Depressing all-COLS meeting

Yesterday afternoon, we had another all-COLS meeting. The topic of the day was the new "growth" agenda for the campus. Meetings like this make me wonder why I am academia. I love my research and my teaching, but the unresponsive and condescending bureaucracy seems to be on a constant quest to reduce the quality of both.

The focus of the meeting was Petra Roter. She was invited to help us understand the student affairs proposals in this agenda. What we discovered is that some administrator has decided that the general education requirement is going to change. They are going to require all freshmen to take something called "First Year Experience." It is to be a 1-credit, toolbox course. This announcement set off a firestorm of questions.

How is it that the administration changes the curriculum without even consulting the faculty. Petra claimed that this course was approved long ago as some counseling course 101. They then, without discussion with faculty, changed the content of the course and made it required. Even Dean Zimmerman was surprised to hear that this course had all of a sudden become required.

Most faculty yesterday questioned this course, offering alternatives, or asked for more details. Petra deflected all criticism, by suggesting once that if we don't do this, our enrollment will drop precipitously (9200, the number she gave, I think) and may lead to the campus being closed. A few minutes later, she said that this is only being implemented to make the campus grow to 12000. Take your pick.

She leaned heavily on the NSSE results, claiming that this course will fix some of the problems there. Many faculty pointed out that our low scores on the NSSE actually have much more to do with our ever-increasing faculty to student ratio. She ignored that suggestion.

After Petra defended the administrative power to change to curriculum unilaterality and refused to acknowledge that the faculty might be able to provide some insight into the student body, discussion shifted.

Marsha Rossiter, Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Lifelong Learning and Community Engagement, (whatever the hell that might mean) defended the other large component of the "growth" agenda, creating a Bachelor of Applied Studies degree. As faculty again questioned the rigor of this degree, she got incredibly defensive. This made it clear that she is aware of how inadequate this degree will be, and how graduates will have many fewer skills that graduates from the regular 4 year programs. The odd justification for this was that people who are already working shouldn't have to do college-level work, because they are too busy. Once again, the discussion revolved around the basic administrative priniciple that it is already a done deal, get used to it. She promised to be a better communicator next year. (After, of course, the whole program is officially in place and we have even less input than we do now)

It also struck me that the millions that are supposedly for enlarging the faculty will probably go to adjuncts and part-timers to teach courses for this new project.

Those are my basic impressions of the meeting. Administrators show up to unresponsively defend proposals that already have been imposed on us.

What a depressing spectacle!! Two meetings next week are set so different administrators can do it again (May 3, at 12 and 4:30).

Boozing off campus

Students are very excited about the "success" of their pub crawl and they haven't been able to stop writing about it in the AT.

They are very proud that 500 students hung out in bars, got drunk, but didn't get arrested.

This is a real mark of quality for our institution! They are such well-functioning drunks that they don't get arrested!

As Tony has noted over at his blog, wouldn't it be nice to have students do an art crawl or a "go to the library and do your homework for a change" crawl (I added that last one).

Advance Titan Online

Fair Use Debate Rages All Day

There have now been 33 posts to the discussion list on the topic of whether or not movie nights fit the fair use exemption. It appears that a majority of responders are upset by the decreasing space for educational movies. I am convinced by the arguments proposed by those who argue for allowing movie nights, but who would be surprised by that?

The loudest anti-fair use posting accused those who support movie nights of rationalizing illegal behavior. He also is a member of the committee that seems to have started the whole controversy (The Student Allocation Committee)

It has to make you wonder why this committee has decided to defend the interests of big hollywood conglomerates over the student groups that come before them and try to improve life on campus.

Here is an article from the Advance-Titan which we missed when it ran last month, describing what happened to the International Film Series. My favorite quote from the story is from the exemption policy, which apparently states that movies must not be "for the cultural, entertainment or recreational value of anyone present." If you watch a movie on this campus, you'd better not have any fun, or we'll yank your funding and send in the lawyers!!!!


Advance Titan Online

Film Nazis invade Campus

Karl Loewenstein posted an email to the COLS list, in which he revealed that the History Club has been ordered to stop showing films on campus.

Subsequent postings added that French Club, Cine club, the International Film Series, and the English club have been forced to end their movie series'.

Apparently someone in Reeve has decided that showing films violates 'fair use' law. They are then threatening to revoke funding of student organizations who commit this heinous act. Julie Schaeffer describes the attitude of the Nazis as "fairly threatening" and having scared the English club.

Who are they and who put them in charge? Are they lawyers? Are they academics? Or are they some sort of wimpy bureaucrats who are afraid of being sued by the RIAA?

It is nuts to think that I can't show a film for my class outside of the classroom. If this is true, fair use is a farce and we have no rights at all. The library should hold a movie burning party outfront, since it must be a violation to watch films that they own as well.

There have been a couple web links posted:

A story from Columbia University, where they interpret the law correctly and will allow movie series.

Tony Palmeri posted a link to the relevant US Code

Mumps! Mumps! Mumps!

