Devolving public universities

Article by Christopher Newfield in radical philosophy (UK) #CFHE

It is easy enough to be fatalistic about the current funding situation in higher education. US public universities have locked themselves into a model that has led to the slashing of public funding off and on for thirty years and that has been forcing public universities towards an ever-growing dependence on private money. This funding model rests on (though is not limited to) the 'high tuition/high aid' paradigm, in which tuition is to be pushed up rapidly – it's now between $15,000 and $20,000 for in-state students at many leading public universities – with offsets for needy students that come through financial aid, and a vast pool of student loans whose total volume last year surpassed the country's aggregate credit card debt.1 

Oddly enough, the unsustainability of the overall financial system that became obvious in 2008 has for the moment made that system politically stronger. The same has happened to the American funding model for higher education (AFM). Its clear failure to maintain necessary revenues has only increased its power over the educational mission. In the incumbent model's weakness lies its strength. In the strength of the criticisms lies their futility. Hence our widespread fatalism.

A broken funding model 

Read the rest here; see also preview and brief commentary at reclaim UC, "provisional home of the College of Debtors in Defiance"

A new article from Chris Newfield about public universities and the "American Funding Model" (AFM) whose primary effect has been to shift "public university revenues to a specific kind of private source, for three decades. Voters are often told that the shift means that wealthy donors and research sponsors have picked up a big part of the educational bill, but this is simply not true. The AFM means shifting educational costs from the overall population to students and their families. The model also shifts costs from old to young, and in California from a 70 per cent white voting public to a 70 per cent student-of-colour secondary-school population."

#CFHE Meeting

Come to Boston November 4-6 for The Campaign for the Future of Higher Education Meeting at UMass. It starts Friday at 5 P.M. and ends Sunday at 12 Noon. We will have a packed agenda, but also plenty of time to get to know and learn from each other in more relaxed ways. 

You will hear and discuss how disinvestment, privatization, cost-shifting and curriculum changes – i.e. the attack on students and the public sector – are playing out on campuses and in states around the country. We will hear how students, faculty, and citizens in coalition are finding new ways of fighting back. Most important, together we will build on the vision for CFHE and decide on activities to help us attain that vision. And we might even have an action while we're all here!

Most meals will be provided; donations will be accepted on a voluntary basis. Address conference inquiries to CFHE.conference@gmail.com. Local CFHE organizer John Hess is managing the email address, responding to emails, answering questions and appropriately redirecting ones he can't.

A block of rooms has been reserved at Hampton Inn and Suites - Crosstown Center, 811 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston 02118. Tel:617-541-2406. Rates: Double Standard $139.00 plus 14.45% tax; King Standard $129.00 plus 14.45% tax

All rooms include a full hot breakfast buffet, free shuttle service to and from Logan Airport from 5 am – 10:30 pm, indoor heated pool, fitness center open 24 hours, free high speed internet throughout out the hotel.

    

There is public transportation to UMass Boston via the #8 bus which picks up right outside the hotel and drops off at UMASS.  But it doesn't run as frequently as we might like outside of rush hour, so taking a taxi to UMass, which with three or four or more in it would not be expensive, basically the cost of the bus, might be the best bet.

 

The rooms are on hold for us until October 15, so please register by then. The hotel won't guarantee availability after the 15th. Register as early as you can and be sure to mention you are registering for the CFHE meeting. If you encounter any difficulty registering, ask for Erika Ortiz, the events manager.  

Heads Up Writing Teachers! The Machine is coming for you too!

... and you, Dear Adjunct, were worried about text analysis based grading and editing software replacing you. Today, journalism: tomorrow, romance novels, content mill articles and student essays. When students submit machine written essays, just send them to another machine to grade. Students, teacher, all middlemen ~ superfluous? Forget the Terminator narrative: could this be how machines really start talking to one another? 

This story, surely a foreseeable next step for text analysis software, surfaced over a year ago in the business press. Later, bloggers and web writers started receiving email offers on software to generate content, not just edit articles but write them from scratch. Now the Grey Lady is running with it in the business section. Is anyone among us so foolish as not see any connection with the much touted free open access Stanford AI Course? Recent articles suggest less transparent motives, Beta testing a platform for mega delivery and assessment modes, may trump touted Open Education impulse.

"In Case You Wondered, a Real Human Wrote This Column," September 10, 2011, in the New York Times business section

WISCONSIN appears to be in the drivers seat en route to a win, as it leads
51-10 after the third quarter. Wisconsin added to its lead when Russell
Wilson found Jacob Pedersen for an eight-yard touchdown to make the score
44-3 ... .

Those words began a news brief written within 60 seconds of the end of the third quarter of the Wisconsin-UNLV football game earlier this month. They may not seem like much but they were written by a computer.

The clever code is the handiwork of Narrative Science, a start-up in Evanston, Ill., that offers proof of the progress of artificial intelligence the ability of computers to mimic human reasoning.

The companys software takes data, like that from sports statistics, company financial reports and housing starts and sales, and turns it into articles. For years, programmers have experimented with software that wrote such articles, typically for sports events, but these efforts had a formulaic, fill-in-the-blank style. They read as if a machine wrote them.

