Whither U: Education in the Time of a 2-tiered System

These tiers are not about tenure (for a change) but not unrelated: the reference is to the increasingly tiered economy, global and domestic and its implications for higher ed. 

Posts in progress, "year of the dangerous meme" and "grow your own" are in drafts. Not the usual ~ after all there are so many calls in so many disciplines and Penn to meet your notification needs, but I have a call to post, plus personal but education related notes on experimental open online courses I am taking, a busman's holiday but covering developments that could change higher ed as we know it. MOOCs may not have that MLA cachet but they make Digital Humanities and HASTAC look retro. 

There's NFM news too, a few items not in time to make the Newsletter, which should be appearing in a few days. I'm one of the BoD you'll meet in this issue's "Meet the NFM Board" feature. Eventually, you'll meet all of us. In the meantime, catch up on back issues in the Newsletter Archives while you are waiting. Otherwise, as a former student at the American University at Cairo, I am consumed with following #Egypt. Back to the newsfeeds...

The Rise of the New Global Elite

Chrystia Freeland, The Atlantic, February 2, 2011.

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This is going to have to be fixed before education is fixed. Because education can't fix this: 

New to the higher ed beat? Read this.

links from the Educated Reporter blog for following higher ed news. No, you may not agree with the editorial stance of every source listed. So what. Since when did depending on mainstream corporate media and cherry picking sources for consensus constitute good research?

I'd add academic, labor and other blogs to the source list but that's another post. What sources would you add? The Educated Reporter, Linda Perlstein, public editor for the Education Writers Association, writes, 

Last week I posted resources I think are helpful for K-12 reporters to stay abreast of national issues. Today, here is what I recommend to new higher ed reporters: 

• —You simply cannot cover the beat without signing up to receive daily bulletins from Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education. It would be like obsessing over celebrities without reading People and Us. Touring Provence without visiting Aix or Arles or Avignon. (Oh wait, I did that once, but I had my reasons.) Everything on IHE is free, and the Chronicle gives journalist free subscriptions and is very generous about lifting you over the paywall for links and such.
• —Lumina Foundation send out links to the day’s higher ed headlines—unfortunately, only the headlines, but it is something.
• —Blogs worth reading: Joanne Jacobs on community colleges at Hechinger, Quick and the Ed, the New America Foundation blogs, Mike Kirst’s College Puzzle, Center for College Affordability and Productivity, and, if you are into admissions issues from a consumer perspective, The Choice at the New York Times.

What am I missing? 

Comment:

Other worthwhile bulletins:

• _University Business Magazine's daily newsletter, which thoroughly rounds up higher-ed news stories sandwiched between job postings, new product announcements and contracts: http://bit.ly/awGikF
• _ The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities compiles top headlines and links daily ... even though today its Twitter feed promoted an opinion piece in a North Dakota newspaper that badly distorted a recent AP story on collegiate learning. www.naicu.edu/rss/newsroom.asp
• _ The American Council on Education's Division of Government and Public Affairs sends out headlines/links twice a week: http://bit.ly/i2Rgpr 

You won't miss much if you get these.

via educatedreporter.com  and x-posted to The New Faculty Majority  via email from Academentia

trolling the academented blogosphere

Licensed under Creative Commons  Some rights reserved by davidsilver

...annotated, of course, via brief post excerpts, most but not all from blogs of the academented precariat. I was collecting links to post to the Contingent Academics Mailing List and, mindful of recent admonition not to post full length articles, excerpting briefly from opening. When that post in the making got long, mindful of recent complaints about irrelevant, time-wasting posts, I decided to blog my efforts. Then, if so inclined, I could post the link. 

No particular order other than as they came up in my feed reader. Any perceived organization, thematic or otherwise, is either serendipitous or imagined. However, more than one post on same topic, commenting on same material or from same blogger are listed adjacently.

This could become a feature, but I'd like to come up with a better - and shorter - name. I might even theme or otherwise organize them...

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Ending a Bad UC Week: What Points Might Help Turn Things Around? (remaking the university)

This was one of the worst weeks in recent UC,CSU, and CCC history, as the new Democratic governor dished out triple $500 million cuts to all the segments ($400 m to the community colleges), neck-and-neck for the cutting record of his Republican predecessor.  Comments on this blog and elsewhere suggest that some people think this is a clever political ploy, but many people are on the verge of giving up on the idea that California higher ed will ever recover under our political system.  

Academe reviews Alex Kudera's adjunct novel

A Novel Departure: Fight for Your Long Day: A Novel. Alex Kudera. Kensington, MD: Atticus, 2010. Reviewed for Academe by Isaac Sweeney who writes, 

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I laughed at parts of Fight for Your Long Day, a new novel (excerpt Ch 3 online) by Alex Kudera. At other parts of the novel, I felt inspired. But most of all, Fight for Your Long Day made me sad. Part of my sadness came because Kudera writes elegantly and has created an insightful, tragic, sometimes comic protagonist (I dare not call him a hero) named Cyrus Duffleman, whom the narrator calls "Duffy." He reminds me of Hamlet—a bit of an introverted whiner, but the kind you love to hear whine. I'm sad when Duffleman is sad. I'm even sadder when he has bits of hope, like when there's the prospect of an affair with an attractive student, because I know it won't work out for him. As with any other effective tragic character, there's something satisfying in watching his tragedy unfold.

Alex Kudera, photo from When Falls the Colliseum

The bulk of my sadness comes from my ability to relate to Duffleman. As I write this, I am a full-time nontenure- track instructor in Virginia. I teach four first-year writing courses at James Madison University and one composition course at Blue Ridge Community College. I supplement my teaching income with freelance writing and editing. Fight for Your Long Day is set in Philadelphia, and Duffleman, like me, is a contingent instructor (I dare not call him a professor). He, too, teaches at multiple colleges and universities. He supplements his teaching income with a tutoring job at the corporatized University of America and with shift work as a security guard at another college.... Duffleman's (and Kudera's) insights are profound at times....But it is Duffleman's hope in the face of adversity that is inspiring to a fellow contingent faculty member. I am better for reading it....

After reading the novel, I'm sad also because relatively few of us are doing more than complaining to air. Cyrus Duffleman and Fight for Your Long Day cast light on this situation. I hope the novel is popular enough to make a big change; it has already changed me.

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Read the complete review online at Academe. Visit Duffy's Facebook page and Alex's blog, The United States of Kudera

Academe's reviewer Isaac Sweeney is a writer who spent three years as a full-time non-tenure-track instructor. James Madison University did not renew his appointment for the spring 2011 semester. His essays about the profession have appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. His e-mail address is sweeneyi@brcc.edu.

AAUP » Publications & Research » Academe » 2011 Issues » January-February 2011 » Book Reviews

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2011 Days of Action for PublicEd

Recently, board members of UPTE-CWA 91119 (representing over 10000 Healthcare, Research and Technical Employees at the University of California.) voted unanimously to endorse the March 2, 2011 Strike and Day of Action for Public Education. Other actions are being planned across the country and internationally. Follow plans and updates at the Defend Education group 

Actual resolution (+ a short letter introducing it): 

The "International Student Movement" is an independent platform for groups and activists around the world to exchange information, network and unite in our struggle against the increasing privatisation of [and for free and emancipatory] public education!

The "Spring of Resistance" is coming!

Questions? Suggestions? Get in touch with us at united.for.education@gmail.com