Well's shrewdly responds to Barrett visit

After the story of Barrett's visit ran on the front page of the Northwestern today, Wells went into damage-control mode and is going to try to turn his visit into a campus-wide learning experience. The most interesting part is that we are inviting a speaker who will talk about why people believe strange things.

I think that this is a great response--the chancellor is handling the situation as well as he can! Here is Well's press release:

Campus Greens, a recognized UW Oshkosh student organization, has invited Kevin Barrett to speak at a program it has scheduled for Oct. 26 at the theatre at Reeve Memorial Union, a student fee-funded building. No state or taxpayer dollars will be used for the program. Members of the campus community will decide on their own whether or not to attend.

We will take all necessary steps to ensure a safe, civil and tolerant setting for the student-sponsored event, which also will include the showing of the controversial film, “Loose Change 2.” We will work with members of Campus Greens to make sure they follow the necessary protocols. Failure to adhere to these protocols would require me to postpone the event, and it would not be rescheduled until I am convinced we have ensured a civil environment.

Many believe that the highly controversial views of Mr. Barrett, who has said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were orchestrated by U.S. government officials to spark war in the Middle East, should not be protected by freedom of speech.

I do not in any way endorse the 9/11 ideas advocated by Mr. Barrett. In my opinion, his ideas are nonsensical. His visit, however, provides our students the opportunity to assess critically his views. Any analysis of the tragedy must conform to the most rigorous standards for scholarly analysis.

Mr. Barrett’s visit offers us a chance to reaffirm our belief that with freedom comes responsibility. Members of a university community do not have absolute freedom of speech in their official capacities. They are free to pursue academic, artistic and research agendas essential to the university mission, but they must also contribute to an open and collegial environment that promotes reasoned inquiry, intellectual honesty, scholarly competence and the pursuit of new knowledge.

Wisconsin has a long-standing tradition of academic freedom. It was eloquently summarized by Helen White of UW Madison in 1957:

“There is today a good deal of dispute over the advantages of various types of bomb shelters for our bodies. But there is no dispute over one fact, and that is that there are no bomb shelters for our minds. Indeed, I know of no readier way to disarm ourselves than to try to hide from disturbing knowledge, and, conversely, I know of no surer way to steady our nerves and find the courage we need than to take arms against a sea of rumors and alarms and by understanding end them.”

In addition, in order to provide a responsible campus environment and a rational, critical analysis of the ideas espoused by Mr. Barrett and the film “Loose Change 2,” we have planned the following events:

· During October, panels of UW Oshkosh faculty, staff and students will discuss such questions as “Why Do People Believe Weird Things?”, “What Social and Psychological Conditions Predispose People to Develop and Accept Conspiracy ‘Theories’?” and “What is the Responsible Exercise of Academic Freedom?”

· On Nov. 7 or 8, we have tentatively scheduled a public talk and classroom lectures by nationally renowned author Michael Shermer, who wrote Why People Believe Weird Things. His topics will include “How thinking goes wrong: 25 fallacies that lead us to believe weird things” and “Why smart people believe weird things.”

These events will supplement the critical thinking that takes place every day in hundreds of UW Oshkosh classes. I know that our students are entirely capable of judging the validity of Mr. Barrett’s views.

Academic freedom is inextricably linked to the equally important need to exercise responsibly that “freedom.” Anything less threatens and diminishes academic freedom. I hope members of the university community will take advantage of our faculty panel presentations and the talk by Mr. Shermer to help engage in the civil exchange of ideas guided by the best use of our critical thinking skills.

Susan McFadden in the Dean's Office

Susan McFadden was part of the interim appointment of John Koker as Dean of L and S, and took a position as "faculty liaison to the interim dean" (I wonder how big of a pay raise she gets for doing it). She sent out a memo this week describing some of her goals for the year.

Unfortunately, she has quickly taken up the role of chaperoning administrative priorities through COLS.

Project # 1: A healthcare emphasis that will stretch across several departments. It is unclear exactly what this means, except that students who are interested in health care issues will take more courses and get some sort of additional listing on their transcript. It isn't nursing, which we already have, it isn't pre-med, so is it meant to train students to be nursing home employees? Is it a supposed outlet for all the students who can't get into the nursing program? She claims it is secretly an attempt to make students work harder, but I am not sure how that is going to work . . .

Project # 2: Convince the faculty that the administration's already-in-place plan for a Freshman experience course is a good idea. We saw what happened when Petra Roter tried to defend the program last Spring. Someone hopes that McFadden will do a better job convincing us of the usefulness of this class.

Project # 3: Shakespeare on the Fox. Now here is a better initiative. Bring an important literary tradition to campus and bring the community into the intellectual life of the university. She wants people to volunteer to give talks on their expertise that relate to the project. Step up and do your part!

She leaves us with the strange metaphor of a "gift" of an interim year. Perhaps I haven't been around long enough to know that COLS works better without a long-term dean. Perhaps this is a dig at Michael. If it is such a gift not to have a dean, lets turn the position into one held internally on short-term contracts.

I don't know what to make of her approach to this position. I have a lot of respect for McFadden, and I hope that she will not become the latest administrator who thinks she knows better than the faculty as a whole.

Barrett coming to Campus

The campus greens have invited Barrett to come to campus in October. I am posting the information left in a comment below.

As much as I believe in academic freedom, dragging out Barrett all over the place is not the way to demonstrate the seriousness of our scholarship and bolster our reputation as a solid academic environment.

The major speakers that get invited to campus are almost invariable of this fluff. Perhaps if we had a series of well-respected academics, instead of provocateurs, we might draw the academically-minded, instead of the party-minded new students. . .

The UW Oshkosh Campus Greens are sponsoring the following event in the University Theater on Thursday, October 26 from 6pm - 9pm. The plan is to show Loose Change 2 at 6:00pm. The movie is 1 hour 29 minutes and discusses several ideas regarding the events that took place on 9/11.

Kevin Barrett will then offer a presentation at 7:45pm about Academic Freedom and outrageous actions of many state politicians.

Board doesn't take Barrett Bait

The Winnebago county board voted down a proposal to cut funding for UW extension the equivalent of Barrett's pay down at Madison. It is nice to see that they did this, but it is an amazing tactic of the right to keep this topic alive.

I don't think that legislators down in Madison will be this kind when the system budget comes up, however. We have become the easiest target in the entire state!

