#AcademeToday—2013 in Review

…how do these compare to an #adjunct's precarity driven Janus List?

Academe Today Monday December 30, 2013 Subscribe to this newsletter Highlights From 2013 As the year draws to a close, take a look back at the top stories in higher education with this collection of articles from The Chronicle.   January Adjunct Project Shows Wide Range in Pay and Working Conditions Adjuncts reported earning $2,987 per three-credit course, on average. Instructors at 16 colleges said they made less than $1,000. Female Philosophers Shake Up Their Field Despite the advent of feminist philosophy decades ago, the discipline is more male-dominated than any other in the humanities. Some women are trying to change that. 'I Will Ruin Him' A cyberstalked novelist traces the evolution of his aggressor's flirty-turned-fierce digital attacks.   February The Dissertation Can No Longer Be Defended Sentiment is growing to move beyond the traditional, book-length monograph to something that might actually help graduate students in their careers. 3 Ph.D. Candidates Who Are Doing Digital Dissertations The One Problem a President Can't Solve Andrew Benton is a seasoned leader accustomed to solving problems through persistence and organization. But these tools have done little to help get his son off heroin. Too Much 'Merit Aid' Requires No Merit Colleges use it to entice the offspring of the wealthy, to the detriment of everyone involved.   March The Employment Mismatch Students go to college partly to land jobs. But are graduates ready for them? The Chronicle and Marketplace asked employers if colleges meet their needs. The Second-Chance Club For students at one community college, life hinges on small moments, and breaking points come at every turn. 'My Two Greatest Obstacles': One Student's Essay Pop Goes the Law Firms, schools, and disillusioned lawyers are paying for decades of greed and grandiosity.   April Is ROI the Right Way to Judge a College Education? In thinking of return on investment, dollars and cents ought to be taken into account, but not to the exclusion of other things that matter. Illustration: What to Go to College For Commentaries: What Is College For? Herbert Richardson v. the World Some librarians say the founder of Edwin Mellen Press is a bully for his legal threats against bloggers who criticize his company. But he says he's the one being bullied. What Professors Make Annual pay averages $84,000; the increase just matches inflation. Not all of the numbers are heartening, though.   May The Long Odds of the Tenure-Track Job Search The Chronicle looks at the applications submitted for two positions in the humanities, where the competition is stiff and candidates are often in the dark. Why Professors at San Jose State Won't Use a Harvard Professor's MOOC In an open letter, the San Jose professors worry that public higher education will suffer if scholar-student interaction is replaced with videotaped content. Michael Sandel Responds An Open Letter From San Jose State U.'s Philosophy Department How a Little Data Can Solve One of Higher Education's Biggest Problems You don't need millions of dollars to improve graduation rates. Georgia State did it with tiny grants for the right students.   June At the Ivies, It's Still White at the Top Elite colleges look to hire "qualified" senior administrators. But what does that word really signify? Do Search Firms Help With Diversity Efforts? 'Fisher' Ruling May Open a 'Wave of Litigation Against Colleges' Many experts predict the ruling will inspire legal challenges to race-conscious admissions policies that previously got the benefit of the doubt. Bounced Around After 12 coaching jobs in 16 years, Elwyn McRoy takes one last shot. With interactive features on his career and job searches.   July The Gates Effect A look inside the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's $472-million (so far) effort to remake higher education, and at why many in academe are not cheering. A Prominent Philosopher's Career Comes to Ignominy Colin McGinn resigned from the University of Miami after a student accused him of inappropriate behavior. He's trying to be philosophical about it. A Brain Gone Bad Football veterans are helping scientists investigate the results of chronic head trauma. August Obama's Lofty Goals on College Costs Face Long Odds In the end, the president can't remake higher education on his own. He can only shine a light on its problems, and exhort states and colleges to do more. Quiet No Longer, Rape Survivors Put Pressure on Colleges Activists go public in a concerted effort to compel colleges to prevent sexual assaults. The Ambiguous Role of Money in Higher Education Presidents and trustees would be well advised to eliminate practices that seek immediate financial benefit at the cost of compromising important academic values.   September Do You Know Where Your Ph.D.'s Are? A pet project by a longtime CUNY sociologist to find out where his program's graduates ended up highlights the risk and reward of such efforts. Interactive Data: A Look at Life After the Ph.D. The Admissions Playbook Is Up for Revision Enrollment shortfalls prompt a revamping of strategy on many campuses. A Freshman Year, Far From Home For Chinese students in America, study abroad can be a daunting experience. Michigan State University, for example, is nothing like home.   October Scientist or 'Whore'? Incident Symbolizes a Familiar Struggle Women of color in science say the insult to Danielle N. Lee highlights a daily battle against racism and sexism, and a lack of meaningful diversity in academe. Welcome, Freshmen. You Do Not Deserve to Be Here. The Stanford freshman convocation speech that wasn't. Stalin's Blue Pencil Revising history is a brutally effective tactic. And pen and sword together are mighty indeed.   November The STEM Crisis: Reality or Myth? To maintain global supremacy, it's said, the United States needs more college graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math. The numbers tell a different story. The Uncommon Rise of the Common App More than 500 colleges have made a standardized form a cornerstone of the admissions process. Is that really a good idea? Interactive Data: The Growth of the Common Application, 2001-12 The Science of Hatred What makes people capable of horrific violence? A few psychologists say they are moving toward answers—if only someone will listen.   December Meet the People Who Shaped Higher Education This Year These individuals made their mark through the courts, through the power of an idea, through the act of writing an open letter, even in death. What Private-College Presidents Make Use The Chronicle's exclusive database to explore the compensation of private-college presidents, featuring tools to put those numbers in context. The Great Stratification The changing role of the professor has created a huge new subclass of academic worker. Home | News | Opinion | Advice | Blogs | People || Jobs || Forums || Arts & Letters Daily Job Opportunities Search the entire Vitae Jobs Database Announcements Internships at The Chronicle The Chronicle is seeking editorial interns for the Summer 2014 session. The internships are paid, full-time positions in our Washington office and will run from May through August. Duties include reporting and writing brief features for our print edition and daily news articles for our website. The application deadline is Friday, January 3. For details, please go to our website. NEXT: The Future of Higher Education This special report looks at colleges that are doing things differently—questioning the traditional degree, reinventing the academic calendar, "flipping" the classroom or physically re-configuring it, seeking new ways to evaluate what students know, and helping them navigate life after college. Order this special issue today to hear from a diverse group of scholars and thinkers about whether innovation can indeed stick. Click here to get a copy. The Almanac of Higher Education, 2013-14 The latest Almanac of Higher Education gathers an assortment of key data about the most important trends in higher education. It brings readers an in-depth analysis of colleges and universities with data on students, professors, administrators, institutions, and their resources. Click here to get a copy.