bad news links: economy + highered

Just the tip of the iceberg... please remember that today is not National Shoot the Messenger Day....

Pharos of Alexandria, bearing a suspicious resemblance to the Tower of Babel

Forbes and CCAP still beating the drum for solving higher ed inflation by killing tenure:

• Inflation, Highered Reform and Academic Employment
• Schooling That Works: Four Great Innovations, 

"Note: all of these innovations are in the private sector. There are some good examples of new innovations at public schools such as Fort Hays State, but I think a disproportionate part of positive change in higher education will come from private sector innovators"

labor problems at Library of Alexandria solved by buying more slaves

More... 

• Inside Higher Ed on latest in job market (good for economics grads, still bleak for history, other humanities and social studies fields not mentioned looking good either) 
• Are English Departments Killing the Humanities? 
• Reasons for soaring cost of highered, etc ~ from a retired philosophy prof neither econ, admin nor adcon, Part I and Part II
• Montana speaks: Changes in tenure proposed, amidst education topics (abolishing tenure for public ed, both K-12 and higher ed): "education bills being considered this session have less to do with budgeting, and more to do with education philosophy"
• And elsewhere... Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions (please don't try to tell me you are surprised...more like... I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

But it's a brand new year, anything can happen. Even the Library of Alexandria was eventually rebuilt (even if it took millenia). So here's to 2011...  from Lee Skallerup Bessette, College Ready Writing, "Over on the University of Venus Facebook, the questions was asked, 'What's your word for 2011?' Most came up with words like adventure, change, whatever. 

What is your word? I'm still thinking about mine. What will the New Faculty Majority's word be?

David Noble, activist and academic gadfly

... best known for his criticism of the corporate university, distance education and his book, Digital Diploma Mills. Another outspoken Canadian educator (Athatbasca), Stephen Downs, proponent of online education and education technology innovator, writes fondly and appreciatively of Dr Noble. Link to Globe and Mail obit + comments included. 

David Noble, academic and activist, dies at 65
Adrian Morrow, Globe and Mail, January 3, 2011.

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David Noble's name has appeared in my blog pages on numerous occasions over the years, as though we varied in opinion on the benefits of technology in education, we nonetheless shared a scepticism around the corporatization of academia. I never met him, and never corresponded with him, but was influenced by him, and always tried, no matter how enthusiastic my espousal of this or that technology, to take his cautions and criticisms in mind. His willingness to think freely and speak his mind represents the best in Canadian academic tradition, and I keep that in mind as well. See also posts here and here.

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More links

• Breaking rules, a talk by David F. Noble (audio included) 
• Giving up grading

David Noble was arguably the most important historian of science and technology of the 20th century and a longtime, perhaps initiating, critic of  the "commodification of higher education." When he contributed a talk about the corporatization of campuses at the University of Ottawa in 2004, with co-speakers Ralph Nader and Leonard Minsky, several executive officers of the university declared that "he is not an academic." He feared that distance learning would separate the delivery of higher education by class: the wealthy go to campus, everyone else goes online, alone. Perhaps his greatest concern, the loss of academic freedom, the stifling of debate, should be ours as well. 

The Real Life Social Network

A really nice presentation (224 slides but moves right along) from Paul Adams, who works with the Google User Experience team, on the true nature of social networks. The main point is that we do not have one amorphous group of "friends" or contacts, but rather, several distinct groups. We belong not to one network but to many.

If you don't have time for the 224 slides in this presentation, here's the actual data Paul presents. The ideas and numbers presented are also, in my not so humble opinion, relevant to adjunct organizing efforts.

The Real Life Social Network v2

View more documents from Paul Adams.

the state of higher education

...segues into obligatory season version of the ubiquitous "whither U" conversation ~ whether rant, lecture or dialog. Our New Year's resolution (another obligatory seasonal genre) should be moving it from rant and lecture to inclusive dialog. By inclusive, I mean not leaving adjuncts, contingent and NTT academic labor out of the national discussion and decision make. Don't just toss an occasional hush puppy panel or even all day bone to the noisy dog.

Anthony Grafton reviews Higher Education? by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus and Crisis on Campus by Mark Taylor. Is going to an elite college worth the cost? The sluggish economy and rising costs of college have only intensified questions about whether expensive, prestigious colleges make any difference. Michael Konczal on the 21st-century retreat from public higher education. The academy as a commodity: What if the market has already devalued the knowledge on which the entire operation of accountability is based? From Arcade, Gregory Jusdanis on the oppression of peer review. Academics have long been criticised for being out of touch with the real world; many make great efforts to dispel ivory tower attitudes, but others believe such habits will never disappear. An interview with Phillip Brown, Hugh Lauder, and David Ashton, authors of The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs and Incomes. The disposable academic: Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time. Can Tolstoy save your marriage? Cultural classics offer vital lessons about how to live, but our universities don't teach them that way. An interview with Martha Nussbaum on the value of the humanities (and more). Victor Davis Hanson writes in defense of the liberal arts: The therapeutic Left and the utilitarian Right both do disservice to the humanities. We're all conservatives now: Academics from the left and right blame each other for the state of higher education, but they're in agreement more than they realize.

via bookforum.com

Our part is to come to table stunningly well informed: homework done, all sides researched ~ add well articulated objectives to the list. Hence the timeliness of yet another review.

Coming up in this seasonally appropriate Janus series: an adjuncts' top 10 list for 2010, maybe even best and worst lists. Then if not resolutions, directions and realistic objectives for 2011.

What's on your list?

Posted via email from Academentia

MLA Initiative: The Academy in Hard Times

#MLA11 notes, from Teaching College English, blogged by Dr Susanna Davis. 

About initiative: With the academy facing one of the most difficult periods in its history, the MLA Program Committee has designated 6 January 2011, the first day of the Los Angeles convention, as a focal point for a series of panels and workshops on the theme The Academy in Hard Times. Program and schedule for initiative sessions.

Closing session, 167 at 7pm, speakers 

Christopher John Newfield, U

C Santa Barbara, and Gary Rhoades, 

AAUP, are also on the Counter-conference program. 

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The second MLA special initiative is The Academy in Hard Times. Two colleagues and I have a panel in this section of the MLA, In Our Own Image: Remaking Academia in a Changing Economic Climate [scheduled for January 6, 5:15 pm at the LA Convention Center]

Position statements are available for this panel:

• Dr. Debbie J. Williams of Abilene Christian University has a short post on her paper, Reinventing the Academic Self: When the Professional and the Personal Collide, available.
• Dr. Susan G. Cotton of Lone Star College has a short post on her paper,Unexpected Benefits: Re-visioning an Academic Through Campus Involvement, available.
• And Dr. Susanna H. Davis, previously of Houston Baptist University and now of Houston Community College: Central, has a short post on her paper,Avoiding Academic Rigor Mortis: From Teaching Zombie to Animated Scholar, available.

This panel, number 133, will be presenting on Thursday, January 6, at 5:15 in 406A of the LA Convention Center. Photograph from monkeyfister.blogspot.com.