Here is the story from the Northwestern.

I'll add this link to Inside Higher Ed, to read about the tempest-in-a-teapot generated in New Hampshire by another prof. who questioned the offical line on 9/11

Wells responds to quality discussions

Chancellor Wells sent this long memo to the university community. He has apparently cut and pasted all of the promotional material he has been using over the last year into the message.

After looking over the letter, it doesn't seem that he addresses any of the comments that have been flowing over this or the other discussion directly. And unfortunately, the letter starts with the fact that we are growing and he wants us to keep growing (while not increasing full-time faculty).

I don't accept the argument that growth is the factor that determines improvement, but that is the line the chancellor continues to push. Where are the quality initiatives? Where is the desire to get faculty/student ratios down to the others in the system, let alone higher status institutions? Where is the understanding that a quality university is based on significant interactions between students and faculty, not having a swanky new facility for the athletes?

Will Wells acknowledge that there are obvious problems that need to be addressed or will he continue to be a snake-oil salesman?

August 28, 2006



TO: University Community

FROM: Richard H. Wells, Chancellor

Lane R. Earns, Provost and Vice Chancellor

RE: The Constant Pursuit of Educational Quality and Distinctiveness at UW Oshkosh



Recently a dialogue has emerged on campus about the quality, distinctiveness and reputation of UW Oshkosh. This is a discussion that the Provost and I welcome. We believe that while we must remain open to “brutal facts” and squarely face the related challenges, we must also recognize and be proud of our progress and the outstanding accomplishments of our faculty, staff and students. In this memo, we want to bring some of these accomplishments to your attention and explain what we are doing to address the issue of the University’s reputation.



As you know, we are entering the final phase of accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission. In preparation for our HLC report, we will also be re-examining our Key Operational Plans and participating in UW System Equity Scorecard Project. The entire process will allow a detailed inspection of quality on our campus.



At UW Oshkosh, we are always working on improving the quality of education that we provide and building upon our reputation. We have clear evidence that we are an outstanding institution.



For those of you who would like an extensive examination of our progress, we suggest that you take the time to review the University’s Strategic Plan updates, critiques and annual reports. (see www.uwosh.edu/strategicplan) For those interested in a more abbreviated version, we have noted below some accomplishments between 2000 and 2005 for your perusal:



We have larger enrollments and FTE, and we have increased the number of students of color, degrees conferred and the retention rates for our first-year students:

* Headcount enrollment has increased by 6.2% (726) to more than 12,000 students (11,000 on campus);
* FTE enrollment has increased by 9.4% (873);
* Enrollment of students of color has increased by 240, up 58%, the largest percentage increase among the UW System’s eleven comprehensive universities;
* Enrollment of older students has increased by 5.5%, the largest percentage increase among the UW System’s eleven comprehensive universities;
* Credit-to-degree has decreased by 3%;
* Degrees conferred have increased from 1,712 to 1,856, up 8.4%; and
* Retention rates for first-year students have improved from 70.8% to 76.8%.



We have secured more grants and more private dollars than ever before:

* Grant dollars have increased from $3.7 to $11.7 million, up 216%;
* Foundation gifts and pledges have increased from $1.7 to $4.9 million annually;
* Funding was identified for 80 no-cost Academic Excellence Scholarships; and
* UWO Foundation total net assets have increased by 82% ($7.2 - $13.1 million) from 2002 – 2006, while total assets nearly tripled going from $7.4 to $19.2 million.



We have raised the level of academic preparedness of our first-year students:

* 3.4% more are from the top 10% of their high school class;
* 11.1% more are from the top 25% of their high school class; and
* Academic Excellence and National Merit scholars increased from 44 to 92, up 109%.



We have expanded support programs for student, faculty and staff development:

* New Student Compact provides $1,000,000 annually through differential tuition to enhance and integrate student academic support services;
* Faculty Compact launched a new teaching and learning program; and
* New Leadership development programs for faculty, academic staff and classified staff have been implemented.



We have added new academic majors and significantly increased baccalaureate degree completion programs:

* New undergraduate majors in Theatre Arts, Athletic Training and Environmental Studies;
* New accelerated Math and Science Teacher Education Program in collaboration with five UW Colleges;
* New Bachelor of Fire, Emergency and Response Management Degree;
* New collaborative Master’s Degree in Social Work with UW Green Bay;
* Eleven new Graduate Certificate Programs;
* Accelerated Bachelor’s Degree Program for non-nursing graduates, as well as a MBA foundations online program; and
* The state’s only “2 plus 2” Aeronautics Bachelor’s Degree Program.



We have enhanced our facilities by completing $75 million worth of capital building projects with another $100 million of projects on the near horizon:

* Acquired funding and completed $1.8 million of classroom and lab upgrades (including funding for a major renovation of the Aquatic Research Laboratory);
* Purchased and renovated a 30,000 sq. ft. building for Academic Support Services and a new Women’s Center;
* Convinced the State to earmark funds for the Fall 2005 purchase of a 36 acre addition to our riverfront campus;
* Have undertaken a campus beautification project including landscaping, lighting and signage;
* Are constructing a new $21 million Student Health and Wellness Center (to be opened in 2007);
* Authorized the purchase and renovation of the Newman Center and Credit Union buildings by the UWO Foundation;
* Unveiled a new parking plan, with first 400 car parking ramp to be opened in the Fall of 2007;
* Completed $3.5 million of the planned $5.7 million transformation of the Oshkosh Sports Complex, as well as a $1.0 million improvement of Kolf Sports Center;
* Completed a $13 million renovation of Taylor Hall; and
* Received authorization from the State to place a new $48 million Academic Building on the high priority new construction list to be planned in 2005-2007 and constructed in 2007-2009. The State has already released $1.2 million for design costs.



We have won national recognition for our commitment to “green” principles by using EPA LEED building design standards, by decreasing negative environmental impacts through the conservation of water and energy, by reducing pollution, and by recycling:

* Reduced water consumption by 24,484,000 gallons/year, a savings of $130,986;
* Reduced energy consumption by 563,017 kilowatt hours, a savings of $27,600/year;
* Reduced emissions of coal/natural gas boilers by constructing a $2.8 million heat plant stack;
* Renovated rather than demolished existing buildings to minimize contributions to landfills;
* Reused light poles resulting in more energy efficiency and less light pollution, a $300,000 savings;
* Received the 2003 EPA Leadership Award, one of the first 11 ever presented to a university; and
* Received the 2004 National Wildlife Federation Award, the 2005 Energy Star Award, and the 2006 Wisconsin Clean Air Award.



