Pass more or drink more?

It is a schiztophrenic day in the news today, in that President Obama called yesterday for colleges to increase completion rates for students.  The article tells us that he will " focus more than he has to date on the administration's intent to hold states and colleges more accountable for ensuring that students who enter college succeed once there."

At the same time, USA Today reports that college freshmen spend more time drinking that studying.  A study shows that students spend over 10 hours a week at parties and only 8 studying.

How do we reconcile these two disparate understandings of college?  Clearly these two things are connected.  How do we get students to stop partying and start studying?  

If students took college seriously, they wouldn't spend so little time studying.  If they thought they wouldn't pass on 8 hours a week, they might study more.  Raising our own standards would decrease our retention rate, making the Federal bean counters (not to mention our own administration) upset with us.

We face the same issues with the imposition of standardized tests.  If we didn't pass so many marginal students, we wouldn't be under pressure of having someone else provide the backbone which we seem to be lacking. . .

Feedback on the Budget?!

The chancellor is asking for feedback from the university on his budget priorities.  

The survey asks if we think that his list is appropriate and what we would select as the highest priorities.

It also asks for suggestions about ways to deal with the ensuing cuts.

I think that we should focus on keeping class sizes small and increasing the quality of our student body instead of continuing to grow for growth's sake.

They keep telling us that we have low administrative costs, but it sure seems like there are a lot of vice/deputy/assistant deans/chancellors/provosts running around.

Do We Need A Sustainability Director?

A mini-controversy has appeared in our town & gown relations over the past week.  A few days ago, the Northwestern editorialized that the newly hired Director of Sustainability was an unnecessary luxury in these sour economic times.

They suggest that sustainability is just a buzz-word and is too fuzzy to hold much meaning.  They then claim the unversity is out to destroy local agriculture in some way because of this initiative

The chancellor fired back with a memo defending the need for this position.  In it, he emphasizes the savings that have already come from focusing on sustainability.  He also points out that the new director brings both specific experience in helping better use our resources and academic knowlege that will be shared in the classroom.

I thought that the attack on sustainability was gratuitous and ungrounded, meant mostly to attempt to get someone to read their editorial page.  If we are serious about reducing our environmental footprint, having an expert on staff seems worthwhile to me.   

That being said, I am skeptical about the increasing number of administrators on campus, of which the sustainability director is just one.  I would hope that when we have to make the next round of cuts, they will find money to cull from that area rather than from the instructional side of things.

Students deserve B's

This article from the New York Times raises the question of student's feelings of entitlements towards grades.  It starts with a survey of students that found that almost 50% expected a B just for showing up.   The author also interviews students who expect that effort alone should raise their grade.

Gerry Gzyrb posted this to the COLS discussion list a few days ago and I noticed that it is on the list of most commonly e-mailed at the Times website.

I think that this expectation generally holds on our campus as well.  

In my classes, I think the average is a low BC. 

This means that many students who show up and do passable work get a low B.  Only students who truly excel make A's.

Thus, I am guilty of fostering these expectations -- I often wonder if I should be tougher.  I am not sure what I would gain from it. . .

Good news! University budget avoids big cuts!

Governor Doyle announced his budget proposal tonight and it contained good news for us.  He proposed that the university budget remain flat for the next two years.  The problem is, of course, that it doesn't contain $120 million we need to cover "costs to continue" -- ie heat, light, health care costs, etc.  It also takes other fees to the tune of $54 million.  Some of this would be made up by a 5-6% tuition increase.

These are significant, but much better than I hoped.   There will be another round of belt-tightening, but it shouldn't be too traumatic.  It can't be as bad as the $250 million cut from a few years ago, though we are clearly leaner than before.  Students also are protected somewhat, by an increase in financial aid to keep tuition flat for families with income under $60,000.

Here are two different stories:

The Journal-Sentinel reports it as a $174 million cut.

The Wisconsin State Journal calls university funding flat.

The Solution: Furloughs?

A rumor has just come my way that administrators are thinking about furloughs of faculty members to cut costs.

The suggestion is that UWO would save hundreds of thousands of dollars by not paying faculty members who do not teach during interims.

Pretty scary thought!  As if our pay weren't low enough!

The cutting starts soon, as the Gov. gets ready to reveal his plan to fix the $600 million shortfall for this year.  Then, we'll have to deal with the cuts of the next biennium.  

With the 'moderates' removing support for states from the stimulus bill in Washington, we should be prepared. . . .

Wells a finalist again!

The newest addition to the chancellor's annual search for a new job has Dr. Wells in the running for the leader of SUNY-Albany. The Northwestern reported this story on Saturday.

Here is the story from the Albany newspaper, which lists the other candidates. Apparently this search was supposed to be undertaken with the stricted secrecy, but someone didn't think that was appropriate for a state institution.

Even more interesting (sort of) is that they supposedly were on the verge of hiring someone else just a few weeks ago.

It also reports that Albany took a 14% budget cut, so finances are pretty ugly there.

It is not particularly surprising to discover, as the Chancellor has been on the job market for many years now. The question is whether he will pull himself out of the running again, declaring that he couldn't tear himself away from us. . .

Breaking: Internet Contains Errors!

Here is an important story for all of our students:  The internet may contain mistakes!

Factual Error Found on the Internet

I couldn't resist--enjoy!

Understanding and Explaining

 “There is an important difference between learning which is concerned with the degree of understanding necessary to practice a skill, and learning which is expressly focused upon an enterprise of understanding and explaining.” -- Michael Oakeshott

The university is, of course, supposed to be devoted to the second, not the first, writes Stanley Fish.

He writes about the nature of higher education in his NYTimes blog this week.  He discusses a new book that hopelessly chronicles the transformation of universities into institutions that only train young people for specific occupations.

The author of the book, Frank Donogue, describes how the "life of the mind" has been disparaged in American culture since the turn of the 20th century.  It is a sad story, without a happy ending, and raises the question as to whether there will be another generation of professors in the humanities.

Spending on Teaching in Decline

The news story of the day is a report that show that spending on instruction has declined even as the student share of costs has risen.

On our own campus, we know that our salaries have not risen more than a hair, instructional staff numbers have increased, and new administrators seem to appear on a regular basis.

I wonder what the numbers are like on our own campus . . . 

State Colleges on verge of trouble

I haven't been posting in a while--I hadn't realized that it was so long.

Perhaps my enthusiasm is starting to wane, but I don't think I'm ready to give up.

So in that spirit, here is an article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal about state colleges in trouble:  http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/37546019.html

There is not much new news in the story, but it is a reminder about how precarious the finances are at private colleges.  It also warns of the coming cuts state institutions are likely to see in the next budget.

Prisons defeat Higher Ed

The media has been filled with reports (see the Journal Sentinel, for example) about the decreasing affordability of a university education.  I have been meaning to post a few observations about this, but instead, I came upon this blog entry by Juan Cole.

He points out that legislatures across the country have decided that imprisonment is more important than education.  As he notes, prison populations have skyrocketed since 1980.  By and large, the money to pay for this has come from support for universities.  Now, Cole argues that the solution is to decriminalize marijuana and use the tax revenue for education.  This, of course, is not very likely.  

However, his post reminds us of the choices we have made as a society.  Education has lost and continues to lose to punishment.

What politician will stand up and say that non-violent offenders should spend less time in jail so students can get a college degree?  Being "soft on crime" is a death sentence for a politician in this age of nasty, negative campaigning. . .

Are students really nuts?

A new study claims that 1 in 5 young American adults has a personality disorder that disrupts their lives and 1/3 abuse alcohol and drugs.  

The study also goes on to claim that only 25% of those seek treatment.

I suppose this means the researchers think that an even larger percentage have disorders that don't yet affect their daily lives.

If our students are a disfunctional as the researchers claim, where does this leave us?  Should we all be replaced by guidance councillors?  

Internet rathole for research

I feel bad for not posting, but the semester is dragging me down man . . .

Here is an interesting article about the way that academics follow links as they use the internet for research.  One study argues that the internet has led to a narrowing of citation, presumably because scholars only cite papers they find on-line.  Others dispute those claims.

The ease of internet searching certainly is enticing, making it easy to forget the vast world of printed information out there.  For students, this certainly is true, as it is hard to get them into the library to experience the vast knowledge accumulated on the shelves.  Too often it seems for them that if they can't google it, it doesn't exist. . . .

Budget hole gets deeper. . .

