Higher Education Quick Takes

The National Security Agency has doubled, to eight, the number of universities participating in a federal program to "cultivate more cyber professionals in an ever-changing global environment," the agency announced Wednesday. Air Force Institute of Technology, Auburn University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Mississippi State University join 2012 participants Dakota State University, the Naval Postgraduate School, Northeastern University, and the University of Tulsa in the program, in which some students and faculty members from the institutions participate in summer seminars at the agency. The news release clearly states: "Participating students and faculty members do not engage in actual U.S. government intelligence activities."
 

The Modern Language Association’s job listing database is free to everyone, starting Sept. 13.

Previously, faculty and current and former graduate students at MLA-affiliated departments of English and foreign languages (at most Ph.D.-granting institutions) could access the Job Information List at no charge. Non-MLA members without that access had to pay $65, while members paid $40. (MLA also made PDFs of its jobs list available to the public for free upon publication, five times annually. The online jobs list is updated weekly). Some criticized that model and last year, an anonymous group tried to open up the databases to the general public with a website called MLAjobleaks.com. The site is now dead.

In an e-mail, Rosemary Feal, executive director of MLA, said of the change: “The Executive Council attempts to make as much MLA material as possible free or low-cost to as many people as possible. It's our mission to promote the study and teaching of languages, and this is one way we carry out that mission.”

Public reaction so far has been positive. Christopher Lupke, associate professor of Chinese at the Washington State University at Pullman, wrote on the MLA Commons discussion board: “In this age when the humanities are under siege, we need to do everything we can for those just joining the ranks of our labor force. The free MLA [jobs list] is therefore a salutary development.”

College enrollment fell by 467,000 in the fall of 2012, according to a Census Bureau report released Tuesday. The decline followed substantial increases in previous years. Most of the 2012 decline came from older students (those 25 and older). Their enrollment fell by 419,000.

A professor of vocal music education at the University of Wisconsin at Superior is on paid leave as the institution investigates revelations that he is a convicted sex offender. Reports surfaced late last month that Matthew Faerber pleaded guilty in 1991 to two counts of attempted sexual abuse of a child and was sentenced to six months in prison, when he was the choir director at Murray High School in Utah, the Duluth News Tribune reported. Both counts involved 13-year old students.

Faerber was hired in 1998, before Superior required employee background checks (in 2007).

Faerber told the News Tribune: “This went through the court system; I have paid for what I did,” he said. “I have been clean 100 percent.”

A university spokeswoman said Superior is conducting an investigation to ensure the safety of current students. No complaints have been filed against Faerber at Superior, according to the newspaper. It’s unclear if or when he’ll be allowed to return to campus. In an e-mail, the spokeswoman said "we need to be diligent and thorough in our fact-finding investigation before we can draw conclusions."