We have been recognized as a national model for developing and highlighting exemplary campus-wide Liberal Education programs:

* Featured by the American Council on Education’s “Solutions for Our Future” at www.solutionsforourfuture.org/site/News2?JServSessionIdr002=ko4z5bgg66.app8a&page=NewsArticle&id=5867&news_iv_ctrl=1203 ;
* Lauded by the Association of American Colleges and Universities for linking their initiative entitled Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) to the ACE’s “Solutions for Our Future” campaign at www.aacu.org/aacu_news/AACUNews06/June06/news_events.cfm#LEAP2 ;
* Devoted three issues (Spring 2006, Fall 2006, and Spring 2007) of the UW Oshkosh Magazine to a three part series on the value and importance of a liberal education by featuring the outstanding accomplishments of the students, faculty, and staff that comprise our four colleges.



Additional points of pride include:

* The proposed growth agenda submitted by UW Oshkosh to support additional faculty and new programs was approved by the UW Board of Regents, and the Board will recommend to the Governor a level of funding that is higher than any other single comprehensive university in the state;
* UW Oshkosh has won more Regents’ Teaching Excellence Awards than any other UW institution. Three individual faculty members and three departments have been awarded this recognition;
* UW Oshkosh’s recruitment program, which has dramatically increased undergraduate student diversity, won the State Council on Affirmative Action 2005 Diversity Award;
* UW Oshkosh has had the most successful Model United Nations Program in the nation for two decades running;
* Since 1999, the College of Nursing graduate students’ pass rate on the American Nurses Credentialing Center-Family Nurse Practitioner Exam has been 100 percent;
* Senior business majors at UW Oshkosh taking the ETS business knowledge assessment test have ranked in the top 5 percent nationwide.
* UW Oshkosh students who took the CPA exam placed the university in the top 10 schools nationally;
* Since 1990, 35 UW Oshkosh graduates have gone on to be awarded the Herb Kohl Teacher of the Year Award;
* More special education teachers graduate from UW Oshkosh than any other UW institution;
* Our students volunteer approximately 65,000 hours each year in service to the community;
* Productions and scripts by UW Oshkosh radios-TV-film students have won 21 grand prizes in National Broadcasting Society competitions;
* The Advance-Titian has won the top national award for student newspapers four times;
* UW Oshkosh has won 37 national championships, including 23 NCAA Division III competitions;
* UW Oshkosh sponsors the largest annual Earth Charter community summit in the world. The Earth Charter promotes ecological integrity, social and economic justice, and democracy, nonviolence and peace; and
* UW Oshkosh has received the Governor’s Top Special Minority Business Award for the past three years.



Given the recent budget cuts by the State, the scope of accomplishments noted above is astonishing, and represents a tribute to the unity, vigor, and dedication of our students, faculty, and academic and classified staff members. By focusing our resources on identified priorities, we have been able to accomplish many remarkable feats during the past five years.



While we can thus speak with confidence and pride of the quality and distinctiveness of UW Oshkosh, efforts must continue to enhance our reputation beyond the campus boundaries. In response to this need, we are revamping our currently inconsistent, uneven, and highly decentralized communications and marketing activities. Our image and reputation are not aligned with the quality of our academic community, and this “brutal fact” is being addressed by the Integrated Marketing Team that was charged on February 17, 2006 to help focus the University’s image/brand in an honest and ethical way, and to enhance public awareness, appreciation and accessibility. Professor Birgit Leisen Pollack and Susan Neitzel are the team co-captains. The full membership and six-page charge can be found at http://www.uwosh.edu/chancellor/documents/TeamCharge-Goals-Roles-Responsibilities.doc . A draft of this plan will be filed and input will be solicited at numerous campus presentations this fall.



We are currently completing the search for an Executive Director of Integrated Marketing and Communication. You may recall that when Robin Asbury vacated her Director of University Relations position, we did not fill it in order to help meet our budget challenges. We did, however, dramatically revise the nature of the position and change the title to Executive Director of Integrated Marketing and Communication. The Search Committee, chaired by Professor James Tsao and Professor Birgit Leisen Pollack , has done outstanding work and, consequently, we have three excellent finalists for this important position.



In addition, the College of Business has opened a satellite center in Green Bay and we are in the final stages of opening a satellite UW Oshkosh office in Milwaukee. These “out-of-town” sites will enhance awareness of UW Oshkosh.



Regarding the issue of rankings of higher education institutions, we believe in measuring and evaluating our performance and in holding ourselves accountable; however, we agree with the August 16, 2006 NY Times editorial that states, “rank colleges, but rank them right.” This attitude is doubly important now given that the recently released draft of the Spellings Commission Report on the Future of Higher Education recommends that colleges and universities use standardized testing to assess student learning in terms of outputs. It is clearly time for colleges and universities to step up to the plate and take responsibility for carefully accessing the relationship between student experience and student learning if we are to identify value added in a way that that would respect the diversity of student and social needs.



One step in this direction is our participation in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which unlike the US News & World Report rankings measures output. Our latest NSSE results have improved and will be shared and discussed during the fall semester. Another is our plan to facilitate further campus-wide dialogue by supporting a Faculty College on the evaluation of higher education, centered on the Spellings Commission Report on the Future of Higher Education, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), and other ranking systems, such as those found in US News & World Report.



In closing, the following are examples of initiatives that we will support over the course of the coming year that will continue our commitment to enhance the quality and distinctiveness of our academic community.



University Initiatives, Programs and Projects:

Center for Scholarly Teaching

University Honors Program (increased support)

American Democracy Project (increased support)

Office of International Education (increased support)

Campus-wide Sustainability Team

Black History Project

Institute for the Study of Religion, Violence and Memory



College Initiatives:

COLS (Health Care Emphasis, minor in Social Justice, major in Bimolecular Science, and Informational Research Methods)

COBA (Family Business Center and CASPER)

COEHS (Special Education Outreach, Collaborative Baccalaureate with UW Sheboygan)

CON (Laboratory Simulations, Clinical Simulations, and International Partnerships)



We hope the ideas and information provided above are of some value as we continue to engage in a transparent exchange of ideas and actions focused upon adding value to all members of this wonderful academic community. It is not possible in this memo to enumerate the many individual accomplishments of the faculty, academic staff, and classified staff. As you know the annual reports, the UW Oshkosh Magazine, the Bulletin, and the numerous press stories detail the every day excellence of our faculty, academic staff, and classified staff. The Opening Day activities will provide another opportunity to celebrate individual achievements.