Mumps is just a fun word to say over and over again.

Mumps may have hit campus! The media reported that a student was tested for mumps last week -- no result reported that I have seen yet.

If budget cuts aren't enough, why not viral infection too?!?


Green Bay Press-Gazette - UW-Oshkosh officials await results on possible mumps case

Silly study of the day: Books in house raise scores

A Blog in the Washington Post reports this study:

Having 500 books in the house is linked to higher SAT scores. Maybe we should make it impossible for students to sell back their books (except for those poetry tomes). They'll be forced to keep them and the next generation will have higher test scores!

Learning the Wrong Things From Poetry

Fill your house with books if you want little Billy or Beth to grow up to be an academic all-star. Shakespeare is good. But stay away from poetry -- books of poesy on your shelves may dumb down your child.

A research team headed by demographer Jonathan Kelley, of Brown University and the University of Melbourne, analyzed data from a study of scholastic ability in 43 countries, including the United States. The data included scores on a standardized achievement test in 2000 and detailed information that parents provided about the family. The average student scored 500 on this test.

The researchers found that a child from a family having 500 books at home scored, on average, 112 points higher on the achievement test than one from an otherwise identical family having only one book -- and that's after they factored in parents' education, occupation, income and other things typically associated with a child's academic performance. The findings were presented last month at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America in Los Angeles.

Of course, it's not the number of books in the home that boosts student performance -- it's what they represent. The researchers say a big home library reflects the parents' dedication to the life of the mind, which probably nurtures scholastic accomplishment in their offspring.

They also found that not all books are created equal. "Having Shakespeare or similar highbrow books about bodes well for children's achievement," they wrote. "Having poetry books around is actively harmful by about the same amount," perhaps because it signals a "Bohemian" lifestyle that may encourage kids to become guitar-strumming, poetry-reading dreamers.

Whites Take Flight on Election Day

Ask Annie: Is a liberal arts degree a waste? - Apr. 13, 2006

Since I was browsing the site, here is what the Money magazine advisor says about a liberal arts education --Good communications skills are the key--not specific training.


Ask Annie: Is a liberal arts degree a waste? - Apr. 13, 2006

College professor is 2nd best job

You may have noticed that Money magazine rated college professor as the second best job to have in America.

It seems like a fair appraisal of what we do.

What's cool Professors have near-total flexibility in their schedules. Creative thinking is the coin of the realm. No dress code!

What's not The tick-tick-tick of the tenure clock; grading papers; salaries at the low end are indeed low.

It seems a bit overblown on the salary average -- over 81,000. Maybe if they average in all of those rich private schools with senior professors in medical and business schools, you can get that number. They do list top job as dean of 'medicine,' whose average pay is over 400,000.

MONEY Magazine's Best Jobs: College professor

Top twenty lines on ratemyprofessor.com

Another blogger gives us the top 20 humorous lines from Ratemyprofessor.com.

They are really quite amusing -- so enjoy!

my favorite is # 20: you can't cheat in her class because no one knows the answers.


chris uggen's weblog: rate my professors

Blogging Their Way Through Academe

US News and World Reports writes about blogging in their graduate school edition.

I don't have much to say about it today, but I thought I would pass it along.



usnews.com: Blogging Their Way Through Academe

Tenured prof fired at Madison after felony

It was also reported this weekend that a child-soliciting prof down at Madison was finally fired for his disgusting behavior.

It won't stop the ranting of the system-haters in the capital, but perhaps it will curtail some of the worst of it.

You'll notice that the regents overruled an appeals committee that suggested that the professor could be reinstated.

I have to admit that this felony doesn't seem to be one that would affect the duties of the employee, but the regents clearly gave weight to the current political climate over the idea of rehabilitation.


The Capital Times

Green Bay's Growth Initiative

UW-Green Bay has proposed an even larger increase than Oshkosh-- going from 5800-7500 students over the next 6 years.

They are also going to ask for more money than we are.

No notion of improving quality in their report either-- are the regents are demanding quantity over quality from every school in the system?!

Here is the Gannett news report:Appleton Post-Crescent - UW Regents support growth at Green Bay campus

Here is UW Green Bay's presentation to the regents:

Presentation powerpoint with commentary

Sonnleitner sends 'political activity' message

Tom Sonnleitner, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services, has posted without comment the rules governing political activity for state employees this morning.

When something like this appears, I wonder what has inspired it. I don't recall anything resembling political activity on the discussion lists (in fact almost no discussion), so is there some event on campus that he thinks will cross the line?

Is someone on campus critical of the Chancellor's arguments against TABOR #2? Did someone object to a meeting about the "Ban Civil Unions" amendment? Is my blog too anti-Republican for someone? Has Tony annoyed the administration again?

Anybody know the reasons for th timing of the post?