Chancellor Wells sent out a carefully worded, yet ominous memo yesterday. The planning is already underway for serious cuts here on campus. He seems to be hinting that new searches are going to be put off while the student body will continue to grow. He also may be preparing us for a claim that he can not reduce administrative costs. The brief discussion about the new Director of Sustainability on the COLS list suggests this is the case.

Unfortunately, this is probably what we all expected. We are expected to deal with more students. I wonder when our whopping raise will be postponed.  How big will the tuition increase be?   

From the note:

As many of you know, while the Higher Learning Commission evaluation team lauded UW Oshkosh, they raised a serious concern regarding our all-too-thin administrative support — something unheard of in such reports. We have also acknowledged our need to appoint more tenure-track faculty and we realize our classified staff has been hit hard by earlier budget cuts. Much needed Growth Agenda funding was provided this year to help offset millions of dollars of earlier state funding cuts and to serve the recent and projected increase of more than 1,400 students. While we may have to delay some of the Growth Agenda searches, we will do our best to protect our base funding. It is obvious that we will have to continue to make tough budgetary planning decisions during six to nine months of budget planning uncertainty.

Obama!!

Obama won a decisive victory yesterday and riding on his coattails came the Wisconsin Assembly!

This change in political leadership may have profound changes for us here at UWO.

1. With democratic majorities in both houses here in Wisconsin, faculty will soon be deciding if we want to unionize.
2. When it is time for the state budget discussions, UW-hater Steve Nass (though he did win re-election)will not have the kind of control that he used to.   When it comes to the hard choices of how to allocate state dollars, perhaps education will be higher on the list than more prisons.
3. Obama has promised more support for students going to college.  How he can accomplish this in the midst of all the other budget issues he will face is unclear.  However, we might have a new discussion about how this can be accomplished.
4. The push for "accountability" for higher education will clearly move in different directions.  I don't think we will be able to avoid the standardized-testing craze that dominates the political sphere.  We should be able to slow down and have a rational discussion as to how this can be done.  The threat that "they will do it to us if we don't hurry up and do it to ourselves" should recede.

As even David Brooks has pointed out, the Republicans have been running on an anti-intellectual platform for years.  With a new Democratic administration in Washington, I hope for a new tone, less derisive towards academia and science in general!

P.S.  Great Job WRST election night coverage!  I spent much of the night with the sound of the TV off and the radio on.  The students did an excellent job bringing our own experts to the airwaves!

Study show Profs can't change student's poliical views

The New York Times reported today that two new studies show that student's political views are not changed by their professors.

This is an argument that I and many others have made throughout the last several years of this right-wing attack on the academy.  I like seeing a few studies to back it up.  Whether or not the statistics are any good is, of course, a different question.

All this worry about professors and proselytising seems to be a lot of noise.  I guess I should wear my political button tomorrow!

Student Petition Signature Drive

I have been meaning to post about this for awhile, but I have been obsession about the Presidential election.  

Our own student association has put together a petition demanding that politicians put more resources toward higher education.  It is a very nice idea, but I am not sure what they want to accomplish with the vague statements laid out here.

I've signed it, but I don't think it will make a bit of difference.  Just like our LERT principles, when you make something this vague, it is hard to find anyone who disagrees.  It also makes it difficult to see a course of action ahead. . . . .

Were in Big Budget Trouble!!

Doyle announced yesterday that he expects there to be a 3 billion dollar hole in the budget for the next biennium. 

Chancellor Wells informs us that he has been asked to reformulate the budget with a 10% reduction.  He mentions that there is also a good possibility that our budget will be reduced for the final year of this budget cycle.

Even though we know well that universities play an especially valuable role for the state when the economy slows and citizens are looking for retraining, I don't think the legislators are going to give us much protection.

What do you think we will lose this time around?  

1. Cancelling of current searches?

2. Losing our miniscule raises?

3. Increasing class size?

4. Cancel the new building?  The My Two Cents blog at WOSH radio proposes that (he also posted nasty comments about the "rich, spoiled" students who attended the John Kerry rally yesterday).

Any other speculations?

Whoops! No more ban in Illinois!

Just when I thought I found an interesting story about academic freedom, I find out that it was already old news.

Illinois took it back last week.

The Chronicle also reports that several other state institutions have reversed themselves in trying to ban campaign advertisements.  The University of Missouri at St. Louis and Texas-Austin both reversed themselves this week on the same question, involving both classrooms and students.

Maybe it is because Obama is surging in the polls -- it no longer looks less like political advocacy and more like preparation for the next presidency. . . .

Ban those Bumper Stickers!!

Although I have plenty of more important things to do, I just came across the story about the Ethics office of the University of Illinois system that tells all employees that they are not allowed to display political buttons, bumper stickers, or anything else.

You can read Stanley Fish's take on it from the NYTimes.  He argues that legally, the state can ban whatever it wants from the classroom, as long as they claim it is "political."

It is a complicated issue, but the state of Illinois absolutism (as well as Fish's) seem to be absurd.  We all should try to make sure the core knowledge of our discipline is passed along, but analysis and advocacy are part of making students think about that knowledge.   

We know that our system does not allow partisan political activity from state employees, but now Illinois is trying to ban even the expression of an opinion from campus?!

Will we soon see such draconian suppressions in our state?  I guess I'll have to get out my scraper . . . 

Flaws in U.S. News Mathematics

I know that for a school like ours, the U.S. News rankings aren't very relevant (3rd tier regional, if I remember correctly).  However, it is interesting to see a report about how flawed the statistics are that create the rankings.

With statistical profiles like the VSA on the way, it is a good reminder that these numbers are easily gamed and essentially meaningless.

Angry Republican Student Letter in Northwestern

This letter ran in the Northwestern on Tuesday.  The student complains that there are no Republican events on campus.  

I don't know what is going out on the student email lists, but the biggest initiative on campus is the American Democracy Project, which is a non-partisan attempt to register students and get them engaged in the process.   I have seen the posters around campus, so I imagine they are one of the tables in Reeve that the author is complaining about.

Ironically, when I look at this campus I see apathy across the spectrum.  Compared to almost every other campus that I have been on, there is NO student activism.  It would be great for the atmosphere around here if there were really were raucous rallies in support of candidates for president.   To see students join in something with real passion and enthusiasm would make my day!

Instead, we see most of our students sort of shuffle through class with little emotion or engagement--too busy with jobs or sports or parties to pay much attention to the large, important issues we face.

This student should get involved with the Campus Republicans, organize some speakers, and make her voice heard on campus.  If she had the energy to write the paper, why hasn't this turned into activism here??

Bad Evals = No Job?

The New York Times education section had a long article about teaching evaluations last Sunday.  It starts with the story of an adjunct who did not have her contract renewed because she did not have over 85% good or exellent marked on her student evaluations.

It uses this to launch into an extended discussion about the worthiness of student evaluations.  

The article dwells on the vast differences between student perceptions, especially in classes that challenge students assumptions about their world.  It also includes an upper-class white male student bashing segment, accusing them as a group of ruining a professor's class on "whiteness."

In the end, there are no definitive studies that show that they tell us much of anything.   We have had our own debates over evaluations over the years here, so this made for an interesting read. 

I have never been much of a fan of  student evaluations, because they don't really seem to tell us much.  I occassionally look through the written comments, as those are the only things that hold potential interest for me.  Student evaluations have something to tell us about the shape of a class, but perhaps more about the students than the professors.    

Do Professors Need Technology?

The Advance-Titan ran this mocking editorial today about a professor that could not get youtube working in his classroom.  For Dan Shafer, the fact that there was some sort of technological glitch demonstrates that Professors need to be more tech-savvy in order to properly teach students.

Interestingly enough, the chronicle had an article on a similar topic this week.  In it, Mark Bauerlein argues that internet reading is shallow and less than reading on paper.  Studies suggest that reading on the computer involves much skimming and skipping.   He argues that we need to get technology out of the classroom and insist on the more careful reading that can be done with paper.

Is it obvious that I am sympathetic to the second view?  Technology is something that can help, but in measured doses.  It doesn't improve learning automatically and can very easily hamper what we are trying to do.   Youtube may provide a nice demonstration of something, but hardly seems essential to the educational mission of our university.  

The contemplative nature of learning and education is too often lost in the instant gratification of a google search.  How can we truly reflect on what is important and come to our own understandings if we don't take time to think and understand for our selves?

If anything, a liberal education is about instilling that need for critical thinking and contemplation in our students.  Technology can be a tool, but that is all it is.  It is not the utopian solution to all the problems we face.

Right Wing Internet Site attacks LERT Learning Outcomes

I was googling around this evening and came across this site, called The Torch.  They have an article criticizing the new learning outcomes because it has sustainability listed there.