We look forward to seeing you during the Opening Day ceremonies and to continuing our dialogue on the important issues of quality, distinctiveness and reputation at UW Oshkosh.


Chancellor Richard Wells
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Discussion of rankings continues on the list

Discussion has raged the last few days, continuing with the basic themes I mentioned in my earlier posts. Mike Lizotte has been arguing that the ratings benefit private colleges, not state institutions, so we shouldn't give them too much credence.

Others have suggested we need a plan to improve our institution.

Jonathon Gutow makes the best argument (because he basically agrees with me). He argues that class size is the biggest issue, but there is very little that we can do. We can abandon our research and teach more students or we need a large infusion of cash to hire new staff to get our ratios back down to our comparable institutions.

The first one is not very palatable, since UWO, I think, has established quite a strong research base, which is also one of the cores of higher education.

The second is completely unfathomable. We know that the legislature is not going to find extra money to hire more staff, unless we can show 'growth.' Tuition is already rising astronomically, so there is no hope that students could help fund this project.

That leaves us between a rock and a hard place. Could we play the statistics, and get our ratings up. Would that get us more money? Is there a way to attract higher ranked students without spending more?

I'm stumped as I type this. . .

Here are some statistics about how bad we are!

From the UW system promotional material sent out to parents (thanks to Bill Wresch for the link)

We have the highest average class size (32). We have the highest percentage of lower division classes over 100 students, the lowest percentage of upper-division classes under 30.

We have the second lowest percentage of full-time faculty teaching classes (55%) among our peer schools (excluding Madison, Milwaukee, and the Colleges).

We do a little better with our student body, falling in the middle of the UWs, though we have the smallest percentage of students from the top 10% of their high school class.

Wow--if only our alumni giving rate were better, we'd be a pearl among universities!

UWO fails in US News ratings: faculty upset

The discussion list has been fairly active this week, as many members of the university community discuss the fact that UWO rates very poorly in the U.S. News ratings that were just released.

Most of the discussion has focused on the gimmicky nature of the survey, that gives emphasis to small class sizes (that's terrible they emphasize that!) and alumni giving (of which UWO has none).

We'll surely hear no talk about this from the administration--instead we only hear about the need to keep biggering and biggering (to borrow a line from Dr. Seuss).

It is pathetic to see a discussion about how we can game U.S. News and not address the significant academic shortcomings on our campus.

USNews.com: America's Best Colleges 2007: Universities-Master's (Midwest): Top Schools

Regents vote for big spending increases

The regents met yesterday and approved a big request to the legislature. This is not particularly surprising.

As I think about it, I find myself quite ambivalent about it. If the legislature approves the additional money for UWO, we get stuck with the ridiculous Bachelor of Applied Studies degree. It goes towards the goal of expanding the university, not alleviating any problems that we already have. It will not really address our class size problems. The students quoted don't realize that the new money won't actually help them with the issues they raise. If we get the money, all we'll hear is about how lucky and flush with resources we are!

The second issue, of course, is how deeply the legislature will cut us in the next budget cycle. The threats from republican legislators who hate the system have been flying for months. Will they decide to vote us more money? I wouldn't hold your breath!


Oshkosh Northwestern - UW Regents include $3.4 million increase for UWO in budget

Is our new class ready for college?

ACT reports that only 28% of wisconsin ACT takers are ready for college work in the four areas that they test. I wonder what the percentage for UWO is?

Journal-Sentinal graphic appended below:


JS Online: Graphic

FOXNews.com on the liberal arts

You can read the fox news "exclusive" on whether college students should focus on a profession or the liberal arts.

Most interesting data: 64% of those surveyed see college as preparing students for a specific career. This is an unfortunate lack of communication on our part.

As the liberal arts college interviewees in the article argue, college should be about learning to think and write. The specific job skills may be added on top of that, but should not be the major focus of a student's time in college!


FOXNews.com - Choosing a College: Liberal Arts vs. Professional Training - College Life | Guide | Universities

Christian groups demand right to discriminate on campus. Will racists be next?

This story has been all over the news in the last few weeks and I have been meaning to make a comment, so here it is:

Christian groups are pushing very hard to force universities to give recognition and funding to them. They want access to university facilities and money, but want to be able to restrict membership to those who believe as they do.

They argue that it is a violation of their right to free assembly not to have access to university facilities and seem to have found a judge in southern illinois that agrees with them.

They should ask themselves if this isn't a slippery slope. Will they sit idly by when a racist group decides to ask for university recognition for a group that will exclude all people of color? How about groups that exclude everyone of a different gender? Are these okay too?

The university anti-discrimination rules are meant to make campuses a welcoming place--I suppose if we want our universities to be filled with little gated, frightened communities that refuse to admit one another, as some Christian groups demand, we are headed down the right path.

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 08/11/2006 | Official apologizes for mishandling Knights of Columbus announcement

Standardized testing coming our way?

The federal panel that has been studied higher education issued its report today. It seems as though there was little agreement, except for the idea that we are unaccountable.

Many seemed to think that standardized testing would solve the problem of college standards. Since the current administration loves standardized testing for k-12, can it be long before we see legislation aimed in this direction?



Panel’s Report Urges Higher Education Shake-Up - New York Times

Profs are responsible for grade inflation, says this writer

Here is another article discussing the problems of grade inflation. He argues that we are shirking our duties by succumbing to the ease of giving lots of Bs.

He does raise the real issue of collective action, but can't provide any solution, suggesting only that we have lost public confidence because of our dropping standards.

There is a lot of truth in what Mr. Gordon has to say, but it doesn't address the real outside pressures on us from administrators and students.


The Chronicle: 8/11/2006: When B's Are Better

Survey says some are suspicious about 9-11

As the Barrett story continues to make national news, the Journal-Sentinal ran a story that reports a survey that more than 1/3 of those polled had suspicions about the U.S. government's role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

This story was matched by an a-p story (which also ran in the Northwestern) describing a few members of the group of which Barrett is a member.