Here is an excerpt:

In general, the following political activities are prohibited:

1. Using governmental authority to interfere or affect nomination or election for any public
office or position within any political party.
2. Using governmental authority or influence to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person to
vote contrary to his/her own voluntary choosing.
3. Using governmental authority to directly or indirectly intimidate, threaten, or coerce any
person to pay, lend, or contribute anything of value, including services, to any party,
organization, group, or individual for political purposes.
4. Using any official authority or influence to coerce any individual or group for political
action or to confer benefits or effect reprisals to secure desired political action or inaction.
5. Offering money in return for political action or inaction or accepting any benefit in return
for political action or inaction.
6. Engaging in political activity on state-owned property including, but not limited to, the
wearing of a political identification while on duty where it could impair the effectiveness
of the state agency operation.
7. Engaging in any political activity when not on duty to such an extent that efficiency
during working hours is impaired or that the employee is tardy or absent from work.
8. Taking any action that makes one a candidate for partisan public office unless on an
approved leave of absence .
9. Directly or indirectly soliciting or receiving subscriptions or contributions for any partisan
political party or any political purpose while on state time or engaged in official duties or
while in a building, office, or room occupied for any purpose by the state.
10. Either orally soliciting or by letter or by electronic mail transmitting any solicitation to a
state office or be in any manner concerned in soliciting any assistance, subscription, or
support for any partisan, political party or purpose from any person holding any position
in the classified service while on state time or engaged in official duties.
11. During the hours when on official duty engaging in any form of political activity
calculated to favor or improve the chances of any political party or any person seeking or
attempting to hold partisan political office.
12. Using state property, materials, supplies or equipment in connection with political
activity.

Faculty Senate Primary Elections

We are having primary elections for Faculty Senate today across campus. With the raging debates about the future directions of UWO all over campus, there will surely be a high turnout and tightly contested results. . . .

Wait--I must have been dreaming. Does anybody actually care who serves on the faculty senate? Does anyone even know WHO is in the senate. I browsed the faculty senate web-page, and found that it has not been updated for 3 years. It does give you a sense of its irrellevancy, when there is not even an easily accessible public record of their activities.

It would have been nice to look back and see the resolutions that approved the retake policy, but I suppose I would have to schlep over to Dempsey to find them.

Perhaps if the faculty senate got active and assertively defended the quality of education here on campus, we could be better off.

Faculty pay not causing increased costs

You have to like data like this being propagated out there!! Although every time we look at our paycheck, we know we are not seeing our wages go up like the cost of a college education, it is nice to see someone gathering some statistics.

Administrators like to take their cuts from teaching costs by enlarging class sizes, etc, just because they can, not because it gets at the underlying problems of the budget in higher education.

Hopefully, you can read the article from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Print: The Chronicle: Daily news: 04/04/2006 -- 04

If you want to see more data, here is the link to the study site:

National Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity

"Everybody else does it" justification for retakes

Jim Simmons was nice enough to post his letter to Larry Carlin here. The basic argument that won the day is that the other UWs do it this way, so we should too.

It is a sad story, and it continues to be a bad policy. Jim suggests that there was extensive debate within the faculty senate--why wasn't this on the list-serve? They actually considered it twice with no input from the rest of the faculty.

We rarely have any idea what the faculty senate is up to and I had no previous knowledge of these arguments.

I hope that senators will inform the community the next time a controversial policy, which serves no one well, comes up for a vote. Jim mentioned that they considered many policies--why didn't the faculty as a whole? A lot of smart people work here--maybe a better solution might have been found. . .

Larry,

The Repeat Policy was proposed back in May of 2003 after over a year of review by the Provost's Staff, Admissions and the Improvement of Instruction Committee before it was passed by the Faculty Senate in November of 2003 after much debate. The senate was asked to reconsider the policy due to budgetary considerations but reafirmed it in Spring 2004. Implementation was delayed for several years for computer software adjustments and the Chancellor's stay for financial reasons.

The main impetus behind the change in the old policy was all the problems created for students by the 30-day rule that prevented students from retaking a course until students taking it for the first time had already registered. This rule, among other things, kept many students from repeating several high demand classes or gaining admission to several majors especially in the sciences. No other campus we could find had a "30-day rule."

The many alternatives considered ranged from the most "liberal" with unlimited retakes replacing existing grades and no registration constraints to the most restrictive allowing students a very small number of retakes to replace only Fs with the second grade averaged into their GPA. There were also proposals to increase the number of faculty in specific departments to handle demand and to require professional programs to reconsider their use of GPAs as an admission standard.
The Retake option actually chosen was the one most common at other UW campuses and the one most consistent with policies at comparable universities. Those campuses don't seem to have all the problems feared by some of the participants on this discussion list.

I doubt that any of the participants in the discussion three years ago thought that this was an ideal policy but it was seen as the best possible one given the complexity of the issue and the university's financial condition. However, You will have to ask others about their reasons for favoring the policy since I was not a member of these committees nor chair of the faculty senate that year. I'm sending you a few of the relevant documents by snail mail.

Jim

Official Announcement of the Awful Retake Policy

Lisa Danielson posted the official retake policy to the list. We have discussed it before. Two new comments on the policy appeared: Larry Carlin reaffirms the lack of discussion on this policy. John Koker noted the policy is strangely unenforced, in that students are supposed to obey the policy, with no oversight from the registration office. Will the star report catch students who retake with too high of a grade point?

