Comments on Quick Takes: Jury Orders HP to Pay Cornell $184 Million, Disputed Report at WVU, No Confidence at Monroe CC, Bush at Furman, Facebook Snooping at Seattle U.

• WVU MBA Scandal
• Posted by Mark on June 2, 2008 at 8:15am EDT

• One erroneously awarded MBA degree is bad enough -- now perhaps 70? Does the businss program's accrediting body - AACSB - have nothing to say?

• Posted by Art Esposito , Academic Advisor on June 2, 2008 at 10:30am EDT

• I've overtly maintained a Facebook profile and actively "friended" my advisees since 2005. My students have "shut me out" of their web-based socializing on very few occasions, while the number of them who have allowed me to be a voice of reason and strong role model for responsible on-line behavior stands in overwhelming majority. It's important to remember that we have a choice when entering into web-based environments where our students "socialize." We can either do so in such a way that demands their submission to our desire that they act responsibly, or we can enter and model good behavior in an understanding way--understanding that we are the visitor in the students' world. By acting in the latter way, we stand a better chance of our students voluntarily accepting us as authority figures, thereby earning their trust and openness to our counsel and advice. So too are we earning their openness to our knowledge that we’re hoping they’ll turn into their own wisdom.

  The administrator in this case was able to stop two parties that he found out about. What will likely happen in the future is that the parties will go on, advertised in some other way with little change in behavior. In effect, students will simply shut him out of their lives, resulting in the loss of a valuable educational opportunity—a “teachable moment” squandered.

  If, instead, he chose to send a private message to the "sponsors" of the Facebook event, engaging them as a concerned educator and discussing the ramifications of what they were planning, couldn't he have stood a better chance of truly educating these young adults? Would his goal of teaching beyond the classroom been more easily achieved in the future? I’ve sent many a personal message to my advisee/friends, warning them of implications and possible ramifications of their on-line behavior, fully expecting each of the students in question to shut me out in the future. In every case, the students have proven me wrong and responded as thoughtful, reasonably thinking individuals appreciative that I’m concerned enough for their welfare to intervene, pointing out recklessness and advising caution.

  Have I stopped any parties? Likely not—but would anything we do serve that purpose while affording us “teachable moments” in the process? If we’re really concerned with our responsibility to educate “beyond the classroom,” shouldn’t we be more concerned with teaching reasonable and responsible behavior rather than delivering edicts of prohibited activities?

• Bush at Furman
• Posted by Mike Licht on June 2, 2008 at 11:30am EDT

• Furman President David Shi was admonished by professors for failing to consult with them about the speaker; he agreed that was the school tradition and accepted the admonishment.

  With 650 graduates with a maximum of five guests each, a couple of hundred faculty members and the balance of the audience of 10,000 hand-selected, (the state GOP convention was 100 miles away) a warm reception was guaranteed.

  Furman had two weeks of panels on "Assessing the Bush Presidency" with no press coverage whatsoever.

  See http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/imperial-presidency-is-contagious/#more-1342

• The SUNY Cesspool
• Posted by Fritz Katz on June 2, 2008 at 1:30pm EDT

• It is not a shock that Monroe CC powers-that-be seek to recognize and reward political and personal connections ahead of qualifications in selecting a president: it is a longstanding SUNY tradition. This second largest American university system leads any and all in both this behavior and suppressing free speech among students and faculty - often perverting valid campus security emergency ban procedures to do so and, when challenged, losing in court. But how many victims can afford to fight the State in Federal Court? The reason SUNY administrators are able to usually (kudos to Monroe troops for standing against it) get away with these outrages is twofold. 1) The State Attorney General will blindly and relentlessly defend the system against any lawsuit regardless of merit. 2) The system chancellor and many campus presidents employ hand-picked six-figure-salaried PR flacks to disinform on and defuse crises while spending the majority of their other time burnishing the president/chancellor's image. The Legislature needs to investigate and stop that. This trickle down tyranny began with the first (Pataki) of a now seemingly endless series of unethical NY governors appointing a chancellor (King) with no educational credentials whatsoever. Fight on, Monroe.

• Dissent at Furman
• Posted by justaguy on June 2, 2008 at 3:35pm EDT

• '...some faculty members and students wore white armbands, a few professors did not stand when the president arrived and was introduced, and 14 wore T-shirts that said “We Object.”'

  In liberal circles this is known as patriotism.