JS Online:Survey says some are suspicious about 9-11

Another take on Rate my professors. com

Here is another impression about ratemyprofessors.com, as it seems to generate endless discussion about the anonymous comments.

Is it really like being a contestant on American Idol?

Inside Higher Ed :: RateMyProfessors -- or His Shoes Are Dirty

Barrett saga continues to bubble

Google aggregated a whole series of news stories about Barrett. I hadn't been paying much attention, but my earlier post about the end to the saga were clearly premature.

61 legislators have signed a letter demanding Barrett be fired and are threatening funding for the system:
(Here is one version of the story)

Not surprisingly, Bill O'Reilly is using his show to attack Barrett and the UW (Here is the link)

In some sort of e-mail campaign, Barrett challenged UW-hater Steve Nass to a debate about 9/11, which Nass called 'silly' (This link)


Madison professors respond to Fish and others:
The Capital Times

Make room for our students

The Journal Sentinal makes a plea for more money for higher education in Wisconsin. They, of course, emphazize that UW-Milwaukee should get more, but the point is well taken!



JS Online:Editorial: Make room for our students

Stanley Fish on Barrett

The NYT (reg. required) published an editorial by Stanley Fish today, arguing that both sides are incorrect in their positions about academic freedom.

He argues that the key issue is freedom to do your job without external interference--in this case objectively studying the causes of 9/11--but no freedom for prostyletizing.

Sexism in science

I really enjoyed this interview with a scientist who had a sex change operation -- from man to woman -- who discusses the casual mistreatment of women students by their instructors!

Here is the link from the sunday NYT (bugmenot.com)

Barrett saga over for now

I have a feeling the Barrett story has come to an end as of yesterday. The Provost at Madison made the proper decision (and the only one he could and still maintain any vestige of academic integrity), which was to say that he wasn't going to censor Barrett's class based on his out of class comments.

This will fade away until the next funding cycle, when the anti-UW crowd will use it to whip up support for more cuts--why not punish students and the state's future for comments of one instructor?



Wisconsin State Journal

Barrett defends his theory in Milwaukee

The journal sentinal gives play to Barrett's speech in Milwaukee, and lists a few of the reasons he thinks 9/11 was an inside job.


JS Online:Lecturer denounces critics of his 9-11 teachings

Bad Boys in College

The NYTimes (Reg. required) ran a long article in the Sunday paper about underachieving college men.

Women are generally outperforming men academically in college, while increasing their relative numbers.

The 'men are slackers' is the new cultural theme at the moment. The recent movie, "Failure to Launch" makes the same kind of argument.

I am not sure there is anything to it, but it is an interesting new angle of reporting.

At Colleges, Women Are Leaving Men in the Dust - New York Times

Barrett's letter to Doyle

Here is the text of the letter.

He lists all of his favorite conspiracy theories in his "questionaire" that accompanies the short note.

WisPolitics.com

The story gets richer -- 9/11 instructor strikes back

This story gets ever better -- the instructor wrote a sarcastic letter to Doyle -- and is going to be ever more inflammatory.

He seems to be happy with the publicity he is generating, but it is bad for the rest of us. . .

Wisconsin State Journal

Student complaints about Professors

I found this interesting site--you can read about student complaints about the "indoctrination" they received from their professors.

It contains one-sided student views from all sorts of disciplines and makes amusing reading, if you are looking for a little break!

NoIndoctrination.org

Latest UW ideological controversy

I saw this on the news last week, but didn't have a good internet link to it.

A Madison PhD and temporary instructor is planning on teaching a course, which may include his view that the government was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

It is the standard right-wing fare--how dare anyone question the Bush administration and official versions of history.

Read about the UW haters, who claim that this isn't about academic freedom . . .

More bad press for UW system

Inside Higher Ed :: Investigation Over 9/11 Teachings

No Axle-Tech news

The Northwestern ran a non-story about Axletech and the university this morning.

Perhaps this is part of the river-front (non)redevelopment theme, since a university building on the Fox would probably be nicer than the axle factory.

It is also part of the planning process for our new acadmenic building. If Axletech remains where it is, the new building will not go in the location where the adminstrators would like it.

Oshkosh Northwestern - AxleTech negotiations 'silent'

New administrator to be hired??

Anonymous commenter to an earlier threat posted the information that the chancellor is preparing to hire a new administrator. This person will be "a marketing communication person (a new position) underneath the foundation director and above the university relations director." (from the comment)

Can this really be true? In these times of cuts and faculty vacancies, can our leadership believe that we would benefit by hiring another paper-pusher?

Tthere needs to be some outrage and angry protest before we let our resources be squandered like this!!!!

We are "risk-averse, frequently self-satisfied, and unduly expensive"!

The national commission on higher education issued a draft report, slamming universities a few days ago. The writers describe us essentially as a failing business that needs radical restructuring to continue.

I haven't read the whole report, but it seems like a pretty nasty attack . . . .
Inside Higher Ed :: Prose and Politics

Accreditation: A Flawed Proposal

Here is an interesting commentary about the accreditation process. It raises the much broader issue of the problems of higher education.

Professionals want to use accreditation to increase institutions standards, but the general public wants those standards to be lowered. He argues that the public wants to see their children get in and through the university without too much struggle. Higher standards make that more difficult.

The author makes a very interesting point and one to take note of as we prepare ourselves for another round of accredition that is upcoming.


Inside Higher Ed :: Accreditation: A Flawed Proposal

Can't Complete High School? Go Right to College - New York Times

Here is a very interesting story from the NYTimes (reg. required). Read about how students who haven't graduated from high school make up 2% of all college students (not including home schoolers!)

It is a story about what is happening in New York. Are such things happening here in Wisconsin?


Can't Complete High School? Go Right to College - New York Times

High Tech Cheating discussion continues

Inside higher-ed has an essay with a similar argument to that of Dvorak's. The author suggests that it is the teachers fault that they don't better understand and utilize the internet. . .


Inside Higher Ed :: Stop Chasing High-Tech Cheaters

The Cheating Debate--A Tech writer's take

John Dvorack, computer guru, doesn't see what the big deal is about using calculators in class. He also doesn't understand why students need to learn to write.