This is a terrible policy, adopted without discussion and input from the faculty--proof of no real faculty governance on this campus. Look at all the complaints, and yet, no movement by anyone to reconsider this punishment of good students to benefit the bad.



Here is an excerpt from the announcement:

Students may only repeat a course if they have received a grade of C/D or less. The most recent grade awarded will be used in the computation of grade point averages and credit earned. If a student repeats a course and earns a lower grade, the lower grade will be used in the computation of grade point averages. Although grades earned at other post-secondary institutions will be included on the credit evaluation and on the official transcript, the official UW Oshkosh grade point average is not affected by grades earned elsewhere. Undergraduate courses repeated after graduation will not change the undergraduate cumulative grade point average.

Note: Although TitanWeb will allow registration of all repeats of courses students may only repeat courses with a C/D or less. It is the student's responsibility to be aware of this policy and to adhere by the rules.

Conservative Students get higher grades

As I like to follow this story, Inside Higher Ed again has a story about a study from Unversity of Nevada at Reno, where a sociologist looked for grading differences because of political leanings of students.

He found none, and proposes that this shows that students who complain are not being punished in any significant way for their politics.

I had a student complain to me once about his biased(liberal) professors, but he didn't seem to be suffering any adverse grading consequences. He was annoyed and he tried to avoid certain teachers, but that was about the extent of it. He was quite a good student, with a high GPA.

Inside Higher Ed :: Grading Edge for Conservative Students

Growth Strategy??? How about Recovery Strategy?

The chancellor announced a 'growth strategy' today to expand the university to 14,000 student over the next 6 years. Apparently, system is demanding that every promise to expand in order to get money out of the state legislature.

What a crock! Now we know what the 'applied studies' degree is about. It is clear we don't have staff or room on campus for more students, so they hope to drive us all on-line. Any mention about improving quality education for students? I didn't see it.

As everyone predicted, the funding is gone and the only way we will get any of it back is to create new programs. We'll have to think more about this over the next few days, but it looks like more bad news. . .


Here are few key lines from the long e-mail:

Recently, UW System President Kevin Reilly asked UW Universities to submit “growth agenda” proposals for consideration by the UW System staff and Board of Regents as they prepare the 2007-2009 Budget Request. UW Oshkosh responded to this request by submitting a “growth agenda” proposal that would increase enrollment by 12.5% over the next six years. The projected increase for the on-campus headcount enrollment is from 11,000 to 12,800 and for total (on and off campus) enrollment is from 12,400 to over 14,000 by the year 2012. These increases are predicated upon additional State funding.

The UW Oshkosh “Growth Agenda” proposal for the 2007-09 biennial budget period requires $5,506,317 of additional funding to support the addition of 400 FTE (+4.2%) and 600 (+5%) headcount student enrollment increases by 2009. (See attachment for program summary and related budget enhancement details.) The remaining enrollment growth (800 FTE and 1,200 head count) would require comparable funding increases during the 2009-2011 and 2011-13 biennial budget.

Iowa's Applied Studies program

Here is a B.A.S. program from the University of Iowa.

The program there is an attempt to serve non-traditional students who already have a degree from a community college.

A student has to take 60 hours of course work in a variety of areas to get the degree from University of Iowa. It seems to emphasize the use of on-line, distance, and weekend courses.

At first glance, the Iowa program doesn't look so bad. I have a feeling the devil is in the details, so we will have to wait to see what kind of requirements our B.A.S. might include. Are we going to have to put up more non-traditional courses in order for this whole thing to work?

Applied Studies

What is Applied Studies?

Was anyone else puzzled by the announcement that came over the lists yesterday. Apparently we are getting ready to start a new degree program called a Bachelor of Applied Studies.

There is an information meeting about next Monday, April 3 at 11:30 - 12:30 in Reeve Memorial Union 220AB. I'll try to go, but it is a bad time for me.

What could this possibly be? Don't we already have applied studies? We call them business, nursing, education, biology, chemistry, history, journalism, etc.

It doesn't sound good. Isn't this what athletes in division I sports major in (and then don't finish)? Is this going to be another step towards watering down the quality and rigor of a degree from UWO?

UWO student drinking in the Northwestern

The paper ran this story this morning--a discussion of the issue of drinking on the UWO campus. It was basically an interview with Petra Roter about how the university was dealing with the issue.

It was a very positive, though misleading, article about what goes on here on campus. If things were only as good as Petra hopes they would be.

I wonder if UWO is worse than other campuses within the system and across the country. Clearly, our students are proud of their drinking (just look at facebook). Many students, however, are non-traditional ones and are burdened with family life and work. They just may not have the time to go out of control.


Oshkosh Northwestern - University attacks problem drinking from several angles

Pat Robertson joins attack on university professors

Read about how Pat Robertson is attacking college professors as murderers and "termites that have worked into the woodwork of our academic society."