Apparently, sustainability is part of a secret attempt to repress freedom of speech at UWO.  Who would have thunk it??  Those environmental studies types are taking over and we never even noticed.  Wait until the Torch get wind of the fact the we are now a fair trade university. . . 

Standardized Testing is Here!

Get ready, campus community, because soon we will be teaching to the test--one more cog in the giant testing industry.

Chancellor Wells announced today that we are beginning to "pilot" the CLA exams for graduating students.  As many feared from the beginning, the VSA looks more and more like a backdoor entrance to standardized exit exams for UWO students.  

I think it is almost a foregone conclusion that within 5 years, we will be hearing incessent reminders from the administration that we need to change our classes to improve the schools CLA scores.   

For information, you can look at the CLA propaganda here.  It seems that the CLA was developed by the RAND institute and will be computer graded.  Lucky us!

Here is a critic of the whole VSA and CLA approach. 

Finally, here is the Memo:

From: Chancellor Wells and Provost Hartman  
 
To: Faculty and Instructional Academic Staff
 
As you may recall, UW Oshkosh joined the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) last fall, and we have since posted a link on our homepage to the College Portrait, which provides information on UW Oshkosh to prospective students and their families, public policy-makers, legislators, campus faculty and staff, and other key higher education stakeholders. Evidence of student learning outcomes, which is not scheduled to be posted on the VSA College Portrait for three years, is one of the data elements included in the College Portrait. The VSA has approved three instruments (CLA, MAPP and CAAP) to measure student gains in critical thinking, including analytic reasoning, and written communication.
 
Colleges and universities across the US are piloting various assessments in order to make a decision on which instrument best aligns with their learning outcomes. UW Oshkosh has already administered the MAPP and the CAAP assessments on a limited basis. We have been given an opportunity to join other UW system schools to pilot the CLA in 2008-09 to evaluate the test and to analyze any changes in the results. We will pilot the CLA by administering the test to one hundred freshmen students this fall and to one hundred senior students in the spring semester.  
 
An important criterion for the selection of an assessment instrument is the alignment of that instrument with learning outcomes. The current version of the CLA aligns with major components of the LERT outcomes. The administration of the CLA at this time will provide us with additional data regarding student learning at this university. These data can be used to inform the process used to determine performance indicators for our learning outcomes. Such a process promotes continuous improvement practices on our campus.
 
The selection of the CLA as a pilot also allows us to participate in a large scale research project sponsored by a FIPSIE grant. This research focuses on the development of an assessment of learning outcomes such as ours that is both valid and reliable.
 
E. Alan Hartman 
Interim Provost & Vice Chancellor
 
Richard H. Wells
Chancellor

Are students getting dumber?

Thomas Benton, a columnist for the Chronicle of Higher Education, suggests they are.  I have students who exhibit all of these characteristics.  What does it mean and who is responsible?  He reviews a series of books that discuss this topic.  His emphasis is on the customer service mentality that seems to dominate universities these days.

If you watched the Republican National Convention, you could also see the anti-intellectualism run rampant there.

Here is his core list of troubling attributes he finds in his college students:

• Primarily focused on their own emotions — on the primacy of their "feelings" — rather than on analysis supported by evidence.
• Uncertain what constitutes reliable evidence, thus tending to use the most easily found sources uncritically.
• Convinced that no opinion is worth more than another: All views are equal.
• Uncertain about academic honesty and what constitutes plagiarism.
• Unable to follow or make a sustained argument.
• Uncertain about spelling and punctuation (and skeptical that such skills matter).
• Hostile to anything that is not directly relevant to their career goals, which are vaguely understood.
• Increasingly interested in the social and athletic above the academic, while "needing" to receive very high grades.
• Not really embarrassed at their lack of knowledge and skills.
• Certain that any academic failure is the fault of the professor rather than the student.
  
  
  

Opening Day Observations

Welcome back everyone! We are officially back in session, with classes beginning tomorrow.

I thought I would share a few of my observations of today's opening festivities. I was unfortunate enough to attend the 1 hour and 40 minute administrative song and dance show.

Some negative highlights:

I decided to count and noticed that out of the new hires this year, 69 were lecturers and only 22 were assistant professors. UWO seems to be continuing its slide toward over-reliance on non tenure-track teachers.

Art Rathjen, head of the foundation, decided to end his address by undermining all the talk of selling the liberal arts at UWO with an old joke about arts majors working in fast food restaurants.

Petra Roter went on forever, first with her joke shtick (Abba songs this year, rather than internet abreviations), followed by a laundry list of activities that didn't seem to have any connection to the rest of the reports.

Chancellor Wells introduced new and even more ridiculous terminology to the LERT initiative, by talking about our opportunity to review the draft "meta-rubriks" from some national organization before we develop our own rubriks for assessing learning outcomes through the VAPA program to be placed on the upcoming VSA.

Finally, and one that shocked the audience, Wells succeeded in offending everyone who thinks that we need to get beyond casual mysogyny. A group of 5 female staff members presented several gifts to him for his support of the classified staff. His first, off-the-cuff, response, "There must be men who are classified staff--they must be out doing real work. . . "

On the plus side:

The growth agenda is helping UWO replace faculty members and stabilize our finances.

The COLS meeting was efficient and got us out of there in a hurry while still allowing us to briefly meet new hires. (Though John never told us what the 3rd perfect number was)

The incoming class has higher grades, test scores, and is more diverse.

UWO Continues to Grow. Is This a Good Thing?

UWO issued a report yesterday about the continuing student growth of UWO.   It made the Northwestern this morning and more details can be found in the university's press release.

The report emphasizes that we have grown by almost 1000 students since 2000.   They also note that the incoming class is slightly stronger academically than it was last year.

My first reaction in these reports is the missing information about increasing the number of faculty to support this growth.  There were multiple positions as part of the growth agenda, but the basic number of teachers remains stagnant.  Many tenure-track lines are still filled with staff people, undermining the basic principles of quality college education.

It is good PR to emphasize the growing number of students.  The quality of their experience remains in doubt as classes overflow and we do not talk seriously about reducing our faculty to student ratio.

Momentum for open-source textbooks building?

The LA Times is running a story about an open-source economics textbook, where the author turned down $100,000 to sell it to a publisher.

Is the profit motive the key reason academics write textbooks?  That seems to be the key question--will people do it if they don't get paid?

Illegally Download your textbooks?

I came upon this technology news link this afternoon that pointed me to a new website that allows you to download textbooks using bittorrent.   I also saw an article in the New York Times about this several weeks ago.

Clearly this is a violation of copyright law, but it is interesting in several ways:

1. Textbooks are becoming increasingly available electronically.

2. Once books become digital, they will be traded legally or illegally like music.

 There may be even more incentive to illegally download your textbook, since it is quite a bit more expensive than an album.  The slogan of Textbook Torrents is "Because you can't torrent beer."   Will this reshape the textbook market like it has the music market?

If textbooks more toward an open-source model, everyone might be better off.  I suggested before that we needed something like the PLoS model for textbook production--this might push things in that direction. . .

Alan Hartman to be interim Provost

The Chancellor announced that Alan Hartman, Dean of COB, is going to be the interim provost next year.

I don't know anything about him.  Has he done a good job for business, from a faculty perspective?  Should we look forward to any big shakeups next year?

Provost Earns Flees!

The Chancellor announced today that Lane Earns will become the interim chancellor at UW-Parkside!

I remember seeing that the person chosen to be chancellor recently withdrew because he was under criminal investigation at his own school.

Now we are losing a very important person here on campus for the next year, at the least. Whatever my disagreements with Lane have been, he has generally defended academic interests on campus.

This loss worries me, as it may bring even more turmoil for LERT and other important initiatives on campus!

Liberal Faculty Dying Out?

The New York Times ran a story yesterday about the generational change in college faculties. Some of the most prominent university radicals of the 1960s are retiring, bringing younger faculty on to the scene.

The folks interviewed see a new generation less committed to social activism, while younger scholars see different pressures shaping the academy. I am not sure there is anything new here, but having the national media talk about how we are not as wacky as the last generation probably won't hurt our standing!

Now you can outsource your education!

I was browsing the web this afternoon, and came upon this article about students who hire Indian programmers to complete their computer programming assignments.

The article claims that it is not uncommon for British students to do this--it probably is already occuring here too.

Does Turnitin.com check computer programs??

Another Slap in the Face to Faculty from Madison

Once again, the legislature and governor decided to make faculty pay for the budget shortfalls in Madison.  