It shows a shockingly ignorant understanding of what education is all about. He argues that computers have made the need to know (and think) irrellevant. All you need to know is how to search.

He also thinks writing should be replaced by Powerpointing. It is shocking that a writer would think that the there is nothing to the process except cutting and pasting other people's ideas.

It is a interesting insight into the thinking of the technological world--why learn anything anymore, he seems to suggest, it is all on-line anyway!
Knowing What to Know—The Cheating Debate

Free Tuition for Veterans

This seems like a subject worth mentioning here. Doyle is poised to sign a bill that will give 8 semesters of higher education free to veterans.

Unfortunately, there is no mechanism for funding this, so it remains to be seen whether this is a good or bad thing for the system. Will individual schools be forced to pick up the tab? Will everyone else's tuition go up, so that students will pay for this program?

As far as the legislature goes, I would imagine they just expect us to cut costs to pay for it. Veterans will get a lower quality education, just like everyone else gets these days. . .


The Sheboygan Press - Editorial: Don't make students pay for tuition waiver for state's veterans

Dan Hoyt, our most ardent right-winger has a blog

I was googling around and I have to link to this--Dan Hoyt, who is our most outspoken right-wing Christian character on campus, has a blog. Here you can read his attack on Zimmerman and his absurd claim that evolution is a religion.

Hoyt's Opinion February 8, 2006

The Footnote Police vs. Ward Churchill

For a little light reading this afternoon on the net, you might turn to this article that argues that some of the charges leveled against Churchill are quite dubious.

The usual acrimonious discussion is attached.

Inside Higher Ed :: The Footnote Police vs. Ward Churchill

Colleges Chase as Cheats Shift to Higher Tech - New York Times

The New York Times (registration required) reports on high-tech cheating by college students. Wireless internet connections and ipods give new facets to students trying to immorally get ahead.

It is another NYTimes story without any quantitative data, but does give some interesting anecdotes!

Colleges Chase as Cheats Shift to Higher Tech - New York Times

Summer is upon us!

Whoopie!!! Yea!!! Summer is finally here. Grades have been submitted and I can turn to the other side of my work and get some research done! It will be nice to have some solid blocks of time to think and write.

I was pretty productive this semester, but there is only so much you can do between teaching, preparing to teach, and grading during the school year.

I had a decent batch of students, so the semester did not feel too onerous and I think that a few people learned something significant in my courses. Perhaps they will retain a bit of it in the years to come!

The blogging frequency may slow down, but I hope to keep my eyes and ears open to important developments on campus and beyond.

Kreibich says something nice about the UW system

I was so shocked when I read this story, I had to link to it. Rob Kreibich, implacable attacker of UW, voted against the taxpayer amendment because it would hurt higher education.

I have to praise him for making this decision, but lets hope that his incidiary rhetoric will lessen and he will work on helping us improve the quality of education in the state!

The Spectator - Taxpayer amendment stops at Senate

The Other Side of Ignorance: Ward Churchill's misconduct

It seems only fair to note that Ward Churchill has been accused of a whole lot of academic misconduct. This, of course, follows on the heals of reports of all the misrepresentations in David Horowitz's work. I suppose all extremists do such things--when you put your ideology before the facts, what do the facts matter?

The report does not call for his dismissal, but suggests a long suspension. It makes interesting reading.

Inside Higher Ed :: Truth and Consequences

Winneblogo listed on state blog list

I just discovered myself listed on the website wispolitics.com. Someone outside of oshkosh seems to have noticed the blog! I have been categorized as a left-wing blogger, so check it out. . .

WisOpinion, Wisconsin's Premier Political News Service

Academic Freedom at a Christian College

This story makes interesting reading. Patrick Henry College had 5 faculty members quit after they were not allowed to teach non-Christian texts nor question the administrations particular interpretation of Christianity.



Raw Fisher

Wells plugs the liberal arts

Chancellor Wells sent out a letter, calling our attentioin to the campaign for liberal arts laid out at the website below. Oshkosh has been highlighted there for "exemplary program." I think they mean that they are glad to see the program praised in our alumni magazine.

I am not sure exactly what our commitment is, beyond lip service. The real spokesman for the liberal arts is leaving and the chancellor seems to be speaking only about expansion and "practical" programs in his growth plan.

You should go and watch the public service ads at the site, thought, they are terrific!


Solutions for our Future.org: Solutions for Our Future

Working Students

70-80 percent of students who are enrolled work at the same time. Those who do average 30 hours a week. About 1/4 work full time.

Wow! I always knew that my students worked, but I didn't realize how much. This is a striking problem for us. How can students who work that much have a chance to do the kind of clockwork necessary to graduate with a set of skills that are worthy of a bachelors?

This is directly related to our continuing discussions about standards and retention. What kinds of standards can these students attain when they have so little time for college? If I really expect my students to do 2 hours of work outside of class for one in, where would they conceivably find the time?

No wonder students are taking so long to graduate and so few of them do! For those who are dependent on their jobs for tuition, college must look something like a vicious cycle-- pay more, work more, go deeper into debt while education becomes less important.




Here is the study itself, which is a 22 page PDF.
ACE | Center for Policy Analysis

Horowitz gets sued

In the always enjoyable (in a disheartening sort of way) David Horowitz Saga, a new twist has emerged.

Joel Beinin has sued Horowitz for putting his picture on the front of the book. He argues that Horowitz shouldn't be able to use his picture for profit, especially when he disputes the claims made about him in the book.

I don't imagine he will have any luck -- it is exactly like Fox News trying to sue Al Franken over "fair and balanced." That one was laughed out of court, and this one probably will be too.


MercuryNews.com | 05/10/2006 | Professor fights portrayal as supporter of terrorism

Wells postpones Applied Studies

Chancellor Wells posted a message to the university community today where he acknowledged the major complaints by the faculty about the Growth initiative.

First, he apologized for announcing that "University 101" course would be translated into a mandatory one. He does not, however, acknowledge that the course will not be required, only that this decision by administrators "appeared to violate the principle of shared governance." It looks a bit too much like lawyerese to me--he didn't say there will be more discussion or that the faculty might stop it from coming into being.

The second point is much less ambiguous: BAS has been removed from the program approval process pending further discussion. Thank you, Chancellor Wells!