There is more info here about politics around the Horowitz' bill in Florida as well.

Is it just me, or does Robertson get wierder and more extreme every day? Having his denunciations can only help expose the lunacy of many of these claims!

Inside Higher Ed :: Murderers, Video and Academic Freedom

Student perceptions of bias fall short of reality

I meant to post this story a few days ago when it ran on the higher education home page. It is a great study that suggests that students attribute political leanings to their professors more based on their own bias than on what that professor says or does.

It is not exactly a corrective to the Horowitz attacks, but it does change the terms of the debate.

Conservative students see bias everywhere, whether it is there or not. . .

Inside Higher Ed :: The Real Bias in the Classroom

Bad News for Us: Zimmerman leaving

Michael just posted the news to the employee's list. He is taking a job at Butler University.

The announcement says that he is taking essentially the same job there: Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences. Also, after a quick google, it is clear that Butler is not a step up for him, but more of a lateral move. He will be at a smaller school with fewer faculty, but it is private.

One would have to guess that the trials and tribulations of working in the UW system has finally overwhelmed him. At Butler, he will be free of cost-cutting legislators and an administration that doesn't believe that he should be involved in politics.

We knew he was looking to leave, but it is always a shock when it finally happens.

Many have had issues with Michael over the years, but he has been a strong advocate and a good steward of our resources through difficult times. We can only hope that our next Dean will be able to continue his strong legacy.

Grade Inflation at UWO

JRS posted some numbers for us in a comment to the gentleman's C thread.
I am posting them up front:

Average GPA for the University in Spring of 2005: 2.95
Average GPA for COLS: 2.78
Lowest department average: Anthropology: 2.28
Highest department average: Art: 3.44

College of Nursing and the COEHS both have averages well over 3.

UWO average GPA was 2.85 in 1990, 2.93 in 1994 and dropped to 2.91 in 1999. We are roughly following the national trends, though with a bit of variation from year to year. Here is a report from 1999 from the Office of Institutional Research, with lots of specifics from departments and colleges.

I found a few national statistics to compare to:

National average for public universities in 2002: 2.97
Average for UW-Madison in 1998: 3.11

This data came from Gradeinflation.com.

Here is a paper about grade inflation at Madison up to 1998, in which the author tests the hypothesis that improving student quality caused the higher grades. He found no strong link. It also has some nifty charts.

Female academics and tenure

Salon.com has a small posting about how many women have tenure at Yale. The alumni magazine reports that in arts and sciences there are 310 men with tenure and only 71 women.

I wonder if we have the same disparities here?

Here is the link (you have to watch an ad to see it)

The Northwestern snubs UWO this weekend

I have to wonder why the Northwestern, in is annual survey of Oshkosh, decided not to mention UWO in the education section this year. There was room for that important educational activity of golf, but not for a note about us.

Was it some sort of editorial oversight or are Stew and his cronies dissing us on purpose?

Now that I think about it, he section last year had almost nothing about UWO either. . ..

The Framers and the Faithful

As all of the discussion about angels in public parks rolls along here in the Oshkosh blogosphere, I post this interesting article from the Washington Monthly about evangelicals and separation of church and state in the 18th century.

History has reared its head, as it often does, in these debates as we argue over original intents. This article speaks to that--ending with an interesting moment when Republicans in the Virginian house recently tried to amend their state consititution to remove Jefferson's language separating church and state.

"The Framers and the Faithful" by Steven Waldman

AP picks up trival professor bashing story

The AP syndicated the story of a retired professor at Madison who was so angry at his insurance company that he threated to blow up the building. He received a $50 fine.

The northwestern featured it as their one bit of Wisconsin news today, as I am sure did many other papers across the state.

It is the crudest of UW bashing for its own sake. How is this news or relevant to Wisconsin or Oshkosh?

I've linked to the duluth superior version of the story below:


AP Wire | 03/15/2006 | Prominent UW scholar pleads no contest to disorderly conduct

Christmas Box Angel on public property

I usually don't like to dive into local politics, but I have to mention this because it fits in with so many things we have talked about on theis blog over the past few months.

A controversy is afoot in Oshkosh over placing religious symbols in our public park.

This strikes me not as a Christianist plot, but just a case of insensitivity. Whatever committee that approved of this statue simply could not fathom that people might be opposed to putting Christian symbols in public places. That this decision was made with almost no fanfare demonstrates how little the committee thought about the separation of church and state and the rights of minority groups.

Obviously, someone who thought this was a bad idea informed the freedom from religion foundation down in Madison, which decided to get involved.

It may, however, be transformed into an issue for the radical right--with our fair mayor pronouncing it a done deal on Tuesday--he is not even up for reelection this year!

Will we soon see this story on the national circuit? Will Bill O'Reilly denounce opposition to this idea as a satanic attack on the moral foundations of our country?

As the Northwestern editorialized this morning, why not just build the memorial on private property? Or will the mayor dig in his heel and waste our time and money on this issue?