We had our promised 2% pay increase reduced to 1%.  We are the only group of state employees who can have their salaries unilaterally changed by the legislature and the governor.  Thus, it is easy to break promises made to us.  The unionized state employees are protected by such action because of their ability to negotiate with the state as a collective.

This, of course, is on top of the fact that our pay runs far behind the national and regional averages for professors across the country.  We will only slip farther behind with this latest move.  

As the year comes to a close, this problem is made ever clearer as we find some of our most promising scholars pick up and move to other institutions where the pay is better.  There has been some discussion of the pay levels for chancellors, but we in the classrooms and laboratory never seem to make it into the discussion.

The repeated disrespectful attitude that comes from our elected leaders toward the UW system and the faculty damages our ability to education students and bring the latest, most sophisticated research to Wisconsin. 

 I have talked to many people, all of whom express great anger at once again being treated like this.  Even if people aren't leaving, they lose respect for our institution and are less likely to become involved in just the kind of projects that can make us a great place.

New "Learning Outcomes" Approved

I have been too busy to blog the last few weeks as the semester wound to a close, but today I'll post the new learning outcomes that seem to be official.  These are supposedly going to serve as the new basis for what we do here on campus.

These categories are broad and seemingly all encompassing.  I suppose they suggest that very specific, technical knowledge is secondary to more general competency, but it is hard to find much to talk about here.

According to LERT, these are going to lead to some significant changes in the way that we operate over the next couple of years.  The real issues are yet to come--will we really change the nature of General Education because of these outcomes?  Will these lead to some sort of standardized exit testing for UWO students?  Can reforms that failed twice before be accomplished now?  Will the Chancellor even stay around long enough to find out??   

Will we arrive back on campus in the fall with an agenda for real change?  Stay tuned. . . .

Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World

• Through study in fine and performing arts, humanities, mathematics and science, and social science
Focused by engagement with big questions, both contemporary and enduring

Skills, both Intellectual and Practical, including

• Identification and objective evaluation of theories and assumptions
• Critical and creative thinking
• Written and oral communication
• Quantitative literacy
• Technology and information literacy
• Teamwork, leadership, and problem solving
Practiced extensively, across the curriculum, in the context of progressively more challenging problems, projects, and standards for performance

Responsibility, as Individuals and Communities, including

• Knowledge of sustainability and its applications
• Civic knowledge and engagement—local and global
• Intercultural knowledge and competence
• Ethical reasoning and action
• Foundations and skills for lifelong learning
Developed through real-world challenges and active involvement with diverse communities 

Learning: Integrated, Synthesized, and Advanced, including

• Synthesis and advanced accomplishment across general and specialized studies
Demonstrated through the application of knowledge, skills, and responsibilities to new settings and complex problems.  

Spending on Instruction Down

I spotted this story over at InsideHigherEd.com:  the percentage of tuition spent on direct instruction has dropped over the years.  The national average for institutions like ours is about 44%.  

As this has been declining relative to other spending over the years, the additional spending tends toward things like academic support services, new facilities, and administration.

As often as people have complained about faculty productivity, these figures suggest that this is not the driving factor in cost increases for college.

This post feels a little like deja vu, and it is.  I blogged about a similar story over 2 years ago!

Liberal Arts are Actually Up!

I want to highlight the work Bill Wresch did for us last week in the comments.  He found statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics (this link goes to a chart) that show that liberal arts majors are actually increasing:

Here are some changes since 1985 -
Total graduates - up 50%
ethnic studies - up 160%
performing arts - up 123%
psychology - up 116%
liberal arts - up 110%
philosophy - up 87%
biology - up 85%
comm/journalism - up 77%
history - up 72%
English - up 61%

Business - up 34% (less than the 50% general growth)
Computer science - up 12%
math - down 9%
physics - down 9%
engineering - down 14%

As she shows us, students are moving toward the liberal arts quite significantly.  What does this mean for the entire LERT initiative?  Are we preaching to the choir? 

Does that mean there is some sort of hidden agenda behind the larger liberal arts initiative of the AAC&U?  Our hidden agenda is really general education reform, but that isn't much of a secret.

Is the broader initiative really about different standards or more testing, using Liberal arts as a cover?

Chancellor Withdraws from Search

Chancellor Wells announced this afternoon that he is no longer a candidate to head the Pennsylvania State System.   He writes that the position was not a good fit for him.

Wow!  I am surprised!  The comments here reminded me about what a big promotion this would be for him.

For the campus, I would say that this is a good thing.   The continuity that this means for us on campus is surely a good thing, whether we fully agree with his policies or not.  All of the unfinished initiatives on campus need someone to keep pushing.

Here is his announcement:

To the UW Oshkosh Campus Community
 
I have just returned from several days of discussions with the Pennsylvania State University System of Higher Education (PASSHE) regarding the position of System Chancellor. These conversations were positive and fruitful, and the Board of Governors, which has not yet made a decision, has encouraged my continued candidacy. However, it is my impression that this leadership opportunity is not the best fit for me or perhaps PASSHE. Therefore, I have withdrawn my candidacy. I would like to take this opportunity to wish continued success to PASSHE’s outgoing Chancellor, Judy Hample, and her successor.
 
I suspect that my candidacy for this position has understandably raised concerns among some members of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh community. Therefore, I think it appropriate for me to briefly explain why I initially decided to become a candidate.
 
As you may know, experienced university chancellors and presidents are routinely recruited for other positions. In my case, I have been heavily recruited for more than a dozen such leadership roles, many of which have been excellent opportunities. With a few exceptions, I have chosen not to pursue these opportunities because of the outstanding support and success we are experiencing at UW Oshkosh.
 
One such exception was the Chancellorship of the Pennsylvania State University System. PASSHE is the fifth-largest system of higher education in the nation, comprised of 14 excellent public comprehensive universities.
 
It is important for me to acknowledge again how much I enjoy and appreciate being the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. I have always considered it to be a great honor to serve as your Chancellor.
 
I greatly appreciate the patience and understanding many of you demonstrated this past week. I will continue, with your help and understanding, to work with you and to remain committed and focused as we move forward the priorities of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
 
 
Richard H. Wells
Chancellor

Publishers shift blame for high book prices

The A-T ran this article last Thursday--I just spotted it on-line this morning.  The bold headline, "Publishers: Professors drive up book prices," leads us to a story about the publisher's attempt to blame someone besides themselves for textbook prices.

There was a forum somewhere on campus last week that discussed textbook prices.  Apparently, representatives of the textbook companies claim that we are driving the prices of books up by reselling the copies that they deluge us with.

It looks like a tactic to try to get the students to look away from the other, much more significant issues in the textbook market. 

Let's start with unnecessary new editions.  Companies produce them on average once every three years--obviously in order to undercut the used book market, not because basic knowledge in any discipline is changing that rapidly.

Next, we might add unnecessarily elaborate printing--do we really need glossy paper, color on every page, exaggerated graphics, to get across the essentials of our discipline.  How much does that raise the cost?

How about profit?  According to the National Association of College Bookstores, 32% of the cost of each book is profit for the publishing company.  How much could we add to this for marketing costs? 

These are just a few elements that pop to mind. 

What we really need is a textbook service that looks like PloS.  Lets make the textbook knowledge available for public use and find a publishing track that can eliminate the worst excesses of the academic book market.

Will the Chancellor move to Pennsylvania?

Chancellor Wells announced today that he is a finalist for chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System Chancellor.

Sounds like a big promotion--moving to be the equivalent of President Reilly [EDIT: I called him Wiley in the first version] of our own system.

The chancellor does like to keep his hat in the ring--always looking for something better.

He seems to make the short-list about once a year. The last time we heard about his attempt to leave was back in October 2006. He thought about California in 2005.

I suppose I should have more of an opinion about this, but it is hardly surprising.

On-Line Textbooks Better?

The New York Times editorializes today that we should all think about using on-line textbooks, to cut back on costs for students.

This is based on a study that claims that students to no worse using them than using regular printed books.  The cynic in me says its because they don't read either. . . .

I asked my students about it, and about 40% said they would buy an on-line version if it cost less.  I may look into it.

Are international standardized tests the new frontier?

As if the US Dept. of Ed. wasn't bad enough, now the OECD is thinking of developing standardized tests. 

Luckily, the crowd in Washington doesn't like the idea of international organizations having input into education more than they do in any other area.

But if you are going to argue that standardized tests tell you something useful, why not make it an international comparison??

