How many times has his research release not been approved? How did Zimmerman ever approve the hire, if he is so discriminatory?

Just another whine from the poor, mistreated economists who can only find solace in the arms of another college!

Here is the letter:

Last week, a probationary faculty member in my department, to whom I am mentor, was dropping off some Faculty Development Grant proposals in the COLS office. He happened to run into Dean Zimmerman there.


Apparently Zimmerman, after looking at this faculty member's proposal, noted that this faculty member's previous research had to do with the way the state auctions off logging rights in the state forests. Zimmerman then called this junior faculty member a "tree killer", and then asked him whether he really "tried to published this drivel".


My mentee was shocked by what the Dean said to him about his research. I'm not shocked; I'm outraged. The Dean was 100% out of line, making prejudicial statements about a young faculty member's research, especially because the Dean's statement had nothing to do with the academic rigor of that research.


Rather, it only seems to reflect the Dean's personal view of appropriate environmental policy. And to the best of my knowledge, adhering to the Dean's political philosophies is not specified in the Faculty and Academic Staff handbook as a criterion for tenure or renewal.


My mentee's research on logging is in fact intellectually rigorous, combining auction theory with imperfect and asymmetric information, not that the Dean knows anything about either of those. And it has important policy implications for the DNR, because it shows how, by altering their bidding procedures, they can protect the state's taxpayers from being underpaid for their logging rights. Maybe the Dean considers such policy results "drivel," but I doubt our state's taxpayers would.


I'm sick and tired of Dean Zimmerman using his authority as Dean to push his own narrow policy agenda, to reward his pets, and to punish anyone that fails to kowtow to him. It's time for it to stop.

Professor beaten up for criticizing intelligent design

How about this story out of Kansas--a Religious studies professor who wrote some insulting e-mails about religion was beaten up as he drove last week!



Inside Higher Ed :: Under Attack -- Literally -- in Kansas

Conservative Academic who claimed bias practiced deception

I blogged this story a few months ago--about a conservative law professor who hit Bill O'Reilly with his claims of bias in the academy. As he drew more scrutiny to himself, parts of his story fell apart.

Unfortunately, more than anything, it shows how easy it is for the unscrupulous to get ahead in academia. So much of a person's history and work is taken on faith, leaving all sorts of avenues for deception. . .

Inside Higher Ed :: Web of Lies

Bible study conflict escalates to national issue

The Journal-Sentinal ran a story about the Eau Claire conflict today, claiming that Eau Claire students aren't that interested. It does end with an anecdote of a student being pressured by an RA after refusing to join a bible study:

JS Online: Bible study conflict escalates to national issue

Welcome Northwestern Readers

I was surprised to see my blog listed in the print edition of the newspaper this morning. Now that I am in print, there may be all sorts of new readers.

If you are someone who dropped in because of the Sunday paper, leave me a comment. I would be interested to know if the printed word lures more people to the blog than the electronic link on the Northwestern's website. . .

COLS referendum results

Faculty of the College of Letters and Science recommends approval of the move of the Department of Economics from the College of Letters and Science to the College of Business Administration, as requested by the Department of Economics.



Approve __134_____ Do not approve __48____

University suspends Bible study ban

New Developments in a story I posted earlier -- UW Eau Claire's attempt to stop resident assistant from leading bible study ends for now.

There was no policy in writing, so it could not be officially enforced. Now, the system will write new rules governing these sorts of questions.

The question remains: should resident assistants, paid for their work helping students in the dorms, be able to lead bible studies in their rooms? Does it hurt their position as an accessible resource for students in the dorms? Will students of different faiths be able to feel comfortable when the person tasked to help them through the vagaries of college life suggests that the best way to do it is to abandon their own beliefs for his?



St. Paul Pioneer Press | 12/01/2005 | University suspends Bible study ban

This story in the Badger herald discusses how the issue is handled throughout the Big 10.

ADDED 12/4: Jody, in comments below, from the sidestreet added her own information about the story and her commentary at this link

Gossip about the Econ Department

I heard an interesting tidbit today about the econ department and their relationship with Dean Zimmerman.