Oshkosh Northwestern - Controversy continues over Christmas Box Angel statue

Facebook and campus culture

This article in the Birmingham News is about the 3 men who were charged with a string of church burnings in Alabama last week.

The interesting aspect is the discussion of all the information that they posted on facebook.com. The article points out that the site glorifies drinking and partying, making it a defining feature of a college experience.

I got interested, so I registered for facebook as a faculty member (you just need a uwosh ID) and I can see that UWO is no different. As you page through the list of students, you can see photos of their drinking. It also contains all sorts of chatter about when the next party is going to be, what sorts of tv shows they like to watch, and their hobbies.

There is a space for majors and classes that they are in, but clearly that is not the point of the site.

Unfortunately, it looks like another way that college culture is defeating the purpose of our institution. Surveys tell us that students do hardly any homework these days, and facebook reinforces that impression.

Along with the problem of C's, how do we address the larger cultural problems of general disregard for the purpose of a university education?

Cyberspace postings highlight students' false sense of security

High Tuition drives students out of Wisconsin

Okay, so I don't really know that this is the reason, but the National Center for Education Statistics reported that in 2000, Wisconsin had a net inflow of over 1500, but in 2004, that had changed to an outflow of about 1000.

That means it was a swing of 2500 over those 4 years. The most significant change here has been the massive tuition increases, especially for out-of-state students.

It seems pretty clear to me that it isn't the cold or the quality, but the ever increasing price that is starting to price Wisconsin higher education out of the market!


Inside Higher Ed :: Heading South

Grade Inflation and the 'gentleman's C'

Tony Palmeri attempted to start a discussion last week about the need for the university to re-establish the C as a viable grade here on campus. He noted that he gave a large number of students Cs for a speech in his class. This generated great anger and anxiety among the students, even more than from those who received lower grades.

He points out that this did not always used to be the case and perhaps we should rehabilitate the grade. We could call it the "Bush/Kerry C," in honor of the last election.

There were only two responses to his post. Alice Kyberg wondered if it would force more students to drop out and David Jones suggested not.

Tony's post seems worthy of discussion, as we have all thought about both grade inflation and student quality during our teaching careers.

One way to really make this into a more substantial discussion would be to have some statistics. Is there any public record of grade point by department or even by faculty member? I am sure people know, but have we seen any real comparisons?

At one college where I taught, everyone's individual grade point (i.e. average grade for your classes) was distributed to the rest of the faculty. Thus, you always knew how your grading policy related to the rest of the institution. I think that the point was to keep grade points in check. If so, it seemed to work. No one was way out of line in terms of averages.

One might argue that class composition can change dramatically, but over time, I would have to imagine that this kind of data would help us have a serious discussion about grade inflation.

We all can think of the stereotypes of science versus humanities grades, but it would make our discussion better if we knew if it was true here.

Personally, I have capitulated on the C front myself, giving large numbers of BCs in my classes. I think that it does have a lot to do with what Tony has suggested: the additional grief generated by giving Cs is not really worth it. My over-all average would be just about that--I would guess about an 82.

What would happen if I changed my grading policy? Individually, I imagine my enrollments might be hurt. Institutionally, would it encourage students to work harder or change the intellectual atmosphere? Would we lose more students who are only skating by now? Would the administration stand for that?

I think it would be more reflective of the work many of my students do to give more Cs. It would increase the pressure on students who plan to on for more education, or get into Nursing/Business/Education. It would also give more space to differentiate between students. Maybe I should toughen up. Anyone want to join me?

Spending limits = big tuition hikes

Not that this is any surprise, but at least the regents are speaking out early against TABOR 2.

It is clear to them (as it is to most people) that tuition will continue to go up if the state continues to cut support to our universities.

The republican sponsor says that UWs aren't too expensive, and that all that debt that students have is because of bad financial management.

Regents say spending limit would result in big tuition hikes | The Janesville Gazette | Janesville, Wisconsin, USA

Arizona senate rejects "opt out" bill

In good news for academia, the Arizona senate sensibly rejected the law that would have given students the right to demand alternative assignments for anything they found offensive.

The bill made it out of committee a few weeks ago, but a few sensible senators realized that this was quite the extremist bill.

As a side note, Tony Palmeri and commenter "Diamond Dave" are having an extended conversation about faculty due process (2 posts down), so don't miss it!

Welcome to the Tucson Citizen

A-T covers the new retake policy

Stephanie Barnard, blogger in her own right, has written a story for the A-T about the problematic new retake policy.

From the story we learn that the policy was presented to the faculty and academic staff senates and they approved it. As I have complained all along, there was abolutely no campus discussion of this change.

As I think about it, it strikes me that this policy must have something to do with retention rates. The advising staff hopes that letting our worst students stand first in line to retake classes may keep them in school longer.

My bet is that if the faculty had any real input on this policy, it would not have been changed. Is there one member of the teaching faculty out there who supports it? No one has written here and no one could be found for the AT story.