You can also see the anti-standardized testers in action in the Ivy league.  Apparently, Brown, Harvard, and Princeton are admitting a portion of their students at random.

Food for thought on Earth Day!

Publishers go after E-Reserve

In copyright-holder's never ending quest to crush fair-use, we find a new chapter.  Publishers are suing Georgia State for their e-Reserve.  Here is the story from the NYTimes.

The publishers claim that some material available on campus electronically contains too large of a percentage of copyrighted material.   I am sure that by filing the lawsuit, they hope to convince skittish administrators to tighten e-reserve policies across the country.

Our library's e-reserve policy strikes a good balance at the moment, but I wonder if they won't be pressured to change now that lawsuits are in the air. . . 

Support for grading change substantial

The vote is in.  Faculty strongly voted in favor of changing the grading system.  65% of those who voted said yes to a 12-point scale.

Interestingly, there is a big split between colleges.

COLS and Nursing were overwhelmingly for the change, while the College of Business was strongly against it (the email says 2-1).  COEHS was split evenly.

I'll admit that I voted in favor of the resolution, although I expressed reservations earlier.  I wouldn't mind having the extra flexibility, though I have gotten used to the old way of doing things.  

I wonder why voters in COBA are so strongly opposed.  Anyone who voted against the change want to chime in?

Philosophy is booming!?

The New York Times reports this week that the number of philosophy majors at Rutgers is up.  The article implies that this is part of a broader trend towards resurgence of the importance of the liberal arts. (The NYT does like to report anomalies as if they are part of a larger trend!)

It would be nice to see, if true, that students are realizing that an "unpractical" major like philosophy is worthwhile.  Does anyone know if that is true here at UWO?

Can LERT be part of a movemnt that will convince students of the value of philosophy?  Is a broader trend on the horizon that will emphasize core skills and exploration in college, rather than mundane job training?

You will be assimilated: Join Wikipedia now!

A biology professor argues that wikipedia has won.  We should accept this and become one with the borg (forgive the Star Trek analogy).

Editing content in our area of expertise would make wikipedia worthwhile.  I am not sure I buy it.  Wikipedia can have good information on it, but both we and our students need to be very skeptical of anything presented there.  Our editing would only make students that much more willing blindly accept what they read there.

Can you tell that I didn't finish my grading over spring break and am avoiding it this week too?

Is Your Prof on Drugs???

Are professors taking stimulants to get ahead?  The NYTimes wants to know. . .

Some anecdotal evidence suggests that professors are taking adderall and other stimulants, so that they can stay focused and work twice as hard.    Do you think there is a lot of brain-doping among the faculty here?  

The article goes from that to a discussion of whether brain-doping is worse than steroids in sports.  The media does like the broad discussion about where we should/can draw the line between unnatural and natural improvement of ourselves.  . .

Do we need a new grading scale?

The faculty senate wants to change the grade scale here at Oshkosh.  They are holding a referendum on the question in a few weeks.

The referendum asks whether we should abandon the current scale and move to a more traditional +/- scale.  Now we have an 8-point scale, if we change, we would have a 12-point scale.

The reasons for this seems to be that the current scale does not give us enough precision in grading and that we are different than most other institutions.

Now that I have written this, I can't figure out why.  Who cares?  Who dislikes the present scale so much that we need to change it?  I can not really be against having the ability to make finer distinctions, but I don't see why this has come up as a topic now.

Does anyone have really strong feelings about this?  Are we or our students suffering because there are only 8 possible grades?

Sh** hits the fan: UW System moves to regulate off-campus behavior

It is all over the news this week:  UW system is trying to change campus rules to be able to punish students for off-campus behavior.  New rules have been distributed for comment that seem to radically change the nature of the relationship between students and the universities.  

You can read the Northwestern's editorial here.  There are news stories across the entire state. 

Looking at a few stories, it looks dangerously vague--students can be disciplined on campus for imparing the university's mission.  What in the world does that mean?   

The vagueness seems to suggest that an overzealous administrator could punish a student for stridently criticizing their institution.  It also makes me wonder about how the universities would be able to implement this code.  Are the university authorities now going to leave campus to police the neighborhoods?  Are we going to employ snitches to rat out students who behave badly off campus? 

It looks like a hornets nest to me. . . 

 

House of Representatives attacks high price of textbooks

A Washington Post blog reports that the House of Representatives has passed legislation that requires divulging the price of textbooks to teachers and restricts bundling of books with other items.  The language is not in the Senate version of the bill, so it is probably just noise.

However,  as we have been talking about textbook costs on our own campus, it seems like an interesting story.  I often end up going to amazon to find the cost of the books that flood my mailbox.   I am sensitive to the cost of my choices, but don't let that be the deciding factor.

Having better access to the price would definitely make things easier for me.

Conservatives have wrong mind-set for Academia

The Chronicle of Higher Education has the story of a conservative public policy professor who argues that conservative values are the reason there are fewer people on the right in academia.  

He and his wife surveyed undergraduates and came to this conclusion.  Here is my favorite paragraph:

For example, liberal students reported valuing intellectual freedom, creativity, and the chance to write original work and make a theoretical contribution to science. They outnumbered conservative students two to one in the humanities and social sciences — which are among the fields most likely to produce interest in doctoral study. Conservative students, however, put more value on personal achievement and orderliness, and on practical professions, like accounting and computer science, that could earn them lots of money.

This is an interesting argument and generally makes sense to me.   What do you think?

Dumbing Down America

Susan Jacoby writes this article in the Sunday Washington Post.  In it, she argues there is a crisis of anti-intellectualism in America.  On top of the fact that Americans don't know much, she argues there is a growing belief that you don't need to know much.

I found this a thought-provoking piece and I wonder if we face this dillema more acutely than most.  Our students already believe that college is mostly about getting a piece of paper so that they can get a job.  Are they also becoming increasingly resistant to learning?

Budget Crisis Looming: Lets Raise Administrators' Pay!!

The Journal-Sentinal reports that the Regents have decided to raise the pay range of UW system chancellors.  The largest raise is a whopping 66% increase for UW Madison, but all the others' new range is at least 10% higher.

We recieved the notice from the Chancellor about watching our spending because of a slowing Wisconsin economy.  Now, we have the tone-deaf regents getting ready to raise the pay of administrators as the rest of the state prepares for cuts.

Why do administrators think they deserve so much money anyway?  Apparently the current crop are doing an awful job at their pay level and we need to encourage better applicants.  At least that is the excuse. . . .  Maybe we can cut a few more faculty lines to pay for the fat raises!

New Movie Policy Coming?

Someone actually posted something to the COLS discussion list this morning. It seems as of late, there has been almost no list activity. In this case, it is a bit of old business. Three historians are announcing that there will be a change in campus-wide movie policy.

The new policy will allow clubs to show movies, with certain restrictions--you can read about it below. I am glad to see that student groups will again be able to show movies on campus without having to pay big licensing fees!

Still, it seems inexplicable that the Reeve Union theater can not be used for such activities. Apparently, Petra Roter and students do not believe that any education takes place there. Isn't that why they built it in the first place?!?

For a little context, you can look at the blogposts from the spring of 2006:

Film Nazi's Invade Campus

Fair Use Debate Rages All Day

Revised Movie Policy Appears on Discussion List

Anyway, here is the letter:

Dear Colleagues:

Karl Loewenstein, Michelle Kuhl and I are happy to announce that there will soon be a new set of guidelines for screening films and documentaries on our campus.

We initially engaged the university community in a discussion on this topic, you may recall, in April 2006. That discussion was triggered by several history students’ concern over the impact new guidelines were having on student groups’ ability to screen films on campus. (In that month the Student Allocations Committee froze the funding of the International Film Series and threatened the leadership of the History Club with legal action and punitive fines if they showed historical films without purchasing public performance rights—rights obtained at approximately $300 per film.)

Over the past twenty months we have been working with Dr. Petra Roter, Reeve Director Randy Hedge and UW System Legal to forge a commonsense campus-wide film policy based on guidelines set forth in Section 110 (1) of the 1976 Copyright Act. In a conference call with an UW System attorney, we reached an agreement on the feasibility of showing films and documentaries in campus “educational spaces” devoted to instruction.

In subsequent months, we failed to convince the Reeve Advisory Council, the Oshkosh Student Association, Petra Roter and Reeve Union staff that the Reeve Union Theater qualifies as an educational space—a “similar place devoted to instruction” as outlined in the provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act. Most recently they have ratified their position by citing the fact that Reeve Union is funded by student segregated fees and is therefore not technically an academic building.