Apparently, the most significant disagreement between the two of them was over money that came from the business school for some courses taught by members of the department. They wanted the money for the department, but Zimmerman kept it. Thus, the sentiment was that Zimmerman "stole" this money from them. I suppose that if I were more in the loop, I would have known about this particular incident earlier. It does clear up the rationale behind the push, though.

Now they want to collect the money directly, by becoming part of the College of Business.

The referendum is now over, so we'll see if there is a big groundswell of support within COLS for affirming the right of any department upset with the dean to leave the college.

I am convinced it is a quite ludicrous proposition, but the distrust and anger apparently runs deep . . .

Eau Claire student fee would fund pay raises

Tony Palmeri posted this link to the COLS list--students at Eau Claire make a nice symbolic gesture to support their professors by offering to help with salaries out of their own segregated fees.

This is part of a broader discussion on our list about the misperceptions about faculty salaries in the UW system. The public and the legislature operates under the assumption that we are making big bucks. Outside of a few high fliers at Madison, we make a decent living, but we are never going to get rich being college professors.

The life of the mind drew us, not the financial incentive. Administrators and legislators both like to take advantage of our idealism . . .

JS Online: Eau Claire student fee would fund pay raises

Wisconsin Supreme court rules on Marder case

Our supreme court ruled yesterday that most of the rules in the Marder case were properly followed. It returned the case to lower courts, however, for an investigation of whether "new facts" were added during a discussion before the board of regent's consideration of his appeal.

I haven't followed this case closely, but TAUWP has been supporting Marder and using him as an example of administrative power out of control for years.

Inside Higher Ed :: Tenured Professor's Firing (Largely) Upheld

Here is the supreme court brief and a story from 2001 about the Marder case that appeared at the Chronicle of Higher Education

For Profit College To Cancel Liberal Arts

Post University is eliminating all degree programs that don't lead directly to careers and upper-level liberal arts courses.

Technical school here we come. . . .

Inside Higher Ed :: Don't Know Much About History

Graduate Student Strikers Blog at NYU

I found this site very interesting. You can read the about the graduate students, the administration and their battles.

I am very sympathetic to the argument that graduate students are exploited, though it is hard to believe that life is too rough at NYU.

Nerds on Strike!: "c"

Turning academia into a cafeteria

The LA Times ran an editorial discussing the problems of the Academic Bill of Rights and the larger problem of a "choice-addled" society. Academic freedom is under assault because the language of diversity and choice has become a mantra in use to throttle lines of inquiry that someone may diagree with.

As Russell Jacoby, a professor at UCLA, suggests, "Truth itself is partisan."

Turning academia into a cafeteria - Los Angeles Times

COLS list invaded by Marines

Monday morning and we're back to work. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! The COLS list was active over the long vacation.

An extended debate got started after a list member objected to the tag-line on Mike Melland's email (see previous entry) which read:

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." President Ronald Reagan, 1985

This line got Gerry Grzyb worked up enough to post a response, a long quotation from a Marine General complaining about the uses of the Marines. And they were off. . .

I don't think it is worthy of a summary, since I have much to catch up on today, but the argument ebbed and flowed about American foreign policy, the U.S. Military, Iraq, the Nuremburg Trials, and finally, some personal insults.

As the postings continued, we were hit by the usual "remove me" emails from people who still haven't learned to avoid responding to the whole list (and who don't actually ever look at the email with specific unsubscribe instructions). The final? unsubscribe came from Tom Lammers, who denounced the whole list (but especially Gerry Grzyb) and let us all know he will not discuss any longer.

The discussion about the Marines has generally been unproductive, but information about book-rental and other campus issues have been informative. Outside the often heated rhetoric of Lammers, Grzyb and a few others, it has not been a bad outlet for broader connections across campus.

Chronicle of Higher Education Article on Wisconsin

This article came across the COLS listserv today, thanks to Mike Melland.