The question for both of these is whether he will simply wait until fall or some other time and send them through the opaque governance channels without serious reconsideration of either.


Here are the relevant passages from his letter:

I was informed at the open forums that the “growth agenda” proposal included a new initiative for a required course that appeared to violate the principle of shared governance, which gives faculty primary responsibility for the curriculum. I appreciate being made aware of the fact that this course is not approved as a required course. I accept full responsibility for overlooking this error, and I want to assure you I fully respect the primary authority of faculty for the curriculum.

Also brought to my attention at the open forums were concerns about the quality and faculty input for a new degree, the Bachelor of Applied Studies. In response to these concerns, the degree program has been removed from the docket for program approval until further faculty dialogue on the subject has occurred.

Time Magazine writes about Christianists

Tony Palmeri sent along this link, where Andrew Sullivan, pundit and blogger, takes up the term I have been championing for months. I feel like such a trend setter!

He describes Christianism as an ideology, politics. He suggests we should use the term for those who use Christianity to define a precise political agenda.

I am glad that he has found the value in this term--it is important to make a distinction between those who have differing interpretations of Christianity and those who try to force their interpretations into politics.

TIME.com: My Problem with Christianism -- May 15, 2006 -- Page 1


Here is a link to his blog, where he describes his problem with the Christianist legislative agenda.

Horowitz Fact Checker

A Website entitled freeexchangeoncampus.org has posted a series of responses to the errors in David Horowitz's 101 Most Dangerous Academics.

They start with the fact that there are only 100 names on the list. It makes for some interesting reading!

Free Exchange on Campus - Horowitz Fact Checker

Stanley Fish - Students have no rights

Stanley Fish has a great blog post about the academic bill of rights. Apparently, the princeton student senate passed a version of it last week.

Here is my favorite excerpt from his essay:

One last point. Resolution 177, the Academic Bill of Rights, the Student Bill of Rights and the Princeton Student Bill of Rights all speak of the importance of promoting and protecting the academic freedom of students. What could this possibly mean? The only freedom students rightly have is the freedom to vote with their feet if they don’t like the syllabus in a particular course. They are not free to demand on the basis of “intellectual diversity” or “balance” or “pluralism” or some other specious abstraction that the syllabus be changed to suit their personal or ideological inclinations. Nor are students free to introduce into a classroom issues or perspectives that are judged by an instructor to be beside the point he or she wishes to explore. Instructors are free to say to a student, “That may be an interesting question, but it is not one we shall be asking here.”

The rhetoric of academic freedom for students is a subset of the rhetoric of student rights. But students have no rights, except the right to competent and responsible instruction. They certainly do not have any right to be instructed by a conservative teacher or a liberal teacher or a religious teacher or a white teacher or a black teacher or a teacher of any color. The idea that students have rights often accompanies the idea that students are customers and teachers, providers. Students are not customers and if we survey their preferences and alter our “product” accordingly, we will not only have betrayed our professional responsibility; we will have betrayed them.

Unfortunately, you need to be a subscriber to the NY Times to see the rest of the article:

Stanley Fish - Think Again - Politics by Any Other Name - New York Times Blog

Our own felon on campus

The Northwestern discovered a felon on campus! They have written a very nice article describing the path of criminal justice professor Stephen Richards.

If we go back to the noise raised by legislators over felons on campus, this story makes them look even more like idiots. How could one argue that Richards has no place in education?

He is an asset to campus and the UW system and proof that the knee-jerk UW haters have no clue!!

Oshkosh Northwestern - Professor applies prison experience to criminal justice study

Kreibich at it again

Kreibich and some UW hating cronies down in Madison are demanding that an ex-dean be fired.

I don't know what the details of the case are, but I am sure they don't know either.

They just love to bash the system and look for every excuse. Wisconsin would be so much a better place if it were filled with nasty uneducated types (more like themselves!)

The Associated Press

More national discussion on grade inflation

The story here is a plug for a book about how to get good grades, but becomes a discussion about grade inflation.

This fits very nicely into our continuing complaint about the low standards that seem to be part of the Applied Studies degree. The administration likes to reduced standards, so that they can keep their enrollment numbers up. We should stand against it in everyway we can.

Battling grade inflation has to be part of it!

Inside Higher Ed :: Should Professors Be Talking More (or Less) About Grades?

Also look at this link that discusses grade inflation and the way colleges market themeselves.

Growth Forum -- Any Reports?

I am afraid that I didn't make it to either of the growth forums with the Chancellor today.

Anyone want to report on what happened? Were faculty fears calmed? Did people leave these meetings feeling better about the Applied Studies degree?

Revised Movie Policy appears on Discussion List

Stephen Kercher has posted a long message, proposing that we revise the movie policy to allow films on campus again. I'll just post the complete message for now:

Dear Campus Community:


Several weeks ago I reported here that several members of the History Department were meeting with Petra Roter, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, to discuss the impact of new restrictions being placed on student groups' film series.


Last Thursday, a group of faculty from History, Foreign Languages and Communications convened with Petra and Reeve Union Director Randy Hedge to discuss the issue.


The discussion afforded all of us an opportunity to better understand how the opposing sides have formulated their perspectives. It yielded no compromise, however, since the opposing sides interpret the Copyright Act of 1976--and amendments made to it in later years--very differently.


Citing an expanding body of literature on the subject of copyright law and the opinions of legal professionals who have engaged the debate in recent times, those of us opposed to the new restrictions focus on two important sections of the law: Title 17, Section 107 and Title 17, Section 110.


Section 107 outlines conditions under which a "fair use" of a film ("for nonprofit educational purposes") might not constitute "an infringement of copyright." According to a very helpful guide provided by UW System Legal (see http://www.uwsa.edu/gc-off/deskbook/copyrgt.htm), the "fair use exception is a four-factor test that balances the rights of copyright owners in their creations against the public interest in the free exchange of ideas....Use of a copyrighted work need not satisfy all four factors to qualify as fair use; rather, the factors favoring fair use must outweigh the factors favoring obtaining permission."


Section 110 codifies a different, but equally viable exception--The Teaching Exception. Section 110 stipulates that the "performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction" is not an infringement of copyright.


Three members of the History Department have submitted to Petra a proposal for a new movie policy on campus. Anyone interested in reading a draft of the proposal may find it at: http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/history/MoviePolicyRevision.htm.