The revised guidelines have been submitted to the OSA and SAC and will soon be incorporated into the Student Handbook. While several details need to be ironed out, the revised guidelines make it clear that student groups may legally show films in academic buildings without paying for public performance rights as long as the films are shown primarily for educational purposes. In order to substantiate the educational purpose, the guidelines suggest that the showing should be in an academic building and under the supervision of an instructor teaching a class related to the film.

Those of us who recall with fondness the vibrant film cultures which thrived on the campuses we once attended and who now assign films in their classrooms (and who, in the process, are continually heartened by students’ confessions that they “blown away” by films [black-and-white, foreign language and documentary] that they would never have dreamed of viewing on their own) may still be disappointed that access to the premiere venue on campus for film—the Reeve Union—is restricted. But we are glad that a set of new and revised guidelines have addressed previous misperceptions and will ultimately create an environment that will add to the educational experience of our students.

Sincerely,

Stephen Kercher, Karl Loewenstein and Michelle Kuhl
Department of History

Robert Bacon's Response to no Sloshkosh

Robert Bacon, infamous producer of sloshkosh t-shirts, sent me an email in response to my posting about UWO's attempt to suppress his t-shirt business.   He emphasizes that he sees his site as something fun.

I thought I would part of his comments about the free speech issue with you:

• On the note of the shirts. After some research I am absolutely sure that if I fought this trademark that the University made, that I would win. You can't trademark a commonly used term and I would only have to prove that Sloshkosh and UW-Zero were commonly used terms before the trademark. Why didn't I fight? It's simple, I don't have the time nor the money to do such a thing, even if I could find a lawyer to help me out. I don't want my studies to be affected by something so silly as some t-shirts. I don't make much money off my shirts because I only charge $1 above cost. My goal with UW College Life is not to make money but to express myself and other UW students in a real light.
  

Thanks for your response, Robert!  I am glad to hear how you view the whole sloshkosh phenomenon.

Do You Know "Helicopter Parents?"

The Journal Sentinal is running a story about intrusive parents who try to manage their college student's lives.   I have heard of such people, calling professors, deans, or others to try to solve problems that their kids face.  Clearly, kids and parents are more connected than they have been in the past, thanks to cell phones, so it is not completely unexpected.

Personally, I haven't had that happen yet.  I imagine that this might be more of a problem at smaller colleges where they encourage the idea that professors are particularly accessible.   With over 11,000 students, faculty are generally seen as less available than smaller institutions, so it may mitigate this issue.

How about you?  Any "helicopter parents" pressuring you to take care of their kid?  

Northwestern Editorial Rant against Academia

I have to post the editorial from the Northwestern this morning. Mary Hiles, ex-lecturer in the UWO English department, recycles the tired, old charges from David Horowitz and the right-wing American Council of Trustees and Alumni about professors' political views in the classroom (many of which have been disbunked).

Her entry into this is Bill McConkey. He was in the paper a few months ago as the lead plaintiff in a law suit against the anti-civil union amendment to the Wisconsin constitution. Oddly, she gives us detail about a professor in New Jersey about whom people on ratemyprofessor.com say bad things.

I am not even sure McConkey is currently teaching here (or ever even mentioned the constitutional amendment in a class), but Hiles decides to use it as proof that "liberal" professors force their views on students in their classrooms.

Besides being a gratuitous, hollow attack on UWO, it demonstrates once again the failure of 'community columnists' to produce editorials that don't waste your time.

Happy New Year and Women in College

Welcome back everyone! Interim is underway and activity is beginning to pick up on campus. I hope everyone had a good relaxing month since I last posted!

Today, I am posting this story from the Journal-Sentinel about women in college. Enrollment and graduation rates for women are much higher than that for men in Wisconsin, as it is on our own campus. I don't remember the exact figures, but there is clearly a spread between men and women here.

It is part of a theme that has stretched back since the beginning of the blog.

Here I am in 2005, referencing U.S. Today.

Here is the NYTimes in 2006.

Here is a post from 2007.

(Wow, I have been at this for a while!!)

Nothing is really being done about the stagnation of male participation rates in college, although we have been aware of the gap for years. I am still not convinced that it is a problem, but perhaps we should intervene before it does become one. But how?!?

No Sloshkosh T-shirts for Christmas?!

The university publicity machine has sent cease and desist e-mails to a UWO student who was selling Sloshkosh and UW-Zero t-shirts on the web.

As much as I have been a proponent of cleaning up the image of our fair institution, this seems like a heavy-handed tactic to me. Does anyone seriously believe that fewer t-shirts with funny slogans on them will make UWO a better place?

Trademarking the two terms and then threatening someone who is already using them with a lawsuits smacks of the worst use of copyright/trademark law by UWO. Obviously, the student doesn't have the resources to stand up to threats from a state institution. Unless he is particularly ambitious, it is not likely he is going to find someone with the knowledge and resources to push back.

Besides which, wouldn't using the two terms be protected by his right to free speech? At worst, they are parodies of the official slogan/logo of the university. How can the university claim ownership of them? I understand trademark rules are about business usage, but how can this be?

I am hoping Tony Palmeri will clear this up for me. He is our resident free-speech guru.

University asks students for money for Sports Complex

I noticed this article on the University home page this morning. The Foundation has gone to the students for an additional $700,000 for the Oshkosh Sports Complex.

I wonder if this doesn't smack of desperation. I have heard Art complain about the problems of raising money for the OSC before. Is he turning to the students because the community seems to be tapped out for this project? There is a big gift from the Convention Bureau, so do we think there will be little more money to be given to finish the project?

Does the fact that students are going to have to pay for part of the sports complex bode well for the much larger amounts we have to raise for new building? Let's hope not!

Invasion of pick-a-prof.com

Rumor has it that pick-a-prof.com has expressed an interest in filing a request for SOS student evaluations and grade distributions for their website.

The OSA is considering whether to partner with the site in getting more data about professors and courses on-line.

The site itself looks a lot better than the snarky ratemyprofessor. I would be interested to see some of the information that pick-a-prof promises.

It sounds, however, like there is great fear among the professoriate that having this kind of information available will cause trouble. Various groups have been discussing ways to make it difficult for the website to get the information.

Personally, I am not particularly upset by the idea of having more information about our courses on the web. I suppose it might be bad to allow someone else make a profit from all the data that we collect and collate. Wouldn't it benefit students to know more about each of us before they enter the classroom?

Another Article Documents Decline of Tenure

In the midst of an incredibly hectic week, I am sneaking in a post. Here is an article from the New York Times. Although there doesn't seem to be anything in particular driving its appearance, it notes that the shift from tenure-track appointments to limited-term ones continues apace.

My favorite bit from the article is this:

Dr. Ehrenberg and a colleague analyzed 15 years of national data and found that graduation rates declined when public universities hired large numbers of contingent faculty.

Several studies of individual universities have determined that freshmen taught by many part-timers were more likely to drop out.

These two statistics should be more prominently displayed. There is a real impact on students--not just the institution or the teachers--when the type of teacher changes!

The greater problem: nobody reads!

The New York Times ran this article yesterday about the connection between declining test scores and declining reading rates. Reading for fun is on the decline.

Perhaps this should be part of the liberal education initiative--Reading 101: Lets read for fun--find someway to engage first year students in the pleasure of reading without the pressure of testing.

So many of our goals revolve around students reading well. If they don't read well or at all, we are in bigger trouble that we would like to admit!

If you want to see the NEA report, here is the link (a PDF).

Is it a real letter?

I read this letter to the editor in the Northwestern this morning. It was so unbelievable, that I felt like it must be a parody.

A student writes the newspaper and says all they do all weekend is drink. Why doesn't the University and city appreciate them for that?

Besides the strange writing (what exactly is an "alcoholic event"??), this student really demonstrates what was wrong about the Goat Pack event. He also makes it clear why UWO has a bad reputation in Oshkosh.

Shouldn't a student be proud of his study habits, grades, and community engagement? Instead he is proud of his drunkenness.

"Tests" to measure UW schools

Just as we knew would happen, VSA has hit the media and is being presented primarily as a resource based on those standardized tests. The story tosses in the caveats about testing, even with a quote from our illustrious chancellor.

Although it mentions the rest of the profile, it is clear that the test numbers will be the only thing in the public sphere. How long before legislators decided to make funding decisions based on our performance on those tests?

Goats run away

In a flash of good sense, students organizers canceled the "Run with the Goats" drinking bash this weekend.