The article discusses the collision between the UW system and the Legislature. There are several interesting moments in the text--in particular Jim Doyle, the "education" governor, criticizes the system in an interview, claiming we don't want the same oversight as other government agencies. It also ends with the standard rhetoric from Krebich, the most vocal slanderer of the UW system. One would think that his extremist views represent the whole of the state.

I hope not, but I guess the way Repubs and Dems alike agree to slash our budget, he probably is closer to it than I am. . .

A Residence Hall Director's Blog

I should be working, I know, but this popped up on technorati.com.

Jim Droste is a residence hall director of Breese Hall, and there are a few interesting university related discussions over there. A few students posted in relationship to the fight over bible study led by RAs in the dorms at UW-Eau Claire.

Check it out!

A Pirate's Log

Econ department continues to push for secession

Unfortunately, I missed the hearings held last week to hear the justifications for the switch from COLS to COBA.

I have not heard any real justification for this proposal, except that the department might work "slightly better" if it were attached to a different College.

The A-T article provides no justification, but it made me think about the topic.

The rumors suggest that this is a personal feud between the department and Zimmerman, and the weak justfications heard so far seem to make that the most likely reason.

I think that if the econ department really thinks that they are better defined as part of the specialized business degree, they should also be asking to be removed from the general education requirements of the university. Students should be asked to take a more general liberals arts course. They will get enough business experience after they graduate.

Both the dept. and Zimmerman claim that nothing will change in terms of requirements and majors, which makes the desire to switch even more puzzling. Perhaps there is economic value in pointless administrative reshuffling. What does current economic theory tell us on that point?




Advance Titan Online

Story Update: House Republicans regroup--cut student aid

Here is the story over at Oshkosh News, with some links to other stories.

The NYTimes Sunday magazine has an interesting discussion of how the Republicans use power in Washington--in particular by letting "moderates" vote against controversial measures as long as there is enough support for passage. In this case, too many moderates defected last week and more arms had to be twisted.

Petri, feeling safe in our district, voted to hurt college students across the U.S.

In a related story, the Journal Sentinal reports that legislators are angling to spend another $400 million on prisons, to keep sex offenders behind bars longer. Any guesses as to where the money for that is going to come from???

Searching for Summer School

The administration has once again begun to hunt for faculty members to teach summer school. Dean Zimmerman has made it clear in his various budget meetings that these courses cost the college money, but system is demanding that we offer more, more, more!! Does UWO really need any summer school courses? Are the ones you teach full?


I don't want to teach over the summer, so are you going to sign up?

Attack of the Career-Killing Blogs - When academics post online, do they risk their jobs? By Robert S. Boynton

Here is another article about how blogging can hurt your academic career. A nationally renown blogger from University of Chicago didn't get tenure, and some blame his blogging.. . .


Attack of the Career-Killing Blogs - When academics post online, do they risk their jobs? By Robert S. Boynton

Threats to Liberal Education from Left and Right

I like this story about liberal education over at slate.com, part of their "college week."

The author proposes that liberal education is under assault from the left-wing that questions the practice of teaching as too elitist and the right wing who is obsessed with making college narrowly practical.
I am not sure I agree with the premise, but it is a good thought piece.

Reforming College - What professors don't tell you. By Astrida Orle Tantillo

Mellon Foundation to investigate college student graduation rates

the president of the Mellon foundation announced that he is planning to research the reasons that only 54% of college students have graduated after 6 years.

UWO's rate is even lower, if I remember correctly, so this is a question we should be thinking more about ourselves.

CNN.com - Focus on getting students into college shifts to getting them out - Nov 16, 2005

Pennsylvania Republicans attack university professors

The Penn. legislature is "investigating" universities in pennsylvania for bias. Academics at Temple organized a teach-in to protest such witch hunts.

I imagine that we may be seeing similar things here in Wisconsin before long. It is a short news story in the Philadelphia Inquirer about it.

Registration is required, but I have begun to use www.bugmenot.com to avoid having to give my email address.

Philadelphia Daily News | 11/12/2005 | Profs get warned of freedoms

Will Advertising save the University?

A national association of universities is getting ready to launch a national campaign to emphasize the importance of college education.