But Narrative Science is based on more than a decade of research, led by two of the companys founders, Kris Hammond and Larry Birnbaum, co-directors of the Intelligent Information Laboratory at Northwestern University, which holds a stake in the company. And the articles produced by Narrative Science are different.
.....

Experts in artificial intelligence and language are also impressed, if less enthralled. Oren Etzioni, a computer scientist at the University of Washington, says, The quality of the narrative produced was quite good, as if written by a human, if not an accomplished wordsmith. Narrative Science, Mr. Etzioni says, points to a larger trend in computing of the increasing sophistication in automatic language understanding and, now, language generation.

The innovative work at Narrative Science raises the broader issue of whether such applications of artificial intelligence will mainly assist human workers or replace them. Technology is already undermining the economics of traditional journalism. Online advertising, while on the rise, has not offset the decline in print advertising. But will robot journalists replace flesh-and-blood journalists in newsrooms?

Read the complete article at http://tinyurl.com/3kgyga9

Additional related links:

• Web Semantics: Machine Generated Journalism (Wired, 9/10/11)
  
• Narrative Science Raises $6m to Replace Web Copywriters, How long until journalism is automated? (Trends in the Living Networks, Ross Dawson, futurist, 1/30/11)
• Are Sports Writers Really Necessary? Narrative Science's software takes sports stats and spits out articles (Bloomberg Business Week,  4/29/10)
• Narrative Science (in their own words), "We turn data into stories"
• Long & short form articles, headlines, business reports, summaries & more. 
• Customized formats, voices & points-of-view. 
• All original & (SEO) optimized content. 
• Scalable coverage for niche & local markets

The first Labor Day parade: "Let Labor Unite"

Reposted from Fight Back News, pictures and links added, because a) it's worth it, and b) I have no intention of working on Labor Day. This post was assembled Sunday and scheduled to post Monday. Look for Labor Day relevant music video links here and on our Facebook wall (music keeps it from counting as work)

The huge procession began with 400 members of Bricklayers Union No. 6, all dressed in white aprons. They were followed by a band and then the members of the Manufacturing Jewelers union. The jewelers marched four abreast, wearing derby hats and dark suits with buttonhole bouquets. They all carried canes resting on their shoulders (similar to the way infantry officers carry swords when on parade.)

As the day went on, the parade included contingents from the Manufacturing Shoemakers Union No. 1 (wearing blue badges), and an especially well-received contingent from the Big 6 - Typographical Union No. 6 - whose 700-strong delegation marched with military precision (they had practiced beforehand.) The Friendly Society of Operative Masons marched with their band. They were followed by 250 members of the Clothing Cutters Benevolent and Protective Union, the Dress and Cloak Makers Union, the Decorative Masons, and the Bureau of United Carpenters (who marched with a decorated wagon).  

First Labor Day Parade, 1882, Union Square NYC 

The parade was filled with banners: "Labor Built the Republic - Labor Shall Rule It"; "To the Workers Should Belong the Wealth"; "Down with the Competitive System"; "Down with Convict Contract Labor"; "Down with the Railroad Monopoly"; and "Children in School and Not in Factories," among others. The members of the Socialist Singing Society carried a red flag with a yellow lyre in its center. The banner which perhaps summed up the entire procession best was carried by members of the American Machinists, Engineers, and Blacksmiths Union (who wore heavy leather aprons and working clothes). It read simply: "Let Labor Unite."

It was the first Labor Day parade - and it took place on a Tuesday.

Labor Day became official in this country when the U.S. Congress passed a law in 1894 making the first Monday in September a legal holiday. But this holiday was not simply given to the workers of the United States by the government as some act of charity. The tradition of publicly honoring labor’s contribution to society is a custom established by the workers themselves.

The first Labor Day parade in the United States was held in New York City on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882. More than 10,000 workers marched. It was organized by the Central Labor Union, a body representing 60 unions and over 80,000 people. The CLU was a secret lodge of the Knights of Labor, the major national union of the time.

To really appreciate the September 1882 labor parade, it’s important to keep in mind the profound changes that this country had gone through in the 17 years before it took place. After the Civil War ended in 1865, the capitalists of the North emerged triumphant. They went on the offensive, bitterly opposing labor’s demands. By the time the depression of 1873 took place, any lingering unity between the different forces which had united in opposition to slavery had been torn apart.

Reading Room: In defense of public education

Public education, higher, middle and lower, is under siege. I'm old enough to remember reading "Why Johnny Can't Read" (Time, 1955), but the current fever pitch reaches new levels: rants, critiques, conflict and conflicting solutions multiply. Johnny still can't read, yet there is still no agreement on the why or the how. If that was a problem in middle school, imagine Johnny in college now because, ready or not, everyone is supposed to go.

New this round are two game changers.  One is disruptive innovation in the form of advances in communication technology, learning analytics and sophisticated algorithms for learning software touted as capable of supplanting teachers or at least reducing the number needed. The other is the economy shrinking education funding. See the connection?

Enter conflicting solutions and the players bearing them ~ the tech team vs the traditionalists or New School vs Old School.