It is amazing how much bad press this generated for UWO--it seemed to be on the 10PM news every night this week and, of course, made the Northwestern on a regular basis.

As the organizers rightly pointed out, a Saturday night of drunken revelry is not unusual for our students, but having 600 drunk students crawling through downtown just can't be a good thing.

I wonder what the administration threatened the Goat Pack with to bring this scheme to an end. They sounded pretty chastened when they were interviewed last night.

Personally, I am not sure that this is any worse than normal behavior for college students on the weekends. It might even be nice to funnel some of the wasted money towards charity, but it sure was a blight on our image.

VSA officially approved

As the university community knows, Chancellor Wells announced that all of the governance groups signed off on the VSA program. We are now going to move forward with posting more data about our university on the web.

The one caveat remained: everyone expressed concern over evaluation methods--so we will be seeing what standardized tests will be chosen to "demonstrate" that students have learned something in college. I am still struck by the irony that many colleges are moving away from using SAT/ACT to determine whether high school students are prepared for college, but we are now going to test them with a similar product to determine if they gained skills in college.

My fear remains that the final standardized test number will become an operative goal of the university and we will all be required to tailor our courses to improve student performance on a problematic standardized test. . . .Not now, but be prepared!

10 year academic staff let go

I caught wind of a rumor today that there are 2 academic staff people who have been teaching here in a science department that are not having their contracts renewed. It sounded as though they did not want to go.

Has anyone heard about this?

$2.5 million for growth agenda

Just because I am interested, I looked up the report on the budget this afternoon. It looks like we got about half of what was originally proposed in March 2006 (there is a link to the original proposal). Here it is:

(6) UW-Oshkosh [$1,619,600 GPR and $910,600 PR]. The funding would be the first part of a three biennia plan with the goal of increasing the number of Wisconsin residents with bachelor's degrees; by the end of the three biennia, UW-Oshkosh plans to increase undergraduate headcount enrollment by 1,440. UW-Oshkosh would accomplish this increase in headcount enrollment by increasing access to programs and majors and by increasing retention and graduation rates. Under the plan, UW-Oshkosh would expand existing programs,
including: (a) biology and microbiology; (b) medical technology; (c) psychology; (d) nursing; (e) criminal justice; and (f) teacher education. In addition, new programs relating to business, applied science, and fire and emergency response management would be offered.

Here is the link to the budget report from the state.

The next question is how do we do all of this with half the money??

Budget deal -- Universities come out ahead!

The news this weekend was good.

The legislators down in Madison apparently hammered out a budget agreement on Friday. In it, the UW system is supposed to receive $159 million more than in the last biennium. This represents a reduction to the system of only $6 from what was in the governors proposal. It is also a tripling of the amount put forth in the Republican budget plan.

I'm sure we will find new details over the next couple of days, but it looks like we are in good shape for the next two years. It seems likely that we will be embarking on our "growth agenda" in the near future.

Shut down UWO?

The governor yesterday threatened to shut down the university system for Spring semester if the budget impasse is not resolved soon.

This is an interesting new attempt at brinksmanship. I have trouble believing that it would actually happen. More likely, however, is a round of course cancellations and cutbacks if the legislators don't get a budget passed. I have also heard talk of a new surcharge for students, starting in the spring.

Do you think we'll be shut down?

It would be an interesting political moment. I wonder if it would generate any outrage. Perhaps we'll find out. I guess I should start saving now, just in case. . .

Get Ready for New Cuts!

The Chancellor announced that, because of the impasse in Madison, we are preparing for a new round of cuts here at UWO.

It looks as though we may get the "growth agenda" money in the second year of the biennium, but will face base cuts at least as big.

All the optimism of the Spring seems to have been just that, and state legislators have decided that higher tuition and fewer classes are the best way to help the Wisconsin knowledge economy grow.

The anti-UW sentiment in Madison is still dominant, driven by those hard-core college haters on the Republican side of the aisle. Unbelievable!

NYTimes positive towards assessment

I'm behind on my reading and so I am linking to last week's NYTimes Sunday Magazine. (It is early in the semester, so I am only 1 week off) It was their annual college edition. This story, however, deals particularly with assessment. The author, James Traub, basically suggests that assessment is a good thing for colleges. He ends with these lines:

The self-accountability of our system of higher education is grounded in the optional nature of college attendance. But college isn’t really optional any longer. The economic value of higher education, on both the individual and the national levels, has given the public a stake in outcomes not so different from the stake it has in the public schools.

This, I think, underlines the thinking of all of the testing advocates. Do you agree? Are we now really only the concluding years of a k-16 system?

I find it a problematic assumption. Clearly, higher education is a public good and carries increasing importance in the current world in which we live. However, to decide that this means that our job is no different than that of an elementary school teacher undermines the principles upon which higher ed rests. More on this later, but I really have other things I should be doing. . . .

Will VSA chase away the feds?

One of Chancellor Wells arguments for the VSA is that it will keep the feds from regulating our business.

Here is an article from insidehighered.com from the spring that addresses this issue. Do you believe it? I think that the push for standardized testing at every level has lost much of its momentum, especially as NCLB is in jeopardy of renewal in congress.

Besides which, is pressure from those who know little about what we do the best way to make educational policy?

Chancellor to hold public session on VSA

The plot thickens! For those of us who want to find out more about how we will soon be tested to death, the Chancellor awaits. . . .

A web site designed to help facilitate early adoption of the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) College Portrait is now available



Chancellor Richard Wells is meeting with governance and administrative groups who have been asked to share these materials on VSA with their constituents. He will host an open forum on the VSA College Portrait on Monday, October 15 from 3:30-4:45 PM in Reeve Memorial Union room 227C.

Chancellor Well's New Acronym: VSA

Chancellor Well's has been presenting his latest project around campus the past few weeks. It is the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA).

From what people have told me, it is first and foremost an attempt to ward off the intrusion of the federal government into university standard setting. Chancellor Wells has been deeply involved in the production of the project and wants us to be one of the pilot schools, posting our data within a few years.

In order to do this, the VSA will provide information about the universities involved on a website. There will be the NSSE data (National Study of Student Engagement), on which we have done quite badly. Most importantly, however, they want to have students take some sort of standardized test as an exit exam. They will then report that number on the site as well.

Choosing to highlight scores from some standardized test as an important measure of learning at our institution seems to be problematic. How in the world do you test what a student has learned in college? Does it strip it down to a set of "skills" that are similar to the ACTs? Are there subject tests based on content knowledge?

Chancellor Wells wants us to jump on board now. Are people who heard his pitch convinced? Will this really stave off federal intervention? Can this actually measure the quality of our institution?

Video games in dorms reduce grades

I came across this interesting paper today while I should have been working. Two economists attempt to study student study habits and grades. They found, not surprisingly, that student effort directly increases grades. They show that studying an extra 1 hour a day corresponds to a grade increase equivalent to 5 point increase in ACT scores.

Even more strikingly, the found that having a roommate with a video game lowers grades by the equivalent of a 4 point decrease in ACT scores.

Their argument is fairly simple. Student effort matters, and students are not trapped by the scores on their standardized tests.

While neither of these results is at all surprising, they do raise some interesting policy implications. How can we encourage students to tune out of pop culture and into their classwork? Should our NBC freshmen complex ban video games in rooms?

New Right-Wing Attacks on Academia

Driving in to school this morning, I heard Joy Cardin chatting with John Leo about his new website, mindingthecampus.com. I didn't hear much of the show, but it sounded like the standard right-wing rant.

However, John Leo was commenting on the corrosiveness of the politics of victimization, as practiced through identity politics. It struck me that it is exactly the same game that Leo and the right is playing. He is trying to create the mistreated "white male" who is deserving of the same kind of protection. If he really wanted to get above identity politics, wouldn't he spend less time ranting about how he is horribly traumatized by college campuses?

It might be new if he proposed something beside the tired rant of political correctness and liberals on campus. We already have Steve Nass, who is taking out his "victimhood" on the entire UW system. John Leo and his new website are just an afterthought.

Beer in Reeve

The Advance-Titan reported this week that the Underground in Reeve Union is now serving beer.

I know that this was a controversial idea last year, opposed by many groups who felt that there were already too many opportunities for drinking on campus. The article reports that not many students have taken advantage of it up to this point.

Now that it has been done, will it facilitate a more sane drinking climate on campus? Are you going to be taking your seniors out for a beer at the Union?

Goals of a 'Humane Education'

The Boston Globe ran a piece this weekend by a Yale law professor that argues that Universities have lost their way because they have lost sight of the big picture--the question of the meaning of life.