Advance Titan Online

The COLS-wide faculty meeting

I have been meaning to write about the COLS meeting that occurred about a week and a half ago. From what I have heard, it was pretty pathetic.

The agenda for the meeting was to discuss some COLS input to the strategic plan ("Suggested Priorities for the Academic Plan"). No more that 30 people showed up to watch the faculty committee praise themselves on what a great job they had done putting it together.

There was apparently only a bit of discussion over various phrasing and weighting. Also, there was a small disagreement about whether assessment numbers should be added to the plan. A couple of people thought using assessment data would help strengthen some of the desires in the plan. One person suggested that inserting assessment data would only play into the hands of administrators.

Dean Zimmerman was sick, so he was a fairly sedate presence and I haven't heard that he said anything particularly striking.

The meeting represents one of the biggest problems on our campus. Where is significant and real faculty input? The one meeting which had a large turn out last year was completely ignored by the adminstration. This meeting dealt with how best to shuffle some bureaucratic nonsense requested by the administration.

It is true that the faculty committee placed the 9 course load on the top of our academic goals, but that will probably work as well as the petition did last year.

We have really abdicated any responsibility for playing a significant role in the decisions made on this campus. It may be that Wells, Earns and Zimmerman are doing such a fine job that no one has any disagreements, but how would one ever know?

Why is it that the faculty committee and the faculty senate seem to have no real power and no real agenda? Shouldn't we be intimately involved in shaping the path of our institution's future. The first universities were collectives governed by faculty, ours has become a hierarchical bureaucracy with top-down decision making.

Suggestions? How can we gain back some control over our college and our university?

Bea Holton raises more questions about retake policy

Bea Holton posted a new question to the COLS list about the retake policy. It increases my doubts that we ever had a full accounting of this policy before it was passed by "our" faculty senate:

Here is here question:

Some of our courses are set up so that a student must earn a C or above to continue in a sequence. Yet my understanding is that students who receive a CD will not be able to repeat that class. Will they find themselves in an impossible position where they can't repeat the class but they can't move forward?

Seems odd that the chair of the biology department would not know the answer to such an important question BEFORE a policy comes into effect.

High school teacher suspended for criticizing Bush

From the heart of Horowitz country (Colorado, the first state leg. to consider his bill), a high school geography teacher was suspended after a student taped his anti-Bush rant.

This should give the idea of taping your professors a boost -- look at the power it gives the taper!



Teacher Probed Over Bush Remarks - CBS News

The journal-sentinal editorial board agrees with me!

Yesterday, the Journal-Sentinal editorialized that the UW system is much better than the public's perception of it.

They marshall a few statistics to help make the case about the cost and quality of our state's higher education system.

If only there were cooler heads in Madison, but I wouldn't count on it--especially not in an election year!


JS Online:Editorial: Getting beyond perception

UW system capitulates to Christianists

RAs to be allowed to intimidate their charges, as long as they don't whack them over the head with a bible.

UW administrators apparently it is not worth the trouble to stand up to the anti-UW christianists when it comes to separation of church and state.

I suppose they won't mind me recruiting students for religious study in my office (do you think the wink/wink extra credit I shouldn't really promise will work?)



Inside Higher Ed :: Wisconsin's Battle of the Bible

Study: Reading Key to College Success

ACT is selling complex reading tests, but I feel like their point is well taken. Most Freshmen can not handle the complex reading that is asked of them at college.

High school students are not learning how to read and, thus, are facing trouble when they get to college.

I had a student confess to me just today that he didn't really read. It was part of him asking if he could get special treatment on the midterm. I told him he should talk to the people at Project Success, to see if he qualified for extra help.

Study: Reading Key to College Success

Letter to Editor attacks Zimmerman

As we know, the Northwestern likes to quickly print letters attacking UW employees and bury the positive ones. Here is the daily Christianist dose, in the form of an attack on Michael and his national campaign to remind people that science and religion are not antagonists.

The writer attacks our Dean for using university resources to spread his "Darwinian religion of humanism."

How dare a biologist try to convince others that the information that he has researched and tested is actually true!?! and on university time, at that!



Oshkosh Northwestern - Letters: Oshkosh West generates excitement, enthusiasm

40 felons work for UW system

I'm sure the next poll will find that the public has caught this irrellevant fact and holds against us as well. Expect big headlines for this across the state.

40 employees, all of whom I am sure are not illegally escaped from jail, have been convicted of felonies. With the exception of 3 people who are still manuvering through the system's appeals process, all of these people have served their sentences .

I am sure the people who don't believe in rehabilitation will be shocked that any of these people have jobs with the state. UW haters will surely be repeating this story at their campaign rallies.

JS Online: DayWatch

I did a quick google search and sure enough, here is the press release about how shocked a couple of Republicans are. More UW bashing news to follow. . . .

New Retake Policy Announced -- Rewards Failure

Steve Szydlik posted the following information to the COLS list today:

"New Repeat Policy for Fall 2007
Beginning in Fall 2007, the University's undergradate repeat policy will change. Undergraduate students will be able to register for repeated classes at their regular registration date; they will no longer need to wait till 30 days before classes begin. However, undergraduates will only be able to repeat classes in which they received a CD or lower grade. Graduate students should contact their program or Graduate Studies Office regarding their repeat policy."