I don't think it will work, but at least some people are thinking about how to change the terms of the debate in this country about higher education.

Once again, the radical right has set the agenda, defining universities as hotbeds of sedition, not instruments of economic growth and upward mobility. It would be nice if an ad campaign could break that stranglehold.

Inside Higher Ed :: 'Solutions for Our Future'

Class and Wealth at Madison

The Journal-Sentinal is running a cutsie story about the division between 'coasties' and Wisconsites at Madison. The real theme of the story is class and privelege. 31% of spots at Madison go to out of state kids who can afford the $20,000/year tuition.

This is just another symptom of Wisconsin abdicating its duty to educate Wisconsities. It is fine to have out of state students, but the problem is really one of financing. Madison has to have a large percentage of high-tuition paying students just to keep afloat in this day and age. Wouldn't it be nice if those spots went to deserving Wisconsites, regardless of their ability to pay??

JS Online: The great 'Coastie' divide

College Week at Slate

I haven't read any of the articles, but it looks like they will be having some interesting thoughts over at slate.com. Check it out. If you find any of the articles particularly interesting, leave me a comment!
Then I'll know what to read.

Slate Goes to College - A week of articles about higher education.

Fees and Helping Students

The COLS listserv has been busy over the weekend. Two substantial discussions have developed over the issue of the segregated fees here on campus:

First, there is a question about the parking situation. A few writers have been questioning the need for a new parking structure after the acquisition of Cub Foods. Do we really need to increase the parking costs for this structure if there are so many new spaces across the river? At least one person has suggested that we should instead be trying to force students and staff out of their cars. The high fees are one way of encouraging students to leave their cars at home and staff to find alternative methods of reaching campus.

It would be nice to see such a cultural shift away from cars on campus. Students who flee during the weekends might become more deeply integrated into campus life. If staff moved closer or used other forms of transportation, we might see a broad revitalization of the center of the city and less polution in town. Far fetched, however.

Second, an ongoing discussion about switching to a textbook rental system. It apparently saves students money at places like UW Eau Claire. Faculty, however, are somewhat restricted in their choice of textbooks and the interval during which they can change. I don't change that often, so a 2-3 year cycle would not bother me, but others have expressed a real problem with the model.

That is my update about the listserv--I am not inspired enough by the conversation to post the actual comments--but it is a worthy enough endeavor to think about the issues of student costs...

Students' lack of interest

This editorial speculates about the current state of our culture which has made broad cultural knowledge irrelevant. Students no longer care that they don't know anything. . .


Triangle.com | J. Peder Zane

College Presidents' obscene salaries

The Chronicle of Higher Education is set to release the salaries of presidents at universities today. This list is topped by the president of Lynn University, who received over $5 million dollars in 2003-4.

Wow! The numbers here are shocking! 50 presidents earn over $500,000 a year at private institutions. 23 earn that much at state schools.

The compensation race is just ridiculous, but this is a huge issue outside of academia as well. It clearly has trickled down, at great expense to tuition-paying students and under-paid staff.

You have to register for the New York Times to read this story:

College Leaders' Earnings Top $1 Million - New York Times

Marlin Schneider reintroduces his wacky bill

Jim Simmons brought this article to the attention of COLS list. Rep. Schneider is again proposing his "student bill of rights," which contains all sorts of off-the-wall proposals. He is still upset about heavy backpacks and bad advising. . . .

Jim thinks that this bill has a chance of passing. No way! No ideological requirements in the bill--thats what would really get the Republicans on board!


Wausau - 'Student bill of rights' proposed for UWs

Story Update 2: Regents meet: Against back up jobs, ordered investigatation of student fees

The regents are in the midst of a two day meeting. Yesterday, they approved the end to backup jobs and an investigation of student fee increases.

All of this appears to be a cave-in to the university-hating, sensationalist wing of the republican party in Madison. Neither will necessarily improve the quality of higher education in the state. More likely, the new policies will convince good candidates for administative jobs to look elsewhere and reduce options available to students.


