Blogs

What if we only worked 40 hours a week in higher education?

Professional service is one of the many elements of becoming a professional that many graduate students don't consider to be an important component of graduate school. It often slides under the radar, somewhere well below writing, research, and teaching. While almost all students understand the importance of joining professional organizations, attending conferences, and presenting at those conferences, few take their involvement beyond that step. However, there are many different ways to be involved in your professional organization, and a number of important reasons to do so. Many graduate students don't know how to become involved, or what options for student involvement exist. And, like anything else, taking on service responsibilities has its drawbacks.

The Big Bang Theory and the Republican Primary have more in common than one might think. The comedy follows a Caltech particle physicist’s pathetic attempts to deal with the irrational world around him. The fictional physicist, Sheldon Cooper, is pure. He wishes only to understand the physical order of the universe without the messy passions that pollute other people’s lives.

In thinking about teaching persuasion, I revisited a 1965 debate between Buckley and Baldwin and maybe discover a thing or two for myself.

I read with interest the recent article in Inside Higher Education regarding the retiring President of Westminster College preparing for retirement by compiling an eportfolio. President Bassis prepared the eportfolio both “to reflect on his 41 years in higher education…but also as a way to communicate to students and faculty members his steadfast belief in electronic portfolios as a method of cataloging and assessing student work.”

Magazines aren't something that I generally purchase. However, when I'm at 30,000 feet jet-setting off to my next consulting engagement, or heading home to Boston, magazines are one of my favorite ways to pass the time. On a whim, I recently picked up the April edition of the outrageously priced Harvard Business Review. While reading an article about data and good decisions, one of the headlines made me immediately dog-ear a page and pop open my laptop. Part of the focus of the article was that businesses need to develop "more informed skeptics." My brain immediately leapt over to my "radical student affairs" post and connected skepticism to being a more radical practitioner. Questioning is learning, innovating, and being an agent for change.

In years past, I used to worry about what to "do" with Ben during his school breaks. This year, he had to remind me not to wake him up on Friday morning, because the start date of his spring break kept slipping my mind.

The United States is truly moving into the era of the commercialization of international higher education. International students, particularly, are being seen as “cash cows” that can bring in needed revenues at a time of austerity.