The new policy seems to add incentives for failure. If a student does not get a really low grade in the class, they will not be allowed to retake it. Perverse incentives for the college.

I am personally more upset about the removal of the 30 day rule. Forcing students who want to retake to wait until those who haven't taken the classes have a chance is a really good idea. Now, more seats will be taken up by students who have failed in previous semesters. It really punished students who are earlier in their career to benefit students who have not been able to handle the course earlier.

Zimmerman had often expressed the position that the 30 day rule was very important to him, but it seems to have disappeared with nary a whimper.

How was this decision made, anyway? Did the faculty senate vote for this? I don't remember getting any information about this sort of change. Perhaps this is just another moment of "shared governance" at UWO, where the administration changes the rules without bothering to tell the whole faculty.

Let's continue the dumbing down of Oshkosh--it should keep our retention numbers up and that is what is all about, after all!

Residents think UW stinks

Read the report about how the UW haters have won the propaganda war and most in Wisconsin think the system is wasteful.

It gives a pretty good idea about how badly the UW system has played politics throughout the last few years!


JS Online:Survey scalds UW System

Madison produces most CEOs and Peace Corp Volunteers

Here is a nice pro-UW Madison article in the Capitol Times. The editor points out the great things that are happening at Madison and wonders how the anti-UW legislators can ignore all of our successes.


madison.com

Gubernatorial candidate Walker :Break up UW system

In some sort of debate on right-wing talk radio in Milwaukee, County Exec Scott Walker suggested that breaking up the system might be good thing:

JS Online: DayWatch

I am not so sure that he is wrong. System mostly seems to be causing trouble in recent times. I wonder how things worked before system existed.

Stew Buries Letter to the Editor in defense of Palmeri

I just noticed this little post from Stew's new criticism -free blog site. He posted a letter to his site, with his own, brief response "No commentary necessay."

Whatever that mean, the Northwestern is back to its standard tricks of ignoring the letters that raise criticism of its practices.

They find it more fun to print irrelevant letters from the same old loudmouths.

Then they can ignore the substantive problems in their journalistic practices.

Oshkosh Northwestern - Northwestern Five Rivers complaint (Feb. 16)

UPDATE: Retired UWO Professor is letter author

Babblemur and Tony Palmeri both let me know that Sandra Gade, the author of the letter to the editor below, is a long-time professor in the physics department, who retired in the late 1990s.

What an interesting twist! A Christianist physics professor lurking outside biology class rooms, sniffing for the scent of evolutionary theory. Why does she know what books are being used in the biology department?

It seems a bit strange for a physicist to attack biologists, because the Christianists are going after her discipline too. Think about the 24 year old snot at NASA who was telling senior scientists that they were not allowed to present their research. He also forced NASA to change their webpages to reflect the administration's political biases. No big bang for Christianists! How soon before they turn on Galileo and demand that we teach that the sun goes around the earth?

Babblemur did a literature search and turned up an article she wrote, where she said that the chemistry of living organisms is too complex to explain. She hasn't been keeping up with the literature (there are some very cool experiments that show how the processes she describes might come about), but do you really expect Christianists to do so? I love the line about evolution as a minor religion of the 21st century!

Here is the link.

Spying on Professors Here!

Did anyone else notice the creepy letter to the editor in Sunday's paper. Some person wrote complaining about a textbook used in a biology class.

Who is this author? Is she a student in the class? Is she some sort of Christianist provocateur that cruses bookstores looking to attack professors? Is the professor giving her a bad grade because she refuses to accept the very premise of modern biology and medicine?

It is a very specific attack, even giving the publication date of the book.

Regardless of the idiocy of the claims about evolution, I wonder if we are now going to see the public "outing" of professors who disagree with Christianists on the pages of the local newspaper.



Fifth Letter Down: Biology textbook promotes atheism

Northwestern Runs Palmeri story

I am sure Tony has posted this himself, but it is worth linking to here.

Here is today's story

Interestingly enough, the newspaper didn't get a hold of anyone in the UW adminstration, even though they promise more details than the blogosphere. It almost looks like they didn't directly talk to Tony about this.

They interview Gordon Hintz and Burk Tower. They both said they had discussed with their supervisory types. Somehow, the Provost's warning isn't relevant if they have talked with less important administrators.

It appears that there is nothing to dispute Palmeri's claim that he was singled out by the administration, for some unknown reason. Perhaps the administration will explain themselves, but I doubt it.

Arizona Senate Panel Wants to Ban Controversy

A panel in arizona passed through a bill that would force alternate assignments any time a student is offended for any reason.

And I though Horowitz was an extremist--can you imagine what this would do to colleges in Arizona or anywhere else? We might as well close up shop and go home!

Inside Higher Ed :: Avoid Whatever Offends You

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.''