- Day 1 Regents meeting news summary

Story Update1: U.S. congress not cutting student aid for now

The republican cuts of higher ed. loans for students ran into trouble yesterday, as saner heads prevailed. It is part of a larger reticence of Republican moderates against the excesses of the extremists in the party. Cutting aid to the poor and college students while giving more tax breaks to the rich is not appearing to be good politics today.

Inside Higher Ed :: House Plan to Cut Loan Programs Stalls

Econ department wants to secede from College

The Faculty Committee announced yesterday that there will be college of letters and science referendum about whether the Econ department should leave and join the college of business.

There will be a couple of discussion sessions in the next month about it.

It sounds pretty crazy to me. The rumor has it that there are deep personal problems between Dean Zimmerman and the Econ department. I am not enough in the loop to know exactly what is going on between them, but something must be bad for them to want to make this leap.

I can't see a good reason for it. Since when is Economics not part of the basic Social Science core of a good education? Why would they want to redefine their discipline as a narrowly career oriented field like business? Do they really believe that their discipline has more in common with marketing and management than with mathematics and chemistry?

This should make for interesting university-wide discussion over the next few months and I hope that we will hear why the econ department is trying to leave. I think my department ought to move too--I hear the pay is much better in the college of business!

Blogwars and lawsuits

Here is another story that deals with the dangers of blogging: learn about two academics involved in a heated argument that turns particularly nasty!


Inside Higher Ed :: Online Quicksand

Student expelled for antagonistic web postings

How about this story--you have to be careful what you post on the internet if you are a colege student! I am afraid that it could happen to university employees, so I remain anonymously Winneblogo!

Slashdot first alerted me to a whole series of incidents:


Here is a story from the Boston Globae about Facebook:

Fisher College expels student over website entries - The Boston Globe

Binge drinking black-eye

News reports announce today that the UW system has the worst student drinking culture in the nation. 7 out of 10 men and 5 out of 10 women admit binge drinking in the last two weeks.

Unfortunately, this is part of our problem of connecting with students and creating an atmosphere of learning on campus. We all know that students spend more time talking about partying than class. We need to figure out how to break this cycle of drunkenness and intellectual hollowness.

The news report

A Wisconsin State Journal editorial

How Thursday Became the New Friday

The Education Life section of the NYTimes ran this story yesterday. It describes how Fridays have been transformed into an extra weekend day (Party Thursday night!!)

It is another story about how Universities have given in to their students, by allowing Friday to slip away. If you teach on Fridays, you know about the dismal attendance and lack of attention to be found in Oshkosh students.

The article also describes how Duke University is striving to reclaim the whole calendar and Fridays in particular. We do some of these things already, but it is a good reminder that catering to only what students want would lead to a university without classes or standards.
(Registration is required to see the story)
How Thursday Became the New Friday - New York Times

Liberal Arts program failing for colleges

Dean Zimmerman has argued forcefully for the need to convince the public that one of the key components of a college education are the general good of a liberal education.

The AAC&U is trying to quantify what that means and provide some data to show if it is working. Their standardized testing suggests that only 11% of seniors qualify as "proficient" in writing and only 6% are "proficient" in critical thinking skills.

I don't know how they arrived at these figures, but I imagine that they are pretty close to correct. Our students surely would do no better. How can we change this?

Another link related to this story is here.


AAC&U News Room | Liberal Education Outcomes: A Preliminary Report on Student Achievement in College

JS Online: Bible study policy raises ire

New Right-Wing attack on the universities here: Student RA forced to follow same rules as all other state employees. However, it happens to be that he is pushing religion in the dorms.

No one would have expected it, but Republican politicians are angry that policy forbidding religion at work applies to Christianity! Do you think Mark Green would be complaining about Buddhists being forced to have their prayer meetings outside the dorms??

JS Online: Bible study policy raises ire

The 'Crisis' in Higher Ed Financing

This New York Conference is probably the reason there is a story on CNN.com today.

Several speakers here blame increasing college costs on an "amenities arms race." We are competing, but students seem willing to vote these fees upon themselves.

Inside Higher Ed :: The 'Crisis' in Higher Ed Financing