I'll quote my favorite part. Here he is defining what he calls the 'shared conception of a humane education:'

The first is that there is more than one good answer to the question of what living is for. A second is that the number of such answers is limited, making it possible to study them in an organized way. A third is that the answers are irreconcilably different, necessitating a choice among them. A fourth is that the best way to explore these answers is to study the great works of philosophy, literature, and art in which they are presented with lasting beauty and strength. And a fifth is that their study should introduce students to the great conversation in which these works are engaged - Augustine warily admiring Plato, Hobbes reworking Aristotle, Paine condemning Burke, Eliot recalling Dante, recalling Virgil, recalling Homer - and help students find their own authentic voice as participants in the conversation.

This is again a very traditionalist set of examples, but the conversation to which he is referring extends to a much broader list of thinkers.

I think that the discussion about a liberal education is one of the most important that we can have as a campus community. Can it become the vehicle for recovering the quality and reputation of our own institution?

Maybe there ARE more liberals in academia

This is a fun study, purporting to show that liberal brains are more flexible than conservative ones. They tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservative brains. It also notes that conservatives tend to block information that is contradictory to what they already believe.

Perhaps this is why liberals congregate in academia--more acceptance of ambiguity and increased willingness to think outside the box. One might argue that this is what academia is all about. Our jobs are by definition to be creaters of new knowledge. If you are not going to challenge the status quo, why go into a field where your success is defined by coming up with something new?

Thus, if a conservative is not comfortable with this ambiguities that academia demands, there are plenty of careers that offer the kind of intellectual stability that would be better.

Just something to think about. . . .

Our Misplaced Priorities

I know I shouldn't blog two times in the same day, but I am incensed by the football team. They have decided to miss 2 days this week for a trip to Alabama.

WTF!?? The coaches and provost have decided that they don't need to be around during the first classes of the semester? They don't need to know the requirements of their classes or whether the class will be a good fit for them??

Aren't we a division III school? Aren't athletics supposed to be a nice addition to the academic program of our students? Instead, teams take off whenever they want, have the provost force us to accommodate them, and generally treat classwork as if it is secondary to their games.

This is not the first time--I have had teams announce they are leaving early for spring break in the past(missing exams or other assignments)--why are our priorities so screwed up?? None of these students are likely to make it as professional athletes, but they will have to be able to read and write effectively. Yet, the administration put the sports first. How does this reflect on the quality of our degrees and our institution?

Opening Day

Welcome back everyone! We had our grand opening day convocation yesterday morning.

My impressions:

It looks like a hopeful year financially. Little doom and gloom, though there is still a chance Steve Nass will get his way in Madison.

It looks like a year of acronyms. LEAP was the main topic of the day. The chancellor and provost made the Liberal Education reform the center of their agenda, which may result in general education reform. I think that this could really be a boon for the university. The chancellor also mentioned some other acronym that has to do with a new sort of on-line college rating system that he will be proposing this fall.

Petra Roter and Art Rathjen decided to go with the comedy routines. Although they were amusing, I was left with the feeling that they didn't want to talk about real issues. Was Art hiding his own feeling that little money was raised behind his Wisconsin jokes? Someone suggested that Petra's own text message/abreviation schtick was both old (isn't this the 3rd time she has done this) and displayed her own belief that she knows the students better than the rest of us because she is hip to the code.

John Koker's comedy routine was more sedate and to the point, but he pushed the liberal education reform agenda too. He also tossed in his desire to do something about class size. We may be talking more about that as the year progresses.

The university continues to grow. Now we have over 12,500 FTE and we are getting a chance to rebuild some of our faculty numbers.

Just a few general comments this morning--if you have any of your own, I look forward to seeing them!

The Core of Our Problem

Americans are reading less and less. This article reports that only 43% of the population said they read a book last year (which surely means the percentage is much lower).

I watched my 13 year old nephew play with his psp the last time I saw him, I realized that he will probably be one of the non-reading majority. When I was his age, when I was hiding from relatives, I would be hidden away reading a book. He has too many other better things to do.

If he is not reading now for pleasure, will he when he is an adult? Will he when he is in college? It seems unlikely.

How many times has it become apparent that your students won't read the most interesting texts you can pick out for them? Even those that do, evince weak comprehension.

We need to break this cycle, but what can we do?

Dumb, dead kid earns parents $500,000

This is a crass headline, but I had to post this story that is all over the news. A Purdue University student electrocuted himself trying to sneak into a dormitory. He found an unlocked door that led to a pitch-black utility room, where he unknowingly touched a high-voltage line. It is a sad story, but the guy should have known better.

His parents then sued, I suppose for negligence, and the state of Indiana will have to fork over half a million bucks to his parents. Guess whose tuition, taxes, etc. will go to pay for this?

Are universities really responsible for essentially criminal behaviors of their students because of a mistakenly unlocked door? Are they to the tune of $500,000? It just seems like a sad commentary on our litigious culture.

Students block staff access to campus building

It was announced Friday that faculty and staff will be barred from using the new Wellness center without paying high fees. The fee is set at $360/year. (You can buy smaller increments at $30/month)

Apparently the students think that faculty and staff are waiting to overrun the facility, leaving no room for those who "paid" for it.

Actually, it is more of a slight by the people in Student Affairs, who see all of us as employees who are here only to serve the student customers. This attitude would bar us servants from using the facilities of the all-important customers.

To find that this campus building,open to all students, is closed to me because I didn't directly pay for it is annoying and divisive.

We are third tier in 2008!

U.S. News and World Rankings have come out. Princeton was number one. We have been placed in the category of Universities–Master's (Midwest), third tier.

I know that we are not really in competition with those rich private schools out east, but more troubling is that we did so badly among the UWs.

LaCrosse -- 22nd in the category
Eau Claire -- 26
Stevens Point -- 40
Whitewater -- 52
River Falls -- 60
Platteville -- 69

Unfortunately, I can't see all the details on the website, but obviously we do very badly in many of the categories. Does someone subscribe, so that we can see the numbers for UWO?

This, of course, is a perennial problem and will continue to damage our attempts to improve. Regardless of the methodological issues of the survey (you can read a few comments about that at insidehighered.com), it is really a continuing black eye for our campus.

Is Academic Freedom in Jeopardy?

We have discussed this before, but a new survey of social scientists finds that those surveyed are more pessimistic about academic freedom than those surveyed during the McCarthy era. (1/3 now versus 1/5 then)

The articles touches upon discussions of a disjunction between what we and the general public think academic freedom means, fights in middle-eastern studies, and even the recent supreme court ruling against part of McCain-Feingold.

There are many important truths to this, as you remember in our discussions of Kevin Barrett and last year, but it seems incorrect to equate today to the 1950s.

What do you think? Are we stifled and silenced? Should we be? (I should talk--I won't even give my real name!)

New Blogger on Campus

It looks as though a new anonymous blogger will be joining our cyber campus this year. "Douglas McCloud" brings a comment on what to expect in the next year and adds his comment on rental textbooks over at his blog, entitled Glib Replies.

From his first comments, I would say that he knows a lot more about what is going on around here than I do. In the comments, he warns us to watch out for big changes in Dempsey. On his blog, he chalks up resistance to rental textbooks to the need for bookstore profits to subsidize Reeve Union. These are details that I wouldn't have any idea about!

Welcome to a new compatriot!!

I'm Back!

Hello everyone!

I hope that you have had a refreshing and productive summer. I've had a quite successful summer of research, but now I am back in blogging mood.

Unfortunately, the dominant story I find is a bad one: The legislature is battling over UW funding. I thought that we were in good shape as Spring semester ended. Instead, Steve Nass intervened and convinced Republicans in the Senate to cut, cut, cut. . .

Today, the papers report that the Regents voted a 5.5% tuition increase, based on the budget that the governor has promised.

On a more positive note, Chancellor Wells is touting our reaccreditation (did anyone really think it wouldn't happen??). We aren't under any significant pressure to change our ways from the accreditors.

What will be the big issues for 2007-8?

Will another round of ugly financial crises arise?
What will happen to the Freshman experience project?
Will there really be general education reform?
Will the Chancellor head for greener pastures?

Let us speculate about the year ahead. . . .

Student Evals in the NYTimes

I read this article in the NY Times magazine on Sunday. It is from a journalist who apparently takes his negative comments a bit too seriously.

We have discussed evaluations here before, but this guy gets carried away feeling the pain from a few negative words. I almost always have someone who writes something negative, but only one person. I don't take them seriously and I don't know why the author here does. . .