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Confessions of a Community College Dean
In which a veteran of cultural studies seminars in the 1990’s moves into academic administration ...

Politics of Hiring: Riffing on Profgrrrrl
By Dean Dad November 19, 2009 9:36 pm

First, if you've ever wanted a sense of academic hiring, read Profgrrrrl's post. Now. Slowly. It's all true.Worse, it doesn't stop at the department level.Let's say, for the sake of argument, that your dean/vp didn't just fall off the turnip truck. Any chances that s/he might be wise to some of these factors? (Hint: Yes.)Facts of life like these are why I have this much patience for the argument ...

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7 comments

Getting Back to #1
A group discussion on efforts to improve opportunities for college students.

The Truman Commission Redux
By Arthur Levine August 9, 2009 11:39 pm

In his previous post, Jamie Merisotis makes a compelling case for the importance of seeing American higher education in the context of higher education worldwide, and for treating our system of higher education as an imperiled competitive advantage.As Jamie notes, U.S. educational attainment “has remained flat for 40 years” -- a fact all the more worrisome in light of rising college ...

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3 comments

Getting to Green
An administrator pushes, on a shoestring budget, to move his university and the world toward a more ...

Selling sustainability
By G. Rendell November 18, 2009 8:05 pm

Let me start by saying that I'm tremendously conflicted on this subject. Probably the first lessons I taught my children when they were old enough to watch TV were that (1) commercials lie, and (2) lots of kids' shows are just half-hour commercials. Pure selling is not something I'm good at, or that I enjoy, or that I can respect in anything but the most cynical manner.At the same time, ...

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1 comments

Intellectual Affairs - The Blog
The blogging annex to Scott McLemee's weekly column

Librarians Get Busy
By Scott McLemee July 13, 2009 10:42 am

The American Library Association is meeting, and tweeting, in Chicago. A report:"The nearly week-long librarian meet-up, which began July 9, delivers 'over 300 educational programs' to professional bibliophiles each year--including workshops like 'Collection Development: Decision Making With Data' and 'When Is Nice Too Nice? Strategies For Disengaging From the Talkative Patron.' Some attendees, ...

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Keywords From a Librarian
A librarian writes about teaching and information.

FUNQs: Won’t Ask, Won’t Tell
By Mary W. George November 1, 2009 8:59 pm

Today I have the urge to address a perennial, insidious, and unnecessary condition that afflicts higher education in this country. It results from the most Frequently UNasked Question (by students) that is also the most Frequently UNanswered Question (by faculty): What is a primary source?The silence surrounding this question is deafening. Undergrads are oblivious to the issue, think they already ...

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10 comments

Mama PhD
Mothers attempting to balance parenthood and academics

Math Geek Mom: Altruism and Aging
By Rosemarie Emanuele November 19, 2009 9:12 pm

My first week of graduate school found me in a microeconomics class with a teacher reviewing the assumptions behind what is commonly called the “Adam Smith hypothesis”. Referring to the founder of the discipline of economics, it is a hypothesis that free markets work well, and that work so well that under them no one can be made better off without someone else being made worse off. This can ...

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Reality Check
The Reality Check blog, from John V. Lombardi, follows the endlessly fascinating parade of ...

Seeking Federal Support
By John V. Lombardi November 17, 2009 4:00 pm

I am having trouble signing on to the campaign to make our universities dependencies of the federal government. I want the money. I am confident that we could spend it a lot better than the bailed out banks and the rescued financial services industry. I also know that higher education is a much better investment that many other government projects.We already receive a lot of money from the ...

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Technology and Learning
A space for conversation and debate about learning and technology

Challenges and Opportunities of the Small Screen
By Joshua Kim November 19, 2009 9:24 pm

How will academic libraries make sure that their content is available on a 3.5-inch mobile device? Should this even be a goal of the academic library? This week the NYTimes wrote about the rapid growth of reading platforms, and reading, on cellphones and other mobile platforms. In "Cellphone Apps Challenge the Rise of E-Readers" we learned that there are 84 million smartphones and 50 million ...

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The Education of Oronte Churm
Oronte Churm, lecturer in English, writes about the weird and sometimes beautiful thing we call ...

Guest Book Review: Give My Poor Heart Ease
By Oronte November 19, 2009 11:30 pm

Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues. William Ferris. The University of North Carolina Press, November 2009. $35.00.Review by Katya CumminsGive My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues is a book that will transport its readers, though it’s meant to be experienced at a walking pace. The book is comprised of black-and-white photographs and edited interviews that ...

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University Diaries
A professor of English describes American University life.

PLAGIARISM, HIGH AND LOW
By UD November 21, 2009 9:20 am

Two recent instances of professorial plagiarism - New Zealand novelist Witi Ihimaera and, allegedly, Ohio State University mathematician Azita Manouchehri - have UD thinking once more about this odd and endless practice of stealing other people's words and work.Students, professors, journalists, scientists -- everyone, it sometimes seems, who puts pinkie to keyboard, feels tempted to block and ...

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