Blogs

What do we or should we consider open access?

In the sticky, sweltering heat of late summer, I wrote a little post called “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dissertation,” which translated my writing struggles into a therapeutic list of writing tips. This post was written as I despairingly grappled with many of the negative emotions that can accompany slogging through a long form project like a dissertation (guilt, self-loathing, and a healthy dose of but I don’t wanna, primarily).

I have been feeling fragmented lately, and I’ve generated a hypothesis for why I feel this way that maybe others out there can relate to. Let me start at the beginning. Lo those many years ago my PhD was officially conferred, and I had a baby soon after. At the time I decided to step away from the traditional academic route, since with a husband six years further along in an academic career I just didn’t have the desire to balance a second academic career track with our new family.

The highlight for me of Super Bowl XLVII (which I watched by streaming online) was when the power went out in the Superdome. This was a perfect tech failure because it makes us feel so much better about all of our tech failures.

What’s your philosophy on “technology time” for your kids? We have a few techie toys around the house that the kids enjoy using: a kindle fire, a nook running android, and an ipod touch. (For those keeping score at home, all of those were bought used, and all work quite well. I’m not sure why this option isn’t more popular.) There’s also the family laptop on which TW and I do work, and the kids play Minecraft.

It is difficult to argue that the cross-border programs add much value to the larger institution when students from the home campus are rarely aware that they exist and are not encouraged or (sometimes) allowed to visit or study there. Although the marketing and public relations departments of institutions operating abroad make reference to the campus in Qatar, Dubai, Singapore or Shanghai as evidence of the global or international character of the whole institution, it is mostly image making and at best aspirational. Most often the language used is either an exaggeration or an embellishment and not a reflection of reality. Claims of being a “global university” or a “global network university” are, for example, quite common.

New rules will take effect soon. Will they have an impact? Yes and no -- and I care more about the no.

What if financial aid went directly from the federal (or state) government to the student, rather than running through individual campuses? The students could use the aid to attend any accredited institution.