We welcome any feedback members of our community may wish to provide. Please share your thoughts with us individually or here on the listserv.


Although those who attended the meeting disagreed on many points, we shared the view that decisions affecting the pedagogy and intellectual climate of this university ought to be made after careful, respectful and transparent deliberation. And we affirmed our belief that instances of threats and intimidation--particularly when aimed at the students we teach--have no place on this campus and should never be tolerated.


Sincerely,


Stephen Kercher

The Self-Inflicted Wounds of the Academic Left

Here is a very interesting piece discussing the failures of the radical left. For this author, the key failure is that they represent only a culture of criticism and dissent. They have abandoned politics for disillusionment.

He also suggests that the pervasive culture of distrust and disgust has served the rise of the radical right. They articulate all the problems in society without providing any positive energy. The right has accepted the diagnosis and proposed its own course of treatment.

Enjoy. . .

The Chronicle: 5/5/2006: The Self-Inflicted Wounds of the Academic Left

Religion battles reemerge at Madison

UW Madison made the Journal-Sentinal today with the story of a Catholic student organization that was denied funding by the chancellor.

The fight seems to be over the large amount of money ($88,000) that the administration saw as subsidizing a church.

Read the story--I would imagine that we'll hear from the Christianists in Madison about this today--as they scream that Christians are embattled and how this proves discrimination against their kind.


JS Online:UW fee handouts again stir conflict

Happy Anniversary to Me

I just realized that it was exactly one year ago this week that I started this blog. The first topic was the petition to the administration, asking that they make sure not to increase our teaching pressures during the cycle of budget cuts.

Unfortunately, they have never offered a formal response. Do you think they ever will?

In the last year, I have spent a lot of words complaining about the unresponsiveness of our administration, and that continues in my posting today.

It is an unfortunate theme of our university's condition. Is there something wrong with us so that we are unable to have effective collective governance? Is it our current chancellor and provost or have things been like this for decades?

I hope that the next year will bring happier blogging, but then again, if I wanted a happy blog, I might have signed my name !!!

Faculty Committee expresses dismay at Growth Agenda

The Faculty committee has seconded my complaints about the content of the COLS meeting last week.

They politely point out that the administration seems to be changing the curriculum with no discussion from the faculty.

My feeling is that they think that if one or two faculty members sit on a committee, that is enough faculty involvement. They never bother to bring proposals to the faculty until they have been rubber-stamped in other venues. Why weren't we having this discussion when planning was underway for the growth agenda.

I am starting to feel like a broken record, but the theme is always the same. . .

At last week's All-COLS discussion, the Growth Agenda recently released by Chancellor Wells and the COLS Suggested Priorities for the Academic Plan (both attached) were discussed. It is clear to the Faculty Committee that the chief faculty concern expressed at the meeting is "process". Important curricular decisions have been publicly announced through the Growth Agenda that the faculty have not approved: (1) Vice Chancellor Roter announced that the new course listed in the Growth Agenda, which is an introduction to the University and a part of the First Year Experience, will be required of all students if funded by UW System; and (2) a new degree, the Bachelor of Applied Studies, will also be implemented if funded by UW System.

As identified in the attached Suggested Priorities for the Academic Plan (item 6), "It is extremely important that any academic action plan uphold the principles of faculty control over curriculum, shared governance, and a strong commitment to maintain a high standard of academic excellence in our programs." Thus this concern should be methodically and thoroughly addressed in upcoming forums and by the Faculty Senate. We encourage COLS faculty to attend Chancellor Wells' and Provost Earns' open forum on the growth initiative at noon on May 3 in Reeve 307.

Administration "inadvertently" tells faculty they can't run for office

The A-T reports that the posting to the list about political activity was wrong. Someone noticed that this seemed extreme and would make it almost impossible for someone to run for office while working for the university. (unless they were independently wealthy)

Here is the quote from the original about what is permissible:

4. Participating as a candidate for a partisan political office provided a leave of absence is taken from the state position. (For federally funded positions, even if the employee is on leave of absence under state law, this remains a violation of the Hatch Act and the agency could lose federal funding as noted above.)

This statement is completely untrue. It is not the policy of system and not the policy of the state.

Once again, we have our administration trying to keep faculty from participating in politics. Last month, they sent a letter to Tony to discourage him from running for office. This month they post inaccurate information to the listserve with the same intent.

What is going on here? They don't already have enough power? The administration ignores the faculty at every turn, but now they want to make sure we are making no political noise?

Is Wells behind this campaign, which looks incresingly orchestrated? Is Earns? Who is working so hard to remove the faculty as a vibrant part of the university community and beyond?

Below is the very polite A-T story:

Advance Titan Online

30 day rule for Summer school to be abolished

The faculty committee minutes for April 5 record that Dean Zimmerman announced that the 30 day ruleo is going to be waived for summer school.

We can breath a sigh of relief to know that we will be consistently lowering our standards across all our course offerings.

I am still upset that the whole 30 day rule was cancelled and that the various faculty representatives signed off on it without public discussion.

It does make a lot of sense after the COLS meeting last week, when the administration is demanding that we lower our standards to increase retention. They have come to believe that we have nothing special to offer and should simply produce more graduates, regardless of the quality.

You listen to all the talk about the need for more people with college degrees, you would think that the piece of paper is all that matters. When it comes to making that paper worth something, the administration is clearly working in the wrong direction. Maybe we should just sell the paper for $15,000, and we can all just go have fun doing research. Then Northeastern Wisconsin would be full of "college graduates."

Congress prepares to expand copyright restrictions

Slashdot.org linked this story: Congress is moving to protect the rights of big business at the expense of the little guy.

You can read the anger of the /.ers and think about the crazy power of the movie industry to make copying a movie carry a 10 year jail sentence.

Perhaps all the hubub about movies on campus will be moot after congress gets done increasing penalties--the big fines will scare all the bureaucrats away!


Congress readies broad new digital copyright bill | CNET News.com

Here is the /. discussion.

Finally, here is a link from publicknowledge.org with some analysis of the prospective bill.

Faculty Salary Statistics: We look pretty bad in comparison!

Here are some statistics for faculty salaries--we look below average, as we already knew. You can follow a link within the article if you are interested in seeing discipline specific averages.



Inside Higher Ed :: The Eroding Faculty Paycheck

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.